Don't do it. Use your hot air popcorn popper! It's $130 dollars cheaper, works better, and you probably already have it.
Positive Product Points
The power cord seemed to be up to standard. Good customer service from Brightway, the manufacturer, and from Sweet Marias who sold the appliance.
Negative Product Points
The machine is unreliable. My first roasted once, then quit roasting. The replacement roasted every time I used it, but could only seem to produce a "Folger's" roast.
Detailed Commentary
FYI, I roast for expresso.
I received the Caffe Rosto from my wife as a gift. I was excited to try it, since I have wanted to home roast for some time since I moved too far away from Peets Coffee for it to be convenient. I opened the package and noticed a decidedly unattractive appliance. But, if it works well, I can live with it. I'll just store it away, when not in use. I roasted one batch which seemed ok, just not very dark, even after 15 min plus of roasting. Oh well, we'll try again another day. Well, two days later, I broke out the machine and tried another go. Lots of beans moving around, but no heating. Not good. I called Brightway, and they said to send it back, and they would replace it. Did so.
Second machine... I tried roasting again. Gets hot, but not hot enough to roast a decent bean. I roasted over 20 minutes and could hardly get a bean to be as dark as grocery store folgers! I emailed Sweet Marias for suggestions. I followed all of these: tested outlet voltage, moved appliance around to different outlets, preheated appliance... No improvement. Not only this, but I noticed that the chaff collector filled with chaff very quickly and pretty much needed to be cleaned mid roast. Also, there was some significant chaff leakage into the room. This thing is no good!
Finally, it was time for the showdown. I pulled out our old West Bend Poppery II popcorn popper, much to my wife's chagrin. Ignoring her protests, I fired it up, put a bowl under the spout to collect chaff, and roasted a 1/2 cup of beans to an amazing dark roast in about 4.5 minutes. The only problem was that the chaff coming out didn't all go into the bowl. This was easily solved with the placement of a kitchen towel over the spout and bowl to keep wayward chaff from finding it's way out into the kitchen. This would find me in trouble with the spousal unit. I hand cooled with a strainer and water mist. The beans were intoxicating! They glistened with the shimmer of oil on their surface and the smell was exquisite. I couldn't even wait the recommended 24 hours to try these in the expresso machine! They produced some of the best expresso and subsequent lattes that I have ever had.
Now for the cleanup. Pour the chaff out of collecting bowl into trash and put the West Bend Custom Coffee Roaster away. That's it.
Buying Experience
Brightway was great about replacing defective first roaster. Sweet Marias was better than that about replacing the second roaster. They even reimbursed me for the shipping back to them. Buy from Sweet Marias, they will take care of you.
