Sweet Maria's Nesco Tipsheet

[Sweet Maria's]

• Home roasting is fun. You will be amazed how easy it is. Pay attention to the process, especially toward the end of the roast where the exact “degree of roast” is determined: City (med.), Full City, Vienna, French, then Fire!
• Coffee roasting produces a wonderful fragrance, unobtrusive with light roasts but smokier if you roast dark. Your roaster has an excellent smoke-eliminating “catalytic converter, but some strong roast aromas will prevail.
• Roasting produces chaff. Chaff is a fine skin that detaches from the bean as your roast is agitated. Your roaster takes care of chaff, but if you are careless, you may have to do some sweeping. Empty the chaff collector between every roast and brush it out to get perfectly consistent results. It is very handy, but not always practical, to have a ShopVac near your roasting station.
• Never leave the room while you are roasting coffee, even though the roaster is automated.
• Built-up coffee oils in the roaster are of no real consequence until they impede visibility or become a fire hazard. (In fact, a professional drum roaster requires hours of roasting initially to properly “season” the drum.)
• Batch size is critical in any roast process; if the amount of coffee you put into the roaster varies, the roast will vary too. Ideally, it is best to roast by weight, not volume. We currently offer an accurate Salter digital scale for this purpose. I find the ideal batch size for the Nesco is 4 oz. Larger amounts will fail to reach darker roast levels.
• On the Nesco the roast setting is made by adjusting the keypad number up (for darker roast = more time) or down (for lighter roast = less time). This roaster produces very even light roasts, but if actual household voltage is low (110v or less), the roaster will take a long time to acheive a French roast, and might not macke it at all. Every coffee varies slightly in how it roasts, and every roaster operates a little different based on household voltage, but here are some roaster settings that work as a starting point:
• Roast: City Full City (med-dark) Vienna (Light French) French (Dark)
  Roaster Setting: 23 24 - 25 26 - 27 28+
• Another great way to roast to get the exact degree of roast is to set the roaster at the highest number and manually stop the roast by hitting the Cool button when you see, hear & smell the signs of that roast you prefer! Trust your ears and senses to get best results...
• Remove the coffee from the roast chamber into a stainless mesh colander after the cooling cycle completes! You want to get the coffee away from the warm metal/glass surfaces. When the coffee is room temp. I transfer it to canning jars. Coffee is better after 12 hours of “resting”, which allows the CO2 to de-gas from the coffee. It is at its flavor peak at 12-72 hours. When you open the jar, you will know what I mean!
• No home roaster is designed to do serial batches! All home roasters need to cool before roasting another batch. This also improves consistency. Wait 20 minutes or longer - is the roaster feels cool to the touch - then if is safe to run another batch.
• Nesco provides an excellent warranty for the machine. Contact us for more information

[If you have a question about this information - please pose it in a separate thread. If we have not responded in a few days and no one else can chimes in with a response, PM us or email at info@sweetmarias.com address to be sure to get our attention.]

[Birdman]

The Nesco gets a bad rap, especially when it was the Z & D. I had one and used it for 3+ years (at least 3 times a week), and liked it so much I get a second one-the first was slowly going. I'm still happy with it. That said, I tend to only roast City or City+ . For beans like Yirg and others that like light roasts, its quite good. I do 5 oz. and set it for 18 minutes, which is until just after the first crack. I stop it after a minute of cooling, and cool it externally. Some beans like Rwanda Butare (wished you had more) gets set to 20 minutes which is just before the second crack starts. I never cared for dark coffee, so i rarely go farther.
Just thought I'd give my 2 cents.
Birdman

[kenherrera]

I have found the Nesco roaster to be the PERFECT gift for someone you know who wishes to get into roasting. I purchased one for my 76 year old Mother in Law and she loves it! It is extremely simple to use and gives her the ability to make the kind of coffee I've been sending to her for years. It's so simple that I also bought one for myself for those days I don't want to hassle with the Gene Cafe roaster that I normally use. The advantages are many but the most important, other than the very low price, is the fact that the Nesco is so easy to use...even for a true beginner. My in-law likes to roast at 20 minutes and lets the thing run its full course. My wife bet me a dollar her mom would never use it. Boy was she wrong! She not only uses it, she absolutely loves it and her coffee impresses all of her friends and relatives down in Oklahoma. (I'm up in Wisconsin) It may not be able to do the full variety that my Gene roaster can do but it makes a fine bean that you'll be proud to share with friends.
Oh...Tom is right, the Nesco is especially well suited for lighter roasts. My only complaint is the chaff collection system may as well not be there, but that's a minor problem. The chaff doesn't hurt the flavor of the coffee at all!

Ken

[mineraldeposit]

Sweet Maria's review of the Nesco says, "The main concern that comes up with the Nesco is the cup quality… It does work well and the mechanisms inspire confidence." But reading reviews around the Internet makes it sound as though many people encounter serious mechanical problems with the Nesco. 60% of the reviews on Amazon rate this machine 1 out of 5:

http://www.amazon.com/Nesco-CR-1010-PR-800-Watt-Coffee-Bean-Roaster/product-reviews/B000UCRYYS/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar

Any thoughts about this issue?

[mineraldeposit]

I spoke to a customer rep at Nesco (800-288-4545) about the question of breakdowns.

She said the likeliest causes of mechanical malfunctions are things that make the machinery overheat and wear out too quickly:

• not allowing the machine to cool down completely between roasts
• overfilling the carafe
• not cleaning the machine (filters and base of augur) between roasts

She says that a wipe-down is sufficient to keep it clean.

She added that she has been roasting her own coffee in one of these machines six times a week for two years and has never had a breakdown. She also said that she has only replaced her filters once in that time.

She added, on my inquiry, that this machine is US-made.

[oldgearhead]

When I see all of these people spending hours and dollars hot-rodding popcorn popers, I'm amazed.
The lowly Nesco roaster is real easy to modify for complete control (yes,profile). Furthermore, it
has some big advantages over many other roasters:
1) Visibility - You can easily see the beans and measure their expansion during cracks.
2) Hot beans are very easy to transfer to a real cooler.
3) A chaff collector that works.
4) The cat does eat the smoke.
5) A bean mass temperature probe (BMT) is very easy to install.

My experience does not agree with the the 'expert' above. I do run back-to-back-to-back roasts 2-3 times a week. I push the heater element near 600 watts on every batch. I have had one heater element failue caused by a vibration from a bad bearing.
The biggest weakness of the design is the bearing under the bean cup. I have seen failures in that area on three machines: a 2007 Nesco, a 2009 Nesco and an older Z&D. In two cases the bearing was in good shape, but it came lose from the retaining cup.I repaired two with expoxy and one with Phil's new method....
http://coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/homeroast/504609

[oldgearhead]

I spoke to a customer rep at Nesco (800-288-4545) about the question of breakdowns..

>snip<

"She says that a wipe-down is sufficient to keep it clean."

I am sorry, but that statement is just not true. It sounds like someone who really doesn't roast coffee.
Why? Because after six months of roasting 2000 grams of green beans per month, I can assure you the
top should be taken apart and cleaned of the oils that have accumlated and are starting to clog the passageway to the cat converter. Furthermore, you will find the aluminum guard that sits on top of the cat converter heater will have accumlated quite a bit of brown scum as well. Remove the guard and clean it..

This is a very easy clean-up and only takes a few minutes in a sink with a bit of Simple Green...

[mineraldeposit]

after six months of roasting 2000 grams of green beans per month, I can assure you the
top should be taken apart and cleaned of the oils that have accumlated and are starting to clog the passageway to the cat converter. Furthermore, you will find the aluminum guard that sits on top of the cat converter heater will have accumlated quite a bit of brown scum as well. Remove the guard and clean it.

Right you are; actually, I just broke down some of the machinery and cleaned it thoroughly last weekend, myself.

[oldgearhead]

Yes, you need to:
Item 1 (Top Assembly) - Remove it, remove the screws, separate the two aluminum halves, and clean of all
the brown 'gook'.

Item 2 (Cat Heater Shield) - Remove the screws, remove the shield, and clean it good.

Note: Simple Green works well on these parts..

[dwmoss]

Yes, you need to:
Item 1 (Top Assembly) - Remove it, remove the screws, separate the two aluminum halves, and clean of all
the brown 'gook'.

Item 2 (Cat Heater Shield) - Remove the screws, remove the shield, and clean it good.

Note: Simple Green works well on these parts..

Oldgearhead- great posts and thanks for posting images

Do you have any images of the bottom with the belts and bearing? My nesco just doesn't seem to have the same power it used to. Id like to open her up but a some it would be nice to know what I'm getting into.

Dm