New roaster - Probat × Diedrich × Giesen × Toper

[meloun]

New roaster - Probat × Diedrich × Giesen × Toper - please advise

Hello!

We are beginning with coffee roasting, expecting monthly production of 1,5 ton. We decided to choose 12-15 kg coffee roaster (to have a satisfactory reserve for future growth) and did a huge research across many coffee roaster producers. From what we found, we tend to choose Probatone12 roaster, but we are not 100% sure in our decision. It would greatly help us if you write the pros and cons of the roasters considered and also your own opinion about the selection.

Our requirements and possibilities:
- we want roaster with profiling system and preset profiles to have some help for start and comfort possibility to tune the roasting process in the future,
- we want "conventional" roaster which will have no specialities during the roasting process (so everyone who knows how to use the coffee roaster will know how to use the chosen roaster),
- we want available and reliable service in Europe,
- sure we want high quality roaster,
- the price doesn't matter but higher price must be worth it.


The considered roasters:

Probatone12 - our favorite, but we need to be sure it's the best solution for us

Diedrich IR-12 - we are little afraid of the IR technology and its service life and also if the roasting process is the same with this technology than without it

Giesen W15 - we are little afraid of non-standard behaviour and system control of the roaster compared to other brands of roasters (as people write down on many forums)

Toper TKM-SX 15 - we don't see any disadvantages here but consindering the much lower price than the Probat, we think there must be any


Many thanks in advance for all your advices and opinions.

 

[topher]

Profile software is a tool not a roaster. Why not just buy coffee wholesale since you do not want to invest the time to master this trade?

 

[meloun]

Profile software is a tool not a roaster. Why not just buy coffee wholesale since you do not want to invest the time to master this trade?

Sure we want to invest the time to master this trade but we'd like to have the profile software as a starting point, to start easily and better understand the differences of different roasting profiles. We are now buying coffee wholesale and after years, we want to roast it on our own, not to rely on the other roasters.

Every roaster had to start and we think (but we may be wrong) it's easier (and faster, that's what we need as we already sell the coffee and need to "switch" ourselves from "sellers" to "roasters" quickly) with the profile software. But we really don't want to use only the software and have no idea how to roast manually - we want to work on ourselves and master our skills from the very first moment...

 

[topher]

Did you ever consider hiring a roaster? I went to a company that wanted to bring roasting in house. .we blew that company up to 100, 000 lbs a month through online sales. I would consider looking for a professional to grow with you.

 

[meloun]

Did you ever consider hiring a roaster? I went to a company that wanted to bring roasting in house. .we blew that company up to 100, 000 lbs a month through online sales. I would consider looking for a professional to grow with you.

We've considered this but it's a bit problem to find a professional roaster here in the eastern Europe... All the pros' we know or found have their own companies or don't want to change the company where they work. So we've decided to start on our own, definitely visit some trainings and workshops abroad, visit the roasters we cooperate with, etc.

 

[wwcove]

I hope you have deep pockets. I thought the Diedrich's were high priced until I checked on the new Probats! And when you factor in all the stuff they call options it is very high priced. Have you considered a good used roaster?

 

[meloun]

I hope you have deep pockets. I thought the Diedrich's were high priced until I checked on the new Probats! And when you factor in all the stuff they call options it is very high priced. Have you considered a good used roaster?

We've considered a used roaster but it's harder to find one which will be in a good condition and which can be professionally installed by the seller and easily shipped and... too much complications, we'd better pay more and buy comfortly... and new.

 

[expat]

If you're in eastern Europe you should give these folks a call. And just for the record I'm not affiliated with them in any way.
Marcin Kieca
Coffed BDH
www.coffed.pl
ul. Ceramiczna 28
64-920 Piła, Poland
tel. +48 67 214 26 29

 

[coffeepod]

Hi

We went down the same path as you, and looked at almost the same roasters apart from the Toper, as everyone I spoke to in the UK said that their backup if you ever have a problem was rubbish.

I did look at the Lorin as well but that was just too expensive.

In the end we settled on the Giesen 15 kg roaster which was delivered a few weeks ago, and should be up and running in the next few weeks.

I decided against the Diedrich after giving some thought to the roasting process. At first I 'liked' the idea about the ceramic plates transferring the heat to the beans, but then considered that this is then a 'dry heat' where as in a 'normal' roster the products of combustion from the flame pass through the beans, and this is then a 'moist' heat.

As for the probat, Giesen used to manufacture some of the parts for them, then when Probat moved away from cast iron, Giesen started to produce their own range of roasters.

As I say we are just down the roasting path, after years of buying in 'own lable'.

Hope this helps