Drum and Cooling Speed

[Scott365]

How important is a speed control for the drum and cooling bed? I'm thinking of purchasing a Garanti roaster and this is one of the options. They want $450 for it. If it's really necessary, I'm wondering if I can just hook up a rheostat to the motor?
Any thoughts?

 

[CoffeeJunky]

You could but if you do, you will void factory warranty... or ask them if that would be ok...

 

[Hankua]

Scott; The brand of roaster that I have has drum speed control; all the models come standard with this feature. Drum speed control is awesome!!!!!!!! It's an advanced feature in the basic mode you change the speed depending on the bean load. After that one can change profile with drum speed for increased conduction or convection.

My machine has a DC motor with dial potentiometer on the control panel. Another feature to ask about is precision air control valve with air speed indicator/manometer. The butterfly air valve you see on most roasters is not linear; so for instance going from 1-2 is not the same as going from 2-3. Found this out by using a hand held air speed indicator.

Bottom line; I want to choose my drum speed not some guy in Turkey.

(edit: If your roasting the same bean load all the time and the drum speed was acceptable then the extra expense might be unnecessary. With a gear or belt drive on the drum one could
change the rpm's, direct drive motor would probably be cost prohibitive. If the builder's upgrade involves DC motor, voltage converter, control panel knob with speed indicator; $450
sounds reasonable. One would assume the speed control upgrade is commercial quality and built to last, not a cheap tack on.)