I-Coffee roasting experiences

[Kafine]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Yeah great work Toasty, Thanks

[Kafine]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Any news regarding a fix. its the timer for sure i can put mine anywhere except 9 ad it runs but on 9 it cuts out.

[Woopee]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Interesting, my replacement roaster runs ok on 9 so far. Ill try it out 7-8 and see how things go with it. Given the lack of replies of late I thought that maybe it had been sorted out. Jack, wheres my beans ;D
Cheers.

[jaybee]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Happy New Year fellow iCoffee users!

I have been playing, as usual, with my usb data logger over the break and was a bit annoyed that it seemed to give very variable temperatures which would never get to the expected temps for the given events. I realised this was due to the design of the probe causing the tip to cool down because of the conduction of heat away from it. Nothing that a dremmel couldnt fix. I sawed off a cm of casing from the end to expose the thermocouple and now it works very well indeed.

Here is my result from 250g of Nicuraguan tonight, with second crack happening bang on temp at 225 degrees. Whilst I thought the fad would pass, I have found that using the probe realy helps me get the desired depth of roast as I still have the habit of stopping a bit early.

Another fantastic roast...

[Roz]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

got any more photos of how you install the probe? it does tempt me because I have a habbit of pulling roasts based on visual but I usually find Im pulling them a bit early of the desired depth.

Have you measured the temp it gets to in a pre-heat with no beans?

[trentski]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Thanks for putting that roast graph up JayBee.

Did you do anything to get that slow down at 1st crack or did it do that by itself?

[malliemcg]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

I am afraid I need to add a +1 to the roaster switching off mid roast. (I say mid, but for me, its during the very green phase still, just as theyre going from fluro green to funky yellowish on the way to orange)

I had some troubles getting the first batch of the weekend to start and stay going, stopped several times (even after starting on 9, then winding it all the way back to the other end). Was about 230gm of Ghimbi - the next two roasts which I did one immediately afterwards and another about 15-20 after the second one. (batch size of ~175gm) went through without incident.

Id had this happen to my pre-christmas roast, but assumed it was purely due to a really chaffy bean, and dropping the batch size appeared to work back then. This was my first roast since then.

I am planing to roast some more on the weekend and will kick off with just 150gm batches and see what happens + report back.

[sorrentina]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Hello there Mallie,

yours is the first report I have had of a stoppage since the earlier ones. Have you tried setting the roast level- starting the roaster and then turning the dial back towards the preheat area? This seems to completely resolve the issue. I am still waiting for word back from Korea but it certainly seems to be a glitch in the setting dial. I have done maybe 20 roasts with a roaster that stopped- and not one has stopped since I started doing this.

Roz: in regards to pulling roasts just before they are where you want them: I have found looking through the glass dome the beans appear to the eye to be slightly darker than they actually are: under low light. If you shine a torch or lamp into the done then you will notice the colour of the beans looks one grade lighter than it did. I now know that when they look dark enough by eye (in normal light)- I can give them a bit more. I often roast until I hear a few snaps of second crack- this seems to be a nice level for me.

[jaybee]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

got any more photos of how you install the probe?

have a look here: http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1317639014/new - Its easy enough, but make sure there are no electrics in the way of your maschine, and check for dropped fililngs!

Did you do anything to get that slow down at 1st crack or did it do that by itself?

No, thats the out of the box profile. Nice isnt it

[malliemcg]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

yours is the first report I have had of a stoppage since the earlier ones. Have you tried setting the roast level- starting the roaster and then turning the dial back towards the preheat area?

Seems to work after the first roast. Ill pay special attention on the weekend when Im roasting again next. And note every thing I do, and how many times it stops (if any) on the first roast. The ones after that first roast were well behaved. (All were using 9-start-wind dial back to far left).

[lupus]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Ive been reading this thread with great interest. The roaster sounds interesting and might tempt me to part with some hard earned dollars to play with a simple roasting system

Out of curiosity, the dial which seems to be causing all the problems, what does it do? Does it select for a particular roast profile? Or does it select temperature? Or does it select for time?

[trentski]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

No, thats the out of the box profile. Nice isnt it Smiley

Sure is 8-)

Explains why the roasts from this are so good, thanks for going to al the effort of modifying and posting up the results 8-)

Hi Lupus,

The dial is for time, you can reset the timer at any stage.

[Mariner]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Hi,
I am new to the whole idea of roasting my own brew.  However, I have been drinking bean coffee since about 92 – when I was a young lad armed with only a plunger, by 96 I was hopelessly addicted to Withams Coffee in Sydney where I lived (now living on the lovely central coast) and have never looked back.  I have just been put on to and registered with coffeesnobs in the last few days and have already learned an incredible amount.  I can’t wait to start roasting my own.  I have read with great interest all of the thread about the iCoffee machine and would probably like to get one (my wife is using the promise of a coffee roaster to make me clean up and throw out all the junk in the garage first) in the next few weeks.

I do have some concerns though – after reading the threads about peoples experiences.  I guess that my issue is that a machine shouldn’t have funny quirks that have to be observed to get them to perform as they were intended to...   does the manufacturer intend to have this issue fixed?  I mean, it seems that everyone is still getting really good results and that apart from the quirks of the machine it seems pretty robust – a lot of different people roasting up a lot of beans.  Can my fears be belayed by any of you good people/snobs out there??? 

I have been very impressed by the honesty and integrity of Jack who is the purveyor of these machines, especially after people have reported issues on the forum.

And, for no reason at all - here is a picture of my son Will fighting Darth Vader.


Edited to reduce file size

 

[cruza52]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

I also had initial concerns and read all the threads however purchased regardless as it seemd to me that the problem was only with a few units and not with all of them plus the fact that it filled my needs in that it was very simple to use to get some great results.

Since receiving the roaster I have not had any issues and have had a real good time with it with excellent results..

I have seen no more posting of this problem since the issue was worked around.

however I have not seen any posts relating to results of testing of the unit that was sent back to Korea

[MrDerrickC]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

No issues with mine to date, has probably done 25kg worth of roasts through it.

Just did 4 back to back roasts for the KJM blend with only 3-4mins break between. Did not encounter any problems at all.

Guess it depends on luck and whether or not get you a bad egg as with any product you buy.