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Re: Zack & Danis Coffee Roaster story and rev
Andy:
The problem with scaling up this would be the catalytic converter. If you increase the amount of beans youre roasting of course the amount of smoke also increases. It could certainly be scaled up but Im not sure how easily at home. Commercially the cost of the larger catalytic converter would very quickly cost as much as an afterburner I think.
An additional problem is that above a certain temp the catalytic conver quickly starts loosing its effectiveness. As I recall from some work in the field years ago this temp is right around 450-500F so youre really pushing the limits using it in a coffee bean roaster.
I have seen a commercial scale hot air roaster that does somewhere around 1.5-2.5kg I believe but it did not use a catalytic converter.
I have no plans to try and scale this unit up. Im shopping around for a commercial quality drum roaster that will allow me to do between .5kg and 2.5kg of beans. Hopefully it wont take me years to find a deal on one.
For a commercial quality roaster Id convert my homes back entryway into a dedicated roasting area with a powered vent to the outside. I wouldnt be doing but maybe one roast a day so I think I could get away with no afterburner and no complaints from the neighbors. Hell, in this neighborhood it would probably never even be noticed!
FrenchBean:
I couldnt agree more. When I spoke with this supervisor/owner(?) I even gave them the specs that I thought would fix the problem simply by reworking their existing die (I used to design and Quality Control check plastic injection molding dies) and explained to her how simple and cheap a fix it was and that by doing this even if their assembly was sloppy the enlarged gasket would compensate and prevent any leakage.
I was blown away that in this day and age of such massive consumer litigation here in the States that a company would take such a cavalier attitude towards a defect they openly admitted existed in their product. I think they just hope that no one notices it and put off the long roasting times to other things like low voltage or cool air temp and that they clean their roaster after every roast. If you do that youll probably never notice the presence of the leak. You have to do multiple lighter roasts with-out cleaning the top before the blow-by becomes obvious, or perhaps only a couple darker roasts, but unless youre turning the beans into darn near carbon it will not be noticable after only one roast. The leak can not be felt as its too near hot areas to get your hand up next to it, plus it is in the path of the exhaust from the roaster making it virtually impossible to detect just by feeling for the air coming out from around either of the two top gaskets. I think this is exactly what theyre counting on.
Java "<shaking his head> I cant believe the stupidity of some people" phile
Andy:
The problem with scaling up this would be the catalytic converter. If you increase the amount of beans youre roasting of course the amount of smoke also increases. It could certainly be scaled up but Im not sure how easily at home. Commercially the cost of the larger catalytic converter would very quickly cost as much as an afterburner I think.
An additional problem is that above a certain temp the catalytic conver quickly starts loosing its effectiveness. As I recall from some work in the field years ago this temp is right around 450-500F so youre really pushing the limits using it in a coffee bean roaster.
I have seen a commercial scale hot air roaster that does somewhere around 1.5-2.5kg I believe but it did not use a catalytic converter.
I have no plans to try and scale this unit up. Im shopping around for a commercial quality drum roaster that will allow me to do between .5kg and 2.5kg of beans. Hopefully it wont take me years to find a deal on one.
For a commercial quality roaster Id convert my homes back entryway into a dedicated roasting area with a powered vent to the outside. I wouldnt be doing but maybe one roast a day so I think I could get away with no afterburner and no complaints from the neighbors. Hell, in this neighborhood it would probably never even be noticed! FrenchBean:
I couldnt agree more. When I spoke with this supervisor/owner(?) I even gave them the specs that I thought would fix the problem simply by reworking their existing die (I used to design and Quality Control check plastic injection molding dies) and explained to her how simple and cheap a fix it was and that by doing this even if their assembly was sloppy the enlarged gasket would compensate and prevent any leakage.
I was blown away that in this day and age of such massive consumer litigation here in the States that a company would take such a cavalier attitude towards a defect they openly admitted existed in their product. I think they just hope that no one notices it and put off the long roasting times to other things like low voltage or cool air temp and that they clean their roaster after every roast. If you do that youll probably never notice the presence of the leak. You have to do multiple lighter roasts with-out cleaning the top before the blow-by becomes obvious, or perhaps only a couple darker roasts, but unless youre turning the beans into darn near carbon it will not be noticable after only one roast. The leak can not be felt as its too near hot areas to get your hand up next to it, plus it is in the path of the exhaust from the roaster making it virtually impossible to detect just by feeling for the air coming out from around either of the two top gaskets. I think this is exactly what theyre counting on.
Java "<shaking his head> I cant believe the stupidity of some people" phile
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