2 years ago, I owned my home and roasted in the basement. I vented with an inline fan/flexible dryer exhasut pipe that went out a dryer vent in the end stringer. If I had kept that setup, one day the inline fan would have died and I would have smoked the place out. I kept the propane tank in the basement, but would advise against such foolishness.

I moved and am renting now, so I do it in the garage. I keep the Huky in there, but store the propane on the back deck. I have an old desktop PC cobbled together next to it.

I miss having all my beans, scale, roaster, gas ... all ready to go. It's a bit of a process now to get setup.

I'm in central PA, so the weather is variable, but not super extreme. I make sure to have adequate warm up times so that the garage temp is minimal influence. When you get a roaster screaming hot, I find it hard to believe there is much difference in the roast. But my skills (roast, brew and taste) probably cause so much variability that it's hard for me to notice subtle differences.

I have a BC-2, and it is in my basement. Drum and cooling tray are vented outside - took a window pane out, put in a board, and run the pipes thru it.
My house is heated with LP (propane) so I have a copper pipe going to the roaster with a ball valve as an added shutoff valve.

mainly the garage but i have an old house which used to have a hot tub in one of the rooms... it had a vent lole q bathroom vent piped in but i never noticed it until 2 year ago.... But that gave me the opportunity to buy a 200cfm fan and hook it up to the exhaust.... so now i can roast inside during the winter months... it still stinks but the difference is that it only stinks for 2 days instead on one week... hehe

fizguy wrote:Just watched a roasting demo video for the BC-2. Nice roaster! Do you roast for yourself only?

Hey Justin, I roast for myself mainly and then use my extra capacity to roast for friends and neighbors who like the same kind of coffee I like. I sell to them for $10 a 12 oz bag through a private website I set up, but I often give them an extra bag. It helps to support my hobby, gives me more roasting practice, allows me to buy larger quantities of green beans from suppliers that I wouldn't be able to purchase from if I roasted just for myself, and is a nice way to share my love of coffee with people who also enjoy it.

TallDan wrote:Can't resist commenting here because I suspect that I'm the only person who has a Mill City roaster in their dining room. When I got it, the dining room was supposed to be temporary and I planned to make a space for it in the basement or garage. That was a few years ago now...

Going on 2 years in the dining room

Pandemic took the urgency to move it out of there away. Inertia has kept it there.

keno wrote:Hey Justin, I roast for myself mainly and then use my extra capacity to roast for friends and neighbors who like the same kind of coffee I like. I sell to them for $10 a 12 oz bag through a private website I set up, but I often give them an extra bag. It helps to support my hobby, gives me more roasting practice, allows me to buy larger quantities of green beans from suppliers that I wouldn't be able to purchase from if I roasted just for myself, and is a nice way to share my love of coffee with people who also enjoy it.

That is awesome, and I think my next step as well. Someday.

I live in a colder climate. Yep, inside the roaster it's nice and hot, but most all of them draw ambient air into the roast chamber from the environment which can affect repeatability if the temps in your locale vary much. Year round, the most consistent environment for me is the basement, where I vent exhaust out a window using a duct that fits in the window. I bring in the propane tank only when roasting. HTH

I have a 2kg MCR roaster that I mounted on a cart. I roll the cart outside to roast. It's great except when it rains!


Cheers,
Bill

That's a BIG chaff collector!

I roast in my basement. It's heated and cooled when the house is heated and cooled. My Huky is on a table right next to an outside door so I have it vented with dryer galvanized pipe that I move to the door that I crack open when the roasting begins.