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Nesco Professional Home Coffee Roaster
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In stock.
Nesco Professional Gourmet Home Coffee Roaster is easy to use and
produces the least smoke of any home roaster we've seen. Formerly called
Zach & Dani's roaster, this is the only home roaster on the market
with a patented catalytic converter smoke elimination system. Beans are
kept moving by a clever auger screw system in the roasting chamber. Hot
air is drawn up the roasting chamber, across the top and back down in
a counter clockwise direction, leaving chaff in a collector located at
the top of the glass chamber.
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Dimensions,
in inches: 12.5W x 8.75D x 12H
In the box:
Instructional video and instruction guide.
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Roasting
times are lengthier than Hearthware's i-Roast 2 and the cooling fan is
a bit underpowered. Roasting times are about 25 minutes which includes
a 5 minute cooling period. This combination of roasting and cooling times
is both a strength and weakness for the Nesco Professional roaster. We
really like the way it produces lighter roasts - up to Full City levels.
The roasts are evenly colored and surprisingly delicate; we find them
particularly aromatic and it's clear this roaster's design is easy on
bean cell structure.
But producing
dark roasts is a weakness as the cooling system is not able to stop the
roasting process quickly enough and the resulting coffee can be baked
and tipped. If your tastes run toward dark roasts we would recommend the
i-Roast 2 with its higher roasting speed and considerably more powerful
cooling.
Nesco's maximum
roast length is 30 minutes but up to 5 more minutes can be added during
the cycle.
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Controls
The keypad
and controls are as simple as can be. Set the overall time of the roast
using the 'up' and 'down' arrows; the time includes a 5 minute cooling
period. Press 'start'. The programmed roasting time is displayed in the
central LCD, and counts down.
If you want
to stop the roast before the alloted time press the 'cool' button. Likewise,
if you want to add to the roast press the up arrow while roasting - you
can add up to five minutes.
Press the
'recall' button for subsequent roasts to use the same time.
This roaster
does not allow for "profiles" or programs but does a good job
with lighter roasts.
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The chaff
collector cup above sits atop the glass roasting chamber. As hot air is
forced up much of the chaff winds up here and can be disposed of when
the roast is complete. To prevent the chaff from continuing in the air
stream a screen and seal sits on top of this part (see below).
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assembled roasting chamber assembly looks like this: |
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| Top
view of the Nesco Professional Gourmet Home Roaster. The air path is down
the left side, under the bottom and up the right side where the coffee is
in the roasting chamber. Air continues upward leaving most of the chaff
in the collector, goes counter-clockwise across the top and repeats the
same path. The top section removes for cleaning and the whole assembly is
dishwasher safe. |
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Pros
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Cons
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Easy to use.
Very nice roasts up to Full City level. Full City roasts and lighter are
even and the resulting coffee is aromatic.
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Blower
fan is not strong enough to cool roasts quickly enough when roasted beyond
full city so dark roasts are hard to control. Dark roasts may be chipped,
baked. |
| Very low amount
of smoke due to catalytic converter built into the design. |
Some chaff
winds up in the coffee which is not really a big deal. |
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Note: This
product was formerly sold under the brand name Zach & Dani and was
always manufactured by Nesco. The Zach & Dani name was recently retired
and it is now called Nesco Professional. The product is identical except
for the name plate.
Six month
limited manufacturer's warranty which applies only to roasters purchased
for personal or household use. Please let us know if you would like to
see a copy of the warranty and guidelines.
The Nesco
Professional roaster stands up to our frequent use and we like that you
don't have to watch every little thing when roasting. It's well built.
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