Resale Value of Hottop Roasters?

by **Jeff** on Tue Sep 27, 2011 6:20 pm

Ok, so the popcorn popper makes me smile and the house smell good, but it is pretty clear that it isn't going to give me the control that I'd like to have. Part of me wants a Quest M3, or is it "model train" 500g roaster, or a "real" shop roaster, or...?

The Hottop seems like a nice in-between, but I'd like to have an idea of how much I'll lose buying one and selling it down the road when I better know my own upgrade desires. Any rough ideas on the resale value of Hottop roasters?

by **boar_d_laze** on Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:06 pm

There's a whole set of reasons you're considering buying new. For the same reasons and possibly others you never considered, resale prices are low.

If you want to dip your toe, your best choice is probably a Behmor. The entire purchase price is less than the depreciation incurred opening a HotTop's box. Your next best choice might be finding and buying the HotTop you were planning on selling.

BDL

Never buy a used sports car. The person selling it drove it like a new sports car.

by **germantown rob** on Wed Sep 28, 2011 11:49 pm

I am sure you can sell a used HotTop for a decent price but I do not plan on parting with mine even though I have a commercial roaster. One thing I have learned with my many hobbies is that a slow upgrade progression is a waste of money, I like to jump in at a med high level to judge if I will take it to the next step and if I do then I upgrade to the upper tier, if I don't then I sell a good piece of equipment to the seller for a good deal ( in my mind I save money this way).

The last year has been very interesting, lots of great small, very capable, gas roasters are coming out of Asia tha are the price of 2 Quest M3s or less. I personally don't think my commercial roaster can roast better then my HotTop or a Quest but it will roast 4Xs+ what either of those roaster can do in a batch in a 1 hour period of time with a tighter window of precision.

After 10 months of roasting on the Diedrich my top ten best roasts have been on the HotTop, I am getting very close to changing that though. Here is why, on the HotTop I would roast 225g per roast and I needed 6 roasts for my household consumption per week. That is a lot of practice roasts over a few years. Now I can roast 12lbs in one session in less then 2 hours and even though I choose to do a lot of 1lb roasts I just get a lot less practice.

The HotTop and the Quest with both give you the capability of great roasts, I think the Quest wil give you a better hourly output since it can continuously roast, but the HotTop can do some very good roasts at 300g charges so if you pushed both roasters to there maximum roast levels I am not sure who would roast more per hour.

by **jammin** on Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:58 pm

boar_d_laze wrote:your best choice is probably a Behmor. The entire purchase price is less than the depreciation incurred opening a HotTop's box.

Pure rubbish. Why even reply if you don't have a clue? How many used HT's have you seen for sale this year? Furthermore.. have you ever even used a hottop?

Used hottop's get snatched up instantly. You even have to get on a waiting list for a re-furbed one. 2 years ago used ones were going for $500 the second they were listed when the new price was $750. They have recently gone up in price but also have a nicer BT probe. Resale value of hottop's is very good imho.

~j

by **Randy G.** on Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:46 pm

In regards to Hottops:
[DISCLAIMER: I am an independent contractor and Hottop USA is one of my clients, but I do NOT make ANY money from sales, service, or in any other way from Hottop other than when I do graphic work for them or work the SCAA exhibition once a year].
At the Exhibitions I have sold (while working the Hottop booth) a few dozen Hottop KN-8828B roasters that are being used as sample roasters in the US, Canada, and in several Latin America countries. They are used at small roasteries, coffee shops, and even on some coffee farms where the expense of a commercial sample roaster cannot be justified or just doesn't make sense. I do not know of any other home roasting appliance of which that can be said. While the Behmor has a good following and sells for a low price, it unfortunately does not offer the level of control that is found in the Hottop B.

by **Jeff** on Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:36 pm

For anyone that may come across this in months to come, a used "B" just sold on eBay for $635 + $25 shipping and another is sitting there (not selling) at a BuyItNow price of $725 + $35 shipping. Now the first did come with 9 pounds of green beans, so I can't say what the perceived value of that was to the buyer.

by **boar_d_laze** on Mon Oct 03, 2011 5:08 pm

jammin wrote:Pure rubbish. Why even reply if you don't have a clue? How many used HT's have you seen for sale this year? Furthermore.. have you ever even used a hottop?

It's not necessary to be insulting.

Used HTs in the LA area on Craig's List this year: At least five under $400. Perhaps they weren't in as good shape as those advertised on E-Bay. Perhaps, the Craig's List roasters were well instead of barely used. Perhaps they were several years old. Who knows? I wasn't looking for a used roaster, and saw the listings only in passing.

Along those lines it's worth noting that the $725 used HT on e-bay is only very slightly used -- the seller claims "only used about a dozen times;" and that such light use wasn't the seller's stated intention. So, apples and oranges. Moreover a new "B" goes for $820 with free shipping (Roastmaster) and includes a few pounds of bonus beans. If the e-bay seller gets his price, $760 including shipping, he's found himself an [ahem] unusual buyer.

I've got about 100 roasts on my HT, and had about 150 on my last roaster, a Behmor, before a bean fire FUBAR (my fault) in February. I wanted an HT anyway, so I upgraded. The fact that I own and use an HT is reflected in the ID information to the right.

When you edited out the preliminary statement "If you want to dip your toe," from my remark, it altered the meaning of the remainder of the statement. I didn't mean to say the Behmor was a better roaster than an HT, just less of an economic loss if the plan was to get rid of the roaster after a couple of years and buy a Quest. If I was unclear and confusing, I apologize.

In my opinion the HT is a much, much better roaster than the Behmor. If I didn't feel that way, I wouldn't have bought one.

BDL

by **cannonfodder** on Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:51 am

You don't see many hottops for sale second hand. Most folks that get one are committed to the cause and run them till they die. I have had my HT for a good 6 years. It was the original D version which I just recently upgraded the electronics to the B so I could control the parameters. At any rate, for what a second hand roaster costs, you could get a factory new version for just a couple hundred more. As a general rule, unless I save 50% of the new purchase price on about anything, I get new. It avoids a lot of headaches.

by **expy98** on Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:34 pm

jammin wrote:They have recently gone up in price but also have a nicer BT probe.
~j

Is BT = bean temp?

Just checked the website and couldn't find any refs to BTs.

by **JohnB.** on Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:42 pm

The new probe replaces the old "in the wall" sensor. It is placed half way between the ideal BT location & ET location so no idea how effective it will be as a roasting tool.


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