Roasters, Fires, and Extinguishers

[JohnD18]

I was researching the subject, and I came across a good article. I am sure this is not news to any of the seasoned roasters out there, but I found it helpful and I figured I would share it:

http://www.bloggle.com/2007/10/home-coffee-roasters-how-not-to-become-a-stupid-statistic/

Anyone have opinions on what kind of extinguisher is safe to use with a roaster? Halon extinguishers seem ideal from my research.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Any type of extinguisher will work.
And most of my friend who roasts commercially have good cleaning habit.
They try to clean as often as they can. And also have water spray bottle near to just wet down the hot chaff.
I think it is very easy to catch fire if you are not careful but it can be prevented.

 

[BoldJava]

Stay on top of your cyclone, emptying it of chaff, as necessary. Fire extinguisher positioned away from the roaster and toward the door. Keep the exhaust system clean.

 

[chast]

in the event that I should ever have a fire inside the drum, I have a water mist extinguisher. Foam would be a nightmare to clean

 

[CoffeeJunky]

i can just imagine trying to clean anything out of the drum after fire. I actually saw Ambex that caught on fire.... It was pretty ugly and it took whole day to clean out and make it work again. So it is also the waste of your precious time to deal with after.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Topher can tell you some very interesting experience he had with chaff and fire.

 

[PinkRose]

Topher can tell you some very interesting experience he had with chaff and fire.

I was thinking the same thing! I was going to look for the thread where he told the story.

 

[Amhas]

I was researching the subject, and I came across a good article. I am sure this is not news to any of the seasoned roasters out there, but I found it helpful and I figured I would share it:

http://www.bloggle.com/2007/10/home-coffee-roasters-how-not-to-become-a-stupid-statistic/

Anyone have opinions on what kind of extinguisher is safe to use with a roaster? Halon extinguishers seem ideal from my research.

CO2 or water as those stated below. It depends on where the fire is. I have a spray bottle with water in it, and 2 CO2 extinguishers close by. Anything else could be a disaster and be very costly to repair (I can only imagine). Hope to never see a fire since I don't roast that dark and I keep the system very clean, but I have taken precautions just the same. That's just me though.