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by [email protected] on October 26, 2020
I had roasted coffee several years ago with a modified popcorn popper. I decided to try it again with upgraded equipment, as I liked the freshness when roasting myself. Overall the SR540 is an adequate roaster. It took a few roasts to figure the machine out. Out of the box, the roaster defaults to Fan: 9, Heat:5. I was not able to get anywhere near hot enough with these settings. I had to dump quite a few roasts. I thought maybe my voltage was too low, but I measured it and got 122V from my outlet. I actually reversed the settings Fan: 5 and Heat: 9, then I started getting somewhere with my roasts. Depending on the bean, I typically let that run for 2 minutes, then start moving the fan speed down whenever the beans start bouncing more. Fan: 4, Fan: 3, I typically hit the first crack. Then continue dropping to Fan: 2, and finally Fan: 1, all the time keeping Heat: 9. This has given me good roasts. Once you are satisfied with your roast, you can hit the cool button, and then have to remember to turn the fan up to 9.
Set the timer to the max of 20, and don't pay attention to it again, it might be useful if it counted up, so you can see how far into the roast you were.
I like that the new settings are remembered for the next roast, so I can always start on 5/9/20 on future roasts. Once the roast starts, spin the dial and you will see the temperature on the display instead.
120g pre-roast weight gives me about enough for 2 days of coffee. This is good right now as I am learning and adjusting roasts. I might want to get an extension tube to increase capacity later, as I hone my skills and settle on a few roasts I like.
A few things I wish were different:
- No need for the timer, it is useless. Or change it to a count-up timer, instead of a count-down.
- Automatically set the fan to 9, when starting cool.
- Always show the temperature display
- Separate dials (with stops marking 1-9) for Fan and Heat, this helps, the display could be dedicated to showing the Temp.
- Lock for the roasting chamber, currently only gravity holds everything together
Overall: It is easy to use, (could be even easier with the above ideas) It does beat the coffee from the popcorn popper roaster I was using years ago.
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