Coffee-Tech Solar 2 kg

[wwcove]

Does anyone use the current version (within last 5 year) model of the Solar 2 kg? I understand the original did not allow much profiling but the recent one does. If you have any experience or thoughts on this please let me know. Seems like a nice machine & uses both rotating drum heat with limited fluid bed roasting.

Give me your take of the quality of the roasts you get from your machine as well as any special profiling you do for various bean types! Thanks in advance! ;-)

 

[Seb]

I recently got a Solar roaster from CTE with an Avirnaki. Still in testing period but I am getting better results. The problem I seem to struggle with is that I need to reduce both my pre-heat and target temp or I always get way too dark roast. Might have to do with my rather high voltage. I am around 245-248V. Even if my machine is new I do not believe I have the latest version.

 

[wwcove]

Did you get your units directly from Coffee-Tech? Seems like they have the latest stuff. The Avirnaki unit looks really cool. How do you like that?
With regard to your roasts do you do an auto setting? Maybe you can try a lighter roast setting. Also what if you remove the beans from drum when cooling process begins and cool in cooling pan rather than letting it cool in drum?
if you don't mind me asking what is the going rate for the roaster & Avirnaki now days?

 

[Seb]

I got my Solar roaster from The Green Beanery in Toronto and the Avirnaki directly from CTE. I really like this combo so far. With the Avirnaki I can roast in my basement! There is almost no smoke, only at the end of the cycle if you are going close to a dark roast. Now I have a duct install on the outlet of the Avirnaki that I just sent to my window to be sure there is no smoke inside. I barely see any smoke outside but I wanted to be safe to have the wife approval

I have right now three different coffee and they all roast of course differently. I am always aiming for a medium roast but my numbers for my settings seem much lower then anybody else that use the same machine. For example, last night I did a Kenya at 145C for the pre-heating and 143C for the final target temp. It end up being a perfect medium roast like I wanted but 145/143 is much lower than what others are using with the same machine. However I have rather high voltage which, according to CTE, might be the culprit. I have around 245Volt, sometimes near 250V! So I might need a 220/20A transformer/regulator but theses are expensive. So right now I am trying to reduce both setting and so far my results are great but the roasting profile is different.

If I remove the beans from drum after cooling it will not really change the roasting as when I am in the cooling cycle I do not see any change in the beans colors. And I will end up with smoke inside the house too. In fact, just to be clear, I can get any degree of roast that I want easely but the thing is that I have to use much lower temp setting, both for the pre-heat and final target. My temp probe seem ok tough as it read around 20C when I turn it on which is my local temperature.

I am am going to start selling next week so I need to finish my testing/tweeking period to get a good quality roast and most importantly consistency!

I have read on an other thread that you got a Coffee-Crafter Artisan 6 roaster? Funny as I wanted this model but decided to go with the Solar from CTE to have more control/consistency over my roast. So far I am very happy with the result but I could certainly pair it in the near future with the Artisan 6 roaster to get more volume per hour.

Don't hesitate to contact me by email to chat more about that if needed: info@lecafecrema.com

 

[Seb]

Forget to respond about the pricing...here in Canada with the shipping and brokerage both the Solar and Avirnaki are close to $10 000cnd each. Not cheap but I am happy

 

[wwcove]

Yep, I think the price here in US is about the same. I did buy a used Solar but have not roasted with it yet. I did read that ambient or room temps make a huge difference in roast times. That concerns me a bit since I plan to use mine in my garage here in Arizona where summer temps reach 110-114f

it is my understanding that the Solar mixes drum heat with bursts of hot air during roast to achieve both drum & fluid roasting benefits. Do you notice when the bursts of hot air occurr during roast. I just wonder how that works and when or how often it occurs???

 

[Seb]

Yes it is easy to notice because the blower start and stop so very easy. I think it does it around 4 times per roasting cycle, maybe 2-4 seconds each time. That is the same blower that is used during the cooling cycle so it suck some hot air from the beans.

Yes. The ambient temperature will effectively affect your roast. But in the manual they give recommendation in regard to this, you will have to adjust your temp settings to compensate. But you will be better to install an AC unit because every time you have to adjust the temp setting, it mean you are going to roast the first one in manual, having to watch closely the roast and be ready to change the setting near the end which I often do theses days to find my perfect settings.

 

[wwcove]

Seb;
I finally got to do a couple roasts in my used Solar and like it very much. I'm still getting use to it and the instructions said to start with full 4lb roasts until you get use to machine & then you can go with smaller loads. Right now I don't have mine installed with piping so I just cart it out of garage and roast in drive kind of like grilling out. The amount of smoke produced through chaff unit into my temporary pipe is a lot. I'm a little concerned about how hot the pipe may be where I will need to exhaust it thru the garage wall so I might just keep it as a roll out unit and just use the fluid roaster (Artisan 6) as my permanent install as most the heat & chaff are removed by the separate chaff unit that comes with it requiring only a dryer type exhaust for unit.
Do you do many small roasts such as one-two pounds at a time? Is it really much different than doing a 4 lb. Roast other than timing?

 

[wwcove]

If anyone is interested in a nice new 2K electric tabletop roaster Made by Coffee-Tech in Israel I have ran across a couple and can likely get a brand new unused unit for around $7500 (they are 10 k new) also can get a nice used one for around $4000 plus shipping in USA only...just send me a message if interested.

 

[Seb]

I only do 2kg batch at a time, I never tried smaller then that. You should not sell it, this is a great machine and I love the way you can so easely reproduce an exact roasting target. Each batches I roast are super consistent from week to week. Did three batchs last night again. I would love to hear back from your Artisan 6 roaster, compare both in term of ease of use, capacity to reproduce consistently a roast, true capacity, time per batch, effectiveness of the cooling, etc... I might just add an Artisan 8 roaster in the future if I need higher productivity. But I don't want to get a lesser quality coffee then with my Solar.

I think it worth it to modify/isolate your duct vent to be able to use both machine simultaneously because it could increase your productivity by a fair amount which might be needed sooner then you think

 

[wwcove]

That's a good idea on the vents. Right now I'm just keeping my Coffee-Tech on a heavy duty metal cart & cart it out of garage as I was not sure how easy it would be to vent it as it seems to put out more smoke. But I will see. I am thinking of keeping one Solar but I may end up with 2 as it seems safer to have 2-2kg units than one 4-5 kg unit. That way if one is down I can use the other.
My goal to to produce a blend from both Artisan (fluid)roaster and drum. But I will see how that goes.

 

[bufaris]

I'm interested in the solar 2kg coffee machine i'm in Cleveland Ohio please get in touch with me on my bufaris

 

[AMPDRoasting]

I see many mentions of the Artisan roaster. what do you think of it? it is well priced, i can move it from a home based business to a retail business if i want...but I purchased some coffee from a vendor who uses it and I found the flavor rather flat. what is your experience with it?