Bodka Coffee wrote:Of course that makes your investment larger. 5k is a nice size. And Compass Coffee roasts lots of pounds per week on a 3k so it is doable.

Yes I currently roast 350lb plus per week with USRC 3k. With the caveat that is with profile controller for automatic roasting so I can multi-task while roasting. I'm not hovering over the roaster manually adjusting air/flame on the current roast in progress as I type! Roasted ~60 Tons so far without a hiccup.

The reason I started with 3k versus 5k eight years ago was simple: local Air Quality Control requires afterburner any roaster rated 10lb batch or more. Saved $10k when starting, which then was a big deal.

Thanks everyone for the responses! I'm wondering in general how much more smoke a 6k will put out than a 3k. We will be in a warehouse with out neighbors being mostly construction companies but we are in California (san diego) and want to stay off the radar if possible as well as be good neighbors. Would you say a 6k might produce smoke that would be intrusive? Any ideas or tips on inexpensive venting that could help keep our neighbors happy?
Thanks again Everyone!

In a word: Afterburner. Inexpensive is relative but no they aren't. That or a much more expensive new style roaster that recirculates the exhaust. Even a 3k produces noticeable smoke from tanning on without an afterburner. And my darkest roast though only a couple seconds into 2nd produces quit a bit of smoke at the end. Awhile back was doing a special order French Roast batch, good 30 seconds into 2nd, and a guy driving by pulled over, came in, and said I think there's a fire outback! And another time doing the same special order someone actually called the fire department. And I'm in a light industrial not residential zone.

Check out your local air quality control requirements. Better to know what you should and need to do to operate legally than spend the bucks on a roaster, try to stay under the radar operating outside the requirements, and get shut down until you bring it up to local codes and possibly face fines on top of the expense of bringing to code. That does happen!

And to answer your question of course the bigger the batch the greater the smoke at corresponding stage of roast. Whether intrusive or not depends on who's defining intrusive but it only takes one person reporting to the appropriate agency to shut you done if not operating legally.

So to love the planet, drink more light roasts

Haven't been on H-B much lately but was doing some research for a friend and absolutely loved this quote.

Unfortunately one neighbor hates even light roasts out of my IR-1 here at home.

But thankfully all my neighbors of my IR-2.5 (a couple of miles away) are cool with it.