Wow. Thats insane

Found a chinese one on ebay for 109.00

Okay, well under the circumstances (unreasonable expense), I should share with you the fact that although I do have a Variac, I personally don't think it's necessary with the perforated drum set-up. I set my Variac to give me approximately 50% of the fan's available power and make no changes to it during the roast. That means that the damper could easily be set to do the same thing.

I got the Variac from the start and have used it for every roast, but it just dawned on me last week that it really isn't necessary for the way that I roast.

That having been said, other HUKY users have found that a motor controller (not a dimmer!!!) works very well, and even wherever you are they can't be as prohibitively expensive as a Variac seems to be.

It's not just for control for me. It allows me to keep damper wide open preventing chaff clogging. Sometimes I use really low airflow during a particular part of a roast.

SJM wrote:Okay, well under the circumstances (unreasonable expense), I should share with you the fact that although I do have a Variac, I personally don't think it's necessary with the perforated drum set-up. I set my Variac to give me approximately 50% of the fan's available power and make no changes to it during the roast. That means that the damper could easily be set to do the same thing.

I got the Variac from the start and have used it for every roast, but it just dawned on me last week that it really isn't necessary for the way that I roast.

That having been said, other HUKY users have found that a motor controller (not a dimmer!!!) works very well, and even wherever you are they can't be as prohibitively expensive as a Variac seems to be.

You are right Susan,

The motor controllers (with Triacs) are around 15 - 20 USD down here...so I'm on a hunt for one those

squawmanex wrote:Hi guys,

I've read lots of posts on airflow control where everybody praised the speed control units for the exhaust fan while not really liking the dampener (except for one post or so).

Any suggestions (apart from getting a good fan speed control unit) for controlling airflow?

Just basic workflow from Drop to FCe vs. applying heat with the needle valve.

About 2 months before I moved from my house and left my Huky roasting excapades behind ( new house had electric burners so I was SOL until I moved on to my North Coffee beast), my dimmer blew out and so did my fan control on the Huky. So I took this opportunity to roast, damper-only, at full fan power. I was expecting vastly inferior control, but as with most things "manual", you start to get hang of it and the your results start to get better as you go. From dim memory, this is more or less what I as able to do:

1. During drying phase, fan is off with damper full open to allow natural ventilation.
2. During ramp phase, fan is switched on and set damper at about 1/3-2/5, but every minute I would open the damper all the way for a few seconds to let the chaff out and keep it from piling up behind the damper - which is a big problem if left unchecked, so be vigilant.
3 1st crack - open damper to about 3/8-1/2. At this point there is no need to cycle the damper.
4. Development/Finishing phase: 5/8-3/4 damper. No cycling.
5. Pre-drop: full damper open

Overall, damper-only control requires more heat power, as the ventilation overall will be more powerful with a greater amount of heat loss out the exhaust, but this can be good think if your prefer a more convection-oriented roast profile. Keep your telemetry on track with Artisan, so as to keep a handle in the heat dump propensity.

Good luck.

Awesome walkthrough! This provides a clear view of how airflow should be increased through the roast...

Thanks!