New Fresh Roast 8 PLUS

[The Pol]

Good News...

They are sending me a new base for my roaster. Basically everything UNDER the roasting chamber. So, it looks like I will keep roasting.

 

[Saccharomyces]

Good to hear they will stand behind their product, I suspected they would. Let us know how it works out.

I just got a Behmor 1600. At $300 it's cheap for a drum roaster. The quality of the roast is excellent. The HGDB method works, but I decided to upgrade to some hardware that will allow me to roast a weeks worth of coffee without spending an hour sweating in the heat.

 

[dontman]

I was a beta tester for that Behmor. I liked it. Did decent heat profiling. I used it as a sample roaster for a few months. We had a couple problems with chaff collection and smoke management back then but I believe that both were addressed to satisfaction.

I am curious as to how the latest iteration of the machine is doing. I have not been using a sample roaster for the past couple years and the minimum my roaster will do is 2.5 lbs which is not always desirable anymore since scaling back my roasting business.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I'll let you know when I get to a darker roast level how the smoke works out. I didn't get any smoke with the first batch but when I pulled out the beans I could see they were only City+ so it is not surprising.

The chaff collector works OK, but SM's review page says you will do well to keep the roaster next to your shop vac. Since I am roasting in the garage, I just vacuumed up the chaff. Quick and easy cleanup.

 

[The Pol]

Well, about 2 weeks later, and all I hear are crickets. I am not praising them yet.

 

[Saccharomyces]

Bummer. Hope your luck improves.

 

[The Pol]

Just an update, still no replacement roaster. They are no longer answering my emails or messages.

Maybe this is proof that warranties are only worth the paper they are written on? Between this and my Barley Crusher, I cannot do squat

 

[azmtnbiker]

That is pretty much the same thing that happened to me. The roaster went dead after 34 roasts. I did ship mine back, forget how much, and it took over 3 weeks to get the new one. By then I had a Behmor 1600 and gave away the new Fresh roast they sent me.
I roast 1/2lb at a time and it works well for me even if I want to get a dark roast. I also picked this up a few weeks ago which makes a great cup of coffee. AeroPress Coffee Maker by Aerobie

I am too addicted to my home roast and cannot stand the crap like Starucks. Another hobby but a fun one.

 

[The Pol]

Well, they told me that my new base would be coming about a month ago now...

I tried to contact them three times in th past week, and nothing. IMHO, dont buy the FreshRoast Plus 8. I got it from Sweet Marias, but they dont handle the warranty issues. Some company called Fresh Beans out of Utah does... apparently they dont care to stand behing thier warranty.

This has just been my experience, but if it were up to me, I would NEVER recommend anyone buying this roaster from SweetMarias.

I wasted $80... could have spent that on something cool.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

I dont know if I will end up roasting anymore... it is tedious and a higher capacity roaster will cost too much. I also do not want to DIY it.. just because that is more tedious. Dunno where my coffee roasting will go from here, just pissed at this POS that I bought from Sweet Marias.

Just noticed this thread. I did the whole home roasting thing for 5 or 6 months also. I bought an Alpenrost drum-type roaster that could do up tp 8 ounces at a time, though more than 6 was hit and miss. (It's no longer made, I believe.) It's neat to do, but yeah it's really tedious if you drink a lot of coffee like we do here. I was out in the garage roasting 3 or 4 nights a week. It gets old. Like yours, mine up and died after 6 months and I just shrugged it off and never roasted again. I didn't bother pursuing any warranty service.

Sweet Maria's is a really good outfit though.

 

[The Pol]

Well, it looks like the warranty on this roaster isnt worth poop.

 

[The Pol]

In the ongoing Fresh Roast 8 saga...

Placed another call to them this week. "TIM" said that he has no idea what happened and that he sent the roaster out the day that I called this week. We will see if it shows up in the next week.

As I have read, most roaster companies have shoddy CS departments, Fresh Beans Inc. is no different. If I actually get the replacement roaster this time, it will have only taken 3 months to do so. WOW!

So, in preparation I ordered a couple pounds of each Bourbon variety that Sweet Marias carries!

 

[Saccharomyces]

Annoying, but hopefully you will get resolution soon! That long without home roasted coffee, I think I would have to be put on suicide watch.

 

[The Pol]

It does suck...

I tore the thing apart and started testing the circuits, the thermal fuse was toast. This is because the damn switches went bad and when the FAN shut down on my last roast, the HEATER stayed on... burning the thing up!