Quest arrived

[chrismelb]

It arrived beautifully packaged, strapped, triple boxed, taped, unmarked by transit. A strong package that obviously was well thought out and very well presented. I was advised shipping would take 4 – 5 days and it arrived on the 5th. The manufacturer is very easy to deal with by email, prompt replies with accurate information. The whole transaction was very easy.

Various photos below for stages of unpacking, ordered with a spare thermometer and a single thermocouple.

All parts are presented very well, bagged, packed, special additional packing over control panel and power connection. Heavy duty power cord, thermally rated, circuit breaker beside power connection, converter supplied for Aust to Taiwan wall socket.

[chrismelb]

Re: Quest arrived

I must say I am very impressed with just unpacking it, I haven’t seen as good workmanship and packing in some products for sale in shops, this gets very high marks . All stainless, no sharp edges, special punching to allow plates to sit at a certain level. Most requireded parts appear to be purpose built, not off the shelf. Anyway there are a lot of threads on how well this roaster operates, this is a primer on arrival and unpacking, I will follow up later on the first and subsequent runs.

Chris

[phrostyboi]

Re: Quest arrived

looks like an interesting bit of kit youre got there chris, very interested to see it in action and the results

[Dimal]

Re: Quest arrived

Yes, me too....

Nice bit of kit there Chris.... [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

Mal.

[greenman]

Re: Quest arrived

exciting stuff Chris, will follow progress with much interest

[chrismelb]

Re: Quest arrived

I did a burn in run last night - to get rid of any oils etc on the elements, in the drum etc and decided to dump in 225gm of Monsoon Mal as things were looking so good. This is a very quiet roaster, the cracks were very easily heard, sounded slightly different from those in a coretto, I guess as they were slightly muffled, but still very easily identified. The sight glass is great, you can see the beans churning away happily, I had the USB DMM logging and even though it will take a few runs to get the hang of control I ended up with one of the best roasts I have ever done. As expected there is more time lag so when I got to 190C in preparation for first crack the temp just gently powered on through, however that was nothing compared to the bouncing temps I have been used to for so long.
The aroma off the unground beans is sensational, I am picking up brighter smells not just the averaging smells that my coretto setup gave.
Little bit of camera shake in pix blurrs the edges slightly but very even roast and bit of bulging starting, smooth on the back side

[at535]

Re: Quest arrived

Hi Chris

Sorry I never got back to you with your PM in regards to this roaster. I can see you seem to be happy with it so far. I love mine and I am glad I choose it over the hottop.

If you ever have any question about it please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.

Kind regards

[Jasim]

Re: Quest arrived

Hi
Ive heard that this roaster is one of the best in its price range and by your review it lives up to that. Who sells these machines and how would I contact them in regards to purchasing one.

Cheers

[chrismelb]

Re: Quest arrived

Luvacap - Hi good to hear from you, not a worry about the PM, yes what a great little roaster, I am sure you are having as much fun as I am.

Jaason - unfortunately there are no sponsors selling these, but can be ordered straight from Taiwan manufacturer. pmed

2nd roast down, will take a few more to understand the heat and fan control. Smooth control throughout the roast, great result. AM amazed at how quiet this roaster is and cracks are still so easily heard.

[pgw]

Re: Quest arrived

Can someone PM me the contact details of the manufacturer.

Regards

Paul

[trentski]

Re: Quest arrived

Hi chrismelb,

Where abouts in melbourne are you? I wouldnt mind dropping by to watch you roast one day if it is convenient 8-)

[Beanz.]

Re: Quest arrived

I wouldnt mind dropping by to watch you roast one day if it is convenient

I would also be interested to see the roaster in action if that is an option

[hazbean]

Re: Quest arrived

Good to see another Quest on the local scene! Ive had one for a couple of months, but through being too busy at work and then crook, havent had as much time as Id like to play with it. I was sold on it after getting a demo from LuvaCap (thanks!).

But Ive been getting a couple of roasts through it each week and starting to get the hang of it. I started with the suggestions in the ten page manual that comes with it, this provides a pretty good gentle introduction. Results have been pretty good right from the start, but now Im trying to refine profiles to get better control and more predictability.

Most of the time so far Ive just used the two dial thermometers that I got with it, although the second one (that sits outside the bean mass) is only marginally useful. More recently Ive been experimenting with higher temp / faster ramp profiles as discussed a lot on HB, and to do this Ive put a CS T/C in one of the bolt holes at the top in order to get an indicator of drum temp (this is fairly responsive so fan and heat can be used to keep it in reasonable bounds). This is giving roast times around 13 mins for 230g, cf about 16 previously.  Not doing any logging yet though, want to get a good feel for how it works first.

Learnt a new trick last roast. Dropped the beans in as usual, poured from a jug. Then a few seconds later they started to fall out, and wouldnt stop. This is because in pouring from a height (should use a funnel) one of the falling beans wedged itself in the door which then couldnt close. So now I hold the door shut when pouring.

Anyway so far Im very impressed and pleased to have it.

There will be plenty of room in the car when driving over to Beanology later this week so will probably bring it and would be happy for people to have a look if the opportunity arises (I suspect a demo would be problematic though).

[chrismelb]

Re: Quest arrived

Hi Trentski & Beanz
Yes we could see about organizing that, wouldn’t mind getting a few more roast done to figure out the controls etc, they do take a bit of getting used to.

A bit more info on this roaster, I did 3 roasts on Sunday each of 225 gm and each a single origin to blend post roast. I find this roaster is marvelous for post roast blending mainly due to the amount it roasts totally suits my consumption. My average useage is usually 450 gms per week and I used to roast that in the coretto, for about 3 ½ years as single origins, getting used to tastes & profiles. In the last 1 ½ years I moved to blending 2 to 3 beans pre roast. I just wasn’t too happy with that as one or other of the beans didn’t quite suit the roast profile I ended up with. Also I got poor repeatability with my coretto roasting. I am aware other roasters get good repeatability with their corettos, I find I am already much closer to getting that with the Quest.
The preheat to drop temp of 160 C took 11 ½ mins, completed the roast then did a controlled cool of the roaster to approx 160 C again for the 2nd roast, so basically they were back to back. I didn’t take too much notice of the complete time from turning the Quest on to turning it off however it was approx 12 mins warm up + 2 roasts ea at 16 ½ mins + 5 mins between + 5 mins after = 55 mins.

The Quest comes with a removable tray to dump the roasted beans into, this is then placed above the fan at the rear of the machine to cool. I have a very efficient bucket cooler with a ceiling fan built in so do not use this feature of the Quest, it may keep the ventilation system cleaner as there might be less chaff flowing through. A few roasters in USA have reported frequent cleaning is required – having only done a few roasts I cannot comment but will be checking regularly on this.

I will post a roast profile very soon.

[lu]

Re: Quest arrived

Shapeshifter mentioned this Quest and Im following up, like what Ive seen and read so far    As not available in Oz, who would I contact to purchase?

There will be plenty of room in the car when driving over to Beanology later this week so will probably bring it and would be happy for people to have a look if the opportunity arises

Hazbean did you take Quest to Beanology?

I love mine and I am glad I choose it over the hottop.

If you ever have any question about it please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.

  did you ever get to do roastoff at Cafe Barun? if so what did Mark think?