Customer Reviews

Gene Cafe Drum Coffee Roaster brand new!

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my first coffee roaster, but the Gene Cafe Coffee Roaster is an excellent air roaster that has given me consistent results. It is so easy to use. I spent about 3 months doing all kinds of research on coffee roasters. For someone who never roasted before, this is the easiest roaster on the market. I saw a video on Google Video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-21754440054705737 and I thought it was really neat at how easy it worked. One neat thing about it is the roasting viewing chamber, you are able to see the bean color and roast level through the entire roast without problems. The Gene Cafe is different in that the amount of air pushing through the roast chamber is only for heat; not to actually agitate the beans like so many of the other hot air roasters I did my research on. The Gene Cafe has a cool auger and flap system. This makes sure that the beans are always in motion, which will prevent scorching. You will find the Gene Roaster is very quiet. You can be standing next to it and carry on a conversation and not have to yell. So it is very easy to here the 1st and 2nd crack of the beans as they roast. This is very important if you are new to roasting. There is one thing to be aware of and that is you may get the roast darker than you want if you do not anticipate the shade of the bean you want by pressing the cooling button a little before you get the roast color you are looking for because it continues to cook for a minute or two after you push the cooling button. A great thing about the Gene Cafe is the control system; you can change the roast temperature in real time with just the turn of a knob. Any time during the roast you can also easily put the Gene Cafe into its cooling cycle. You will find that the majority of air and smoke exits from the left end of the roaster. Gene Cafe now offers a smoke redirection device that you can add on the end for only a $50 upcharge. The chaff collector is also much larger then the first one. So is there a down side of this roaster? Yes. One thing I didn't like about the Gene Cafe was the chaff collection. When the chaff is blown off of the beans, it needs to go through a stainless grate in the roasting chamber. A small flap knocks the chaff loose (that way it can pass through the grate easer) with each turn of the roasting chamber. If the coffee you are roasting makes a lot of chaff the grate can get to full. This is really not that big of a deal because the air will just redirect through the roast chamber lid. (The only time that this has happened to me is when I do a back to back roast and forget to clean out the chaff tray). If you do not get the new smoke redirection device you can hook up some sort of a smoke redirection device yourself, it will help. (That's what I did and I direct it outside out my window. I use a dryer vent hose). I really wish that the cooling cycle was better, especially when you are roasting on the hottest setting, but it will do the job. Or you can do what I did. I went and got a fan and a metal colander. I set the fan on top and turn it on high for about 15 minutes. All in all, the Gene Cafe is a great roaster. I have now been roasting for a year and I love it. I have never had a better tasting cup of coffee in my life. I bring it to work everyday and everyone loves it. It is so easy to operate and well built. If this is your first roaster as it was for me. Go for it and spend the extra money. It will be worth it. Just think about it, you will be doing this for the rest of your life. Never will you go back to the old stale Folders coffees of the world!!! Thanks, Dan Lewis <><

Several months ago I ordered and received the Gene Coffee Roaster. I have had three roasters before this and each one was short lived and had problems while I had it. This Gene Roaster is the a winner. I am really impressed by how clean it stays roast after roast. It is straight forward, easy to operate and well built. I do have to watch it closely during the final couple of minutes. It is easy to get the roast too dark if you do not anticipate the shade of the bean by pressing the cooling button a little before you reach the roast you are looking for because it continues to cook for a minute or two after you push the cooling button. I gladly recommend this roaster, it's great!

For a start, I should mention that I am a female user of the device, if this was a washing machine that failed as often as this has, all the male users who fiddle and faff and adjust their incoming electrical current and talk about firmware and replace the heating elements etc would have had heart failure due to apoplexy had this been a washing machine that failed.
I have a roaster from 2007, I think it is stamped Feb, that has had 3 replacement heating elements that have never lasted a whole yr. The chappy in park city has sent us the replacement bits at no financial cost, luckily my DH is a handy dandy engineer who can swap the new one in with no dramas, yet even now, the third heating element is failing and my highest roast temp is 375 on a good day with the wind in the right direction, other coffee sites have these failing after a year and customers seem to think this is acceptable? I do not get it, this is a 500 buck item, when my $150 roaster died after 2 yrs, well, c'est la vie, this is a unit that has not lasted a functional year. No, I do not bang out 20 roasts a day, yes, I do keep it clean, my electricity coming into my home is no doubt the same electricity as the unit should be designed to use and probably not that different the Mr chappy in Park City which is up the proverbial road from me. When the unit runs, it is a fabulous thing, but realistically, if you look out on the web you can find plenty of people who are having the same issues as me, but seem to be far more tolerant of failure than I am. My expectation of a 500 dollar appliance is that it would last for at least 3 years without the hassles we have had.

<a href="http://www.breworganic.com/Coffee/Coffee_roasters.htm">The Gene Cafe rotating drum roaster</a> was very easy to use right out of the box. I was able to run two different batches of roasting within an hour. This allowed a side by side comparison of a light roast and full city roast using the same bean. The roaster cleans up nicely and only set off the smoke alarm once. The chaff collector is easy to dump out at the end of each roast cycle. The instruction manual had the funniest artwork that made the reading material interesting as well as useful.
The 9 lbs. of coffee was a mixture instead of one kind that I assumed I had ordered (no decaf which is fine for me). Estimate 65-85 lbs of roasting green beans, at $6 per pound, to begin to have this roaster start paying for itself. So for now it will be called a hobby instead of a money savings. :)

When I first considered roasting my own coffee beans, the idea was that I just wanted to take my coffee enjoyment up a notch. It worked. I have had my Gene Cafe for about a month and it is an integral part of my routine now. It's easy to use, does an excellent job and is built to last. It's a workhorse. I make a lot of coffee so I roast about every other day.

The variety of roasters to choose from can be a little confusing. What's important and how much to spend and how difficult is this going to be? From my experience so far, I am pleased to have chosen this machine. The manual is easy to read and tells you what to set for the variety of roasts. Roasting takes about 45 minutes including washing all of the parts of the machine and putting it away again.

It's the right size. I store it under my stove along with the 3" diameter 3 foot long aluminum duct I use to direct the smoke into my downdraft stove exhaust. I have the large chaff collector so I don't know how well the small one works. Controlling the exhaust of smoke is important and it seems easier using the large chaff collector and a flex duct.

Bottom line as I tell my friends is in the cup. It's the best coffee I've ever had and I've been a serious coffee drinker for about 35 years all over the world. If you can afford one of these you will not be disappointed. I've been a chemical engineer for 25 years and I can tell you this is really well designed and built. It's the right equipment for the process. Get a good burr grinder ( I use a KitchenAid ), lose the Mr. Coffee and get a simple cone brewer, the kind where you pour hot water over the grounds. Then just enjoy.

I origionally had a Freshroast Plus 8. It worked very well for me but it can only roast a small quantity of beans and you have to wait awhile between roasts. I upgraded to a Gene Cafe almost a year ago although I didn't buy it from Amazon. This roaster is great. It's bigger than it looks in the picture. It takes up one whole large drawer in my pantry. You need some ventilation or it will set off smoke alarms, although there's no visible smoke. I roast on a covered patio. I use two scoops of beans but that's a lot of coffee and you'll go through a couple of pounds of beans learning how to get the roast you want. I keep the temp. setting constant and vary the time according to the roast I want. For me, 451 degrees for 17 to 18.5 min. is perfect. But each person and each roaster can be different. The coffee is excellent. I get rave reviews from guests.

I started roasting coffee beans using a hot air popcorn popper. For Christmas, my husband thought I needed a nicer roaster and bought the Genie CBR-101. On Christmas morning I was delighted with the beautiful machine. After reading the instructions I roasted a perfect batch of beans. The machine never ran again!!! I called the supplier who sent me a new machine and I returned the faulty one. The new machine worked perfectly for about 6 months then one morning I was doing kitchen chores while I roasted the beans. The machine was smoking a bit which was normal but very soon it was smoking a lot...it was melting. I quickly unplugged the unit before it caused a house fire.
Now for the good part. I tried to reach "Tim" the supplier but his message machine was always full and he never answered e-mails. The machine was still under the one year warranty. After a couple of months of trying to reach Tim, he finally answered the phone one day when my husband called. He told my husband that I had not emptied the chaff reservoir which was not true. What he didn't know was that during my entire working career I operated very expensive chemistry alanyzers and not doing maintenance was unquestionable. He said that we should return the machine and he would replace any damaged parts. That was over a year ago and we've never heard a word. I've given up and would never buy another product from this company.
I've since bought a roaster from another manufacturer which works beautifully plus it cost a lot less than the Genie.
My guess is that I was caught in a bad lot of machines and it probably is a good roaster but at least the company could have stood behind the warranty.

I've been roasting my own green coffee for almost 10 years now, and I've gone through a lot of roasters. I've been using the Gene Cafe for more than 6 months, and this one is holding up great. It is well designed and manufactured. It has been problem-free and shows little signs of wear. It is very quiet for a home roaster, which for me is a huge plus. The Gene Cafe will roast up to a full half-pound of coffee at one time. This means you are roasting less often, which of course will add to the life of the roaster. All coffee roasters produce smoke, and the Gene is no exception. Make sure you get the "Gene Cafe Large Chaff Collector" attachment. The last time I looked this was being sold with the roaster through many online sellers. It can also be purchased separately. This allows for a hose to be attached to vent the smoke. I have a fan on my stove-top. The glass roasting chamber allows for complete visibility at all points of the roast. This lets you get the perfect roast every time. The large digital front end lets you set the temperature and roast time to exact specifications. The knobs let you adjust the time and temperature of the roast at any point. I know the sticker price on this thing is high, but you will save money in the long-run by not having to replace your roaster every year. **REVIEW UPDATE** It is now over a year since I originally wrote this review. Just thought I'd let everybody know the unit is still running great and is problem free.

I have been using this roaster for over a year with great results. It is a very quiet and very solidly build appliance; feels like driving a German car. The controls couldn't be simpler to use. As expected, it does make a lot of smoke, and proper ventilation is required.

A portion of the plastic case started to melt near the exhaust which prompted me to lower the operating temperature. The power cord warms up a bit during operation.

I have been using this roaster for about 6 months now and I roast every other day. Two friends have purchased the smaller ones and both are thinking of upgradeing to this one. Because its great.