List of Current Air Popcorn Poppers for Coffee Roasting

[Greg Clink]

I am new to this forum and only discovered home roasting this month but am really hooked on it!
The purpose of my post is to give my experience with various air poppers. Searching in vain at several thrift stores, I bought a White Westinghouse on Ebay which successfully roasted a few batches but is very noisy. As luck would have it, I found a Poppery II for $5.99 at the only store in the area I had missed
It roasts about the same, doing 2/3 cup into second crack in 6-7 minutes. I did move outside and use a soup can chimney because it came sans plastic top. The chimney is nice as I can go up to 3/4 cup and stir the beans with a wooden spoon early in the roast.
Today I picked up two Kitchen Gourmet poppers for $6.00 total, thinking that would set me up with some good spares. However, they are very noisy as well, sounding like they are rattling or coming apart. For one thing, the noise makes it difficult to discern first and second crack. The Poppery just seems more solid.

Curious to know if this others have found a quality difference in poppers. Is there a way to quiet these down?
No biggie as they are now in the basement but they may never be used as they are.

I just ordered another 5# of the Brazil Campos, finding that to take a darker roast well and be a great bargain. This is going to be fun.

[nduich]

I just picked up an American Era from a CVS store for $19.99. It has the sought after side vents. I will order my first batch of green today and report back on how it works.

[Greg Clink]

Interesting that CVS has these too.
My Poppery II is doing the job nicely. I just finished my first cup of the morning (It's 9:15 ).
This Brazillian yellow has hints of caramel, chocolate and a bit of some spice I can't pin down. Home roasting has opened up a world of coffee flavors that I never new existed.

Enjoy it!

[gymmiller]

I've roasted a couple of pounds in the "American Era" from CVS. So far, so good. Although I'm a rank amateur at this stuff, the results have been great. I use 2 oz. per batch, and find that I need to 'rock' the popper to keep the beans moving for a couple of minutes. Once the beans dry a bit, the airflow is sufficient to suspend the beans. I suppose I could eliminate the motion by reducing the batches to 1.5 oz. Roast times are 6-9 minutes, give or take, and the color is very even. This popper only has a 1050W element, but seems to retain heat well enough to do the job. I haven't yet pushed for a full French roast, but I've come close at 9 minutes.

[Timbo]

I have never been able to find a popper at a thrift store in my area, but yesterday I was at a local discount store called Ross (is that a nationwide chain? I don't know). They carry discounted new items from overstocks and stuff like that. Anyway there was a little popper on the shelf called the "Bella Cucina Artful Food Hot Air Popcorn Maker" for $12.99. It's 1200 Watts, and has the side vents. I haven't roasted with it yet, but see no reason why it wouldn't work, since it's basically just like a West Bend, only it's bright red!. They have 'em on ebay for cheap, and they're not listed as Coffee Roasters, so they're not being fought over. Just so you know!

[Greg Clink]

That looks like the Kitchen Gourmet although the red looks nicer than the KG white.
I fired up one of the KG's a couple of weeks ago and roasted several batches. It was a bit noisy (I suspect the fan bearing) but it worked just like the Poppery II.
Good luck.

[Sweet Maria's]

It looks like many people have the experience I do: Air Popcorn Poppers are now a "seasonal only" item in a lot of stores. And now is the season! I wish we could find one model with some sort of design advantage for coffee roasting, but I guess that would be the epic Poppery 1 from West Bend, and that is a thrift-store-only item. The good news on those is that there are still A LOT of them out there. I found one near here, in Berkeley, last time I was at a second hand shop, and this is one of the most picked-over places in terms of 2nd hand anything. As far as the "wrong design" poppers with the screen in the bottom, yes they can work They just tend to scorch. If it was your first time roasting, you might get some wrong impressions and some bad results from this type of popper. If you know what you are doing, and use batch size adjustments, maybe even shake the popper a bit in the roast, tip it back to improve the agitation of coffee in the chamber, these types of poppers can work too. - Tom

[martin]

This is me being amused at how much that description of the pros and cons of flat-screen poppers reminds me of the early discussions of the new model Freshroasts, which helped put me off of them. Just sayin'.

[Sweet Maria's]

Part of the issue is that they don't really "fluidize the bed" of coffee as they are supposed to. If a truly fluid bed is desirable (not a stated fact, but certainly when the entire bed moves in the airflow the heat transfer to every bean is better) then I am not sure the "screen in the bottom" design really does that ... well, i mean I am sure it does with a small batch of coffee but not with any substantial size batch. Then again, there were many people stirring the coffee in the popper, or shaking it, or doing other things to get through the early stages of drying out/weight loss. So that compensates for lack of a real fluid bed...
I was always worried about them as more of a fire hazard since I would find a lot of chaff in the base when I took them apart. But that can happen with other types too... -Tom

[Postman]

I just ordered the the Presto per recommendations page and it came with the wrong vents (screen on the bottom). I have been using it and have successfully roasted several batches. To prevent the chaff from igniting I have been gently shaking and rocking the roast. The chaff flies off easily, non left behind to be ignited. It is a little intensive, not a set and forget method, but it works. Best Wishes, hope this helps.