Greetings from the Old Pueblo! (Tucson, AZ)

[afelli]

Hey, all!

After lurking on the forum for months, I finally decided to create an account and introduce myself. I've been roasing in my oven, and then on a Behmor 1600+ for approximately 6 months.

Preheating the Behmor, making modifications with temperature probes, messing with the manual settings, and pulling the beans out while the drum is cooling all for what ultimately isn't an ideal BT profile has officially gotten on my nerves - I think it's finally time to upgrade to a Huky! 

I'm sure you'll see me around asking all sorts of silly questions. Bear with me!

Before I start digging to deep in the forum - I'm hoping you all can answer a few quick questions for me:

• Is there more common place to find used Huky roasters, aside from getting lucky on CL and Ebay?
• If you had to go back, and purchase your entire machine over again.. What would you do differently?
• Without digging too deeply into the politics of it all (haha!), Do you personally prefer the solid drum+fast motor, or the freedom of having "some" option between the two with the perforated drum+slow motor?

Thanks!

[SusanJoM]

or the freedom of having "some" option between the two with the perforated drum+slow motor? [/li][/list]

This is a misunderstanding (or it is if I am understanding you correctly).   The grate in no way moves the perforated drum along some continuum towards a solid drum.

[afelli]

or the freedom of having "some" option between the two with the perforated drum+slow motor? [/li][/list]

This is a misunderstanding (or it is if I am understanding you correctly).   The grate in no way moves the perforated drum along some continuum towards a solid drum.

That's good to know! You understood correctly - I was under the impression that moving the grate, such that it blocks the holes in the perf drum, would yield some middle-ground between solid and perforated.

I suppose my logic was that the grate blocks the beans from getting direct heat (as much as they would through the holes in the perf. drum), which would simulate a solid drum contact, but the open holes in the rest of the drum would still allow the drum to react more quickly (as it would in the perf. drum setup).

If this isn't the case - does the grate simply act as a mechanism to make fine heat adjustments?

Thanks for the info, by the way!

[SusanJoM]

I suppose my logic was that the grate blocks the beans from getting direct heat (as much as they would through the holes in the perf. drum), which would simulate a solid drum contact, but the open holes in the rest of the drum would still allow the drum to react more quickly (as it would in the perf. drum setup).

That would seem reasonable, but blocking the direct heat isn't the issue after all.  It's that the perforated drum simply doesn't hold heat the way the solid drum does.

I did my first solid drum roast today after a few years with the perforated and was amazed at how slowly the system got heated up and then how vigorously it charged ahead when fully warmed.  A very different beast. 

Either one will please you.  Why one or the other?  Toss a coin....