bodum_fanatic Senior Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 481 Location: Missouri Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Won't become one of those... Grinder: Braun KMM30, Krups Fast... Vac Pot: Never had much luck there. Drip: Melitta Deluxe 132 made in... Roaster: West Bend Poppery II
Posted Tue Oct 19, 2010, 1:54pm Subject: Re: "Homer" Roaster on eBay?
Looks to me like a standard Ronco rotisserie oven with a roasting drum.
ProHobby Senior Member Joined: 31 Oct 2010 Posts: 1 Location: Amargosa Valley, NV Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sun Oct 31, 2010, 8:21am Subject: Re: "Homer" Roaster on eBay?
I just ordered one --- stay tuned! Roasting to very dark French has become an drudgery with my small Nesco (auger) roaster. It takes me 27 minutes for a ¼ lb. batch @ room temp with 15% humidity (Las Vegas). If the Homer delivers a 3 lb. batch in 45 minutes with a price tag of $206.00 --- I’ll be overjoyed!
artichoke Senior Member Joined: 25 Aug 2010 Posts: 69 Location: New York NY Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sun Oct 31, 2010, 9:46am Subject: Re: "Homer" Roaster on eBay?
He modifies convection ovens. He sells the roaster for $200. If he takes used convection ovens, and puts in a rotisserie drum and motor and does the work in some cheap location in the world, I suppose he could make a good profit at that price.
It seems from the ad that the roasting time is fixed. I've asked him if it's controllable and if there is any sort of temperature readout. The times listed are almost proportional to the weight of beans. I'm having a hard time seeing how that could be true, unless it heats so slowly that the beans emit very little heat during the roast, and the whole time is basically a matter of infusing heat into the beans. Then 3x the beans at constant energy input rate would mean 3x the time, but it also means that the bigger roast heats slower than the smaller one. Non-controllable? There is a temp. control on a normal convection oven, is it disabled??
I've sent the guy a question on ebay. He says there are hundreds of satisfied customers but I would like to see their comments -- none of them seem to post here. I also told him that there are sarcastic comments on coffeegeek.com.
I am curious though, as a novice roaster, what is the problem with very long roasts? If that's a "baked roast", what's the problem with it? All the problems I see described here, and that I experience myself, seem to be because the roast (esp. the drying phase) is too fast. If commercial roasters do it faster, anyway I would expect them to roast as fast as they can with acceptable results, because roasters and roaster time are expensive. So slower could be even better, other things being equal. I've been unable to get that slow on my popper so far.
sea221 Senior Member Joined: 28 Apr 2007 Posts: 94 Location: Arizona Expertise: I live coffee
Grinder: Baratza Virtuoso Drip: French Press/cuisinart drip Roaster: SC/TO and Drum roaster
Posted Thu Oct 20, 2011, 11:58am Subject: Re: "Homer" Roaster on eBay?
Hi ya all, I to was a little curious about this so I went out a bought a used Hamilton Beach convection oven, same as the one used for the Homer. Well first thing I did was add another set of heating elements (900 watts) replaced the rotisserie motor to one that would run around 40 rpms, wrapped some high temp insulation around it, removed the heating elements from the bottom and mounted on the top and the back, I installed a temperature probe just under the drum, also I added another prob about half way up on the right side so I could get another temp sample, made a drum out of aluminum, drilled a bazillion holes I think 5/32, wired in a inexpensive pid loop controller using a 40 amp ssr relay to control the main heating elements 1500 Watts. I leave the 900 watt elements on all the time, seem like doing it that way controls the heat much smother. With the added heating elements i am getting fairly good dark roast in under 16 min light roast in 13 to 15 min. I think plugging up the holes and adding the insulation made the difference. I was getting to much heat loss before. I have only done 1 pound so far, I am sure I could push it to 1.5 lbs if I needed to. I still prefer my highly modified very dependable SC/TO roasting system, going on two years roasting this way.
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