Installing a 1 Kg. Gas Roaster in my home/garage

[MillCityRoasters]

Hi Doc.

Here's a slightly cautionary tale about safety. I had a visitor from Iowa here this weekend. He's a pretty sharp and capable guy. We roasted a batch and loaded a roaster in the back of his truck. I sent him the kludge of pdf's we usually send and told him to call my mobile number if anything didn't make perfect sense. Honestly, he's the last guy I would have ever expected to have a problem installing a roaster. He called me at 8:00 pm last night because he thought the transformer was step-down, not step-up. This means he wired the 120 volt side to a 208 volt outlet and stepped up his power to over 400 volts.

Think loud pop and billowing clouds of black smoke pouring from his roaster.

Whoops.

Everyone is greatly concerned about safety because people make mistakes and sometimes bad things happen.

As it turns out, he zorched the PID and the timer, but he worked around all that and roasted 10 lbs this morning. He's literally and figuratively stoked.

I sent him replacement parts today and he'll be good as new come Wednesday afternoon.

The moral of the story is a) the roaster is pretty hard to break and b) no cup of coffee is worth burning your house down.

Do exactly as you are doing: read the manual (such that it is), ask questions, and figure it out.

Oh, and no matter when or why, when in doubt call me.

 

[docdvm]

Hi Doc.

Here's a slightly cautionary tale about safety. I had a visitor from Iowa here this weekend. He's a pretty sharp and capable guy. We roasted a batch and loaded a roaster in the back of his truck. I sent him the kludge of pdf's we usually send and told him to call my mobile number if anything didn't make perfect sense. Honestly, he's the last guy I would have ever expected to have a problem installing a roaster. He called me at 8:00 pm last night because he thought the transformer was step-down, not step-up. This means he wired the 120 volt side to a 208 volt outlet and stepped up his power to over 400 volts.

Think loud pop and billowing clouds of black smoke pouring from his roaster.

Whoops.

Everyone is greatly concerned about safety because people make mistakes and sometimes bad things happen.

As it turns out, he zorched the PID and the timer, but he worked around all that and roasted 10 lbs this morning. He's literally and figuratively stoked.

I sent him replacement parts today and he'll be good as new come Wednesday afternoon.

The moral of the story is a) the roaster is pretty hard to break and b) no cup of coffee is worth burning your house down.

Do exactly as you are doing: read the manual (such that it is), ask questions, and figure it out.

Oh, and no matter when or why, when in doubt call me.

Steve
No doubt I will make mistakes. That is one reason that since the roaster has already been run as a propane roaster with a portable LPG tank that I would prefer to initially use it without modifications. Likely I will set it up on a wheeled cart near the garage door and run the tank and exhaust vents outside under the door. After becoming more familiar with the machine I would then consider a more permanent setup, plumbing in either natural gas or propane and installing the exhaust vent through the wall. That machine has been used , evidently in shows with a 15 or 20 lb. tank so there is no reason we could not continue to use it. Here in Canada it is cold so that garage door will only be open 4 inches top and bottom. Enough to push the cyclone pipe out . I don't know whether I need another pipe for the bean cooler exhaust also. Of course I would have a CO monitor and extinguishers in the garage too.

When it is time I have already contacted an HVAC installer who would come to my house on a weekend and install whatever is necessary keeping safety in mind. Now what would be the difference between the install of the stove in the kitchen and the Roaster in the garage installed with NG? The stove burners are not vented outside. We have CO monitors in the house but never had them go off. With the oven on and 3 pots on the stove this Xmas we had no problems. Then add the furnace , hot water tank and fireplaces there is a potential for a huge fire, is there not? In fact most homes are now on NG since electricity and oil have been very expensive. See more problems with wood fireplaces than a coffee roaster. More pollution as well as other hazards. Yet who doesn't like a wood fire.

 

[Hankua]

I roast on a portable cart very much like you describe; but in Florida. In your situation if the vent hose went up, then back down an auxiliary blower (boat bilge blower) might help depending on the run/hose bends. I would also run a second small fan hooked to a 4" hose for general ventilation in the garage.

at least the roaster will heat up the garage.:grin:

 

[docdvm]

I roast on a portable cart very much like you describe; but in Florida. In your situation if the vent hose went up, then back down an auxiliary blower (boat bilge blower) might help depending on the run/hose bends. I would also run a second small fan hooked to a 4" hose for general ventilation in the garage.

At least the roaster will heat up the garage.:grin:

That is a good idea
I have a garage heater with a fan which I use when I roast with my hotTop. I will turn it on , have it blow towards me and the garage door. It will keep me warm and ventilate the garage at the same time during the colder months. In summer I could just open the garage door so it should be no problem ventilating. In fact I could just wheel the roaster to the patio and roast there as I have been doing with the HotTop in summer.

Good to know that I am not alone roasting out of my garage. I thought there would be more roasters doing the same. Do most of you roast from inside the house? How are you connecting the gas and venting? Do you have pics demonstrating your setup?

 

[Redswing]

I roast in my garage, right next to an exterior door. I put a removable 6" single walled pipe with a 90 degree elbow out the door each time I roast (it never gets anything but warm to the touch). My roaster runs off a portable propane tank that sits in the garage next to my roaster. Works for me.

I'm building a new house right now for us, and carved out a nice corner of the garage for the roaster. I am putting a small window there to run my vent through, along with a conduit for the propane.

 

[Danno]

I roast out of my basement. I had the local co-op come out and they installed two 100lb. LP tanks outside the house. They installed a 2psi regulator on the tanks (with auto switchover), then ran copper to the .5psi regulator on the roaster. They installed a shut-off valve ahead of the roasters regulator. They initially installed a standard 11"WC regulator on the tanks, but the most I could get at the roaster was 2kpa. Now I get 5kpa but never go above 3.5kpa. I vent out through a basement window that I replaced with sheet metal. Venting is standard 3" dryer vent with a flapper to keep out wind and critters. Works great.