# Hottop or Equivalent



## aphelion

Hi Guys,

I've been bitten by the home roasting bug, and was looking at my options.

I want something that is going to last me a while, is flexible, but will not completely bankrupt me (Budget is £1000).

Would ideally like a Gene Café CBR 1200, but obviously that is way out of my price range









Realistically it's likely be one of the following:-

Gene Café

Hottop B or P

Quest

Something else?

I'm leaning towards a Hottop, but interested in owners opinions.

Probably something that has been discussed quite a bit, but thought I'd re-open the channels..

Cheers


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## ronsil

I think most people know my feelings on the Hottops. I have two, fully computerised, in weekly use.

They just seem to go on & on.

A Hottop's best friend is a powerful vacuum (& blower) cleaner.

Check out my earlier posts on the subject. Have replied to your PM


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## froggystyle

I can only recommend the gene as that's what i have, great little machine to roast on.

Apart from the roasting, its very easy to fit in a kitchen cupboard and doesn't create any mess.

If you do go for one i suggest sticking a wanted ad for a week or two before buying new, have seen a couple go for bargain prices on here.


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## ronsil

If you do decide to go for a Gene be sure to consider Davec's mod.

It makes a world of difference to the results. If you order new the 'mod' works best with a 230v heater


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## aphelion

Cheers guys, i'm pretty sure it'll be either the Gene of Hottop B, so I've got some budget considerations there...

Also need to consider whether a Hottop is actually available in the UK at the moment??


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## froggystyle

Think spare parts also, the gene has Bella Barista for spares, anyone know where you get spares for the hottop?


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## ronsil

Funnily enough I have a lot of spares otherwise Hottop Taiwan carry spares in London.


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## froggystyle

How much are hottops these days?


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## aphelion

froggystyle said:


> How much are hottops these days?


My current quotes (including delivery) from Hottop TW are:-

Kn8828b - 1080 euros

Kn8828p - 1220 euros

No idea where these are located yet..waiting to hear back from Shelly.

They have gone up a bit, as the B was around £700 at some point..Ron?


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## froggystyle

Wow, thats twice the price of the gene.

Be interested to see what the differences are in terms of roasted beans, i understand you can wire up the hottop to a pc and log profiles, can you run it via profiles also?


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## ronsil

Froggy where have you been?

I've written acres in the Home Roasters section about Hottop computerisation & published many photos of the roasts & data sheets.

Yes emphatically 'yes' you run it via the profiles. With the computerisation you write what you wish the Machine to do, press the start button & the Computer takes over to run a successful previous profile or a completely new one. It does this time after time & allows you to manually adjust whilst the roast is in progress. All this is with the aid of a free program called RoastLogger written by GreenBean (Tom Coxon) & now used around the World. Costs circa -£200 to do the mod using best top quality kit or -£150 with stuff from ebay.


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## froggystyle

Hiding under a big rock it would appear...

To be honest i tend to get distracted by photos of beans very easily!

So the total cost would be closer to £1k for the package, something for the OP to think about v £360 for the gene but with no profiles.


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## aphelion

froggystyle said:


> Hiding under a big rock it would appear...
> 
> To be honest i tend to get distracted by photos of beans very easily!
> 
> So the total cost would be closer to £1k for the package, something for the OP to think about v £360 for the gene but with no profiles.


Cheers guys, certainly the Hottop is a more expensive proposition than the Gene.

I guess it comes down to whether I will use the additional flexibility the Hottop will offer (PC control, profiling etc.)

My initial plan is to run 2 lots of Hasbean IMM (one roasted, one green) and compare my roast to theirs..

Obviously Hasbean will have Probats etc. but, will I be able to get a comparable roast from either of these machines?

(I guess that's a common question with home roasting).


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## froggystyle

Its an interesting question.....

Never really tried to mirror the big boys roasts, would the fact they all roast by hot bed rather than air make a difference?


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## johnealey

The issue with trying to mirror the IMM beans is one of bag size in that you only get one real hit if you want approx 200g or split into smaller roasts which may not then give you an accurate comparison as whichever roaster you choose may not work best at smaller quantities.

I did try the IMM green subscription and found this to be exactly the case, get it slightly wrong and you have an over or under roast compared to the pre roasted.

Larger quantities of one bean type could give you more latitude for tweaking as even gettting a head start with the posted roast profiles will be slightly different dependant on machine / voltage or even ambient temperature.

Hope of some help and for my tuppence worth, as a gene owner am bound to say gene under £500.

John


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## aphelion

Yeah, was thinking 1 bag a week would be quite restrictive too (particularly while I'm learning).

Are you happy with your Gene?


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## Mouse

Where are you planning on roasting? Indoors or outdoors/in a garage etc

If you're planning on indoors then the Gene has to be the preferable option.

Roasting coffee is great fun, but plumes of smoke in the house will become tiresome very quickly...

Some use their kitchen extractor fan to help vent the smoke away from a Hottop, I'm sure this would keep the smoke down. But a Gene vented out of the window will get rid of ALL of the smoke.


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## Spazbarista

Another vote for the Hottop. Mine was very consistent and nothing went wrong with it ever. Would have kept it but for having an excellent roaster 10 minutes down the road. The ability to link it up to a pc and do roast profiling is awesome.


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## ronsil

No question I agree with that


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## MrShades

Hottop B - no question. I roast 750g a week on average, indoors and without pc control - just using the same blend and a saved roast profile. Very repeatable results and a great machine.


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## Soll

It looks like this is turning into the Hottop thread but I can only echo all the other owners here and say since owning one it has performed tirelessly, I to don't bother with the PC control and I'm very happy with the results


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## NickR

I wrote this along time ago. The control system of the Hottop is now more sophisticated but I would still find the smoke produced by a Hottop intolerable.

http://coffeetime.wikidot.com/hottop-analogue-vs-gene-a-blow-by-blow-account

My Gene Cafe has developed in intermittant fault after many years of hard use. However, if I cannot fix it soon . I will buy another without any hesitation at all. I am in total awe of its design. Of all my coffee toys, its my favourite.


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## johnealey

aphelion said:


> Yeah, was thinking 1 bag a week would be quite restrictive too (particularly while I'm learning).
> 
> Are you happy with your Gene?


Hi Andy

Sorry for the delay in responding to your above question and have read with interest the pro's / con's of a hottop Vs Gene and I guess it will come down to cost.

As to being happy with my Gene, yes I am and as I don't know the hottop can't comment whether better or worse. Both have the abilty to be modified in one form or another, the gene with the dimmer mod ( yet to get my lazy bones to do this) and the hottop with PC control etc.

Today I have done 5 roasts of 250g start weights with an average roasted weight of 214g ranging from med / med dark to plain med dark on some Tanzanian AAA and some Brasil Daterra penta pack Full Bloom. Each is taking around 30 minutes with cooling time factored and don't know if the time element will factor your choice and maybe the hottop owners can advise weights / times so as to give a comparison. I have found 250g in to be a happy go to weight as 300g, which is the max for the gene, tends to give a roastier flavour than at 250g, certainly with all of the beans I have tried so far.

We drink a lot of coffee in this household and the gene works for us is all I can say until a lottery win or the coffee fairy drops a Gene 1200 on my doorstep (dear Santa, I really have been a very good boy this year and do have space for the Big Gene in the kitchen...)

Smoke wise, either vent outside / do outside or do as I do which is under the extractor hood (although this does make hearing first crack a little trickier to be fair)

Please let us know which way you jumped and hope the ramblings above of some help

John


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## majnu

I sent a tweet tweet to Hasbean with regards to getting in the Behmor 1600 + and he is meeting with Joe (the inventor) in 3 weeks time to discuss the situation.


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## "coffee 4/1"

aphelion, might be worth your while for subscription to there list if not to late at aillio.com for bullet R1, has logging of all data, windows7/8 or mac


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## Steve7

Hottops are fantastic, but having sourced mine direct for not much more than 300, I am amazed at the prices these days.

And mine isn't much more than 5 years old.


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## Soll

Steve7 said:


> Hottops are fantastic, but having sourced mine direct for not much more than 300, I am amazed at the prices these days.
> 
> And mine isn't much more than 5 years old.


Did you source the Hottop direct from its country of origin?


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## ronsil

Steve7 said:


> Hottops are fantastic, but having sourced mine direct for not much more than 300, I am amazed at the prices these days.And mine isn't much more than 5 years old.


Interested to know if that was a new item.

Hottop Taiwan have never sold a new 'B', the cheapest, for anything less than £650 + p&p for the past 8 years. New price has shot up dramatically over the past two years. Also nowadays you are going to have to pay the VAT + duty.

Shelly at HT Taiwan does sometimes keep some models already in London.


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## majnu

+1, I know a couple of people that would snap one up at that price.


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## Steve7

Nah. Got the hottop B direct from Taiwan, no duty, no mess, for just over 300. Was after hasbean had to stop sellng them due to supply and cost issues. Steve suggested I buy direct so I did, at what I recall was possibly better than the shop floor cost when you could get them here.

was circa 2009? Stopped using when I moved around 2011 and its about to come back into service now my garage is set up again at the new pad.

Must have have timed it perfectly. Not sure when they went to 650 plus but I know mine was about the proce hasbean were selling for when they briefly did them.

edit... Maybe my memory is being kind and it was bought more than 6 years back? Whatever age it is, it was new, posted dorect from Taiwan, and the B model. And over 300 but under 400!

may need some help soon to get back into it after the absence!


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## coldplayer

I know its a little late, and I don't know if the Quest M3 is completely out of the equation now, after so many Gene and Hottop recommendations? But there is a brand new Quest M3 on Ebay at the moment, with a buy it now of £680. Thought I would mention it.


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