You would think this topic would be done to death, but I find surprisingly little discussion since the latest and greatest Hottop came out.

So I have been roasting for 10+ years now. I started initially with air-roasters (I had a Zach and Dani's, which is now called Nesco, and then an iroast). After the iroast broke down I spent this past 5 years or so with a Whirley pop. I've gotten pretty decent at it, but obviously stovetop methods have lots of limitations, and I'm looking to step my game up. The hottop 2k+ and the quest m3 are the obvious choices in my price range. I would love to do something like the new Mill City sample roaster, but don't have the budget for it.

An obvious advantage of the 2K+ is that it comes out of the box with BT and ET thermocouples and USB connectivity. Appropriate probes and interface would have to be added to the Quest. This advantage could be overlooked though if the Quest produces better results. Does the Quest truly have more to offer in terms of roast quality/capabilities than a new hottop?

Nate42 wrote:You would think this topic would be done to death, but I find surprisingly little discussion since the latest and greatest Hottop came out.

An obvious advantage of the 2K+ is that it comes out of the box with BT and ET thermocouples and USB connectivity. Appropriate probes and interface would have to be added to the Quest.

You pretty much hit it there.

Hottop out of the box is artisan/roastlogger compatible through any laptop computer.

Any laptop computer can control the heat and fan settings on the Hottop roaster.

You "can" modify a Quest to do the same thing but it is not an out of the box feature and you need to be handy with drills, taps, panel cutters, etc, not to mention you will need a plan/design to follow for your mods. To control the Quest from a computer you would need some SSRs to control the heat and fan. It's doable as this is what I have done on my SF-1 but it takes a bit of hardware, design and layout, as well as the necessary space to accomplish.

I modified my old B model years ago with back to back roast capability, BT/ET probes, and k-type panel jacks. I have been using it with artisan all along. I like what I did more than what Hottop did with their B+ model. I believe that my probe placement gives a more accurate reading then what they did so I never considered moving away from my customization to their factory model. I like my external temp reading interface more than their internal control panel. I have a bit more "hardware" to shove around then the new B+ as the B+ model is all in one case but since I roast on a cart, everything stays together anyway and not an issue for me.

If the Quest had been available back when I did my mods AND before I owned a Hottop... AND if Hottop was not fully automated like the B+ mode is..... AND if the B+ model was not available..... I would have given serious consideration to the Quest since I would have been modifying either roaster. I am not sure which choice I would make now with a factory BT/ET computer interface roaster as an off the shelf option. I like to putz but having something that "works" right out of the box would be a big plus.

Using a TC4C+LCD along with a HTC board allows for dual direction control (run heater and fan from the laptop). The new Hottop B+ model allows for bi-directional signals so a laptop can control the roaster. You would need to use or design/create some form of bi-directional interface to run a Quest from a laptop computer. I do not believe that a "ready made" option exists for this functionality with a Quest

I've had my hottop put away for the past couple of years as I have a 1 lb San Franciscan now but I would not consider selling my Hottop as I know it will work flawlessly any time it is called back to duty. Besides, I am rather proud of the customization job I did on it (think twice mod once).



The best thing about custom modifications..... Your imagination is the only limiting factor. I can use ANY interface/datalogger between my Hottop and the laptop computer because of HOW I made my mods... Infinite flexibility was one of my design criteria.

here is a pic of the same Hottop hooked to an Amprobe TMD-56 meter running with a manual record log. I can also USB out of the Amprobe to a laptop just like I can with the TC4C+LCD cased interface to a laptop running Artisan/Roastlogger. Using a meter it is a one way interface (logging only) but directly to logging software on a computer

Thanks Turtle, looks like a nice setup. I am an engineer and general nerd, so I'm capable of doing mods for datalogging and control and such, but I am also lazy and a big part of the appeal of the 2K+ is to not have to do that.

Any comments from Quest users? Does the Quest have anything to offer that makes modding it myself worth my while? I've played with other people's (older model) hottops before, so I have some idea of what it can do, but I've never seen a quest in action.

Since nobody else answered, here are some comments from a Quest beginner.

I bought a Quest M3s and thermocouples from Taiwan directly. I believe coffeeshrub has exclusive rights in the US, but I think they still ship you the thermocouples. I even think I read somewhere on HB that shipping is $ 8. The thermocouples are $ 20. Just screw in and log.

In the states, TC4 seems like the way to go. The shipping is outrageous to Europe, so I hooked up everything to an arduino with thermocouple breakout boards. Software for communication between the arduino and artisan in python. Nothing advanced and does the job; starting/stopping etc. integrated in artisan. For my previous roaster (Gene Café), I programmed the arduino to control the heating over PWM, and again the python code takes care of the communication. If you end up taking this route, perhaps my code could provide a starting point.

Right now I'm only logging on the Quest. The temperature is automatic, and power changes are logged with my Kill-A-Watt-type unit by dividing the wattage by 10 and using that value for the power slider in artisan (which gets automatically logged). For me this is enough at least so far. The digital Watt readings seem to add what I am missing without digital control.

Today I roasted 3 batches with the wattmeter, and I at least had the feeling that I could reasonably repeat profiles. I cannot compare it to the Hottop, but am positively surprised at how fast I'm improving on the Quest.

One last thing: The every-session-cleaning is as pleasant as I imagine roaster cleaning can be.