Nesco CR-1010-PR Coffee Bean Roaster, Black

Excellent , excellent, excellent. So easy to use a man can do it; I know, I’m a man. Men like things easy and roasting can’t get any easier than this. My wife uses it too and loves it. This roaster does not emit smoke in the house. Basically you just plug it in and push the arrow up or down for the amount of minutes you want to roast and push the start button and you’re done. The unit automatically goes into a five minute cool down mode. So if you arrow up to twenty minutes it will roast for fifteen minutes and cool for five. When the minutes countdown to six or seven minutes you can arrow up for more time if you want it darker. But once it goes into the cooling mode you can’t change anything. Conversely, during the minute countdown if the roast has reached your desired stopping point you can push the “cool” button and it suspends the roasting and starts cooling down. My Pastor has used his for two years with no issues. They seem to be very reliable.

As a long-time hot air popcorn popper coffee roaster, I find the Nesco CR-1010-PR to be both familiar to use and more convenient than the makeshift popcorn popper method. Chaff is well contained; I have to disable my smoke detectors during roasting but I can roast indoors, something I could never do with the popcorn popper, given the way it scattered chaff. It is easy to program and consistent in its results. I find that it cools the roasted coffee too slowly, so when the roasting part of the program is done I dump the beans into a sieve on top of a horizontal box fan. This both cools the beans and blows away the chaff (this is definitely an outdoor job.) You probably should run the roaster through the remainder of the cooling cycle to be kind to the equipment.

Popcorn roasters are messy, and by the time you add controls you've spent as much as the Nesco costs. I was concerned the Nesco only had a timer and no temperature control - the beans heat up slowly enough and consistently enough so the timer works just fine. I always weigh 150 gm (1/3 lb.) of beans and get very repeatable roasts. So easy, charge green beans, set timer, hit start - the roast time and cooling cycle are automatic. At 11 minutes It starts to stink so it needs to be operated under a a stove vent hood. It runs hotter than the combustion temperature of paper or wood, so it shouldn't be left alone. I start it and do other kitchen chores for 20 minutes. I have learned some green bean suppliers have really good coffee and some don't. Buying green coffee has been a crap shoot, especially when buying beans from the well know growing regions. Sometimes I am delighted and sometimes I am very disappointed. The Nesco is a "piece of Cake", acquiring the green coffee beans is not. I have yet to have home roasted coffee "knock my socks off" verses fresh roasted beans from a quality roaster. I can do as good, but have not done better. That said, it burned out after 12-15 pounds of coffee beans. That was some really expensive coffee.

Used almost a year to make 1-2 batches a week. Stopped working with terrible smell. I opened the bottom cover and found that plastic wheel melted and was about to burn. When it worked the roasting quality was okay but quality of the roaster is terrible and in no way it can be called "Professional". By the way, one of reasons many buy this product is claim that it is "smokeless". I guess all owners can confirm that it is NOT true. Anyway, stay away from this junk.

Unit arrived timely, 2 business days after order. I opened it and took it out to the garage I have been roasting for about a year now. In terms of ease of use this roaster is awesome. The unit defaults to 20 minute cycle, with a 15 minute roast and 5 minute cool down. I just load it to the line and pushed go, the first 20 minute batch came out a light city with a lot of chaff. Not as dark as I like but hey it worked. I consulted the instructions and saw that for dark roast it recommends 27-30 minutes. I loaded it to the dark roast line and hit go. The unit hadn't seemed to make any smoke at all in the garage so I moved it to the kitchen. 15 minutes into the roast the beans were a rich oily dark brown and I decided it was time to cool them down and that I had probably gone to far. I hit the cool button and the fan and auger speed up, and out came the small cloud of smoke. Immediately I moved to open the window to vent the kitchen and turned on the range hood. Too late, the smoke detector went off and I was grabbing a box fan and magazine, moving the roaster back out the garage. The catalytic keeps up with the lower airflow of the roast cycle, but not the higher rate of the cooling cycle, or maybe the catalytic turns off once the element isn't on. Either way there went my hops of roasting coffee indoors in the colder months of the year, and I lost the coffee too. The first two batches ended up in the garbage. I have sense gotten the hang of it, leaving the unit outside the back door on the stoop and checking it. The next batches I just ran the 20 minute cycle and only filled to the "Dark Roast" line, and the roast came out maybe just a little darker than I'd prefer. Problem is this roaster is a bit under powered for using outside when cold. The ambient air temperature affects the roasting time and makes results unpredictable. I find myself running a batch then adjusting the temperature and watching the next cycle to get it where I want it. The issue is that means wasting about 3-4oz of beans of each batch for dialing things in, not a huge deal. The uniformity of the roast of the beans is really good, no more light and dark beans like my old air roaster, which relied on the amount of air movement to agitate the beans. Cleaning is pretty easy, after each cycle, clean the screen dump the chaff and wipe out the glass chamber. This unit is a lot quieter than my old air roaster too, I can actually here the first crack when it starts. The roaster holds a bit more than the 2oz of my old one, say 3-4 oz depending on which line you load too. I am unsure how they get that you can roast a 1/3 lb batch at a time, but it not a big deal. I am pretty happy with it for the price and ease of use its a keeper, I just wish it handled the smoke a little better. Update: I did a full pound of coffee in this unit in 5 batches( ~3.25 oz each). 15 minutes of roast time for each batch with no cooling cycle. I had a chilled bowl and a screen strainer standing by for cooling the beans when they came out. The roast is better this way, and the final product was right on. I also suggest at least 48 hours for the beans to off-gas. Over all very pleased just needed a little time to get the process down.

This has to be the easiest way to roast coffee beans. It was fun to watch the beans turn darker and fill up the roaster and they finished up. 30 Minutes and the beans were perfectly roasted! Love the fact that the roaster will remember the last setting, even if it has been unplugged. Our first cup of coffee was the BEST cup of coffee I have EVER had. Pretty sure I can never go back to canned coffee again! Why didn't I get one of these sooner.

Llegó mucho antes de lo esperado. Me sorprende lo bien que funciona. Los materiales son de primera calidad. Ya hice mi primer tueste. El vendedor muy pendiente siempre, recomiendo el producto ampliamente

I really like this roaster for its lack of smoke. The catalytic converter absorbs almost all of the smoke. The auger assembly give the beans an extremely even roast. My two previous roasters, which I used over the last ten years, were extremely smoky and quite often gave an uneven roast as they used air flow to mix the beans. This roaster takes between 20 -25 minutes to roast the beans depending on the degree of roast that you want. My other roaster took between 6 and 7 minutes. So far I am very impressed and pleased with my purchase.

I really like this product. It is compact, simple and easy to use. Produces a good basic roast. However, my only issue is the longevity of the product. I roast regularly-2 times a week at least so the machine gets well used. But, they do not seem to last too long. This is my fourth one now. They only seem to last 2-3 years, there are no parts for some potential repairs I could have done. Too bad because I have to junk the whole machine. The price has not changed much over the time I have had these so it has been cost effective compared to what I would have to spend on a better roaster.

This (relatively) inexpensive home roaster produces excellent results with minimal effort. I was paying $19/lb. for roasted beans. I now pay $7/lb for green beans and my estimated yearly savings will be over $300 which easily pays for the Nesco. Pros: Produces excellent, evenly roasted coffee beans. Very simple interface. Catalytic converter means no smoke and little odour. Chaff collector is efficient, if not perfect. Simple cleanup. Will pay for itself in less than one year. Cons: Noisy. Batches are small with only enough beans roasted for about 8 espressos. I'm worried about robustness. The first machine I had stopped working after just a few weeks. I easily obtained a free replacement from Amazon but I do wonder how long the machine will last.

Cheaply made, had to put duct tape inside the cover over the actuating switch for the machine to run. After 3 roasts it seems to do ok for a medium roast. Quieter than i expected. The warranty is useless, it would be less expensive to buy a new one rather than paying shipping x2 for warrinty work. You cant buy replacement parts... If i can get a year out of it i will be satisfied.