Good evening HB crew,

I am on the edge of pulling the trigger on a new US Roaster Sample Roaster. I was hoping some of the owners here could weigh in on their experiences to date with the roaster. Tricks, tips, wish I would have had that option, didn't need this option, etc.

I have had several great email exchanges with Dan and Roger at USRC and am looking at this config,
Black paint job
chrome bean chute
USR adding extra BT and ET probe for logging to Artisan
Natural gas

The roaster will be for my personal coffee consumption, well some family and friends too, but nothing commercial. I currently roast on a Quest, but I am looking at the USRC for the increase in optimal batch size, and increased control of gas heating. I have eyed an indoor area in my basement where I will have easy access to NG supply and tie-in to existing 3" outside venting (NG furnace metal vent line, abandoned when converted to high efficiency furnace). I just wish I could have a roasting room as sweet as vberch showed us.

I have read a lot of great comments from older HB postings from owners like BDL, JonR, MarkS, Vberch. I was just looking to see if there was any new information or recommendations.

Thanks and happy roasting,

They are wonderfully designed and built roasters. You do pay a premium compared with some competing roasters at the same size (especially now that the North 500g sample roaster is coming on to the market), but you get a proven design that is built like a tank and can do whatever you ask of it. It is also nice to have support from a US manufacturer (not that I have needed it yet, 1.5 years after getting my machine).

My main confusion on initial setup involved finding the right propane gas regulator, but since you are interested in a natural gas setup, my advice on that score won't be needed. Do make sure you talk with them and make sure that you know everything you need to regarding how your hookup will work, as they sometimes assume that customers have more knowledge on that score than we actually do. (Or maybe that was just me!)

In my own case, there were some hiccups regarding the exact placement of thermocouples, which weren't sorted out until I visited the factory to get some training from them regarding use and maintenance prior to shipping. It can be hard to specify these things over email, so a phone call is probably best if you want to make sure you don't get delayed by miscommunications. On the upside, since each roaster is built to order they are extremely flexible regarding modifications, so you can get pretty much whatever you can think to ask.

One big adjustment from working with an electric design is that you have lots of headroom on all the controls. In ordinary use, I never max out either the fan or the gas (well, except for when I max out the fan power to cool the beans post-roast). Also, if you are planning to manually profile, the built-in PID isn't much use. I turned mine up high so it wouldn't interfere except as a high-heat safety cut-off, and control the heat by adjusting the needle valve.

Thanks Mark for your feedback.

Although I am looking at the NG fueled system, I would be interested in what propane regulator you found the best. Never know when I could have to change over.

One more question, what TC locations did you settle on for your BT and ET? How did you have USRC terminate the TC leads for you, just loose bi-pin or integrated into the box in some way?

I would love to visit them if I place my order, but not sure if that will work out for me.

-Nate

IIRC you want a low pressure regulator. I ruined a couple gauges before by using an adjustable one.
Regarding the factory tour, I picked up my 5k there. Roasted on a sample roaster, got a factory tour and went out for dinner with Dan. It was great.

nate74 wrote:Thanks Mark for your feedback. Although I am looking at the NG fueled system, I would be interested in what propane regulator you found the best. Never know when I could have to change over.

One more question, what TC locations did you settle on for your BT and ET? How did you have USRC terminate the TC leads for you, just loose bi-pin or integrated into the box in some way?

I use a Rego twin-stage regulator, which is admirably compact and rated for a minimum pressure of 11" WC. It gives me all the power I could ever need; I get a functional range running from 0" WC to 9.5" WC, and (except for when I want to heat up the roaster in a hurry) I rarely need more than 4.5" while roasting.

The BT probe is installed at the extreme bottom edge of the sightglass surround ring, and extends about one inch into the interior of the drum. This gives very consistent readings and a fast turnaround time of about 1 minute after charge.

My ET probe is located in the squared off junction just below the charging hopper, on the opposite side from where they install the analog gauge on stock models. This make for an uncluttered set-up, at the cost of a predictably low measured ET. I just adjust for the difference in my head while roasting or reading profile plots (it seems to read about 35F below internal drum air temp, +/- 5F), and with that adjustment the readings are reliable enough for my use.

The thermocouple cables are routed to the control box, and wired up to twin USB ports sitting on the front of the box. That works well for me because I use a Bluetherm Duo to convey the data to my iPad over Bluetooth, and I like to have the screen of the Bluetherm Duo visible in front of the roaster as a backup. If you'd prefer that they be routed somewhere else (which might help reduce clutter if you are running wires to a laptop) I'm sure they can oblige.

And so it is done, the check is in the mail today, on its way to USRC for my new sample roaster. I settled on one in orange, Nat Gas fired, additional BT ET probes, and a factory bean light. This is probably going to be a long 70 days or so . . . . but it will be worth it.

Any current USRC owners have any tips, tricks, starter profiles, etc. I would welcome anything you would share. I have a some time to occupy before arrival

Congratulations!

Congrats! Hope to see you in the Home Roasting Forum soon.

You are really on a fast upgrading track. Just curious, since you already have the Quest M3, what's your main reason moving to the USRC? More capacity?
I'm asking because a USRC could run at least 20 years and your likely reason needing to upgrade again is you want more capacity.

Congrats Nate! I love mine and it is the last roaster I am going to buy unless I decide to retire from the corporate world and start roasting commercially .

nate74 wrote:And so it is done, the check is in the mail today, on its way to USRC for my new sample roaster. I settled on one in orange, Nat Gas fired, additional BT ET probes, and a factory bean light. This is probably going to be a long 70 days or so . . . . but it will be worth it.

Any current USRC owners have any tips, tricks, starter profiles, etc. I would welcome anything you would share. I have a some time to occupy before arrival

nate74 wrote:And so it is done, the check is in the mail today, on its way to USRC for my new sample roaster. I settled on one in orange, Nat Gas fired, additional BT ET probes, and a factory bean light. This is probably going to be a long 70 days or so . . . . but it will be worth it.

Any current USRC owners have any tips, tricks, starter profiles, etc. I would welcome anything you would share. I have a some time to occupy before arrival

That's fantastic! And I thoroughly approve of your choice of color.

As far as a basic starter profile for a good city roast of a high quality washed coffee, try preheating the roaster to about 375F on the BT probe and charging 350g, with air at around 60% of max power. Bump air up to 90% once the beans are fully yellow (around 300F on my BT probe). Gas settings will vary from what I use since you are using natural gas, so experiment with it until you get something that gets you to FC after about 8 minutes from charge, with no gas adjustments until then. (On my roaster this is about 1/3 of full available gas power. YMMV.) Once first cracks begin, dial your gas down by incremental adjustments over the course of a minute or so; I often go all the way to zero, but you should adjust as necessary to get to your desired finish temperature over an appropriate interval of time.