List of Current Air Popcorn Poppers for Coffee Roasting

[jwegrzyn]

Hi,

This is my first post and my first attempt at roasting coffee...I had an old Wearever Pumper and after 3 roasts the machine quit I'm wondering if anyone has attempted to repair this model? Or is it simply not worth the effort? I can't find a machine around here except for the Prestos and Redenbachers, and I can't afford a Behmor right now, but I did manage to put it on my Christmas list for next year....any advice? There's something about me that doesn't want to purchase one off of eBay

Thanks....

[The BurgerMeister]

hmmmm... that's the same one i just picked up at my local thrift shop! i'll let you all know how it turns out. hopefully it was just a fluke, and mine will roast perfectly for decades. in any case... it was 4 bucks.

also... hello! this is my first post.

[The BurgerMeister]

hmmmm... that's the same one i just picked up at my local thrift shop! i'll let you all know how it turns out. hopefully it was just a fluke, and mine will roast perfectly for decades.

yeah... no.

the Pumper started turning off then on by itself repeatedly right at the verge of 1st crack. this is presumably a safety feature which aids in keeping the machine from melting. i had to finish using the ol' cowboy stovetop method. first crack started in earnest on the stove, so i'm hoping i produced a good roast (not a "bake").

in any case, i tried twice with the Pumper (the first time with about 2/3 cup and the second time with about 1/3 cup) and the same thing happened both times. i probably ended up with a light-city-to-city+ roast. this is my first foray into roasting, so i'm not completely sure. in any case, the beans are degassing in the pantry and i'm going to brew them up in the morning and see what happens.

...and whatever happens, this was certainly fun!

[martin]

Ah, the inconsistent joys of repurposing corn poppers as coffee roasters! Sounds like a classic (and perhaps rather extreme) case of "the thermostat would pop corn, but it won't let it roast coffee". If you want to take a whack at it, the pumper apparently has a style of thermostat that's easy to disable. OTOH, if this misadventure has led you to another roasting method that you enjoy, that's fine, too. :-)

What matters is that you're having fun... well, and enjoying the cup, of course!

[andersont2]

I just picked up the American Era popper from CVS and the manager gave it to me half off because they are going to clearance. He told (like others have said) that they come in around Christmas time. I haven't roasted in it yet, but I also just got my 4 lb. sampler from Sweet Maria's this week. I'm looking forward to trying.

As someone else said, it does have the recommended side vents.

[The BurgerMeister]

Ah, the inconsistent joys of repurposing corn poppers as coffee roasters! Sounds like a classic (and perhaps rather extreme) case of "the thermostat would pop corn, but it won't let it roast coffee". If you want to take a whack at it, the pumper apparently has a style of thermostat that's easy to disable. OTOH, if this misadventure has led you to another roasting method that you enjoy, that's fine, too.

What matters is that you're having fun... well, and enjoying the cup, of course!

hehe!

roasting, no matter how you go about it, is a wonderful blend of art and science.

my stovetop roasting experiments have been put on the back burner (har har) since i found out how to disable the thermostat in the Pumper. sweet sassy molassy that thing works quite well now! it never stops and produces wonderfully even roasts. beans roasted in the skillet were quite nice, albeit uneven... but i still enjoyed drinking the resulting coffee. now i'm wondering if the Pumper is roasting too quickly, so i'm experimenting with slowing down the roast in various ways (tilting, stirring, turning the machine off for a few seconds, an extension cord, etc.) that don't involve too much tinkering with electricity. haven't had bad results yet... but could they be better?

i'm loving this adventure.

[bfris]

<EDIT> It turns out Sunbeam might be OK. It DOES have a thermostat. It's so easy to get to, I missed it at first. In fact, the Sunbeam is one of the easiest to disable the thermostat. <EDIT>

I'd like to put in a vote AGAINST the Sunbeam FPSBBPP7051. It's commonly available from Target. It has nice features (side air vents and a power switch), but it just doesn't get hot enough to get to first crack.

I've opened it up, and I can't find a thermal switch to disable. It has a fuse, but no switch.

Another drawback (as if the first one wasn't enough) is that the capacity is pretty small compared to other poppers.

[tkatka70]

I Also use the Sunbeam from target. Just have to take the thermostat off but it is super east to take off.

[thepeoplesroast.com]

I've roasted using several popcorn poppers. I started out with the American Era from CVS which had a low capacity but roasted quickly.

I've recently purchased the West Bend Poppery II and the Kitchen Gourmet from Walgreens and they are similar. Both better than the American Era, higher capacity and the Kitchen Gourmet actually roasts faster than the Poppery II.

Then, I hit the jackpot and found a West Bend Poppery (original) at the thrift store. It blows everything else away. It gets much hotter and has a high capacity. The fan on this thing is great and keeps a lot of coffee moving quickly. Here's a video of myself roasting in the Poppery:



Today on a garage sale/thrift store trip I found another Original Poppery and a Popcorn Pumper. I haven't used the Popcorn Pumper yet, but have read that it's a model that works. Since I've amassed all of these poppers, I decided to sell a few of them at my blog if anyone is interested: http://www.thepeoplesroast.com/resources

[jkundert]

Hi, all,

Regarding the Sunbeam (which I recently purchased from Target myself), how does one get to the themostat to disable it? I'd be much obliged if someone could post instructions or a picture or something. THanks!

John