Jerry

Hard to believe I've been using my RK drum since 2004 and it is still as great as day one. In looking for information for a friend and having been away from the site for several years I was amazed to see the progress made. I saw the new drum latch and had to have it. It arrived last week but only got around to installing it today. I had to roast some almonds for some Custom Crafted chocolate I make. 

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:

I've only done a couple of roasts, and none more than about 3 pounds, But so far I've been getting good reviews from folks and I certainly like the coffee myself.  The squeak has been minimized, the wobble in the spit largely goes away when it's loaded up and hot, and the clasp/door has not really caused me any problems.  In short, I'm loving my new roaster.  It has made my life a lot easier.  And so far, without any modifications I'm roasting (albeit with smaller loads) at near "low" on the the three burners.

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

Picked it up this evening and we just roasted our first batch – WOW!  We are very impressed with the result.  Can’t wait to do more :)