Since there hasn't been much mentioned about the ARC 800 Roaster, I thought I would post a couple of pictures of my roaster relocated to my basement. I've had the roaster since October but had it temporarily in the shed out back. I had hoped that I could make it work, but dealing with the cold proved to be too much. I forgot that when heating the shed up to a comfortable and practical temperature for roasting takes longer than just heating the air in the room. The mass of the building and objects in the room have to warm up as well.

In any event, I just completed a roast in the new basement location and I am very happy with the change of venue.

I'm also very happy with the ARC 800. Coming from a modified Hottop Roaster I'm still on the learning curve but very happy with the change.

Do you have a flapper in the ducts to shut the cold out while not in use?

There is a damper flap on the bean cooling duct. It's under that white basket (rodent guard), just like a dryer vent flap. The vent pipe doesn't have a damper flap but when I finish roasting I just close the air damper valve and that works.

Sharp setup!

What's your maximum batch size?

So far I have been starting with between 500 and 600 gram batches. In the startup manual they have three roast profiles for light, medium and dark and for all three they use a 720 gram batch (90% of its rated capacity). To me that seems a little high but based on my minimal experience (19 roasts to date), it seems to have plenty of power.

Nice!
Are you using propane or natural gas?

There are times when I wish I didn't live on the seventh floor...

hankua wrote:Nice!
Are you using propane or natural gas?

Using propane. Picture shows where I located it outside next to the window penetration. Black hose clipped to the blue wall paneling in the interior photo shows the routing to the roaster. I have 4-1/2" of styrofoam insulation sandwiched between the inner and outer plywood I used to close off the window opening.

For those interested here's a shot of the interior of the roaster showing the motor and insulation.

hankua wrote:Nice!
Are you using propane or natural gas?

Sorry Hank, I just realized I didn't post the photo showing the propane tank. Here it is.