# Which roaster to buy for home use?



## ahoythere48

Hi,

I'm considering buying a roaster for home use and i might add learning to roast. Does anyone have any suggestions of what the best roaster would be to learn on and produce a great roast and be good for learning with.

I have been looking at sample roasters. I'm assuming one of these would be ideal as i don't need to roast large quantities. The probat sampler at £3000 looks a beauty! What do you think people?


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## chipbutty

I'm sure most people will recommend the roaster they own. As I'm about to! In terms of learning about the roasting process and profiling I don't think there's anything better out there at its price point than the Gene Cafe. It gives you complete freedom to profile as you wish and change temps on the fly. Of course some people don't want that and would rather have something like the Behmor with built in profiles. But as good as the Behmor is I knew that it wouldn't satisfy my need to tinker and play around. If you don't want to bother with profiles you can still keep things very simple and just let the Gene do it's thing and still get great results. On top of that you have a clear view of the beans during roasting and I find it easy to hear first and second crack. There's loads of info on roasting with the Gene at the Coffee Time Wiki, Homeroasters.org and many other sites.

Then again if you have £3k to spend?!

Here's a pic of my setup with the large chaff collector.


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## CoffeeMagic

Why not try looking at BellaBarista's offering or talk to Claudette. They also have a good deal on green beans via the Green Bean Club bulk purchase.

I have a similar range of green beans, which I am hoping to have available on my site in the New Year.


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## MikeHag

For domestic use or commercial? If it's small domestic quantities £3000 is a lot compared to something like a gene cafe for £329. If you're hoping to learn in order to sell commercially then you might still want to learn the principles, dynamics and bean responses on a small batch machine first to avoid the expense (and pity) of getting multiple 1 or 2 kilo batches completely wrong.

I have a gene coming for xmas, which I will roast about 250g in. I also have an air roaster that does 568g. I'm not touching the latter until I've reached a certain level of skill and understanding thru using the former.

Just my 2p


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## ahoythere48

Thanks for your comments above. The Gene cafe roaster seems very popular and has some great remarks. I am wanting a sampler roaster to use initially for domestic use and then move it along side a larger roaster to operate commercially. If anyone has experience of sample roasters, i would love to hear what they have to say. Is there a clear favourite out there?


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## CoffeeMagic

If you are going to use it for commercial purposes then something using the same roasting method that allows you to create a roast profile would be my advice. E.g. If you are going with fluid bed then the Gene would probably be ok, if gas-fired drum then I could suggest CoffeeTech Eng's sample roaster FZ-RR-700. Obviously if you intend to go the Probat route with the large roaster then your probably safe with their sample roaster - it gets you used to spending big bucks


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## ChrisP

I've been using a Gene Cafe for years and I can't fault it. Great little machine! Easy to use, consistent results, nothing really to maintain on it.......just plug it in and use it!


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## wetclay

After a lot of research, I'm thinking about getting a Quest M3. Not really a domestic machine, but also not a commercial one. Robust, hands on and responsive with minimum electronics to fail. Any experience with this interesting roaster?


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## wastedhours

I think I'm going to pick up a Gene Cafe whenever my next commission comes in, then once I've played with the basics I might look into importing a Cafemino from the factory (a couple of grand less than the UK suppliers I've seen, including delivery but excluding duties).

Although I did talk to the UK importers for Probat and whilst the prices are really high (as you'd expect, perhaps twice as much for the 5kg as other brands), they were open, honest and I'm sure their customer service will be excellent, plus their machines are investments and have the *potential* to appreciate in value in their first year due to impatient 2nd hand buyers.

Might have a nice word with the Prince's Trust, they're all for loaning cash to under-25s to start businesses


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## MikeHag

What sort of prices for a probat (and what size)? £15k for 5kg? (guess)


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## wastedhours

€18k for the 5kg, €5k for their odour filtration unit, might not need that for the 5kg, but certainly for the 12kg (€25k) and a destoner for €2.5k


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## CoffeeMagic

To get back to your question... There is another alternative - see my review in the blog for the FZ-RR-700 home roaster. Two versions are available (both reviewed), depending on your pocket. It's roaster to cup in around 15-20min - no degassing required.


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## CoffeeMagic

There are small vents where some of the chaff escapes during the roast, but generally it is easy to blow away the chaff while cooling the beans. It isn't really an issue with the volume of beans being roasted.


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## jork45

Interesting thread,just newly into the coffee scene and thinking of getting a roaster


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## denishicks8

The most commonly used roasters are the fluid bed variety.As this type of roaster tends to roast a lot quicker, is easy to maintain, and is also simple to use.


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## coffeebean

I use a Toper Cafemino (electric) which is a 1kg batch roaster and ideal for home and small commercial operation. The Coffee Bean is now a Toper Ambassador so please feel free to ask any questions about their machinery!

Andy


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