Comment

Comment by Hugh Mooney on January 28, 2009 at 6:35am

Rick;
So far I've found the Gene Cafe' to be extremely reliable. I have over 150 roasts on it and still operates almost perfectly. I've had only one issue: The release tab on top of the roasting chamber has a spring mechanism that keeps it firmly closed. It seems the spring has lost some of its "spring" so to speak. What I've done to compensate is to place a small piece of electrical tape over it to assure it stays in place. I started having this problem around the 150 roast mark. Other than that, I love this roaster. It was my first and I learned the basics with it - in fact - I started my small coffee roasting business (www.thecoffeecorral.com) using the Gene Cafe' - probably 'over' using actually. I still use it two or three times a month when I have a single 8-ounce order and don't want to fire up my Diedrich HR-1.

As a beginner coffee roaster the Gene Cafe' was perfect (al least in my mind). Being able to easily see the beans roasting inside the chamber allowed me to better understand the roasting process and to learn to recognize the different roasting levels. Being able to adjust the temperature and roasting time on the "fly" was a good learning tool as well. I keep "roasting logs" (which you can see in the photo - lower right corner) for every roast and have found that I can very closely duplicate a specific roast I did months ago using the same time and temperature settings. I am totally satisified with the Gene Cafe' and glad I decided to spend the extra dollars to get it.

Comment by Rich Abker on January 27, 2009 at 4:22pm

Very interesting home roaster, Gene Cafe'. How reliable is it and what are the normal wear n tear parts?

Comment by Hugh Mooney on April 27, 2008 at 6:48pm

Yes, I agree. The Gene Cafe is a wonderful 'baby' roaster. You can also check out the photo of my newest 'baby' roaster - the Diedrich HR-1.