mars
New member
Infrared or traditional ? Pros and cons ?
One could conclude that roasters of all types can produce good roasted coffee since there are many proponents of each out there. However, wwcove is correct in the vast majority of heat transfer is through convection. This means the air has to be heated first and an infrared burner is terrible at heating air. The best it can do is heat the drum exterior and utilize the hot drum to heat the air. Which then becomes difficult to control for profile roasting since you now have a hot drum that is slow to react to different heat demands.
A configuration with an insulated drum (for drum temp stability) and a modulating blue flame burner with a decent turndown ratio (for greater control of the air temp & consequently greater control of the heat transfer to the bean) would provide a roaster with more capability.