Hi all, newbie roaster. I have had good luck so far with the bread machine/heat gun method but I'm trying to get the popcorn maker technique going too - it's more convenient, and probably more apt for my consumption level. I've picked up two completely different air poppers at Goodwill, both of which appear to be the "right kind" and are definitely getting hot. I've also tried a couple different bean varietals. But I'm not having much luck getting either these things working for roasting. 20, even 25 minutes in and I'm still not really even to first crack. That does not seem right at all from the tuts I've watched.

I've started with about 60g of greens and I wonder if one problem is that the popper is underloaded and the beans are moving too much. So I bumped that up to 75g on my last attempt this morning, still no dice at all. Should be about 1/3, 1/2 cup which seems to be the recommended amount from my research thus far and the beans are filling the chamber to top of the fan vents. Here's a quick video - is it just too much spinning?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZyDJ9nRzqU

And another factor could be ambient temp. I've been doing this outside (with the popper cover on of course) and it's usually been about 30, 40 degrees out when I've tried. After a long failed run this morning in mid-20s temps I then tried moving everything swiftly into the garage to maybe warm things up and half-save the roast, but still no dice... it's maybe lowish, mid-50s out there in the garage right now. I'm curious if other popcorn roasters have had similar experiences at low ambient temps.

Or maybe Goodwill has just sent me home with two lemons that can't quite reach the needed temp and I should try something new off the shelf, but I like to avoid buying new plastic stuff when it's all gonna end up in the ocean eventually. So before I try popcorn maker #3, I thought I should ask if there's something obvious I'm doing wrong here.

Back when I was roasting on a popper, ambient temp was a huge factor for me. If it was under 50F, roasts would take quite a bit longer. I had success putting the whole affair into a large cardboard box to recycle the hot air, but you have to be careful that it doesn't get too hot in the box and start melting the roaster.

I never roasted on a popper, but from what I've read, they're all over the place as far as if they make a good roaster. Ambient temp (as mentioned above) and voltage also play a factor.

Rather than rolling the dice at Goodwill, you might consider spending $20 to get the popper sold at Sweet Maria's. They've tested it for the specific purpose of roasting coffee and there's some good info there as well.

https://www.sweetmarias.com/nostalgia-e ... opper.html

If you can swing another $160 on top of that, you can get the basic FreshRoast which I have used (albeit an older model). I know that's a significant increase in price, though.

Yep, ambient temp... It's not very cold here in the PNW but I've moved my FreshRoast (glorified popper) roasting indoors and things are back on track again after some wasted beans for a while there.

Have you measured the air temperature?
Did you bypass the thermostat?

Hrm, so everybody is saying ambient temps are a possible problem. That's interesting. I have not had trouble with the BM/HG method outside but I guess the gun is probably generating a lot more heat. I'll see if I can figure out how to do this without hotboxing the setup and/or moving the rig indoors. (Even with an incomplete roast my garage still smells like pre-first-crack beans 12 hours later. But I guess I was kind of thinking about buying a space heater or garage heater to be able to work out there on other things anyway.)

Mbb, I have not tried hacking out the thermostat on either popper, no (I was not aware that they even had switchable / thermostat-controlled elements). I have an infrared thermometer somewhere but I still have not located it. It's fairly clear, though, that we're not making it much past 400 in the chamber.

MattS, I'm definitely interested in getting some proper gear later on, but right now finding a place for even a small dedicated roaster is still a problem and I want to do more research before investing (I'm thinking I will probably spend more than $200 when I get there, unfortunately). Also, yeah, there are several "recommended" $20 or less air poppers but I'm still not convinced there is anything wrong with the ones I've got and, again, I just try not to contribute to the problem of too much non-biodegradable stuff already on the planet whenever I reasonably can.

Big thanks for the help, everybody. So if anyone did check the (literally 5-second) video I posted, does that look like an appropriately loaded chamber for this method?

mudluver wrote: Mbb, I have not tried hacking out the thermostat on either popper, no (I was not aware that they even had switchable / thermostat-controlled elements). I have an infrared thermometer somewhere but I still have not located it. It's fairly clear, though, that we're not making it much past 400 in the chamber.

many poppers need that thermostat removed to get hot enough to actually roast the coffee. it's basically a bimetallic switch that will limit it to something like 350 to 400 degrees for popping popcorn. Which isn't hot enough to roast coffee you need more like 450. Lots of tutorials how to do it on the internet. most of the popper modification how-to articles cover this

Your voltage and the length of an extension cord and gauge of it also can affect how hot your popper can get. ambient temperatures might have an effect, but many people get around that by simply putting the popper inside of a cardboard box .
when it's really cold outside up north.

Mbb wrote:many poppers need that thermostat removed to get hot enough to actually roast the coffee. it's basically a bimetallic switch that will limit it to something like 350 to 400 degrees for popping popcorn. Which isn't hot enough to roast coffee you need more like 450.

OK, so it sounds like I need to find my infra thermometer, run the chamber with actual popcorn indoors, and see what I'm hitting. Thanks for this tip - none of the how-to videos etc. that I'd watched so far emphasized that mods might possibly be necessary for this to just work. I have worked a bunch with small electronics projects and am totally comfortable soldering and all that if it's about jumpering over the thermostat element, I just didn't know this was even a thing and I will do some further research. Thank you.

Yeah. Theres also a thermal fuse that prevents a fire due to overheating around 500F i think i recall. Some how-tos bypass it as well. I wouldnt do that, but many do. Unless choke off airflow with too much coffee, or fan fails, i dont think many will get that hot. But you cant leave unnatended ever..... Probably can get higher rated thermal fuse.

I'll definitely leave that for the moment, and unattended use is not on the menu regardless... lived through one house fire (not roasting- / appliance-related), never care to repeat it. Thanks again for all this.