Quest m3 roaster

[Corduroy]

Hi guys,
I've been using the quest for two years now. Bought it originally to learn the basics of coffee roasting so I could translate that one day on a larger scale. I have been able to produce consistently good single origin coffee, with most of my roasts being 250g and hitting first crack around 8min.
I did have some concerns initially with the questions about the wiring, so I got an electrician to check it out. He couldn't find an issue, yes the wiring is little old school, but I have not had an issue with it so far. And I can't find any evidence online of others who have have had any incidents with the quest.
Coduroy

[Dragunov21]

Honestly as long as it is earthed correctly and the supplying circuit is RCD protected, I could care less if there's exposed wiring near the case

Of course, I recently purchased a power supply from HobbyKing (Chargery Power brand) with the earthing strap bolted to a painted aluminium part. Paint aint so great a conductor, so the moment you plug it in the case livens up at 240VAC. Bonus points for the fact that the DC outputs are at 14VDC with respect to each other, but they are also floating at 240VAC with respect to ground, so it can liven up anything you connect it to.

Realistically with the Quest, I'd be opening it up and making sure the earth connections were solid, then testing for continuity between the earth pin and each exposed metal part.

[mwcalder05]

Hi all,

I recently decided to take my life into my own hands and roast on the Quest at work. We had quite a number of samples shipped to us so it was a full day of sample roasting! I didn't know what I was roasting so that made it extra interesting.

Now I have used the roaster before just stuffing around for home use but never roasting with an actual purpose in mind. So I found out that repeatability on this machine is terrible. To get two roasts exactly the same is a great achievement but somehow I got all of the samples within an acceptable range (albeit with a couple of aborted roasts).

When cupped, there were two stand outs and they were both Ethiopians. As soon as we poured the water and smelt the aroma, we knew we were onto a winner.

But the Quest is a fine domestic roaster but if you want to roast with a purpose, maybe look elsewhere..

Michael

[Steve82]

Hi all,

I recently decided to take my life into my own hands and roast on the Quest at work. We had quite a number of samples shipped to us so it was a full day of sample roasting! I didn't know what I was roasting so that made it extra interesting.

Now I have used the roaster before just stuffing around for home use but never roasting with an actual purpose in mind. So I found out that repeatability on this machine is terrible. To get two roasts exactly the same is a great achievement but somehow I got all of the samples within an acceptable range (albeit with a couple of aborted roasts).

When cupped, there were two stand outs and they were both Ethiopians. As soon as we poured the water and smelt the aroma, we knew we were onto a winner.

But the Quest is a fine domestic roaster but if you want to roast with a purpose, maybe look elsewhere..

Michael

I have to disagree.

I can repeat the same profile on a given bean, once I know how it behaves as many times as want. Make little tweaks where I want, with fine adjustments of the air flow and amps. Many users elsewhere can do the same.

You roasted a few samples in a day and think that's enough time and beans to master a small manual electric roaster? or any roaster for that matter?

For me its been about 6 months and 150+ roasts under my belt which has let me really get to know the roaster and how many different beans from different regions tend to behave.

you need to know what's going to happen before it happens, especially as its a small electric roaster with not much thermal latency.

Oh and every roast i do, I roast with a purpose / plan.

[Beanz.]

Hi all,

So I found out that repeatability on this machine is terrible. To get two roasts exactly the same is a great achievement but somehow I got all of the samples within an acceptable range (albeit with a couple of aborted roasts).
........
But the Quest is a fine domestic roaster but if you want to roast with a purpose, maybe look elsewhere..

Michael

I also disagree, I can repeat a roast profile time and time again for the same weight of beans.
I can use a previous roast profile saved in CS Roast Monitor, load it as a Template and then run another roast and plot exactly the same profile over the top with my Quest M3.
I note any changes in fan speed settings or changes in current settings in the comment section in RM so that they can be repeated at the same point in the roast I am trying to replicate.
The other thing I have done is instal a fine probe between the drum and the outer covering, this reacts quickly to changes in fan or temp settings and allows you to see the impact of your adjustments immediately
Stick with it the Quest does produce some outstanding roasts

[seamad]

I'd agree with the last 2 posts. I use mine with roast logger, temp probes for ET and BT which charts onto my laptop. I can pretty well follow any previous saved roast profile so I think it's pretty repeatable.

[mwcalder05]

Hmm...maybe the roaster needs to invest in something a little more than paper, pen and a thermocouple. I'm sure it'll come in time then