The Coffee Tech Solar roaster has been around for a while and is a mainstay in a few shops roasting their own beans. Is there a member on HB who uses one regularly either for leisure or profit?

There's one available nor the taking and, though attractive - price and aesthetics - I wish to find out if I won't be 'buying a train to take two kids to school'.

I go through half a kilo of coffee a week, two if I'm generous - neighbors and friends. Fortunately, green coffee is give away cheap and incredibly easy to find. I just think it would be a nice addition to my arsenal. The female of the house also gives it her approval.

I just don't want another white elephant, like the mish mash of junk collecting dust. They'd be useful for use as door stops or paper weights, but try lifting lever machine for that purpose and you'll quickly appreciate the gravity of my dilemma

Hello,

I am a micro roaster and i use a Solar with Avirnaki combo since about 18 months and i really like it. It is very well built, easy to maintain (except for the Avirnaki that require more time to clean) and i appreciate the quality of my roasts. It roast extremely even and you can roast batch after batch after batch. I roast every week and always multiples batches in a row and never had a single problem. The only "negatives" points is the fact that it is more of an automatic roaster then manual. For home use for your personnal consumption only, i would pick their FZ-94 lab roaster that have all manual controls. But for a small business this automatic roaster is nice because all you have to do is find out your best charging and also end temps settings (via various tests and cupping to find out what work best for any particular green you have) and the roaster will do the rest for you and beep an alarm when it's ready to cool outside the drum (you can stop it before if needed to increase production). So, during that time i can fill bags from previous batchs, label, pack, etc..Of course i keep a constant eye on my roasts but it let you work on your business while you roast.

Feel free to send me a PM or email: info@lecafecrema.com

BTW, this discussion should be in the Roasting forum for a better audience. I just did a quick search because i knew it was discussed before, check this thread about their older model but also discuss the Solar: My new Torrefatorre 1 kg coffee roaster

I just realised that this thread is on the wrong board, I hope I don't get sanctions for the mistake.

As for the FZ94 and Solar, I don't think there's much difference. I could be wrong though, but the literature I came across states that one can teach the Solar how to get a profile one desires and it will give you it whenever you hit the roast button. With the FZ94, one can adjust profiles on the fly.

That alone swings the scales in Solar's favour. I rarely have coffee from an assortment of estates; and if I did I'd teach the machine to get a profile I like and stick to it. In fact, what makes the Solar attractive is the above reason and the price.

It comes pre-owned, with the trolley and some greens for good measure. Those will be used to learn how to program the roaster.