I don't own this machine (yet), but I have done a bit of investigation and comparison and thought I would report. The Kaldi Classic is just a step under the Fortis, and in fact offers the customer a choice not offered by the Fortis and has a feature (at least I think it's a feature) not provided with the Fortis. All of my information comes from the gmarket site, where the prices of all the Kaldi roasters are significantly lower than they are on Ebay.

We already have an excellent thread on the top of the line offering from Kaldi, the Kaldi Fortis - KALDI Fortis 600g roaster review.

The Classic has lower capacity, 400 grams, compared to the Fortis, 600 grams. This is an attractive difference for me because I would rarely be roasting more than 300 grams at a time. Functionally they are very similar. The first picture is the Fortis.


The two machines match up point for point except for these differences:

1) The Fortis has something called "Built-in of insulation" where the Classis has "Double wall Housing." Which is better? I have no idea.
2) The Fortis has a built in electrical adapter while the Classic has an external adapter.
3) Both motors have fans to keep them cool, but the Fortis has a separate switch for the cooling fan, while in the Classic the fan would (presumably) turn on or off at the same time as the motor.
4) The Classic has a nice wooden handle to make it easier to carry, while the Fortis does not!
5) The Classic has something called a "heat shield" while the Fortis does not.

Number five has to do with the choice offered by the Classic. You can choose "Drum Roaster", and this is, I believe, the same as what the Fortis comes with without giving you a choice. It is a perforated drum somewhat protected from the naked flame by a mesh that they call a "flame arrest system", which supposedly delivers more even heating.

The other choice offered by the Classic is "Semi-rotating Fluid Bed Roaster." What the heck? I think they really mean to say "Rotating Semi-Fluid Bed Roaster". My interpretation is that this is a solid steel drum with a heat shield (which only the Classic mentions) underneath it that seems to encourage the hot air to go around and enter the drum through one end. The "semi-fluid bed" may be a claim that the air is more forceful in this arrangement and agitates the beans a bit in addition to what the rotation is doing.

Huky experts - is this the same situation as the choice Huky offers? Any ideas which is better?

GMarket allows you to buy either machine without the cooler/chaff collector, so that's how I compared prices between the two. The choice of drum type makes no difference in the Classic price. If, on both machines, you choose "Dual Center Thermometer", which I'm pretty sure is the Center 301, and don't bother with the cooler, you get...

Fortis - $1234.09
Classic - $992.45

Of course for either one you still need to come up with a forced air and chaff collector solution as well as a heat source.

Thoughts?

Very interesting information. Many thanks. However, I've been stymied in my efforts to purchase any Kaldi from the gmarket site, as most of the options available (for the various Kaldis offered) are only designated in Korean, which I regret I can't read, and therefore opt for. So, I'm stuck with Amazon, and significantly higher prices. I've tried emailing the various sellers (in English), but am unable to get responses.

Jim, I don't understand why I see all English when I visit the gmarket site and you don't. For example, here is the page I see for the Kaldi Fortis - http://mg.gmarket.co.kr/Item?goodscode=784965148

Mike: Here is what I get for a different Kaldi roaster. All the options are designated only in Korean. http://item2.gmarket.co.kr/English/deta ... =704125333

It was you could buy from these guys, http://gshop.gmarket.co.kr/Minishop/Glo ... Q1Nzd/Rw==, but someone told me they were having trouble contacting them. Could try sending pm/email and see if better luck.

I don't know if things have changed now, but over the summer I bought a Kaldi Wide on gmarket from Seinn Tech http://mg.gmarket.co.kr/Shop/seinntech They were relatively responsive and had rather fast shipping considering it was coming from Korea

dominico wrote:I don't know if things have changed now, but over the summer I bought a Kaldi Wide on gmarket from Seinn Tech http://mg.gmarket.co.kr/Shop/seinntech They were relatively responsive and had rather fast shipping considering it was coming from Korea

The Kaldi Wide is apparently a self-contained unit/package, with no accessories necessary to choose from. So what is depicted is apparently what you get when you order. The Kaldi Home, in which I'm interested, has necessary(?) accessories, whose designations on this gmarket and other sites are available only in Korean. It was seinntech which was graciously recommended to me by another forum member (HoldTheOnions) (see above), but my attempt(s) to secure more information (in English) from seinntech by email were unavailing. The new Kaldi Mini has the same roasting capacity as the Home, and its dollar price on Amazon is about the same as seinntech's for the Home. So, I'm inclined to go with the Mini from Amazon.

AscherJim wrote:Mike: Here is what I get for a different Kaldi roaster. All the options are designated only in Korean. http://item2.gmarket.co.kr/English/deta ... =704125333

Jim, I see the same thing you see, just for that model, the selections are in Korea aw . It's probably a glitch on the gmarket website, because both the Fortis and Classic have pages that are all English. Too bad, but at least we now know neither of us is crazy!

dominico wrote:I don't know if things have changed now, but over the summer I bought a Kaldi Wide on gmarket from Seinn Tech http://mg.gmarket.co.kr/Shop/seinntech They were relatively responsive and had rather fast shipping considering it was coming from Korea

Dominico, I followed that link, and it's still live, so there is a kind of seinntech "store" on gmarket. When you click on any of the roasters you get to the exact same pages that I was seeing when just searching for Kaldi roasters.

When you say, "they were relatively responsive", what do you mean? Did Seinn Technology reply to questions from you? If so, to what email address did you send questions? And who do you mean by "they", gmarket or seInn technology? I ask because I have yet to find any way to communicate with the manufacturer, and that makes me nervous. It's just the opposite of Huky where the manufacturer takes personal interest in every customer.

But the Kaldi machines seem to be really well made and seem to provide a ton of bang for the buck, so I am still very interested. I have yet to see anyone who was disappointed in a Kaldi machine or who received a defective one, but I'm still worried about what recourse I would have if I received a defective product, since the manufacturer seems to be so hard to contact.

Did you have to contact seInn at any point with any issues, and did they respond satisfactorily?

BTW I loved your writeup on your Kaldi Wide mods!