Over time I have kept upping my coffee game, but this is my first experience roasting. This is a great setup for a beginner and I feel it has plenty of flexibility to allow more sophisticated roasting as I develop some experience. Aside from the great instructions that came with it there is lots of great info from enthusiasts on the interwebs. The extension tube seems like a must, not just expanding the capacity but providing more thermal insulation that gives you more headroom on the roasting parameters. The scale with the built in timer was also a pleasant surprise and makes it easy to keep notes on each roast (highly recommended to dial in the roasts you enjoy). Read more

It shipped great considering there are glass parts and fragile components. This roaster is everything I dreamed it would be. All parts and bundle components were excellent. I love the roaster, digital scale, sample starter beans, cooling trays, measurement cup, expanded roasting. chamber. I roasted the Ethiopia first. Lighter roast. Second, I roasted some Tanzania Peaberry and it was fun to watch. I love the whole process and wish I did this long ago. I found a promo offer on my Amazon card that let me do six interest free installments. Now, I need more unroasted beans! Buy one. (There is an option for a 3 year Warranty) Read more

The SR800 is an awesome roaster! I am just getting started in home roasting, and took a class in roasting where the instructor used one of the Fresh Roast SR540 models. The 800 model has a more robust fan, and gives more flexibility in fine tuning the roasting cycle. My first roast was a small, 4oz, batch of Kenya AA green beans. After 12 minutes, I had a delightful batch of beans filling my kitchen with those wonderful aromas. When you consider this bundle comes with the extension tube and a perfectly usable scale, it is a true bargain. Very much looking forward to this coffee roasting journey! Read more

I just started to roast my own coffee as roasted coffee prices have gone up quite a bit. Quick math shows that this roaster can pay for itself in a year if you don't mind the time/effort to roast yourself. The process is fairly straightforward. Watch a few Youtube video. The extension tube I think also make the roast more consistent. Another good thing is that the glass tube, if you accidentally break them, are fairly inexpensive to purchase. Roasting the coffee myself also ensures the freshness. Read more

I decided to get this to replace my old Amazon roaster which took forever to roast a batch. I’m pleasantly surprised at how much quicker the roast progresses with most being done within 10 to 11 mins. Easy to control once you figure out the basics, which I will admit took a few batches, and it’s great to be able to see and smell the progress, making micro adjustments that become second nature as you progress. You literally can see the movement, color and smell the roast and quickly learn what is needed. Summery, great machine, is a little spendy. Read more

Nice roaster - our first one. Roasts evenly, and the coffee that came in the kit was GREAT. Read more

Awesome kit. Loved that it came with a nice scale, some green coffee samples, the extender tube. Tried their beans in the roaster as soon as I got it and they were outstanding. So smooth and delicious. This roaster is infinately better than my previous setup (the one that looks like a round hot plate with a spinning metal blade). Love that it's completely automatic (roasts, then cools and then turns off). Couldn't be happier. Read more

I roasted a few pounds of coffee, can’t get much fresher. The roaster is easy to use and seems to produce great results. Can’t wait to roast some more coffee Read more

Product came properly packaged, mitigating any breakages. Set up is sturdy and everything that was described for a new/ beginner coffee roaster. Instructions are included and give detailed points on how to roast, and get started. This is great in leading you to develop your own practices and way of roasting the beans to suit you. Obviously it takes some practice to get the beans to your liking so take your time, be patient, be safe as the process gets very hot, and ultimately enjoy the journey you are on in roasting your own beans. Read more

I've been roasting beans off and on for 20 years using an old Orville Redenbacher modified popcorn air popper. Some batches were really good, some were unimpressive, but could only ever roast 80-90 g of green beans. The FR 800 is a much more powerful roaster, with independent controls for fan speed and heat. It was a well researched purchase and I did get the extension tube, which has allowed me to roast at temperatures as low as 42°F. In addition to the more powerful fan and individual controls, the built-in thermometer is useful for monitoring conditions inside the roast chamber, and the clear glass extension tube allows perfect visualization of roast and roast levels. I have been getting consistently excellent results from all the beans that I've roasted so far. (A surprise treat was how excellent the Colombian beans that shipped with this package were!) There are a number of websites with good roast advice that provide refinements to the provided instructions, which gets you started off nicely. I'm about 12 pounds in, and have found the roaster easy to learn and control. I am using a separate cooler, as I really like to be able to stop my roast quickly and due to the thermal mass of the machine, even though the cooling cycle shuts off the heat, there is a certain amount of retained heat to account for. As I become more comfortable with the roaster and with specific beans, I may use the cooling cycle to cool the beans, but at this point I don't trust myself to end the roast where I want it, given how slowly they cooled the couple of times I've tried to let the cooling cycle cool them. So far, I've roasted some African and central American beans from City- to City+ and some South American, African, and Indonesian coffees at varying levels up to FC+ with fine control of roast level. I've had no trouble hearing first or second crack. The extension tube and the chaff-trapping lid work quite well together. I'm drinking the best coffee of my life these days, in large part because of this roaster! Read more