I am having a small issue with my roaster (Fresh Roast plus eight). It has served me quite well for several years albeit I usually did my roasting in the garage. Now living in an apartment the noise and smoke is driving my family crazy. Can anyone suggest a reasonably price alternative to my dear old Fresh Roast?

The Behmor roaster ($299) has an afterburner that does reduce smoke. If you like a lighter roast, you can get away with very little smoke, but there is nothing that can really be done for smell. I actually like the roast smell prior to 2nd crack.

If you like going into 2C though, there's not a lot to do about smoke even with an afterburner.

No air roaster is going to be quiet.
Lowest cost alternatives are probably the Genecafe and the Behmor,
Neither is going to be smoke or odor free. The Gene has an easy way to duct the smoke out of doors and would be quite efficient in that regard. It is quiet, easy to hear what is going on, and gives a better view of the beans during the roast.

For quiet, some sort of drum roaster.

For smoke, you need to rig up a smoke exhaust system composed of a flexible dryer duct, window fan, and attachment gear. The easiest is to put the roaster in a box with the front open, and the dryer duct attached to to the top, and the other end to a window fan sucking the air out. If the roaster has a special vent, you can mate the duct to that instead of using a box. The dryer duct will need to be changed annually, since it will soot up.

Most apartments have negative pressure (i.e. open the window and the air blows in), so you will need the fan to overcome it; otherwise roasting by the window will just blow the smoke in, not out. But if yours is a high rise with central AC, it may have positive pressure; and no fan will be necessary.

another_jim wrote:For smoke, you need to rig up a smoke exhaust system composed of a flexible dryer duct, window fan, and attachment gear. The easiest is to put the roaster in a box with the front open, and the dryer duct attached to to the top, and the other end to a window fan sucking the air out. If the roaster has a special vent, you can mate the duct to that instead of using a box. The dryer duct will need to be changed annually, since it will soot up.

This is exactly what I did; if you have double hung windows, it helps to stuff something (I use bubble wrap) in the open space between the sashes when the lower sash is partway up to keep roasting smoke from blowing back in. I use a 12v muffin fan with a 24v variable supply screwed into a piece of wood, with a tahini can to adapt to the dryer hose. I haven't needed to replace the (aluminum) dryer hose in several years of roasting. The fan is pretty coated with chaffy gunk, but still works just fine. I used to use the fan to give some control over the roast before I modified my iRoast with a PID. Now I just run at about half speed during the roast and boost to warp speed for the cool down.

Those following this thread may wish to refer to replies to Rick's cross-post on CoffeeGeek.

RReynolds wrote:I am having a small issue with my roaster (Fresh Roast plus eight). It has served me quite well for several years albeit I usually did my roasting in the garage. Now living in an apartment the noise and smoke is driving my family crazy. Can anyone suggest a reasonably price alternative to my dear old Fresh Roast?

Rick, for future reference, cross-posting is strongly discouraged for the reasons provided here. Thanks.