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Well Ive now had this roaster, my first, for a month and have put some 5 kilos or so through it and have reached some conclusions. Some surprising, some not so surprising.
First a few words on what led me to choose this roaster as my first. I live in an area where the outside temp is below freezing for half of the year. This pretty well eliminated outdoor roasting. Venting the smoke from roasting indoors could be done easily enough via my stoves vent. But this would lead to dramatically higher heating bills in the winter (think -30C outside) with all the cold air that would be sucked into the house. The only option seemed to be the Zack & Danis roaster with its built-in catalytic converter. Reviews on it said it eliminated smoke as claimed but its roasting quality seemed a bit suspect. Decision made! It ate the smoke. Id deal with getting a good roast out of it when I got it. I figured you could get a good roast out of it if you were nit-picky enough in the details and set-up and experimented enough.
Having finished the rebuild on my newly acquired Cimbali espresso machine and cleaned up and tuned up my grinder I eagerly awaited the arrival of my new roaster so I could *really get into the good stuff! The long awaited (well not really, 3 days after I ordered it) day finally arrived and I tore into the box and pulled out my newest toy. I of *course had to *immediately put a test batch through it! So I cleaned it up, dried it off, poured some beans they kindly included up to the normal fill line, turned it on and watched it come to life! I was in business! I was roasting!!
To make a long story short(er) after some 50 batches Ive reaffirmed that I prefer the lighter than avg roast normally seen here in yankee doodle land (I like my beans roasted to about a Medium City with some of them being taken as far as a Full City) and that the Z&D is capable of consistently producing a very nice roast.
That being said it took quite a bit of experimenting to finally arrive at the conditions that produced a good roast.
The first thing to go was the cooling cycle on the Z&D roaster (see the TurboBean 3000 thread for the solution to cooling I came up with). Using the cooling cycle on the roaster continued to cook the beans for several minutes, over-roasting them and leading to inconsistent results. Part of achieving a consistent roast is stopping it at the same exact point every time. With all the variables in cooling the completed roast down, it is easy to have 30 seconds or more difference in the time the beans actually spend cooking.
To have a consistent roast you need to stop the beans from cooking anymore once theyve reached done as fast as possible. A local professional specialty roaster was kind enough to share with me how they did it. They quench the beans with water when theyre done. This can be easily adapted to us small roasters by using a spray bottle set to a fine mist and as soon as your beans are done, dump them into your cooling device (may I highly recommend a BBC? :-} ) and mist them with the water spray until they stop sizzling. Dont use too much water though! You want to use just enough to bring the beans temp down to below the cooking level but not to add any water to them. The rule of thumb I use is that when the sizzling of the mist hitting them starts to lessen theyve had enough water and the fan in the BBC will do the rest. Using this technique you can bring the beans to room temp in under 20 seconds! A BIG plus in obtaining a consistent roast!
The next big thing to be determined was that you can *not* roast a full load of beans and get great results. This is assuming that you roast to the 2nd crack. If you stop the roast prior to the 2nd crack you may be able to get good results with a full load of beans but I have my doubts.
The first big surprise was that I could hear the 2nd crack. All the reviews of this product said you werent able to hear it. Granted you have to be *close (like .3m away), but you can plainly hear the 2nd crack if youre listening for it.
My tests showed that using 113g/4oz of beans resulted in the best roasts. The beans were evenly roasted and reached 2nd crack in 16 minutes when done in a room with an ambient temp of around 21-23C.
Which brings us to another variable in the roasting process, the temp of the room youre roasting in. As the room temp decreases the roasting time increases so that by the time the room temp is 15C youve added 5 minutes to the roasting time. Roasting in a room at 15C with a cold roaster resulted in flat tasting beans lacking in many flavors present in the same beans roasted to the same point in a room at 22C. However, this can be compensated for by preheating the roaster by running it for 5 minutes empty. Doing this results in a virtually identical roasting profile as roasting in it cold in a 22C room. This also makes it faster to roast multiple batches as you dont wait as long for the roaster to cool down between batches.
Another variable that had a huge impact on the roast was the quality of your current. Having read that your voltage can make a huge difference in your roast I set out to test this by hooking up a Variac to the roaster, verifying the voltage via an independent multimeter. If your voltage (this is in the US) was below 115v the roasts would be extended and once again result in flat tasting coffee. With the current only off by a few volts (110-112v) roasting time was extended by 5 minutes. Cranking the voltage up too 125v seemed to shorten the roast by about 30 seconds with no difference in taste to a batch done at the lines native 117-120v.
Another surprise for me was how much difference in taste just a few seconds more or less in the roaster could make! As I started zeroing in on what roast level tasted best and I started doing batches separated only by 15 seconds of roasting time, time and time again I ran into where one batch would just explode in your mouth as nirvana while the batches on either side of it didnt even come *close* to it for flavor. For me under my conditions and with the Z&D roaster this sweet spot is at about 45 seconds into the 2nd crack, just before the rolling crack starts. This is of course varying from bean to bean and as I do more batches I hope to nail this time down more accurately for each variety of bean I use.
On too other more mundane things about the Z&D roaster.
The newly designed catch for the lid works perfectly with there now being no problem with the lid popping open and the safety switch stopping the roast.
Its chaff collector works relatively well, just be careful when you remove it that you dont knock the chaff out of it and into the roasting chamber. I found it works best to remove the sealing ring/screen and chaff catcher as one unit. With the sealer ring/screen and chaff catcher properly positioned and the roasting chamber correctly positioned and the lid clicked closed I saw no chaff blow out of the roaster as some have complained about. Quite frankly with the sealer ring and screen properly placed on the roasting chamber I dont see *how any chaff could blow out. Only if that sealing ring isnt properly seated could chaff escape. As always youll have some chaff left with the beans when you remove them.
The Z&Ds controls are virtually idiot proof. Plug it in, up and down arrows to adjust the timer, or the recall button to use the last batchs time (a feature I really like as I just set it to the max and stop the roast manually), and press start. Thats it.
Over-all impressions as to the construction of the machine are that it seems to be a bit chincy in spots. The control panel on my unit is either not mounted correctly or is of rather cheap construction as I have to hit the buttons multiple times before it registers. The button are very stiff so I suspect that it is a mounting problem. This would be in line with other areas of the machine were it is obvious that the most care was not taken in the proper registration of the parts before they were screwed into place. The mating of the upper assembly and the lid on my unit is quite a ways out of spec. Almost to the point of being non-functional.
The lid on this unit acts as a channel for the air going from the roasting chamber over to the heater/catalytic converter. For proper operation it is imperative that the seal between the lid and the two sides is complete. If there is a leak in this area you are loosing a lot of heat and air movement leading to an extended roast, *if the roast can even be properly completed at all.
On my unit the parts are assembled cock-eyed to each other so that while the heater side is properly sealed, the seal around the roasting chamber is *barely made. The seal is offset to one side by about 5mm and it just *barely makes the seal with less than a mm leeway for any future movement. In order to fix this the entire roasting chamber assembly will have to be removed, moved over a few mm, and reanchored. When mine looses that seal I think itll be time for a warranty replacement.
The over-all construction seems adequate to the task for which it was made, a non-commercial home roaster, but is far from heavy duty. The downside on its construction is the rather shoddy assembly of its components.
The good news, however, is that it really does eat the smoke! There is virtually no detectable smoke coming out of the Z&D roaster until you get into the really dark roasts. Like at the end of the 2nd crack and beyond. You will get more smoke during the time you transfer the beans from the roaster to your cooler than you will from the entire roasting cycle. The different smells of the coffee roasting are masked by the same process that eats the smoke but are still discernable.
So in summary on the negative side we have:
On the positive side we have:
All-in-all if youre in an environment where outdoor roasting is just not a possibility the Z&D roaster presents a very viable alternative for year-round roasting. If youre willing to spend some time dialing it in and making an external cooler for it you can produce consistent quality roasts, and at its $99US price tag it wont put you in the poor house buying it.
Did I miss anything? Any questions?
And no, Im not affiliated in any manner, shape, or form with any person or company associated with the design, manufacturing, or distribution of the Z&D roaster. Im just another average joe looking for nirvana in a cup of java.
<Javaphile crawls back to his corner feeling totally drained>
Java "My brain is melting" phile
First a few words on what led me to choose this roaster as my first. I live in an area where the outside temp is below freezing for half of the year. This pretty well eliminated outdoor roasting. Venting the smoke from roasting indoors could be done easily enough via my stoves vent. But this would lead to dramatically higher heating bills in the winter (think -30C outside) with all the cold air that would be sucked into the house. The only option seemed to be the Zack & Danis roaster with its built-in catalytic converter. Reviews on it said it eliminated smoke as claimed but its roasting quality seemed a bit suspect. Decision made! It ate the smoke. Id deal with getting a good roast out of it when I got it. I figured you could get a good roast out of it if you were nit-picky enough in the details and set-up and experimented enough.
Having finished the rebuild on my newly acquired Cimbali espresso machine and cleaned up and tuned up my grinder I eagerly awaited the arrival of my new roaster so I could *really get into the good stuff! The long awaited (well not really, 3 days after I ordered it) day finally arrived and I tore into the box and pulled out my newest toy. I of *course had to *immediately put a test batch through it! So I cleaned it up, dried it off, poured some beans they kindly included up to the normal fill line, turned it on and watched it come to life! I was in business! I was roasting!!
To make a long story short(er) after some 50 batches Ive reaffirmed that I prefer the lighter than avg roast normally seen here in yankee doodle land (I like my beans roasted to about a Medium City with some of them being taken as far as a Full City) and that the Z&D is capable of consistently producing a very nice roast.
That being said it took quite a bit of experimenting to finally arrive at the conditions that produced a good roast.
The first thing to go was the cooling cycle on the Z&D roaster (see the TurboBean 3000 thread for the solution to cooling I came up with). Using the cooling cycle on the roaster continued to cook the beans for several minutes, over-roasting them and leading to inconsistent results. Part of achieving a consistent roast is stopping it at the same exact point every time. With all the variables in cooling the completed roast down, it is easy to have 30 seconds or more difference in the time the beans actually spend cooking.
To have a consistent roast you need to stop the beans from cooking anymore once theyve reached done as fast as possible. A local professional specialty roaster was kind enough to share with me how they did it. They quench the beans with water when theyre done. This can be easily adapted to us small roasters by using a spray bottle set to a fine mist and as soon as your beans are done, dump them into your cooling device (may I highly recommend a BBC? :-} ) and mist them with the water spray until they stop sizzling. Dont use too much water though! You want to use just enough to bring the beans temp down to below the cooking level but not to add any water to them. The rule of thumb I use is that when the sizzling of the mist hitting them starts to lessen theyve had enough water and the fan in the BBC will do the rest. Using this technique you can bring the beans to room temp in under 20 seconds! A BIG plus in obtaining a consistent roast!
The next big thing to be determined was that you can *not* roast a full load of beans and get great results. This is assuming that you roast to the 2nd crack. If you stop the roast prior to the 2nd crack you may be able to get good results with a full load of beans but I have my doubts.
The first big surprise was that I could hear the 2nd crack. All the reviews of this product said you werent able to hear it. Granted you have to be *close (like .3m away), but you can plainly hear the 2nd crack if youre listening for it.
My tests showed that using 113g/4oz of beans resulted in the best roasts. The beans were evenly roasted and reached 2nd crack in 16 minutes when done in a room with an ambient temp of around 21-23C.
Which brings us to another variable in the roasting process, the temp of the room youre roasting in. As the room temp decreases the roasting time increases so that by the time the room temp is 15C youve added 5 minutes to the roasting time. Roasting in a room at 15C with a cold roaster resulted in flat tasting beans lacking in many flavors present in the same beans roasted to the same point in a room at 22C. However, this can be compensated for by preheating the roaster by running it for 5 minutes empty. Doing this results in a virtually identical roasting profile as roasting in it cold in a 22C room. This also makes it faster to roast multiple batches as you dont wait as long for the roaster to cool down between batches.
Another variable that had a huge impact on the roast was the quality of your current. Having read that your voltage can make a huge difference in your roast I set out to test this by hooking up a Variac to the roaster, verifying the voltage via an independent multimeter. If your voltage (this is in the US) was below 115v the roasts would be extended and once again result in flat tasting coffee. With the current only off by a few volts (110-112v) roasting time was extended by 5 minutes. Cranking the voltage up too 125v seemed to shorten the roast by about 30 seconds with no difference in taste to a batch done at the lines native 117-120v.
Another surprise for me was how much difference in taste just a few seconds more or less in the roaster could make! As I started zeroing in on what roast level tasted best and I started doing batches separated only by 15 seconds of roasting time, time and time again I ran into where one batch would just explode in your mouth as nirvana while the batches on either side of it didnt even come *close* to it for flavor. For me under my conditions and with the Z&D roaster this sweet spot is at about 45 seconds into the 2nd crack, just before the rolling crack starts. This is of course varying from bean to bean and as I do more batches I hope to nail this time down more accurately for each variety of bean I use.
On too other more mundane things about the Z&D roaster.
The newly designed catch for the lid works perfectly with there now being no problem with the lid popping open and the safety switch stopping the roast.
Its chaff collector works relatively well, just be careful when you remove it that you dont knock the chaff out of it and into the roasting chamber. I found it works best to remove the sealing ring/screen and chaff catcher as one unit. With the sealer ring/screen and chaff catcher properly positioned and the roasting chamber correctly positioned and the lid clicked closed I saw no chaff blow out of the roaster as some have complained about. Quite frankly with the sealer ring and screen properly placed on the roasting chamber I dont see *how any chaff could blow out. Only if that sealing ring isnt properly seated could chaff escape. As always youll have some chaff left with the beans when you remove them.
The Z&Ds controls are virtually idiot proof. Plug it in, up and down arrows to adjust the timer, or the recall button to use the last batchs time (a feature I really like as I just set it to the max and stop the roast manually), and press start. Thats it.
Over-all impressions as to the construction of the machine are that it seems to be a bit chincy in spots. The control panel on my unit is either not mounted correctly or is of rather cheap construction as I have to hit the buttons multiple times before it registers. The button are very stiff so I suspect that it is a mounting problem. This would be in line with other areas of the machine were it is obvious that the most care was not taken in the proper registration of the parts before they were screwed into place. The mating of the upper assembly and the lid on my unit is quite a ways out of spec. Almost to the point of being non-functional.
The lid on this unit acts as a channel for the air going from the roasting chamber over to the heater/catalytic converter. For proper operation it is imperative that the seal between the lid and the two sides is complete. If there is a leak in this area you are loosing a lot of heat and air movement leading to an extended roast, *if the roast can even be properly completed at all.
On my unit the parts are assembled cock-eyed to each other so that while the heater side is properly sealed, the seal around the roasting chamber is *barely made. The seal is offset to one side by about 5mm and it just *barely makes the seal with less than a mm leeway for any future movement. In order to fix this the entire roasting chamber assembly will have to be removed, moved over a few mm, and reanchored. When mine looses that seal I think itll be time for a warranty replacement.
The over-all construction seems adequate to the task for which it was made, a non-commercial home roaster, but is far from heavy duty. The downside on its construction is the rather shoddy assembly of its components.
The good news, however, is that it really does eat the smoke! There is virtually no detectable smoke coming out of the Z&D roaster until you get into the really dark roasts. Like at the end of the 2nd crack and beyond. You will get more smoke during the time you transfer the beans from the roaster to your cooler than you will from the entire roasting cycle. The different smells of the coffee roasting are masked by the same process that eats the smoke but are still discernable.
So in summary on the negative side we have:
- its rather shoddy assembly
- its capacity of only 113g/4oz
- its sensitivity to low voltages
- its sensitivity to ambient temp
- its cooling is not rapid enough
On the positive side we have:
- its smokeless
- you can see the beans roasting
- you can hear the cracks
- did I say its smokeless?
All-in-all if youre in an environment where outdoor roasting is just not a possibility the Z&D roaster presents a very viable alternative for year-round roasting. If youre willing to spend some time dialing it in and making an external cooler for it you can produce consistent quality roasts, and at its $99US price tag it wont put you in the poor house buying it.
Did I miss anything? Any questions?
And no, Im not affiliated in any manner, shape, or form with any person or company associated with the design, manufacturing, or distribution of the Z&D roaster. Im just another average joe looking for nirvana in a cup of java.
<Javaphile crawls back to his corner feeling totally drained>
Java "My brain is melting" phile
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