I have the Iroast and am thinking about upgrading to either the Behmor or Hottop. My dilemma is that I live in an apartment and can only roast outside during the warm weather. Using my Iroast indoors is tolerable, not ideal. I understand that the Behmor doesn't produce much smoke but the Hottop does. Can anyone explain why that is? What I mostly want to know is can I expect significantly more smoke from a drum roaster than the IRoast? One other relevant detail is that I only expect to roast either a 1/4 pound or 1/2 pound at a time as I am the only coffee drinker in my household. And I roast espresso exclusively, although I don't think much past the 2nd crack.

If you have a window that opens it's not too tough to make a small vent with some foil dryer hose and a fan.

The smoke is a product of the coffee volume and the roast temperature.

I think the Behmor has a filter.

My Behmor produces less smoke than any other roaster I have owned - Freshroast, Precision, and Gourmet air roasters (forerunners of I-roast). I should say it produces as much smoke, as any other roaster, but it has an "after-burner," that, I believe sort of sucks up a lot of the smoke - that is, as long as you don't pre-maturely open the door before it is finished the cooling cycle. However, it is not totally smoke free - and you do smell the coffee roasting.

Howard

The Behmor and the Zach & Dani have high temperature smoke eating arrangements. This was seen as necessary, since these roasters aspired to become high sales volume appliances. That plan didn't work out, but it does let us few home roasters have an option of no muss, no fuss devices.

The drawback is that the smoke eaters use up power and reduce the roasting speed. Barring that, the amount of smoke you get is strictly a a function of much coffee you roast and how dark you roast it. An air roaster dilutes the smoke with air, so it's less smelly, But dilute or concentrated, coffee smoke will gradually soot up and damage the walls, drapes and furniture. So you should have a sensible plan for dealing with smoke.

Oh boy. This is a can of worms I didn't want to open. I'm concerned as I have a newborn, 3 days old in fact. I'm thinking I should cut out the roasting for awhile, at least not do any indoors until he's older.

I'm curious Jim as to the "sensible plan" that people should have for the smoke and the odor. Outside of venting, what are steps more veteran home roasters take to minimal these side effects?

You can fabricate a vent from dryer duct, a small fan, like those used in computers or in small exhaust ducts and a thin board. Cut the board so it fits into the opened window like an air conditioner, and put a hole in it to mount the fan. Then attach the dryer duct from the roaster to the fan. That will pull out most of the smoke.

If you have a range hood that exhausts or uses carbon filters, it will also work, especially if you build a skirt for it that hangs down and encloses the roaster.

All this stuff (roaster, coolers, controls, ducts) can be a bit of a Pita to mount and unmount. The most convenient solution is a permanent roasting station. If you are a space challenged city dweller, a cart or large tray which holds all the stuff you need for quick set up and break down is still a lot better than having all the items separate in a closet.