Hi all,

I'd like to start roasting at home, purely for fun and for friends and family, but I'm having trouble deciding on what machine to get
I've put together a (very basic) list of pros and cons for the various roasters below, and am hoping others can help me add to this information so that I can come to a decision.

In terms of what I'm looking for:

• Something that isn't too big. I can roast outside if needed (on a portable gas burner), or with an electrical socket, but still can't be too big.

• Budget is max 1,500 USD

• Ability create and use roast profiles would be great

• Reliability/quality is obviously desirable

• I live in Japan - this is a consideration for voltage (100v) or shipping

• I like tinkering, so I don't really want something fully automatic - I want the option to manually tweak variables as needed

• I'd like the ability to roast at least up to 200-300g, but as low as 50-100g (which also puts the bullet out of consideration as I think that has a 300g minimum roasting requirement)

Below is a list of what I've found so far, and I'm currently leaning towards the Gene Cafe or Kaldi (regular or wide). I would love the Aillio bullet but it's out of my price range
Is there anything else folks would like to add or suggest? Thanks in advance!

EDIT: After everyone's fantastic comments and advice, and watching videos on Youtube, I think I'm going to go for either the Kaldi 300 wide or the 400 wide. I will probably create another post for this for people to help me pick between the two...

********************

Kaffelogic
Pros:
Minimal space requirements
Roast profiles available
Ease of use

Cons:
Unsure of availability in Japan
Price a little high (but may be worth it if build quality is as advertised
Slow customer response (sent inquiry about availability in Japan a week ago and still no reply)


Kaldi Regular or Wide
Pros:
Appears well-built
Gas heating (pro or con depending on person but at least no worries on voltage)
Reasonable cost
Available in Japan
I think we can create roast profiles with Artisan? Not sure if a mod is needed though

Cons:
Bigger than I'd like (limited space in kitchen, maybe can store in parking lot?)
Not as easy to use/more manual - but honestly that sounds like part of the fun for me
Bean cooling process seems a little tricky?


Fuji Royal R-005
Pros:
Looks well built
Available locally

Cons:
Looks like it needs both a gas line and power connection? (basically a permanent install - doesn't seem suitable for a kitchen or for moving in/out of storage)
Can't really find exact price on website, but online 3rd party sellers show it in the 3K USD range - expensive


Sandbox
Pros:
Space saving/compact
Reasonably priced
Easy to use
Roast profiles available

Cons:
Smartphone requirement for operation which immediately makes it a no-go for me


Aillio Bullet
Pros:
Looks awesome, high quality
Roast profiles available
Available in Japan voltage

Cons:
So expensive at 3,500 USD


Gene Cafe
Pros:
Easy to use
Space saving/compact
Available in Japan

Cons:
Reviews indicate it's hard to hear the first crack?


Behmor
Pros:
Relatively inexpensive
A known "brand"
Roast profiles available
Available in Japan

Cons:
Looks clunky, I feel there are better options
Smokey?


Fresh roast
Pros:
Cheap
Very space-friendly
Roast profiles available


Cons:
Small capacity
Minimal controls/features make me feel that I'd outgrow this soon


Popper
Pros:
Small/space-friendly
Inexpensive

Cons:
Out of stock
Seems very basic with not much option for fine-tuning roasts
Max 100g roast size

Ikawa
Pros:
Space saving/compact

Cons:
Japan distributor is stopping sales - I do not want to purchase overseas
Also seems like they will be going subscription model for access to all features


Bocaboca?
Can't find an official website??

Hi Jeff *WAVES*

If a friend came to me with the same request/questions/thoughts, I would start by asking him/her to first do a good estimate of how much green coffee they will consume in ~3 weeks. Secondly I would ask him/her to take a look at a Fresh Roast sr800, mods from Razzo Roasting on Etsy, and from previous threads on this forum mods for Temperature measurement to feed Artisan.

To estimate consumption, I would tell him/her to do a gut check on how many roasts they want to perform when they roast coffee. (In my case it stops being "fun" after 8 roasts in a roast session.)

Then take How much Coffee and divide by the number of batches to get a ballpark estimate of your minimum batch size. This may help selecting/eliminating roasters on your list.

Figure
Assume you roast every +/- 3 weeks
1.2 kg Green/1 kg roasted
Gifting to friends/family =25-50% of your consumption. Your estimate now will likely be too low. (my own figure here is ~100%)

For me it is;
86g roasted/day consumed (1 pot in morning) x 1.2 = 103g green/day
21 days between roast session so 103g green/day x 21 days = 2.2 kg green coffee
Gifting = Consumption x 1.00 = 2.2 kg green coffee
Total Demand = My Consumption + Gifting = 2.2 kg green + 2.2 kg green = 4.4 kg green / 3 weeks
Batch Size = 500g green/roast

I round this down to 4 kg green each roast session.

So I roast 8 batches every 19 days or so. In my case I could gift an extra 2 batches, but 10 back to back roasts every roast session is more than I "want" to do.

HTH,
-LN

I can only comment on the Gene Cafe. It's all I've used.

Cheerfulnut wrote: ..In terms of what I'm looking for:

• Something that isn't too big. I can roast outside if needed (on a portable gas burner), or with an electrical socket, but still can't be too big.

• Budget is max 1,500 USD

• Ability create and use roast profiles would be great

• Reliability/quality is obviously desirable

• I live in Japan - this is a consideration for voltage (100v) or shipping

• I like tinkering, so I don't really want something fully automatic - I want the option to manually tweak variables as needed

• I'd like the ability to roast at least up to 200-300g, but as low as 50-100g (which also puts the bullet out of consideration as I think that has a 300g minimum roasting requirement)

It's a great size - not too big. It easily slots into a kitchen cupboard when it's not in use.

It's arguably quite limited in terms of roast profiles. I mean there are some around, but I wouldn't say they're very sophisticated.

Reliability is a plus. I did replace the heater on mine after a few years' use, but that's it. It's still going - 14 years so far.

Mine is 240v (I live in Australia) so I can't comment on the 100v version.

Re tweakability - you can change the temperature and time, but refer to the comment about profiles. Note that the temperature shown on the Gene is the temperature at the heat outlet (I think). There is only one temperature sensor AFAIK.

I've found it works best with ~250g greens. I wouldn't put anything less than 200 g or anything more than 300g in a batch.

In addition to your points, I like that it roasts the beans evenly. You're unlikely to get burnt outside / underdone inside for example, and you won't find some beans roasted more than others in the same batch.

Hope that helps.

Currently I use an inexpensive Crownful rotisserie toaster oven. I had to modify it because it's thermistor was off and it didn't get hot enough. I've roasted as much as 500g but usually do 390g or so. It's user interface is fair for roasting coffee.

I have a Behmor and it also doesn't get hot enough and it's user interface Is terrible. I would roast about 330g in the Behmor and it would take 25+ minutes.

I also have a Fresh Roast SR500 but its batch size is too small. The SR800 is probably a good fit for you. It's controls are better than most and user interface is ok. The Fresh Roasts are top heavy so care is required. Is SR800 batch size acceptable?

The Fresh Roast SR800 with OEM extension tube easily roasts 10 oz.(285 g ish). I'd bet 300 g would work just as well.

It's a great, affordable roaster, but completely manual/hands on.

If you're a tinkerer and want lots of control of variables, get the Behmor off your list. No offense to its users, but I could never do it.

Ditto the 'popper.'