Toper 1kg Cafemino- How good?

[Paolo]

I am looking to upgrade my roaster from a Hottop to a Toper Cafemino.
It is mainly the limited roast size of the Hottop that is a problem. I am happy with its performance.

Can anyone who owns/has used the Toper comment on its reliability, durability and effectiveness in producing great roasts?

Thanks,
Paolo.

 

[Davec]

I am looking to upgrade my roaster from a Hottop to a Toper Cafemino.
It is mainly the limited roast size of the Hottop that is a problem. I am happy with its performance.

Can anyone who owns/has used the Toper comment on its reliability, durability and effectiveness in producing great roasts?

Thanks,
Paolo.

I own one. In terms of reliability, it's all industry standard and industrial grade stuff. They do two models, gas and electric. The electric one may need a replacement element from time to time. I have done about 150kg on my element, but it should do a lot more. Luckily they are inexpensive. There are 3 motors unlike many of the sample roasters which only have one or two, Drum, Chaf Cyclone/Exhaust and Cooling tray.

As for durability, the thing weighs over 85kg, possibly more, they probably still have the weight wrong on the website. I'm 6'2" and so was the delivery guy and we struggled with it! A lot of 1kg sample roasters are significantly lighter (even half the weight). It should last a lifetime

You can truly back to back roast, and the cooling tray works well, about 3.5kg per hour is realistic or 4kg every 70 min. Roasts from the Cafemino are good (don't know about the gas variant, but would imagine it will be fine). It doesn't bake the beans like a Hottop and roast times are largely unaffected by ambient temp (I have been roasting quite succesfully at ambients of 5-6C (possibly a 20 second increase in roast time). Quality of roast is good, I still get many letters begging me to start roasting again, from people who have had coffee from the roaster. I did some "commercial" roasting with the Cafemino to recover some of the money I paid for the roaster

In terms of flu requirements, electric is not very demanding, simple thin wall 100mm galvanised ducting works fine. With the gas model, I would think the flue will get much hotter and there are other things to consider.

Having typed all of the above......I think the move from a Hottop to a 1kg roaster like the Toper may be a step too far. The Toper roasts easiest at it's fighting weight of 1kg, although you can (with practice) roast right down to 250g (you can't use the trier below 500g though as it doesn't reach the beans). 1kg is a lot of coffee and the roaster will take around 30 min to fully warm up (and another 30 min to cool down, before you can turn the drum off). Other than that it's an easy roaster to use.

If your not roasting commercially though (I mean for pocket money and friends), then mabye a 500g roaster (that's much less massive would suit you better). It would warm up a bit faster and produce the sort of quantities of coffee that you are more likely to need. Once the Toper is fired up, it''s sort of a shame not to roast 3-5kg!

Dave

 

[Temuri]

Davec! You show you like it. I'll have one this week. I am going to to roast 2-3 hours everyday. Let us see how good is that. Hope I'll like it as you do.
How long it takes you a full (1kg) batch to medium.
As I understand the heaters last really a lot. Is that so? Where do you get them for 15 USD?

 

[Davec]

How long it takes you a full (1kg) batch to medium.
As I understand the heaters last really a lot. Is that so? Where do you get them for 15 USD?

To take a 1kg batch to medium in my roaster is around 15m to 15m 30s in my roaster. This is in ambient temperatures from 6C to 22C, as it has only a small effect on roasting times. It does of course vary by bean, but the timings above are for something like Santos.

I got my heaters from Toper.

I have had the same (1600W) heater elements in for a long time now and must have roasted 100s of Kg with them. Now I have paid for my Toper I don't really sell my roasts anymore...I only did that to really pay for the roaster. For my personal needs I mostly use my Gene Cafe now. Although I am looking forwards to starting up the Toper as I have a large batch I want to roast for a meet I am having in a few weeks.