# Vintage Uno Electric Roaster



## thunderbird6 (Nov 24, 2018)

I have a roaster which came from my father-in-law's grocery shop and was in regular use until he retired about 20 years ago. It is a Uno 268 and looks like it dates from the 1940's or 50's. I haven't been able to find much information about this roaster online and the little I have found is about gas fired models but this one has an electric heater in the centre of the drum. I would be interested to know whether any forum members can provide any additional information or a more accurate date for this machine. Also would be interested in whether this is likely to be of interest to any forum members if it was offered for sale, and what would be a fair price for it. It is basically complete but the cooling fan in the base section has been replaced by a motor from a sewing machine. However the original motor is still with the machine and could presumably be rewound if someone wants to make it original. It runs and heats up but the leather belt between the main motor and the drum is inclined to jump off at a critical point in the process! I can provide more photos or any other information that might help. There is also a Hobart grinder which I have posted about in the grinder forum section.









Thank you for any help or information that you can provide.

Keith


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Again very tricky, the Trentate roasters were very similar. They were very very good for creating a smell (especially the gas fired ones) that would attract customers. I remember the local sainsburys had one when I was a kid and they used to roast on it, you could smell it all the way down the street....lovely. Of course the coffee they were selling wan't roasted on the machine at all! it was a similar idea to the Backed bread artificial fragrance and others used in modern supermarkets....a good attractant.

With the gas ones the reason for the smell was the burning of the chaff and coffee oils that went on. The electrics did a similar thing, but were probably a lot better for the roasting of coffee. In full working order you might get as much as £600-800 for it, perhaps even as a display model not working you would get £500-600. I think they roast around 600-1000g and roast quality is similar to a Gene cafe (perhaps worse), they are not an easy roaster to use and profiling possibilities are zero.

but again I could be wrong perhaps it's worth £1000s


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## thunderbird6 (Nov 24, 2018)

Thank you very much for your feedback on this. Your comments remind me that my father-in-law used to run the roaster in the cellar of his shop close to the vents to the street so that the aroma would carry - as you say, a good attractant! I also recall him saying that there was a real knack to using the roaster as the time difference between perfectly roasted beans and a conflagration was a matter of seconds! I wish I had written down or recorded his explanation of the exact process as unfortunately he is no longer with us.

I suspect that this machine may have been second-hand when he purchased it which would have been in the early 50's.

I'm sure that you are right and it is worth 100's rather than 1000's but are there any specialist places to offer something like this for sale as it seems to me that ebay isn't the right place?

Thanks again.

Keith


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## thunderbird6 (Nov 24, 2018)

This is now on ebay. Thanks to everyone who responded on this.


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## thunderbird6 (Nov 24, 2018)

Now sold already!


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## james_h22 (Aug 4, 2019)

hi,

I know an old post, but out of interest how much did this sell for?

regards

james


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