I interested to know if people with large drum roasters just use three gate setting like 10/90 - 50/50 - 90/10
Or can these vary? IE: 20/80 - 40/50 - 80/20

Having a variable fan speed I am hoping I'm looking to one day find three solid setting on the potentiometer and not always be wondering if I have enough fan

Thanks

JK wrote:I interested to know if people with large drum roasters just use three gate setting like 10/90 - 50/50 - 90/10
Or can these vary? IE: 20/80 - 40/50 - 80/20

This question looks interesting, unfortunately I am ignorant of the terms. What gate? What is a gate setting? What do the numbers refer to?
I have a small drum roaster, may be moving to a larger capacity roaster, so the definitions are of interest. Thanks JK, or anyone who cares to expand on this.

roastimo wrote: This question looks interesting, unfortunately I am ignorant of the terms. What gate? What is a gate setting? What do the numbers refer to?
I have a small drum roaster, may be moving to a larger capacity roaster, so the definitions are of interest. Thanks JK, or anyone who cares to expand on this.

There's several different types of airflow restricting devices that can be either designed into coffee roasters, or added on later. Many come with a simple butterfly valve that corresponds to a percentage of restriction. They work well because they're consistent. Another common device that is used in ventilation equipment that works very well on coffee roasters is a simple blast gate. Search for the term "blast gate" on amazon an you'll find many results. This one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019IASD5Q/ is the one I bought.

Credit goes to Dan Remer who implemented one into his massive 15 pounder and did the calculations to define which settings gave him 80/20, 50/50, etc. They can be simply drawn onto the the tongue of the blast gate and quickly verified and adjusted with a tap of the hand. This method is far preferable to using something like a cheap pot rheostat like what came on my roaster, which is less consistent and less fine tuned, to adjust.

Thanks Tom

roastimo wrote:This question looks interesting, unfortunately I am ignorant of the terms. What gate? What is a gate setting? What do the numbers refer to?
I have a small drum roaster, may be moving to a larger capacity roaster, so the definitions are of interest. Thanks JK, or anyone who cares to expand on this.

Diedrich's have a Gate that changes the exhaust flow from part cooling tray or part drum to exhaust, out to the cyclone or after burner...

That I'm trying to understand with the three position gate roasting machines, is the 80% through the cool tray and 20% through the drum, 50%/50% and last the 80% through the drum and 20% cooling tray.. Do these setting ever change? IE: 90/10 or 40/50 for different beans or are the basic three positions used for all roasts?

Thanks JK, will study this.

On the older models It is possible to change them by unscrewing a bolt and repositioning it. Not sure about the new ones but I think it's the same. however, the guy I know on the diedrich, the guys he knows, and in my reading, just use the three stop gate without ever considering alternatives. I ave discussed this with him a few times. Works great though and will hopefully work as I develop roasting on my huky as well, though my basic plan is to use three specific voltages and use gas for other adjustments during the roast. There are several reasons why the combination of both may be needed on smaller single drum roasters that don't apply to larger roasters.