For all the talk on alt.coffee about roasters, I don't recall seeing any threads about Variacs. Several months ago, I noticed this on coffeebeancorral.com and have been wondering if this is something I should invest in or not. Does anyone here use one? If so, what caused you to get it? What, if any, improvements have you noticed? Is this the kind of thing that could possibly prevent my roaster from getting fried - kind of like a Topaz line conditioner for a computer????
For all the talk on alt.coffee about roasters, I don't recall seeing any threads about Variacs. Several months ago, I noticed this on coffeebeancorral.com and have been wondering if this is something I should invest in or not. Does anyone here use one? If so, what caused you to get it? What, if any, improvements have you noticed? Is this the kind of thing that could possibly prevent my roaster from getting fried - kind of like a Topaz line conditioner for a computer????
Hi RoxieL,Are you a member of the Sweetmarias homeroast list & or email digest? There's been lots of talk there about variacs. There using them to do different roast profiles,different ramp up times with different variable voltages,effectively controling roast temps. They also work,like you say,as a line conditioner stablizing voltage during low voltage times(brown outs).Taming the brightness in a bean roasted in a FR & creating more body by lengthing roast time,the best of both worlds between air(fluidized bed)roasting & drum roasting(Alp).
For all the talk on alt.coffee about roasters, I don't recall seeing any threads about Variacs. Several months ago, I noticed this on coffeebeancorral.com and have been wondering if this is something I should invest in or not. Does anyone here use one? If so, what caused you to get it? What, if any, improvements have you noticed? Is this the kind of thing that could possibly prevent my roaster from getting fried - kind of like a Topaz line conditioner for a computer????
Actually there were a couple of threads on that the last couple of months. Jim Schulman, Jack Denver, and a couple of others were in them. Might have even dragged The Horta (Brendan) into it to. Use Google search, I'm sure they'll turn up.
For all the talk on alt.coffee about roasters, I don't recall seeing any threads about Variacs. Several months ago, I noticed this on coffeebeancorral.com and have been wondering if this is something I should invest in or not. Does anyone here use one? If so, what caused you to get it? What, if any, improvements have you noticed? Is this the kind of thing that could possibly prevent my roaster from getting fried - kind of like a Topaz line conditioner for a computer????
I use a variac on my FR+ to vary the air temperature at different roast stages. This is called "roast profiling" for some reason. One can do this with popcorn poppers, the FR, and the CR-120 aka Cafe Rosto, since they have line voltage thermostats. The Hearthware machines and the Alp have electronic controls and are not amenable to this.
However, some people use Variacs for these simply to adjust the overall voltage. There is a theory that whenever the thermostat switches off the heat, the roast suffers. By throttling back the voltage to 105 - 110, the heater never gets hot enough for the thermostat to cut off, and one roasts with a continuous blast.
I personally put stock in this idea for my FR; I suspect it works for the low thermal mass HWP/HWG; but I doubt it makes much difference on the Alp, since the mass of the drum will smooth out the variations while the heaters are cycling on and off.
Thanks, everyone for the replies. George * Jim, I looked up those threads - made my head spin!!!! If I'm understanding correctly, it sounds like since I'm not into roast profiling and since I have Hearthwares & an Alp, I don't have a need for a Variac...right? It doesn't sound like it's going to prolong the life of my roasters? (Sorry, but I know nothing about electrical stuff...)
Thanks, everyone for the replies. George * Jim, I looked up those threads - made my head spin!!!! If I'm understanding correctly, it sounds like since I'm not into roast profiling and since I have Hearthwares & an Alp, I don't have a need for a Variac...right? It doesn't sound like it's going to prolong the life of my roasters? (Sorry, but I know nothing about electrical stuff...)
Unless you're having high voltage problems - uneven, overly fast roasts - there's not much they'll do for you. I'm fairly sure I'm shortening the life of my FR "reving" it up and down with the variac. Fortunately, the FR seems to be abuse proof.
Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post
Forum Rules: No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards. No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum. No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum. Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies. Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies. Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts. Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.
= No New Posts since last visit 