Product Description

The popular i-Roast coffee roaster has been improved in the new i-Roast 2. This new version has some great features. It has features found in only the most sophisticated machines that can cost thousands of dollars. Features: Roasts any bean for any brewing system in less than 15 minutes. Full range of roasting capability (Cinnamon to dark French). 2 Preset Automatic Roasting Curves for slower and faster roasts. Patented temperature control to give you consistent personalized roasting performance. Roasts enough beans to produce up to 24 cups of coffee. Chaff collector system that removes all of the chaff. Hi-visibility roasting pot for easy monitoring. Compact - requires minimal counter space. Interlocking parts for excellent product stability. Built in 4 minute cooling cycle. Up to 10 memory functions. Up to 5 stages.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33933 in Kitchen & Housewares
• Color: Black
• Brand: Iroast
• Model: 40011
• Dimensions: 12.00" h x 7.00" w x 12.00" l, 6.00 pounds

Features

• Versatile appliance roasts coffee beans for any brewing system
• Roasts up to 5-2/7 ounces of green beans; built-in 4-minute cooling cycle
• Automatic or programmable roasting profiles; adjustable time and temperature
• Save up to 10 profiles; LCD display; wind-tunnel and thermoflector technology
• Measures approximately 7 by 7 by 12-1/4 inches

Amazon.com Product Description
Roast coffee beans for any brewing system, including espresso, press, drip, or perk, with this versatile roaster. The unit accommodates up to 5-2/7 ounces of green beans--enough to produce up to 24 cups of coffee, plus it delivers professional results in just 15 minutes with its built-in four-minute cooling cycle. Enjoy the purest, freshest, and most aromatic coffee for less than 10 cents a cup. For the casual roaster, the unit offers automatic roasting profiles from light to French and anything in between. For the roasting aficionado, program the time and temperature for each of the five roast stages to create and adjust personal roast profiles. Roasting times can be increased or decreased up to a maximum of 15 minutes, and the roasting temperature can be adjusted by increments of 5 degrees F. Save up to 10 programmable roast profiles in the roaster's memory for future use.

For accurately monitoring the roast process, the appliance comes equipped with an easy-to-read LCD display that shows the time, temperature, roast stage, and more. Other highlights include a glass roasting chamber that provides clear visibility during every stage, two present automatic roasting curves for slower and faster roasts, patented wind-tunnel and thermoflector technology to ensure even roasting, and a locking mechanism, which securely holds the chaff base and pot stable during the roasting process. Even more, the unit's double filtration chaff collection disassembles for simple cleaning. The coffee-bean roaster measures approximately 7 by 7 by 12-1/4 inches.

Customer Reviews

NO CUSTOMER SERVICE
DON'T BUY THIS or any Hearthwear product. My i-roast lasted less than a year with regular weekly use. When it quit heating (burnt out) I was worried that because I didn't have the reciept due to it being a gift that Hearthwear wouldn't honor the waranty. Not to worry, you can't get serviec at all, let alone under waranty.

I emailed Hearthwear repeatedly as stated in the waranty and called repeatedly and was unable to get an answer or leave a message due to the box being full. Bottom line, if you buy their products you're on your own!

Problems with customer service/repair departments
I had a previous model of the iRoast and was happy with it, but after 6 years, it finally quit roasting. I bought the i-Roast2 roaster from Amazon in April. It worked very well until September, when I started having problems reading the numbers on the screen (time remaining to roast). Numbers were only visible from an angle, not directly facing the screen. I sent at least three e-mails requesting directions for obtaining an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) number. I finally received a reply by sending an e-mail to Janet in the customer service department, who forwarded a message to Maria. Her reply gave me instructions for sending the information and a fax number to use. The fax machine at the number given does not answer. Attempts to call always give the message that I am number 24 in line. This number does not seem to change. Bottom line: The coffee roaster is a good one, but instructions for use are not user-friendly, and service from the so-called service department is completely lacking. You might want to try an alternate brand.

Great roaster---it has flaws, but it is still more than worth it
If you read this, you probably already know that roasting your own coffee is likely the single largest improvement you can make to the quality of the coffee you drink at home, so I won't belabor that point.

I owned one for about two years before it broke (like another reviewer here), and I am going to get another one. So I obviously like it a lot. Nonetheless, I'll start with the downsides of this roaster:
1. It is noisy.
2. It requires attention to cleaning to function properly.
3. It produces quite a bit of smoke (but then again, it's coffee roasting we talk about).
4. It has a limited half-life (as mentioned, about two years of pretty heavy, almost daily, use in my case).
5. It's for small batch sizes (this might actually be a good thing in terms of coffee freshness, if you don't mind roasting a little more frequently).
6. It's user interface could be improved: more buttons, better display.

Now the upsides:
1. It's fast. Takes about 13-15 min to roast a batch.
2. Easy and fast to use, once you have figured out the buttons (not rocket science).
3. It's programmable---you can punch in your own roasting "curves" (step functions, really), tuned to particular beans or roasts. You can get as nerdy as you like about this, and people have...

From this it would seem that there are a lot more problems than good things to report about this roaster, but the bottom line is that this little device transforms coffee roasting into an activity that you can do on the side almost like boiling an egg, or you can invest a lot of time and attention in, sticking thermo sensors into the roast chamber and plotting temperature profiles.

The one thing to pay attention to is the flow of air through the chamber. Air is used to transport heat to the beans, and also to move them around. This makes the roaster mechanically simple (and hence cheap), but it also means that it needs to be kept clean enough to avoid any obstruction to the air flow. I let cleaning slide for some time, which resulted in the exhaust getting clogged, and the roaster overheating. In that case it does switch itself off, but I doubt it's a healthy thing for the machine, and I would not be surprised if those events hastened its demise.

It's relatively inexpensive, and it will provide you with many batches of deliciously fresh coffee. If you think about home roasting coffee, I recommend getting one of these.