SR800 Coffee Roaster – Roast Coffee at Home – Variable Heat and Fan Control – Digital Display – Roasts 6–8 oz (170–226g) Per Batch – Easy to Use – Fast Roast Time

The SR-800 replaces our old roaster, which was a smaller, programmable roaster from the same company. The newer version has two distinct benefits in my opinion. First, the new roaster has twice the capacity (180 grams of green beans vs. 90 grams). This means I’m brewing only two batches a week instead of 3-4. That’s a huge time saver. Second, the SR-800 is operated manually, which means you stand by the roaster and adjust the fan and temperature as required during the roast. This may not sound like an advantage, but our previous roaster (now discontinued) was a pain to program and only stored one roasting profile at a time. Not good if you like to try coffee from around the world, because one roasting profile does not suit all coffees. With a manual roaster, you just put in 180 grams of beans and start the machine. What I discovered with the SR-800 is that there are only a few basic principles to follow for a consistently good roast. Hot air is blown into the glass roasting chamber, which pushes the beans in the center up and the beans on the outside down, and so the first principle is to keep the beans moving this way to ensure they are evenly roasted and none are scorched. You start with a high fan speed to circulate the heavy beans and a medium temp to remove moisture, and then gradually increase to maximum temp during the first two minutes. The second principle is to reduce the fan speed step by step as the beans lose their moisture and become lighter. You only need enough fan speed to push the beans in the center to the top so that the outside beans will sink to the bottom. The beans don’t need to be flying around the chamber. As you lower the fan speed, the temp becomes substantially hotter. My roasts generally peak at 450+ degrees Fahrenheit. The third principle is to finish heating the beans within about 8 minutes. I like the beans to start popping at around 6 minutes, and then become evenly dark and plump in the next two minutes. You finish with the cool setting at the highest fan speed and lowest temp for a total time in the roaster of about 10 minutes. If you roast the beans too long, the flavor will become muted and bland. The above is my recipe for a medium dark roast just short of any oil coming out of the beans. I don’t like oily beans because they are messy and the oils starts to go rancid in a few days. I also don’t care for the acidic taste of very light roasts, but to each his own. You can adjust the time and temp as you please to achieve your ideal roast. It takes a few batches to get the hang of it, but it’s not all that hard if you pay attention to what the beans are doing in the roaster for about 8 minutes. Personally, I like watching the beans roast and tweaking the fan and temp. It’s fun and I love the results. The SR-800 seems to be the ideal starter roaster for 2-3 coffee drinkers in one household. Better machines start at double the price and not everyone can taste the difference.

Lets talk about the flaws first. When its 60 degrees outside it is a bit underpowered. Instead of 220 grams of coffee I roast at a time, I use about 170 grams. You will have to turn up the heat to full, and turn the fan on the highest setting for the drying process. Your beans must always move. At first the beans do not move much as they have moisture in them in the first phase of the drying process. I stir them without the chaff collector on. I have a fan that blows the chaff away from the chimney on the roaster. I do this out in the back yard so I do not care if it makes a mess i just wash it down with water when I'm done. I always check the bean temps with a infrared temp gun through the top of the glass chimney I do not follow the built in temp meter because its a bit off until way in the roasting process. When the beans start moving on there own, I turn the fan to 8 for a minute, then turn the fan to 7 and still on full heat power. Then the beans will get to 360 degrees for a few minutes, on the mallard phase where the beans develope the Sugars. After about 8 minutes in the beans will get to 390 degrees for finishing. You want to keep the beans for about 3 minutes between 350 and 370 to convert the sugars in the bean. After that its the roasting phase, and the temp will go up to 390 or more by that time. If its hotter outside you can add more beans to 220 grams, and should not have a problem getting bean temp to 420 degrees. You really want to check the bean temperature with a infrared temp gun. Dodn't rely trying to get a temp through the glass when your using the chaff collector through the glass with the infrared temp gun. The Chaff collector needs to be off and then you can lazor right into the top of the glass to the beans. if you want to use the chaff collector then fine, but the real bean temperature is abit off on the roaster concerning bean temp. Otherwise when its warm outside, I just fill up 220 grams and go to town. No problems underpowered on warm days. You will need to turn the power down to 8 or seven, and the fan. Remember 3 or 4 mins drying, 3or 4 minutes between 360 and 370 (not over 380 degrees as this is the mallard phase converting starches to sugars and will stop the mallard or sugar developing phase, your coffee will not taste any sweetness.) And the next phase is the real roasting phase. Please unless you like totally black beans with the oils covering the beans its nasty. I do not ever go over 410 degrees. If you see oils on the beans there way overcooked, and your coffee will taste totally bland without good flavors. Primos Coffee on Amazon is good coffee beans very fresh, not too expensive, and really plump up and they are from a single estate so not every Tom, Dick, and Harry's beans is not mixed together. I like green coffee from Mexico the best so I ordered some from Anthony's There products are high quality also, and organic from Mexico. Do try Single Estate coffee its way better.

I am now on my second one of these. They work great. I have been home roasting for years and this one holds the most beans and gives me a solid consistent roast once I figured out my timing and temperatures. My only complaint is in the control button. I change my temp and fan speed during the roasting process and after awhile the numbers jump around and the control button gets very temperamental. Happened with the first one and now is happening with this one making it difficult to set the heat level. May need to buy another one, but seems a bit of a waste when all the other parts work great. I don't remember when I bought the last one, but its usually about 2-3 years, so could be worse.

I can't say enough good things about this roaster and especially the customer service. I bought it over 6 years ago and it acted up after 1 1/2 years, which is beyond the 1 year warranty. They will repair a roaster for $50 (plus your shipping to them, only), but i mentioned that i was disappointed that it broke after 1 1/2 years of moderate (1-2 times per week) use. They fixed it free of charge. Five years later it died so I sent it in, still a $50 flat rate repair charge. It was returned in about a week and it looks and performs like a brand new roaster. I know that the $337 price tag is not cheap, but when you amortize it over its lifetime (even including the repair charge) and compare that to how much you save by not buying high-end roasted coffee, I think it's worth the money.

Easy to use. The only problem is that the top breaks easily and no replacement is found with the company. (Well, it breaks easily if you -me- is not careful when handling it).

Item works well. I have an older Fresh Roast SR500, this is hands down much better overall. Better bean agitation, resulting in very even roasting. Better temperature control and fan speed. Also allows roasting of up to 8oz of green coffee which is what I normally roast at a time. The older one could only do up to 4oz at a time. I have been roasting coffee going on 7 years, this was a nice upgrade. Note: The manual portion is nice if you are roasting by sight, sound and smell. You can adjust the temp and fan speed for the different types of coffee beans you are roasting or different roast levels. The count down timer you can adjust and add more time if needed while in the middle of the roasting along with manually entering into cool down when through with the roast. Overall very pleased with the product. Just ordered the product and already roasted 10lbs of coffee for friends and family for Christmas. Very pleased with the results and simplicity of use. Thanks!

Have had this for a few months now and getting pretty good at using it. Very efficient roaster for small batches of about one cup of raw coffee. YouTube videos help getting started but overall pretty straight forward. If you ever used a poppery popcorn popper for roasting this will be easy to adjust to. Just be careful not to overload and watch roast closely for cool down. Small amount of over run for cool down so for me shutting it down a little before it's finished helps. I stop immediately after first crack finishes and get a nice medium dark roast. Takes time to get used to that cool down timing but never ruined a batch yet. Usually 10 minutes start to finish roast then 3 minute cool down.

I like this roaster overall, it’s a workhorse for the most part. But there are a few design flaws that are really annoying and make me long for an upgrade. First, the microcontroller-based timing circuit is nice, but would be MUCH more useful if it had a gradual fan speed decay, so the fan could be set higher during the beginning of the roast when the beans are heavier and more airflow is needed to churn them. Then the fan could slow down as roasting progresses and the beans lighten. Second, and more annoyingly: The lid is too light to hold itself down against the force of the fan, which means chaff is constantly spilling out across my kitchen unless I remember to precariously balance a heavy glass on top of the lid. I hate this mess, that seems to exist only because they cheaped out on the weight of the lid.