I've been looking into getting a home roasting machine but don't want to splash out too much at the moment. The iRoast seems to meet my needs in terms of size and price. Are there any decent alternatives, other than a popcorn maker that I can get hold of in the UK?

Cheers!

Recently, enough friends have started asking me to roast for them (and allowing me to charge enough to pay for my own coffee, assuming my time is free -- as roasting is a hobby), I decided I needed to be able to put more than a couple ounces in a batch. After considering several options for the move up from my venerable popper -- from pan roasting to buying a Behmor to making a small charcoal-fired drum roaster -- I gave the heat-gun-dog-bowl method a shot. If you don't need to roast more than a couple pounds a week, this is the method I'd recommend. You have great control over the roast (a nice change from the popper), can put 1/4-lb to 3/4-lb batches through (depending on the size of bowl you have), rather than the 2oz (?) max for the iRoast; and best of all, the $10 heat gun from Harbor Freight works like a champ.

Not to quibble, but the iRoast (2) works well with 140gms which is roughly 5oz. I have one and love it, but I do agree that I'd like to be able to roast more at a given time. On the other hand it is so easy to use that roasting every few days is no problem.

I have had several roasters over the last 8 years.

I started with roasters from the company that makes the i-Roast. (Hearthware) One was called Gourmet Roaster and the other was the Hearthware Precision Roaster. They were both astonishingly loud - and broke down too easily. I am now gun shy of Hearthware products.

My next roaster was the little inexpensive FreshRoast 8 - It was fairly quiet, did a decent job, and though built a bit wobbly, lasted longer than the Hearthware roasters. I recommend this for a beginner who does not know if they will continue to roast, but wants to try out home roasting.

I now own, for over a month, a Behmor Roaster - it was more expensive than my other roasters - but seems well built, is quiet, and has much larger capacity than the Fresh Roast 8. So far - so good with the Behmor. I would recommend this roaster above the others mentioned.

Howard