Hey Jonny,

I'm curious as to how that propane regulator is working out for you. I can't decide whether to get a cheap little regulator that might be more finnicky vs something more expensive with gauges that is a little higher quality. I guess it would be nice to spend 20 bucks rather than 100+... I just don't want it to be a pain in the butt...

Hey Tom, the regulator is working out just fine. I too looked at dual gauge regulators for welding/brazing applications but I didn't feel that that kind of precision was necessary since I would be using the onboard valve to control the flame. Now, I've actually taken Dustin's advice to use the regulator knob to control the flame, and it is actually a smoother adjustment than the valve on the roaster. The knob is just cheap plastic, but I'm sure the internals are reasonable for the job.

Hmm, very interesting. Thanks for the info! Good to know since my roaster might be arriving tomorrow!!!

My roaster arrived this afternoon.
I mail ordered the 1psi Bayou Classic regulator.
It does not work. Going out tomorrow to find something new.

I'm glad to hear there are more Revo 500's arriving! I didn't realize it would take so much longer for those not on the west coast. John, look for a 0-10 psi regulator, generally sold for/with cajun style burners (frying turkeys, boiling crawfish, etc.). You'll probably end up having to head to the hardware store like I did to get some brass adapters and a gas hose. If you can't find the regulator locally, they are pretty cheap on ebay, but make sure you either get one with no hose and build your own, or get the one with the hose that has a 3/8" flare fitting on the end.

Update to my experience: Today I roasted 3 pounds back to back indoors and it was quite comfortable. I could smell the roasting coffee, but nothing offensive. I tried plotting by hand and it actually went really well. A bit more involved than letting a computer do it, but it is definitely doable. I plotted the first roast and then just tried to follow it on the next two. I was aiming to hit first crack at 8 minutes. The first roast was a bit fast, the second was a bit slow, but the third hit first crack at 8 minutes exactly. I also cleaned out the cyclone and found about a cup of chaff after about 4 pounds of roasting. I also found some chaff at the end of the exhaust duct. Would it be unwise to put a screen in the exit of the cyclone to keep chaff from getting sucked into the fan?

Hi all,

I wanted to add my voice to the mix on this. I just got back from vacation and was happy to find the Revolution 500 waiting in my garage (thanks to my wife and neighbor for bring it out of the cold!).

I too had purchased a 1 psi regulator that wouldn't work, so I went to local BBQ shop and got a 1-10 PSI adjustable regulator, along with the necessary couplings. After some initial difficulty getting the flame ignited I was finally able to get it lit and did a few throwaway roasts.

Here are my first impressions / thoughts / issues:

-Still having a hard time getting the flame to light immediately. Sometimes I have to try 5 or 6 times, turning off the igniter between tries (I get worried about too much unburnt propane circulating around, plus an alarm goes off if it doesn't light after a few seconds.) It does light eventually though, so this is more an annoyance than an issue.

-BT thermocouple seems way off from what I'm used to. With 3 different beans, first crack always came somewhere between 175c and 185c. Based on the Quest M3 and friends using other roasters, I wouldn't expect to see anything out of the range of 195c-205c. Can anyone else using this roaster tell me if they're seeing similar numbers?

-The cooling fans seem to work great, but fit and finish is lacking. Wires are hanging out (terminated and attached but messy), cyclone fan relies on gravity rather than some sort of locking mechanism, bean tray fan kind of just sits up against the tray, while also hitting the LED light base. These aren't functional issues, just rough edges. I think it's important to mention this stuff so people's expectations will be set correctly. I'm happy with the roaster so far, but I expected a little more polish in some places.

-When adjusting the fan damper, the metal indicator arrow is flush up against the piece of metal with the numbers on it. When I adjusted it from 0 to 10, it scratched an arc into the metal along the path.

-Drum is a little out of true, which causes a low, intermittent rubbing noise during part of the rotation when the drum is set above 60 RPM or so. I only mention this because someone else mentioned the roaster being silent with the exception of the fan. Mine is still fairly quiet, with first crack being audible from several feet away. Even second crack was very easy to hear. (I took the roast this far in order to try and season the drum with some coffee oil).

I realize after reading this that it sounds like I've got a lot of complaints, but assuming the resulting coffee is good (which I'm sure it will be), I'll be a happy camper. The 3 roasts I did were easy to control, and with the exception of the BT thermocouple reading different from expected, everything was very intuitive. I'm planning on adding my own thermocouples for use with artisan anyway, so this should only be a temporary annoyance.

That's all for now. I won't have any feedback on roasts for a few more days

Frank

On the unit I saw, first crack occurs at around 184c. Yes, there are a few rough edges. In addition to the weighed handled that can benefit from a stop, vent control handle location, I also noticed the cooling tray edge can be a bit sharp. So be careful in the excitement with the cooling action and not cut oneself!

dogjamboree wrote: -Still having a hard time getting the flame to light immediately. Sometimes I have to try 5 or 6 times, turning off the igniter between tries (I get worried about too much unburnt propane circulating around, plus an alarm goes off if it doesn't light after a few seconds.) It does light eventually though, so this is more an annoyance than an issue.

I've not had much of a problem with mine ... try lighting with the damper turned down to 2 - 3 and gas in the 4 KPa range ... sometimes the fan seems to impede lighting when at max of 10 but it still lights for me.

dogjamboree wrote: -BT thermocouple seems way off from what I'm used to. With 3 different beans, first crack always came somewhere between 175c and 185c. Based on the Quest M3 and friends using other roasters, I wouldn't expect to see anything out of the range of 195c-205c. Can anyone else using this roaster tell me if they're seeing similar numbers?

Same here .. I usually hit FC right around 180C ...it is all relative.

dogjamboree wrote: -The cooling fans seem to work great, but fit and finish is lacking. Wires are hanging out (terminated and attached but messy), cyclone fan relies on gravity rather than some sort of locking mechanism, bean tray fan kind of just sits up against the tray, while also hitting the LED light base. These aren't functional issues, just rough edges.

The cooling is amazing and the beans are cool in just a little over a minute ... very impressive ... I went to the auto parts store and got some cork gaskets to go around the cooling fan and cyclone fan ... not sure it is necessary but gives a better seal.

dogjamboree wrote: -Drum is a little out of true, which causes a low, intermittent rubbing noise during part of the rotation when the drum is set above 60 RPM or so. I only mention this because someone else mentioned the roaster being silent with the exception of the fan. Mine is still fairly quiet, with first crack being audible from several feet away. Even second crack was very easy to hear. (I took the roast this far in order to try and season the drum with some coffee oil).

I had some slippage problems with one of the hex nuts on the motor axel not being tightened down enough and in tightening everything up and talking with Santoker in China ... it seems that there is a "vibration" frequency that can occur and with me it is also around 70rpm ... faster or slower is quiet. The roaster was dead quiet at first ... but think that was due to slippage between the motor/drum connection, and later actually had the coupling uncouple. The folks at Santoker in China were very apologetic about it and helped guide me in fixing it. PM me if you have questions.

I am impressed with how well it roasts ... it is almost too easy. The roaster is very responsive with temp changes to both air damper control and flame control. I've roasted from 170 gm to 525 gm and had no problems with being under powered ... at 120 gm I noted fluctuations in the BT and suspect that if I played with the rotation speed I might have kept the probe better covered with beans, but didn't think of that till later. Yes there are some rough edges but no buyers remorse by any means ... and would do it again considering the bang for the buck . I think with time and feedback from Dustin to Santoker it will only get better.

Steve

Thanks for your feedback Steve. I'll investigate the drum noise again and PM you if it seems like it could be similar to your issue. It's great to hear that Santoker is responsive and willing to help.

I agree 100% on the bean cooling fan -- amazingly effective. I roasted 300g last night and beans were room temperature in 1 minute. I think I'm going to connect a hose with a clamp to the bean cooling tray and attach the fan under my table so it's not in the way (it's got an arm which will make this easy to do). Only issue is it's a 5" hole and standard ducting seems to come in 4" and 6" so I'll need to create a step-down. I'll check into the cork gaskets -- never heard of that but it's a great idea.

I agree, bang for the buck is great, and no buyer's remorse here either. I'm hoping these reviews here will either help Santoker improve the little details, or at least help buyers do it themselves when their machines arrive after months of waiting

Thanks again to Dustin for facilitating all of this!

P.S., for questions / detailed observations around roasting parameters specific to this roaster, should I use this thread, or create another one? It's not necessarily part of a user review, and I could see some value of separating it out.

dogjamboree wrote:P.S., for questions / detailed observations around roasting parameters specific to this roaster, should I use this thread, or create another one? It's not necessarily part of a user review, and I could see some value of separating it out.

Feel free to start a new thread if it pertains to your profiling with it. I'd rather be able to read it separately as well as everyone else. Fixes, product updates, troubleshooting issues, etc should continue to be posted here, where most will think to look in the first place.