Ventless, Smokeless, Gasless Roasters

#1: Post by **Roasty** » September 18th, 2018, 3:42 pm

I've stumbled across a few interesting roasters, but with very little details:

https://www.roastery.com/
https://www.bellwethercoffee.com/

It's unlear to me if these are drum roasters or fluid bed roasters.

Anyone have an inside scoop and able to shed any more light on these roasters? I'm thinking of making a major upgrade in a few years and certainly wouldn't mind a large dose of technology.

September 18th, 2018, 4:20 pm

I don't know the specifics of these; but the pitch is familiar, especially tying the buyers to a specific greens supplier. Over the years, these "plug and play" roasters have been fluid beds or agitator + air (think a scaled up breadmachine/heatgun roaster) with thermal and carbon filtering. I would be wary: expect the vacation time share level of hard sell if you ask for info.

Maybe other posters will know the specifics of these two.

September 18th, 2018, 5:40 pm

Yeah, it seem peculiar about the tying you into a greens provider. The Bellwether seems that it only gives you the option to lease, but not buy. I've seen this model before, but I wonder what it is about these type of machines that won't let you just buy them, but instead resort to this kind of pitch.

#4: Post by **btreichel** » September 18th, 2018, 11:35 pm

Same business model as inkjet printers. The money is in selling the ink.

#5: Post by **renatoa** » September 19th, 2018, 6:57 am

They seems to be oversized and encapsulated versions of Deichman Roestmeister, i.e. highly perforated or mesh fake drum, used for agitation only, no heat storing, and hot air vortex in a cylinder enclosure, kind of turbo oven.

#6: Post by **Nunas** » September 19th, 2018, 11:29 am

Gassless, OK...the things are electric and roast small batches. Ventless, smokeless...sometimes things that sound too good to be true are not true. I doubt you could do any darker roasts on these. As for the business model, tying you into their coffee, check out the sellers of Sonofresco roasters; some of them have this option. I don't see these as an upgrade from your Quest.

#7: Post by **renatoa** » September 19th, 2018, 11:43 am

I own an Imex Pro 1500 roaster, somewhat similar with these machines, I mean a cube, but not so closed, you can see what's inside... and it is virtually everything less... you can roast 500 grams in the kitchen, and you have no need to vent other than natural, just open the window.
For 1500 grams, you need to mount a catalizator pipe and a stove hood is enough.

September 19th, 2018, 12:12 pm

There's probably a built in catalytic converter (I mislabelled it "thermal filter" in my prior post). The Nesco, a small home roasting device, has one that works for light roasts and doesn't for dark ones. Intelligentsia and Metropolis do all their roasting in Chicago; they have catalytic converters on their stacks; and there's no coffee smell ever. So the technology can certainly work, if it's down right.