Reviews
Oct
15
Justin Collins
I bought the 8 lb. drum from Shane about a year ago and since then I have easily put over 500 lbs through the beast! The drum is flawless! I had my learning curve of course, but after a handful of not perfect (yet very tasty) batches, I caught on. Now I never miss a beat. My roasts are flawlessly even across the whole drum. Shane probably wouldn't approve of this, but I cram 12 lb. into the 8 lb. drum, and 26 minutes later I have a perfectly even 10 lb. batch of Full City+. I also have a grill that could take the place of my furnace in a pinch;) When I do fairs/bazaars I punch 100 lbs through this beast without even a hiccup. AMAZING!!!!! I really can't say enough good about these drums. They are built like tanks and infused with a little piece of Shane's heart. Skip the cheap thin gauge junk on ebay. Once you buy one of Shane's drums you will never want anything else. It's worth the coin, plus it will outlive Armageddon;)
I also purchased the new "RK Model T" cooler and I love it! It looks good, runs like a champ, and, like the drums, is one solid piece of machinery!
What is really amazing is not just the drum... it's Shane! He made the process of transitioning into small batch commercial roasting easier for me. Not only does he stand unwaveringly behind his products, but he loves to help the novice overcome the learning curve. Thank you Shane... You Rock!
One RK Convert,
Justin
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Jun
23
Jay Michels
Shane,
Got the new clip, and pop riveted it on. Must have taken me all of 2 minutes!
Just completed roasting 20 pounds of various beans, and I LOVE the new clip!!!!
No more fiddling around with the pin, just pop it out, flip the clip, dump the beans, and on to the next batch.
As you mentioned in your review, a bit less noise, and much faster turnaround times between roasts.
Still regret not going with the 6 pound drum.
Best Wishes,
Jay Michels
Jun
23
Mike & Julie Kaye - Canada
Shane,
I just wanted to let you know that everything worked out great for the shipping. We christened the roaster this evening, and all went well. I am looking forward to my first cup tomorrow!
Many thanks for all your coordination.
Mike
Jun
23
Sommers Coffee Co.
Shane, got the roaster up and running this past weekend, did a burn in and
two batches on Sunday (1 pound and 2 pound) and then had to hurry off to
other things. Last night i put the the roaster to work and roasted 15
pounds in about 2.5 hours! however i had to take about 20 minutes to make
some adjustments to the rotisserie rod, it must have been off center because
it was clicking pretty loudly. the largest batch i did was 3 pounds, wow i
am loving this thing already, and once i bump it up to 4 pounds things will
move much quicker. give me a few weeks of using this and i will write a
complete review you can share with others, i went to bed last night feeling
great that i had roasted a weeks worth of orders in a little over 2 hours,
and the coffee was packaged, labeled and ready to go to the store, and i
don't have to think about it until next week. Thanks for a great product
and excellent support.
Paul Sommers
Sommers Coffee Co
Jun
23
David Adler
Hi Shane,
The cooler works fantastic - a really nice tool! And what a great Father's day gift for "el tostador tonto". Bean cooling is fast (very) and chaff removal is effective - and easy, quick clean up with vacuum cleaner. And, no chaff flying all over - no more chaff landing everywhere in my roasting area.
best wishes,
David
Jun
23
Coffee Snobs - Australia
Shane,
Got the drum up and running on the weekend here.
Eased into it with a 1.5kg (3.3 lbs) roast of Peru Ceja de Selva followed by 1.8kg (4lbs) of Bolivian Green Mountain.
Very happy with the results of the first 2.
A very short pictorial review of the first roast can be seen in:
http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1323495861/
Brett.
Feb
03
David Weiler/Kim Hartling-BC, Canada
TO whom gives a damn:
Great drum! did a first of many successful roasts. what a knock-out!!! many thanks and if we ever get around to hooking up to the bike, will send pics.
(for your records for other Can. possible clients Total cost ~ $ 520.00)
Peace,
David & Kim
Kimb. BC. Canada
Nov
08
Dick Coffee
Hi Shane,
I love my RK drum - I think I've probably roasted 100 pounds in it by
now. As bad weather begins to creep into Northern Indiana I have a
little more time on my hands and I realized I neglected to let you know
that a friend of mine wrote an article about my roasting. If you go to
www.thebeacher.com - go to past issues for 2011, select October 6 and
you'll get a pdf version of The Beacher. If you scroll down to page 36
you'll find Charley's article. The RK drum gets honorable mentions
there. I hope you enjoy it.
Dick Coffee
Nov
08
Justin Collins
Just finished roasting a 9 lb batch of Nicaragua Dipilto... It was flawless!!!! Thx again!!!
Only 31 pounds to go;)
The roast is perfectly even throughout the entire batch... Fabulous!
My first 5lb roast was all over the place, but I leveled the drum (not the BBQ), and it came out perfect
Justin Collins
Jun
13
Mark Onks
It's been a week since I received and put together my new 6Lb DIY combo and in short, I'm thrilled! I had a few small challenges with the installation but engineering the solutions was part of the fun.
With this 10 year old Weber grill, the square tubes were about 3/4 inch too low for the base plate-motor mount combo at the highest position so I cut a pair of 1x2 shims to sit between the base plate and the tubes and got some 3-inch bolts for the muffler clamps--just right! The rotisserie cutouts in this grill were tiny and wanting to avoid using the Charbroil mounting brackets, I used my Dremel to cut those slots in the grill deep enough to accomodate some extra bearing-bushings that I bought at a grill parts supplier. Now the rotisserie spit is strongly supported on each side of the grill and I think it makes the motor's job easier since the spit and drum aren't hanging on the coupler. By the way, the motor , motor mount and baseplate is very well made and I especially appreciate the holes being pre-threaded for the electrical boxes. I chose to mount an unswitched duplex outlet on the back position to give me a place to conveniently plug in a fan to blow on the motor when I start doing big long roast sessions. To make the grill more efficient on gas, I blocked off about 70% of the rear vent with a piece of carpet threshold that fit perfectly and already had a slight bend which makes it press against the grill base nicely when the hood is closed.
Enough tech-stuff--forgive me, I'm an engineer--the drum is a work of art and the motor and mounts are terrific and the whole kit is well thought-out and it makes GREAT COFFEE! I've done several roasts using your
suggested profile for 1lb batches and I'm getting the hang of it! I will graduate to larger batches when I decide what kind of beans I want to order in quantity. The only bad thing about this setup is that I want to roast all the time and you need lots of beans in your inventory to have all that fun! The picture attached is Guatemala--Villa Herminia at a very even roast...delicious.
Thanks for your great products, and even more for your superb customer service! Keep up the good work!
Jun
13
Jason Hunt - Canada
I owe you a big thankyou for your advice Shane! That drum is really starting to work for me. Some time in the future I will have to send you a documented time and temperature profile on what is working for me with that srum. One of the bigger hurdles is the barbeque. It doesn't regulate it's heat very well but I have put a bank of 4 thermometers on the front of my barbeque that I use to moniter the heat. This helps me keep an even roast along the full length of that long drum. Your suggestion of preheating the barbeque to 600 has really helped, I also am preheating the drum a little. What really has helped is the times that you projected for me. When I followed those times I started learning when the second crack was happening. this has made the difference. -Jason
