Roaster review: Behmor 1600

[Noodles]

There seems to be an influx of refurbished units, which worries me a bit. Are they returns or defective units sent back for repair/replacements.

[germantown rob]

Originally Posted by bonggoy

There seems to be an influx of refurbished units, which worries me a bit. Are they returns or defective units sent back for repair/replacements.

Originally the Behmor was to go into the main stream of infomercials and be sold by Ronco, that fell through when Ronco went out of business. I bought one when they first where available and there was some kinks still getting worked out, Joe Behm was working very hard to solve these issues. I would imagine a refurb would be terrific of the price is right. Even $300 new is a great price considering a Gene Cafe is $500 and a Hottop is $750 to $1000.

I think the Behmor is a great product just not for me.

I have been wanting to start roasting my own beans and was looking at getting one of these when they were first released. I decided to wait and check out the reviews after "John-Q" had a chance to play with it. I'm glad I waited!! With the issues I've read about, it really doesn't sound like a machine I want to have in my house.

[germantown rob]

Originally Posted by ashmaster

I have been wanting to start roasting my own beans and was looking at getting one of these when they were first released. I decided to wait and check out the reviews after "John-Q" had a chance to play with it. I'm glad I waited!! With the issues I've read about, it really doesn't sound like a machine I want to have in my house.

There is no roaster out there that won't have huge warnings about fires in their manuals. There is very high heat and paper thin chaff floating around, this is a fire waiting to happen in most roasting conditions.

The volume a Behmor roast compared to the air roasters means more chaff and more mass to retain heat but you do get more than 100g of roasted beans in the end. The manual has been revised for the Behmor many times since I bought it, I suspect because of people like me. I am sure I would have had problems with the air roasters as well trying to get 2-4lbs a week out of them in 2 roasting sessions.

The one thing I really miss on the Behmor is the smoke suppression. I would have 1/2 the smoke produced with 280g of beans compared to the hottop and that is a good thing if you have ever been sealed up in a room with roasted beans smoke, pretty toxic stuff.

This comes from a guy that wants to get this for my next roaster
http://www.diedrichroasters.com/ir12.html after I build the addition with a root cellar for bean storage.