MAGGIOLINO

Professional 1-Pound Sample Roaster

Manufactured by Coffee-Tech Engineering - Tel-Aviv

 

I bought this roaster from a friend in the Netherlands in the summer of 2009. It had been used for a couple of years and the heater had been replaced. In addition, the analog-clock style mechanical thermostat had been replaced by a digital Omron E5EN temperature controller and thermocouple.

In the first 18 months that I have owned it I have roasted more than 100 pounds of coffee in about 150 roasts. Although the roaster is capable of roasting 400g batches I have often roasted smaller amounts.

General Description

The Maggiolino is an electrically heated, drum-type manual roaster with only a mains switch and a temperature controller. There are no other controls and there are no safety devices built into the machine. A cyclone-type chaff collector is included, powered by a centrifugal blower that also helps control the roasting temperature and cools the beans when roasting is finished.

Roasting 400 grams of coffee creates a large amount of smoke, making it necessary to vent the roaster to a chimney or at least outside the house. The blower has a 100 mm diameter exhaust to which a standard smoke pipe or flex-hose can be attached.

Pre-heating the roaster takes about 10 minutes and a 400g roast takes about 16 minutes. Continuous, back-to-back roasting without pause is possible, allowing one to roast about 3 pounds of green beans per hour.

The drum is 150 mm in diameter and 21cm long. It is non-perforated with large welded spiral fins and is made of very heavy carbon steel. It is supported by a 15 mm welded steel shaft that runs through it, turning on ball bearings front and rear. The drum is welded into a heavy carbon steel cage and is not removable. It is driven by a large, geared electric motor and rotates at 34 rpm.

The thermocouple is mounted in the front plate and extends into the drum so that it is above the bean mass, but constantly being hit by the falling beans. The temperature controller is set by pressing buttons with rotating drum-type indicators. The temperature can be set from 0° to 300°, but due to the inherrent inertia of the design, the thermocouple and the heating element the system tends to oscillate rather dramatically. This cycling must be taken into account when starting a roast, as will be seen in the description of the process later on.

The whole roaster is 66 cm long, 50 cm wide (with attached cyclone) and 46 cm high. It weighs 27 kg (about 60 US pounds).

For a tear-down slide show of the roaster click on the picture below

Then press the Slide Show button on the upper right.

 

Then press the Autoplay arrow at the top.

 

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