I am a couple weeks into using the Aillio Bullet R1 coffee roaster and learning a lot about how it works, how to use it, and roasting some great coffee. Wanted to pass on some things I have learned and see if we have any other Bullet roasters here.

It was very lucky that one of our H-B members offered up this Bullet on the Buy/Sell page, I jumped at the chance to try it. Luckily that H-B'er was kind enough to sort out getting it shipped to me in Macau, which was much appreciated.

I live in a condo building and cannot have gas bottles in my house, I also cannot upgrade the wiring for high power electric devices. This issue had left me searching for an upgrade from my Quest, as I have been wanting to roast 600-700 grams per batch, 600 grams being equal to four batches of the largest batch I get good results on in my quest. In about an hour long roasting session on the Bullet I get 2 Kilos roasted now, enough coffee for home, office, and friends for a week.

The Bullet is an induction heated roaster in a very attractive package, it is light enough to move around, but can roast a full kilogram batch. One of the Bullet's other compelling features is that it is integrated to its own custom developed roasting application, called "Roast Time". Roast Time allows for keeping a bean inventory, roasting with complete computer control over the roast, profile tracking/saving which can be used as overlays, and a full "replay" mode where all inputs for the roaster can be replayed for a consecutive roast. You can download the software here to see it. https://s3.amazonaws.com/aillio/bulletr ... /setup.exe

I have found the roasting techniques that I have picked up here at H-B for my Quest M3 actually translate somewhat to roasting on the bullet. Some keys I have found so far are matching charge temperature to the size of the charge. The max preheated drop temp is 200 C, for batches of 700g I am preheating the roaster to 180 C. Once the roast starts I keep the temp high for a few minutes and then gradually decrease the power until the roast finishes. The fan is very powerful so I start it at speed 2 and work it up gradually until the end of the roast, using high power at the end to clear the chaff. The drum speed is also variable, I do not alter it a lot during the roast, but start it at speed 5 and work it up to speed 7 or 8 by roast end.

The bean cooling fan is connected to the roaster so that when the batch is dropped the cooling fan kicks on automatically to cool the beans. It is pretty effective and cools my 700 batches in 2-3 minutes down to room temperature.

Roaster setup on cart, vented into building kitchen vent


An interesting shot of the design of the drum, and an insulation layer around the outside


Creating a new bean in the inventory and a roast profile example (To see some more skilled roaster profiles than mine visit the Facebook Bullet Users Group). This is a bag of Costa Rica that I love, and sadly the last of it, bought from BoldJava last year, this last bit was saved in the freezer.



Shapeways.com 3D printed adapter


Opening chaff collector from rear of roaster, remove 4 thumb nuts to knock out chaff between roasts.


Cooling tray connection and components


Specifications (from manual)

Roast Capacity: Maximum 1000g, Minimum 350g (fastest roasting for 1kg is 12min)
Monthly Capacity: 100kg
Roast time: 1-60min
Maximum temp: Bean: Max 240°C
Roast Mode: Manual, Recorded Profile
Temperature Probes: Drum Temperature & Bean Temperature
Control Display: Bean Temperature, Drum temperature or Bean temperature Rise-Fall °C/ min. Time
Heating: 9 Steps (200W-1500W), Fan: 9 Steps, 2x custom buttons, Start-PreHeat-Cool button.
Control Panel Display: Temp: Bean & Drum, 3 digits each. Time: 4 digits, Power & Fan 2 digits
Computer Interface: USB, Logging of all data. Roaster can be fully controlled from PC
Computer Software: Available at no cost for Windows XP/7/8/10, and Mac OS-X.
Every roast is logged as comma separated file for easy viewing / converting. Data from roasting will be collected by Aillio, to improve roaster software
Temperature Units: °C or °F can be chosen
Protection: Electronics over temperature. Heater over temperature protection. Fan lock protection on all fans.
Fault logging System: Status is monitored on all major components.
Drum: Multi vane, 5.9L solid drum
Heating System: Patent Pending, variable power direct induction heating
Exhaust Fan: 78mm removable aluminum centrifugal fan for easy cleaning
Bean Loading: Through funnel
Bean ejection: Manual
Bean Cooling Tray: Detachable. Fan Cooling. Connected to underside of roaster
Chaff Collector: Detachable. Empty every 2-3kg of roasting
Input Voltage: 100V-127V or 220V-240V. 50Hz-60Hz
Power Requirement: 1500W
Size: L: 59cm W 31cm: H:42cm (L:75cm including bean cooler)
Weight: 14Kg (Shipping weight 18kg)


Main website for the Aillio Bullet R1 roaster:
https://aillio.com/

Aillio Bullet R1 User Manual
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nr3 ... sp=sharing

Closed Facebook group of Bullet users, must request to be added, active group with skilled users posting roasting feedback:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1667530986833160/

Bullet R1 Non-official Board
http://www.bulletr1.com/index.php?PHPSE ... wwRedirect

Shapeways 3D printed exhaust adapter
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A ... =SAQHaBU09

Spectacular post. Thank you for this work. I'll add it to the Roaster Index as well.

Thanks for posting. I'm very excited about this product, even though I just upgraded to a gas roaster. This will truly be revolutionary is the roasting results are good.

Coffee-roasting quality aside (I'm sure we will have much more input as more people get these), but In terms of pure heating power, is there a feeling that 1KG is pushing it at all?
So far do you feel the induction-style heating for roasting is a genuine innovation for pulling that much heat out of a 120v plug?

PS Just realized you might be using a 220V version. Have no idea what they use in Macau.

Good point Shawn, I forgot to point out one of the most important aspects of the design, the 110 volt version has the same exact roasting power as the 220 volt version. Both roasters have the same 1500 watts of heating power. A roast profile from both versions would use the same input points for power, which is great for profile sharing.

The induction heating is effective, and it is very efficient. Another Bullet user suggested me to watch this video to better understand how the bullet can generate so much heating power from standard voltage home service. It is just an overview of how induction heating works, but I found it fascinating.


No issues roasting 1KG, I was actually a bit surprised how fast I got my seasoning roasts deep into second crack and almost into charcoal. I have been sticking with 700-750 grams, mainly to be consistent and learn the machine. At this weight I can profile easily and get to second crack in ten minutes. Over in the Bullet Facebook group there are some more experienced Bullet roasters from Europe that are posting perfect roasting profiles from their 1KG batches, that has been helpful to give me a source to start with for example profiles. From what I have read even specialty commercial roasters do not run their gas drum machines at full stated capacity, 70-75% seems common, but remarkable that a roaster I can carry around under my arm can roast 1KG of coffee.

Thank you for sharing your user experience, how do you think about shaft collector cleaning, do it need to clean after every batch of roast?

Nice Post...
Thanks Much...

GioTheDrfiter wrote:Thank you for sharing your user experience, how do you think about shaft collector cleaning, do it need to clean after every batch of roast?

I don't think it would have to be done every roast, depends on the coffee though, if I was roasting 750 grams of a very chaff heavy coffee I would just empty it. It takes all of 3-4 minutes to pop off the chaff box and dump it, snap it back on. If I am doing 3-4 roasts total, it is more important to me to have perfect airflow over saving a total 15 minutes over the entire roasting session.

Thank you for your feedback.

I do have three questions:
1. Does the wire cable from the bottom electronic board to the electronic front panel submitted to the MET heat, since it seemed to pass beside the drum?
2. Does one have to dismantle the electronic front panel for a periodic tear down?
3. Does the lower control board become hot when in operation from heat radiation?

1. The wire you see from the bottom of the roaster is only a power cable to the cooling tray, it runs along the counter top under the roaster, so it doesn't get near any hot surfaces. The roaster has two layers, the outermost shell gets hot, but even at its hottest I can place my hand on it without getting burned even while roasting. The temperature sensors and their wiring are all integral inside the roaster, there are no sensor cables running on the outside. The only other external cable is the USB data port cable from the controller panel to the laptop.

2. You do not remove the electronic front panel for the deep periodic cleaning, you remove the entire front faceplate of the roaster, control panel still intact. Cleaning of the inside of the faceplate is needed to keep the IR sensor window clear of coffee oils, the speed of that buildup depending on the darkness of your roasts. The manual reccomends this cleaning to be done after 30kg of roasting. Here is the IR window cleaning procedure.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TZH ... YWZXcaImTg

3. No, the outside shell of the roaster does not get extremely hot, as I wrote above I can place my hand against it even while roasting. The inner drum has an air gap, then an insulation shell around it, then another larger air gap, and then there is the exterior shell. The doc posted above has pics that show the drum layers.