100% proper cleaning is necessary for home roasting, thanks for bringing it to light! On the H-B forum, a member posted about a roaster fire caused by residue buildup. I have an SM Popper and typically roast in the garage, but I was sure to wash the chaff collector after reading that!
Thanks for watching and for your sharing daRock1212. I realize this isn't as much a how-to for roasting it is part of the hobby but it is an important message for everyone in our hobby. I've read and been taught that roaster fires do happen and regular maintenance can help avoid some of the hazards of our hobby.
It was interesting to see how much chaff debris gets deposited into the vent system for 150 lbs. of coffee. We have a laser cutter at work and it also needs periodic cleaning of the ventilation system. As a side note, I got my SM Popper roaster and the low cost thermometer you demonstrated and it is all working well together. I use 90.7 g batches since that divides evenly into a pound of coffee. I was able to get some Sumatran coffee to second crack without tripping the overtemp switch and it came out great. I also roasted some Central American coffee to Full City and it also came out very balanced with mild acidity. The only issue I am having is doing the RoR calculations on the fly, even at 30 second intervals, I feel a bit rushed. It is very easy and fast to do a roast compared to the Behmor and there is less chaff cleanup afterwards.
Hi Jamie, thanks for your comments and for sharing your experience with the popper and thermometer. It has worked really well for me too. I didn't mention there is a variable chaff mess based on the coffee we roast. For example, Decaf coffee has very little, if any, chaff because of the processing. I seemd to get more chaff from my central american coffee than I do the african coffee but I don't have any data to support that. Calculating ROR , if using a calculator should only take 5-10 seconds, plenty of time to pay attention to the roast. Doing it in your head might take longer, like you saw happening with me on some of my roasts. As far as making a graph like i did on a recent video, this was done after the roast using the times, temps and events I recorded. I made the graph for the benefit of conversation for the video. Just by looking at the ROR numbers like 22,18,14,11,9, etc.... and seeing a nice downward trend will confirm with me that my roast is on track and there are no huge increases or decreases in my ror. After you do it a few times it gets easier. Give the calculator a try by taking your current temp and subtracting the previous temp and then double that. That is your ror for 1 minute. Keep up the great job on your roasts!
I can't link to it here, but if you click on my profile I've linked to a roast log that I made for small fluid bed roasters on Google Sheets. I have an SM Popper as well, and I use the log to track my roasts (a little better than pen and paper). It will calculate the ROR after the fact, but I think it's not so useful for our roaster. Since we're measuring a mix of the environmental temp and the bean temp, and because it will swing wildly as you change Popper settings (it's very agile!), I try to just hit my milestone times. I chatted with SM about it and they agree, for small fluid bed roasters ROR might just be more of a distraction.
Sorry your post got thrown into a hold folder in my YT account so I didn't see it until now. I would love to see that google sheet you have. Can you email me the link? Go to my "about" tab here on the channel and then scroll down to see the email button. I have some ideas related to data logging and the popper I am considering.
Your videos were motivation for me to learn something new, got a huky 500. Starting to set everything up today. I was on the popper for a few months and decided I wanted a little upgrade. Showroom had vent tubing I forgot to order so I'm going to run the Huky outside on this stainless table I recently picked up. About to dial in my 5kpa magnehelic and see what this Huky is all about.
I was really considering the Huky 500 as a roaster some years ago. You are going to have a lot of fun roasting! Let me know how it goes. What did you say you were using for venting? the flexible dryer type tubing? If yes, be careful to not let chaff build up near the back of the roaster.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab No vent tube because the chaff collection does a good job and the little chaff I get is no issue. I'm in south east Texas with a large back porch so it's no problem roasting outside year round. I did 3 (315 gram) roasts so far on 2 pounds of mystery beans that came with the roaster, didn't dump the chaff collector between roast and stupidly did 1 light 1 medium and lastly a little darker roast I got to 440f BT and boy was there some smoke lol. I'm very new, I don't know anything about what I'm doing but I'm keeping it simple by not messing around with fan speeds as you have mentioned in a previous video. I need to figure out how to de-chaff beans after I roast the lighter stuff, some chaff is still on my roasted beans. I'm brewing with a pour over and aeropress using a 1:16 Water/Coffee ratio. Gotta work on my grind sizing as well. Your videos are very helpful, thanks a ton!
Mike I'm so glad that you actually made a video on one of the more undesirable tasks in our otherwise fun hobby of coffee roasting. It looked like the buildup on the inside of your pipe was maybe about 1/4" (6 mm) or so? How often would you recommend doing this dirty but necessary chore, periodically or as needed? For my venting system, I am using a permanently wall-mounted stove hood (Zline Professional Stainless 597) mounted just a few inches above the roaster. The hood specifications are: Dimensions: 29.5 inches (75 cm) wide, 18 inches (46 cm) deep Duct size: 6 inches (15.2 cm) round Fan flow rates: Four speeds: Speed1 260 CFM; Speed2 340 CFM; Speed3 420 CFM; and Speed4 500 CFM Material: #430 stainless steel The hood has 6" ductwork that carries the exhaust to a basement window very similar to the way yours is done. The duct is the simple single-wall kind, taped at each joint so nothing can leak back into the roasting room. Outside the house, the duct goes into a simple dryer vent that hopefully keeps rain out and somewhat prevents back flow from wind. I now have two roasters (described below) and both of them vent upward to the air below the hood. Neither roaster is directly connected to the hood fan. The benefit of doing it that way is the speed of the hood fan should have no effect on the air flow rate through the roaster, as it would have if directly connected. The drawback of doing it that way is if there is a large burst of smoke produced, I suppose it could go into the room a bit, instead of going into the hood (but I have never seen that). My hood fan moves so much air, that I need to open another basement window or outside door, to let air into the house for the flow. My Behmor roaster has a built-in "afterburner" that reduces exhaust smoke significantly, but some still does exit the roaster, going through the air into the hood. But as you can see above, my fan can move quite a large amount of air. The most smoke I ever see is when I open the roaster door to pull the drum at the end of the roast. But even then, the hood captures most if not all of the roaster exhaust. Although I have not yet run a batch through my new Aillio Bullet, I do know the Bullet does produce smoke during roasting, like most other drum roasters. That roaster will vent the exhaust upward through the air to the hood above. I am not anticipating any problems for the hood fan to capture all the roaster exhaust. My thought is since it does not have any smoke suppression, the hood fan and ductwork might get significantly more dirty than it did with the Behmor. When I moved my hood so it could accomodate both the Bullet and the Behmor, I had to take all of the ductwork apart and I could easily inspect it for dirt. After roasting almost a year now with the Behmor exhausting into the stove hood, I did not see any dirt inside the ductwork. I did notice some dirt on the inside of the stove hood and its fan. I'm interested in hearing how others are venting their roasts. Thanks Mike!
Thanks for sharing your setup Lou. That hood fan looks really nice. Since the fan is not directly part of your roaster(s) build-up will be much slower. On both o your roasters, the chaff is collected in a special system. It might be a once a year quick look at the initial opening of your hood fan at and around the filter. The smoke is going to be the biggest concern you might have and that system seems plenty strong to deal with it. As far as the bullet goes, how is the chaff collected there? Where are you venting the bullet? Out into the open behind the roaster? You will most likely get some chaff blowing out of that area. The smoke will be drawn out but I'm curious what will happen with any chaff that gets past the collector. Thoughts on that?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Yeah, I will have to just see what it does. The chaff collector is an area in the back of the roaster, I think associated with the exhaust fan. Aillio recommends, and I definitely plan on cleaning the chaff collector every roast. In their instructions they say, "Check to see if the filter gasket needs cleaning." and gives a couple of instructions on how to do that, but it sounds pretty easy. Then after 30 kg of roasting (which would take me almost 4 years to reach), inspection and cleaning of the exhaust fan impeller, cooling box filter, and chaff collector filter is specified.
I vacuum my chaff collector after every roasting session. It is part of my cleanup. I also have a little chaff fall between the drum and the chassis of the roaster, the funnel and the drop door which get vacuumed as well. If you are roasting mostly decaf I think you will see very little chaff.
I never thought about my "look" for the videos, but now realize I have my glasses on for most of them. The glare on the lenses is distracting and i only need to wear the glasses for detailed work and reading so off they went. Glad my video was helpful Shane. Thanks for your comment.
I roast on my Behmor 2000 AB plus outside on the porch to avoid any chaff inside the house. I live in the Miami Area so cold weather is usually not a problem for me.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab getting better at it but I wish I had more control over the roast. I wish I could use software to be able to better monitor the roast. Also the Behmor is difficult to see the bean colors change. I am roasting more by smell and sound only. Temperature control is not as easy on the Behmor. However, I am happy with the results. Most of my coffee is for traditional espresso.
Another useful and informative video, Im just setting up and after this video updating my ventilation system. What type of extinguisher should be used with 1 kg Toper gas roaster? Thank you
That’s a great question. I’m using a general purpose fire extinguisher for electrical and liquids. It shoots out a powder like substance. If used, it would mean a total mess and Major cleanup. I guess that would be no problem if it would prevent my house from catching on fire. Not sure what local requirements you may have so I can’t recommend a specific type or size, sorry.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thank you Mike just gave my machine a deep clean thans to Toper fir the video so feel more relax now. Hope to meet their reps here in Halifax in the north of England for some training too 👍
I run a 15 kilo Ambex. If it’s a chaff fire, just use water. I’ve used maybe half a gallon down the chaff chamber, a hose is overkill. Electrical or Gas fire definitely use an extinguisher.
100% proper cleaning is necessary for home roasting, thanks for bringing it to light! On the H-B forum, a member posted about a roaster fire caused by residue buildup. I have an SM Popper and typically roast in the garage, but I was sure to wash the chaff collector after reading that!
Thanks for watching and for your sharing daRock1212. I realize this isn't as much a how-to for roasting it is part of the hobby but it is an important message for everyone in our hobby. I've read and been taught that roaster fires do happen and regular maintenance can help avoid some of the hazards of our hobby.
It was interesting to see how much chaff debris gets deposited into the vent system for 150 lbs. of coffee. We have a laser cutter at work and it also needs periodic cleaning of the ventilation system. As a side note, I got my SM Popper roaster and the low cost thermometer you demonstrated and it is all working well together. I use 90.7 g batches since that divides evenly into a pound of coffee. I was able to get some Sumatran coffee to second crack without tripping the overtemp switch and it came out great. I also roasted some Central American coffee to Full City and it also came out very balanced with mild acidity. The only issue I am having is doing the RoR calculations on the fly, even at 30 second intervals, I feel a bit rushed. It is very easy and fast to do a roast compared to the Behmor and there is less chaff cleanup afterwards.
You need a helper that can record temperatures and calculate the 30-second ROR values while you control the roast! :-)
Hi Jamie, thanks for your comments and for sharing your experience with the popper and thermometer. It has worked really well for me too. I didn't mention there is a variable chaff mess based on the coffee we roast. For example, Decaf coffee has very little, if any, chaff because of the processing. I seemd to get more chaff from my central american coffee than I do the african coffee but I don't have any data to support that.
Calculating ROR , if using a calculator should only take 5-10 seconds, plenty of time to pay attention to the roast. Doing it in your head might take longer, like you saw happening with me on some of my roasts. As far as making a graph like i did on a recent video, this was done after the roast using the times, temps and events I recorded. I made the graph for the benefit of conversation for the video. Just by looking at the ROR numbers like 22,18,14,11,9, etc.... and seeing a nice downward trend will confirm with me that my roast is on track and there are no huge increases or decreases in my ror. After you do it a few times it gets easier. Give the calculator a try by taking your current temp and subtracting the previous temp and then double that. That is your ror for 1 minute.
Keep up the great job on your roasts!
I can't link to it here, but if you click on my profile I've linked to a roast log that I made for small fluid bed roasters on Google Sheets. I have an SM Popper as well, and I use the log to track my roasts (a little better than pen and paper). It will calculate the ROR after the fact, but I think it's not so useful for our roaster. Since we're measuring a mix of the environmental temp and the bean temp, and because it will swing wildly as you change Popper settings (it's very agile!), I try to just hit my milestone times. I chatted with SM about it and they agree, for small fluid bed roasters ROR might just be more of a distraction.
Sorry your post got thrown into a hold folder in my YT account so I didn't see it until now.
I would love to see that google sheet you have. Can you email me the link? Go to my "about" tab here on the channel and then scroll down to see the email button. I have some ideas related to data logging and the popper I am considering.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Certainly! I've sent it over. Let me know if there's anything that can be improved!
Your videos were motivation for me to learn something new, got a huky 500. Starting to set everything up today. I was on the popper for a few months and decided I wanted a little upgrade. Showroom had vent tubing I forgot to order so I'm going to run the Huky outside on this stainless table I recently picked up. About to dial in my 5kpa magnehelic and see what this Huky is all about.
I was really considering the Huky 500 as a roaster some years ago. You are going to have a lot of fun roasting! Let me know how it goes. What did you say you were using for venting? the flexible dryer type tubing? If yes, be careful to not let chaff build up near the back of the roaster.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab
No vent tube because the chaff collection does a good job and the little chaff I get is no issue. I'm in south east Texas with a large back porch so it's no problem roasting outside year round.
I did 3 (315 gram) roasts so far on 2 pounds of mystery beans that came with the roaster, didn't dump the chaff collector between roast and stupidly did 1 light 1 medium and lastly a little darker roast I got to 440f BT and boy was there some smoke lol.
I'm very new, I don't know anything about what I'm doing but I'm keeping it simple by not messing around with fan speeds as you have mentioned in a previous video. I need to figure out how to de-chaff beans after I roast the lighter stuff, some chaff is still on my roasted beans. I'm brewing with a pour over and aeropress using a 1:16 Water/Coffee ratio. Gotta work on my grind sizing as well. Your videos are very helpful, thanks a ton!
Mike I'm so glad that you actually made a video on one of the more undesirable tasks in our otherwise fun hobby of coffee roasting. It looked like the buildup on the inside of your pipe was maybe about 1/4" (6 mm) or so? How often would you recommend doing this dirty but necessary chore, periodically or as needed?
For my venting system, I am using a permanently wall-mounted stove hood (Zline Professional Stainless 597) mounted just a few inches above the roaster. The hood specifications are:
Dimensions: 29.5 inches (75 cm) wide, 18 inches (46 cm) deep
Duct size: 6 inches (15.2 cm) round
Fan flow rates: Four speeds: Speed1 260 CFM; Speed2 340 CFM; Speed3 420 CFM; and Speed4 500 CFM
Material: #430 stainless steel
The hood has 6" ductwork that carries the exhaust to a basement window very similar to the way yours is done. The duct is the simple single-wall kind, taped at each joint so nothing can leak back into the roasting room. Outside the house, the duct goes into a simple dryer vent that hopefully keeps rain out and somewhat prevents back flow from wind.
I now have two roasters (described below) and both of them vent upward to the air below the hood. Neither roaster is directly connected to the hood fan. The benefit of doing it that way is the speed of the hood fan should have no effect on the air flow rate through the roaster, as it would have if directly connected. The drawback of doing it that way is if there is a large burst of smoke produced, I suppose it could go into the room a bit, instead of going into the hood (but I have never seen that). My hood fan moves so much air, that I need to open another basement window or outside door, to let air into the house for the flow.
My Behmor roaster has a built-in "afterburner" that reduces exhaust smoke significantly, but some still does exit the roaster, going through the air into the hood. But as you can see above, my fan can move quite a large amount of air. The most smoke I ever see is when I open the roaster door to pull the drum at the end of the roast. But even then, the hood captures most if not all of the roaster exhaust.
Although I have not yet run a batch through my new Aillio Bullet, I do know the Bullet does produce smoke during roasting, like most other drum roasters. That roaster will vent the exhaust upward through the air to the hood above. I am not anticipating any problems for the hood fan to capture all the roaster exhaust. My thought is since it does not have any smoke suppression, the hood fan and ductwork might get significantly more dirty than it did with the Behmor.
When I moved my hood so it could accomodate both the Bullet and the Behmor, I had to take all of the ductwork apart and I could easily inspect it for dirt. After roasting almost a year now with the Behmor exhausting into the stove hood, I did not see any dirt inside the ductwork. I did notice some dirt on the inside of the stove hood and its fan.
I'm interested in hearing how others are venting their roasts. Thanks Mike!
Thanks for sharing your setup Lou. That hood fan looks really nice. Since the fan is not directly part of your roaster(s) build-up will be much slower. On both o your roasters, the chaff is collected in a special system. It might be a once a year quick look at the initial opening of your hood fan at and around the filter. The smoke is going to be the biggest concern you might have and that system seems plenty strong to deal with it.
As far as the bullet goes, how is the chaff collected there? Where are you venting the bullet? Out into the open behind the roaster? You will most likely get some chaff blowing out of that area. The smoke will be drawn out but I'm curious what will happen with any chaff that gets past the collector. Thoughts on that?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Yeah, I will have to just see what it does. The chaff collector is an area in the back of the roaster, I think associated with the exhaust fan. Aillio recommends, and I definitely plan on cleaning the chaff collector every roast. In their instructions they say, "Check to see if the filter gasket needs cleaning." and gives a couple of instructions on how to do that, but it sounds pretty easy. Then after 30 kg of roasting (which would take me almost 4 years to reach), inspection and cleaning of the exhaust fan impeller, cooling box filter, and chaff collector filter is specified.
I vacuum my chaff collector after every roasting session. It is part of my cleanup. I also have a little chaff fall between the drum and the chassis of the roaster, the funnel and the drop door which get vacuumed as well. If you are roasting mostly decaf I think you will see very little chaff.
Hi Mike, love your new look.
Great video by the way. Keep em coming.
I never thought about my "look" for the videos, but now realize I have my glasses on for most of them. The glare on the lenses is distracting and i only need to wear the glasses for detailed work and reading so off they went. Glad my video was helpful Shane. Thanks for your comment.
Good to know info for future reference. 👍
You bet!
I roast on my Behmor 2000 AB plus outside on the porch to avoid any chaff inside the house. I live in the Miami Area so cold weather is usually not a problem for me.
That is really convenience you can roast outside Eduardo. Solves a lot of problems! How have your roasts been going?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab getting better at it but I wish I had more control over the roast. I wish I could use software to be able to better monitor the roast. Also the Behmor is difficult to see the bean colors change. I am roasting more by smell and sound only. Temperature control is not as easy on the Behmor.
However, I am happy with the results.
Most of my coffee is for traditional espresso.
Another useful and informative video, Im just setting up and after this video updating my ventilation system. What type of extinguisher should be used with 1 kg Toper gas roaster? Thank you
That’s a great question. I’m using a general purpose fire extinguisher for electrical and liquids. It shoots out a powder like substance. If used, it would mean a total mess and
Major cleanup. I guess that would be no problem if it would prevent my house from catching on fire. Not sure what local requirements you may have so I can’t recommend a specific type or size, sorry.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thank you Mike just gave my machine a deep clean thans to Toper fir the video so feel more relax now. Hope to meet their reps here in Halifax in the north of England for some training too 👍
I run a 15 kilo Ambex. If it’s a chaff fire, just use water. I’ve used maybe half a gallon down the chaff chamber, a hose is overkill. Electrical or Gas fire definitely use an extinguisher.