Adam Jahiel (drum #7 bought 3.5 years ago, updated review)

I've roasted about 300 pounds in my RK. I enjoy roasting the larger batches. I prefer 2 1/2 pound batches.    When you start roasting with an RK you will find that a five pound bag of greens doesn't last very long.   I really enjoy being able to roast coffee for my family and friends, with out having to spend hours of my time to do it.

Nice unit.   This is built sturdy and should last forever.    Unfortunately I dropped motor unit while installing and crushed the plastic fan.    I will epoxy it together and see if it runs  without shaking.    You did a wonderful job on the parts no sharp edges and even the drilled holes have no burs.    You must have been a machinist or an engineer or just one talented guy.   I am not used to seeing quality with everything made in china now a days. 

 Thanks,    Brad

Craig Jensen:
(Posted at www.coffeegeek.com)

I have been looking at coffee roasters for well over a year, but have been disappointed by the current options.  Basically, most of the current crop of home-use roasters (with possibly the exception of the Behmor) seem somewhat flaky and poorly constructed.  I looked at more than a few of them, and they just didn't seem likely to last out the year.  It seemed to be stretching things to pay the amount of money that many cost if I wouldn't get that much use out of them.  Also, all of the posts about voltage problems in houses with these roasters had me pretty alarmed.  I read posts about people needing variacs and line voltage problems with the roasters, and that combined with the construction problems I had seen were just too much of a red flag.  So I put off getting any of the roasters.

But then I noticed www.rkdrums.com and it seemed like a very good solution.  The drums looked well built and unlikely to fall apart in a year.  Also, since it used a propane grill, no worries about voltage issues.  My only concern with rkdrums was assembling the thing.  This was solved very easily though when Shane Lewis (see buying experience below for more details) agreed to assemble one for me.

I have done 6 roasts with the unit so far, and that seems to be enough at least to get a review started I think.  Using the unit is very easy:

Shane-- drum is working great, developing a very nice patina, if you will.  7 roastings so far, fantastic flavor which to me is fuller than the fluid air bed roasts.  I am getting to 2nd crack at about 12 minutes.  I'd like to slow it down slightly but that's a good time in my book. 

Eureka!  2 pounds of Mocha Kadir at 500 degrees.  1st crack at 11m30s, cut back to 480 -  second crack at 14m - finish roast with a nice Full City + at 15m 30 sec. - no signs of divots.  Thanks for the suggestions.  It does baffle me though.  It seems that everything I read on the subject suggested that somewhere in the process I was too hot and that was what caused the divots - some suggested too fast into 1st crack - others suggested too hot (therefore too fast) going from 1st to 2nd.  Whatever it is, this seems like a nice profile.

Thanks again Shane.
Dick