Poor man's Behmor - Aldi Toaster oven w/-rotisserie + Ebay Drum

[nikko.the.scorpio]

Folks,

I'm in the final stages of building a KKTo but just an idea that I had when I saw the Aldi catalogue for last week. On WED the 7th they got some Toaster Oven's in that have a rotisserie function. 6mm connecting bits for this. $60.

Via Fleabay you can get a stainless steel coffee drum with 6mm connectors for around the same amount delivered. See item #131315075415 as an example. So in theory it's a very dumbed down, poor man's Behmor roaster.

Anyway little stuffing around needed and you might have a decent lil roaster without much effort or coin.

Cheers, Nick

PS. Suffice to say the real Behmor's from the forum sponsors & Beanbay will still be loads better so continue to support them if you want a superior product than this. :-)

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Thanks Nick. I'd hasten very slowly in pursuing the idea. Or give the roaster it's maiden flight at a rich, well-insured friend's house

More seriously, at the very least, smoke is likely to be an issue that is hard to deal with without dropping the temperature significantly in the 'roasting chamber'. Unless toaster over technology has improved since I last used one....of course.

[nikko.the.scorpio]

Oh yes, suffice to say that you'd definitely, as with all roasting unless you've access to a proper ventilation/extraction system - want to ensure that it's done outside or atleast by an open window. I'm unsure on how much of a factor getting a build up of smoke in one's roasting chamber might be (taste implications?) but I think you're right in that unless the oven has a system in place to exhaust this (and I believe it does though I'd concur it's prolly quite rudimentry) you'd not be able to do much about it.

Though to be fair KKTO users will commonly refer to 'burping' their roasters at 1C to drop the temp - and 1C is around when you get the most smoke occuring. So there might be a synergy there for doing this on a very limited scope.

As with all these MacGyver-esque product uses any users would need to apply both common sense and a lil outside the box thinking to get the best possible results...the Behmor is a great roaster thats custom-made to do nothing but coffee, hence this will always be a very poor cousin but if that works for one person then my post is worthwhile (as stated I'd have probably have given this a try BUT I'm 85% through the KKTO).

If it all didn't go well you can always return the toaster oven to Aldi within 60 days and they'll refund no questions asked....though you'll be stuck with the drum roaster, still not a huge downside and might suit folks who'd otherwise go the 'corretto' path. :-)

[chokkidog]

Folks,

I saw the Aldi catalogue for last week. On WED the 7th they got some Toaster Oven's in that have a rotisserie function. 6mm connecting bits for this. $60.

Via Fleabay you can get a stainless steel coffee drum with 6mm connectors for around the same amount delivered. See item #131315075415 as an example. So in theory it's a very dumbed down, poor man's Behmor roaster.

Thanks Nick. I'd hasten very slowly in pursuing the idea. Or give the roaster it's maiden flight at a rich, well-insured friend's house

FirstBuild Hackathon Streamlines Roasting in Standard Convection Ovens | Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine

[Javaphile]

A number of people have proposed/tried using a countertop oven for roasting coffee over the years on here with no real success that I can recall ever seeing. A search would no doubt turn up a number of posts/threads on the topic.


Java "Smoke what?!?" phile

[TC]

One of the key things for a great roast is airflow. Cheapie ovens like the Aldi offer usually fall over there. Waste of time IMHO. Tried it and the results were rubbish.

[chokkidog]

Yeah, anyone trying to crowd fund home roasting in your convection oven might be more interested in your

money than any "results" you might (or might not) achieve. :-D

[Shano592]

I'll put my hand up to being the guinea pig that Nick is referring to here (without referring!).

I have been using the air-popper technique for a while, and while it is usable for a brew, 1/3 cup at a time is a slow process!

So, I saw this oven come up at Aldi, and bought a rotisserie drum off of eBay to try it out. I figured that it would be no big losses if it didn't work out, as long as the house didn't burn to ash in the process.

One of the 4 big setbacks with the Aldi oven that I can see, is that it isn't fan-forced. We use a similar, slightly larger one from Deals Direct while we are renovating, and that one does have the air movement internally.

Secondly, the rotisserie is slow. Maybe 2 or 3 rpm. The drum itself has an agitator inside, but I feel like it isn't enough.

Thirdly and probably more important for timing, is temperature. I have a multimeter with a thermocouple attachment onboard. Using this at the mid-point of the oven, I cannot get the temperature to rise over 221 degrees, and this is after about 30 minutes or so, with all elements firing. The thermocouple is very accurate. I benchmark it in boiling water, so it won't be out be more than a degree or two.

Lastly, if you preheat the little oven, as soon as you open the door, you lose about 60-80 degrees in the air, while fitting the drum (on the rotisserie spike) into the oven.

Having said that, the roast that I did came out looking really even, albeit over a longer timeframe than I was hoping for. Honey-soaked Costa Rica Helsar. I did a roast to a light medium, and a second one to a darker roast.

I'll sample these over the coming days, and report back.

Having messaged back and forth with Nick on a different forum, I have decided that I should start researching the KK-designed roaster. Higher capacity roasting is always a goal to achieve.

[franque]

Going to go ahead and necro this post.

While not exactly this oven, I have been using a modified convection oven with great success.

My oven roaster began it's life as a sunbeam bench top stainless steal jobby that I had in my last place. I made the tumbler out of a perforated milo tin with agitators riveted on. I skewered the tin onto the rotisserie and cranked the oven.
it initially didn't get hot enough and I was getting 30 minute roast times, too long.
Problems were that the settings wouldn't allow both elements (it has one on top and one bellow) to be on while rotating.
I opened it up and re-wired it to run both elements and rotisserie simultaneously.
This worked and I was getting 16-17 minute roasts, but inconsistent. I noticed the elements switch on and off when it reached the highest set temp. I then bipassed the thermostat all together so now the elements run constantly (when turned on).
it now works amazingly. Very consistent roasts and second crack almost at 15 minutes on the dot. However this is a dumb machine and due to my hacks, does not allow for thermal control other and off or on. But I find a blanket 15 minute roast gets me a perfect roast, especially on the larger beans.

Thoughh, I'm not sure about roast capacity. Presently I get about 160gm per roast, but I think it would happily do double that. I'll try next roast day.