# Bullet R1 or Dalian 1kg roaster



## Robbo

I have been looking at the bullet r1 and the Dalian for a possible purchase in the new year. An upgrade from the small gene cafe.

I know the bullet is new so not many will have experience of both but i am interested in how they compare and see your opinions on the pros and cons of each.


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## DavecUK

it's a closed group for the Bullet R1 on facebook, but if you apply to join someone will set you up in a few minutes....well worth a read as well.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1667530986833160/


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## Coffeejon

Check this out as I wtote some pro & cons for the bullet

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?21833-Aillio-bullet-R1-roaster-pre-orders/page22


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## Robbo

Thank you.

The bullet seems a good peice of kit. Although im struggling to find a price and who is the uk seller?

With the Dalian, a big plus for me is its from Bella Barista less than an hour away. price is above budget though.


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## johnealey

Hi @Robbo

if you haven't read the whole thread on the Dalian also here:

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?26651-It-s-that-time-of-year-again-New-Roaster-coming-on-test

you may wish to and then look at why you wanting to go to a 1 kilo roaster as this may sway your decision one way or the other i.e. soley for home use or small micro roastery even if only for friends / family? do you need a level of automation or do you want the hands on approach?

I ask the above as, without bias to either (although clearly I am), the two are almost at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how they achieve a roast and will be as important to you as how much can I roast in an hour or how long as the machine going to last.

To not influence you in any way will shut up now and leave you to have a read of both.

Hope of help

John


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## DavecUK

Robbo said:


> Thank you.
> 
> The bullet seems a good peice of kit. Although im struggling to find a price and who is the uk seller?
> 
> With the Dalian, a big plus for me is its from Bella Barista less than an hour away. price is above budget though.


There is no UK seller, BB are listed on Aillio site as a distributor as are many other retailers...however in Europe they are only selling direct. If BB do ever get their hands on one to review to see if they want to be a reseller, I will be refuse to review it for them for 2 main reasons (although I do have some others).

1. If I find anything bad I will just get shouted down my owners with rose tinted glasses and achieve nothing, certainly not any changes to the roaster. If the manufacturers were interested in reviews, they would have sent out some roasters to retailers long before they started selling them. With the Bullet, the long term beta testers are the customers, because the roaster went through a lot of change before the final retail version.

2. People will buy it regardless of the review (good or bad), because it's a 1kg roaster for 2,200 GBP

As I don't like wasting my time and it's a considerable amount of time to properly review a roaster.....I'm not going to even bother.


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## Coffeejon

Robbo said:


> Thank you.
> 
> The bullet seems a good peice of kit. Although im struggling to find a price and who is the uk seller?


As others say, they don't have a re-seller yet, direct order only. If any one wants to look at mine & can make it to Hastings, your welcome to PM me.

https://aillio.com/?product=bullet-roaster-r1&v=3d9975706be3


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## Coffeejon

DavecUK said:


> There is no UK seller, BB are listed on Aillio site as a distributor as are many other retailers...however in Europe they are only selling direct. If BB do ever get their hands on one to review to see if they want to be a reseller, I will be refuse to review it for them for 2 main reasons (although I do have some others).
> 
> 1. If I find anything bad I will just get shouted down my owners with rose tinted glasses and achieve nothing, certainly not any changes to the roaster. If the manufacturers were interested in reviews, they would have sent out some roasters to retailers long before they started selling them. With the Bullet, the long term beta testers are the customers, because the roaster went through a lot of change before the final retail version.
> 
> 2. People will buy it regardless of the review (good or bad), because it's a 1kg roaster for 2,200 GBP
> 
> As I don't like wasting my time and it's a considerable amount of time to properly review a roaster.....I'm not going to even bother.


I would still love to hear your review Dave, as you know allot more than me







As I said, the Bullet is not perfect, though is any machine? I think you've just got to pick your priorities.


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## DavecUK

Coffeejon said:


> I would still love to hear your review Dave, as you know allot more than me
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> As I said, the Bullet is not perfect, though is any machine? I think you've just got to pick your priorities.


I agree no machine is perfect, but to review the bullet will be pointless and I have better things to do with 100s of hours of my time. I only review something if there is some value to doing so e.g. improving the product, helping a manufacturer decide whether to stock, outing bad practices/products.

With the Bullet, I think it's great that people who had whirly pops, popcorn roasters, gene cafes or no roaster before, like it. I think it's great that it has a band of dedicated and committed owners....but surely you can see a review will do no good. it will either confirm what you all think, or enrage........so it's a valueless exercise.

You may not remember, but I raised the issue of fire resistance more than 7 months ago, the Lillie brothers assured that *of course this would be tested* and the results presumably published, but nothing ever happened did it. Remember this is a roaster they show as being used in a Kitchen of someone's house or apartment. Personally I would never roast a kg of beans in a house/apartment. Especially an automatic roaster that people might well leave for a while and *one that has not been demonstrated to securely hold a roaster fire. *Does anyone care...no, it seems no one does. my advice would be...never roast 1kg of beans indoors!

Now you might say well the Dalian has not been shown to hold a roaster fire...which is true, but it's all fairly heavy metal, no plastic and is not stated as suitable for roasting in a house. In the instructions it's clearly mentioned in 2 sections the precautions one must take for safety and against fire, along with the other 42 pages where I share my experience of roasting as it applies to this particular roaster.


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## Coffeejon

DavecUK said:


> Now you might say well the Dalian has not been shown to hold a roaster fire...which is true, but it's all fairly heavy metal, no plastic and is not stated as suitable for roasting in a house. In the instructions it's clearly mentioned in 2 sections the precautions one must take for safety and against fire, along with the other 42 pages where I share my experience of roasting as it applies to this particular roaster.


I look forward to the 1kg fire tests of the Dalian, bullet and gene cafe side by side to see which is the safest. Until then it's only your much respected view on what is & what isn't the safest.


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## DavecUK

Coffeejon said:


> I look forward to the 1kg fire tests of the Dalian, bullet and gene cafe side by side to see which is the safest. Until then it's only your much respected view on what is & what isn't the safest.


Your not reading what I wrote, I don't believe I said there would be any fire tests of the Dalian??


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## Coffeejon

DavecUK said:


> Your not reading what I wrote, I don't believe I said there would be any fire tests of the Dalian??


O you gota love forums









Yes I know you didn't say there would be, I'm just saying until there is (which probably won't ever be) it's only your (much much respected) opinion. Until you actually see the bullet, it hard for you to say how fire safe it is. Though again Dave, I respect your knowledge.

Happy weekend & enjoy some warm coffee.


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## Robbo

Thanks for all the replies.

I have joined the bullet fb group and it does seem to be full of users with problems. But I suppose most wouldn't comment on there unless they needed help with something.

I have seen the Dalian and spoken with the guys at Bella about it and really like its robustness and simplicity. It seems solid.

I wouldn't buy a car without looking at it first so having Bella Batista nearby is a big reassurance for me.

Unfortunately at nearly double the price it means I won't be in a position to buy until much later than I would like.

Hopefully my patience holds out.


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## DavecUK

Robbo said:


> Thanks for all the replies.
> 
> I have joined the bullet fb group and it does seem to be full of users with problems. But I suppose most wouldn't comment on there unless they needed help with something.
> 
> I have seen the Dalian and spoken with the guys at Bella about it and really like its robustness and simplicity. It seems solid.
> 
> I wouldn't buy a car without looking at it first so having Bella Batista nearby is a big reassurance for me.
> 
> Unfortunately at nearly double the price it means I won't be in a position to buy until much later than I would like.
> 
> Hopefully my patience holds out.


It's not nearly double the price, no where near?

I think I worked out the bullet at about £2120 inc delivery, a Dalian is £3000 on pre-order...as long as you do it before the pre-order option ceases (which are when the roasters land in the UK, possibly only a few weeks now). This makes the Dalian (a proper commercial roaster) only £880. Personally I think it's well worth thinking about paying £880 extra. Remember the dollar is quite weak now, hence the Bullet being a lot more, I am surprised the Dalian has not increased in price a bit, because i know they are purchased in USD, perhaps when the next shipment is ordered it will be more.

I used this link https://aillio.com/?product=bullet-roaster-r1&post_type=product&name=bullet-roaster-r1&v=3d9975706be3


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## Robbo

For some reason I thought it was 4 grand for the Dalian?? My mistake.

Still impossible in the next few weeks. ( I'm getting married next month and have been saving for the last 2 years to pay for it!!)

Let's hope they don't hike up the price too much or the little gene will be working overtime!


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## Thorsten

I've been roasting with a bullet for the last 4 month and been through about 30 kg so far. I owned a gene cafe with mods for about 7 years. I'm near Manchester and would be happy to meet up with forum members if there is any interest, just pm me.


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