Great, consistent roasting. Delicious coffee!! I'm hooked on home roasting.
Negative Product Points
cannister doesn't handle small beans very well.
pain in the butt to clean well, but incredibly necessary to clean well.
I've owned 3 in 6 years - for the money I expect them to last longer. I roast once a week. I clean once a week (since the first one, which I never cleaned, caught on fire - oops I guess the directions are important)
Detailed Commentary
It's a great machine to get into roasting and to learn about roasting. I've been able to experiment with different roasts and beans. It's hard to have a disaster, although some exploration yields goofy results.
The first one I had I literally never cleaned - after about 5 months of weekly use, the gummy mess caught on fire!! Yet another reason to roast outside. The 2nd and 3rd ones get cleaned after every roasting. I use a tooth brush and an orange cleaner - it's a messy job. There should be a way to clean the fan motor area more easily. If you don't cleant the inside of the cover and the chaff collection area really well, the roasting temps seem to be lower and the roast is lighter than otherwise.
I've had some other models in between - this is the best mid-grade roaster out there in my opinion.
I'm dissapointed that I have to replace it every 18 months or so. So, when it breaks again, I'm going with a heavier duty (and more expensive, sigh) model.
