Bean cooler for large volumes

[Humphrey]

Re: Bean cooler for large volumes

that sounds pretty cool Pavoniboy,

Well I put 1kg (about 850g once roasted) through the cooler last night. It was enough of a mass to stop any beans getting thrown about.

Cooled our new PNG beans in just over 1min to a VERY VERY low tasmanian room temperature :-) Cant wait to try them!

[Pavoniboy]

Re: Bean cooler for large volumes

Ill take some photos in next few days and post them.

[Pavoniboy]

Re: Bean cooler for large volumes

Sorry it took so long, been busy.

Heres the beast of a fan:




The lid with centre cut out and mesh across as well as the home made flat bottom colander:




Making up the fully enclosed bean chamber:




And, finally, the assembled cooling tower. Using a milk crate with section cut out to house the fan and a large food bucket between the fan and the bean chamber:



It does a mean job and I imagine could handle a very large load. I havent pushed it much at all, usually only roasting 500-600g batches which cyclone around the chamber madly. It could take much more.

[Humphrey]

Re: Bean cooler for large volumes

It does a mean job and I imagine could handle a very large load. I havent pushed it much at all, usually only roasting 500-600g batches which cyclone around the chamber madly. It could take much more.

Yes! I imagine it does! Great job. Whats the fan from?

Also, I love the idea of the cylinder in the middle. Ive noticed that the air current is greatest towards the edges and rather soft in the middle. We need to slightly stir our beans to get them all cooled evenly. :-)

[Pavoniboy]

Re: Bean cooler for large volumes

The fan is from a mate. I had shown him my first cooling tower which was a dodgy effort with a crap fan, and was telling him how I was looking for a good fan to build a decent cooling tower and hey presto, he arrived with this. It is designed to push air through those silver ducting pipes that concertina.

The first time I used it was without a lid - and very hot beans cycloned all over the garage! So I built my lid, and the second use was all well contained but some beans seemed to flounder in the middle and not get much of a stream of air - so then came the mesh cylinder in the middle. Works beautifully now - all the beans cyclone around inside the container and are cool in no time.

One day Ill get around to giving it an image upgrade and it will be my perfect bean cooler.

[Dimal]

Re: Bean cooler for large volumes

Wow!

That is an Über-Cooler if ever there was one....

Very cool PB.... 8-)

Mal.

[Humphrey]

Re: Bean cooler for large volumes

Yeah!! That is :-) Good effort. What msh did you use to make it? And how did you join it together?

[Pavoniboy]

Re: Bean cooler for large volumes

Its a "steel mesh" from the hardware store- I dont know exactly what metal it is made from but it is not the fibreglass or plastic ones out there and doesnt melt at all when you drop hot beans on it.

The mesh for the home made colander is held on with cable ties clamping it onto the bowl. The cylinder in the middle is simply stapled to itself and then threaded into the bottom piece of mesh. The mesh on the lid is held in place with flyscreen surround pushed into the surround of the lid.