SR700 Home Coffee Roaster

We have been using the SR500 for almost 2 years which worked very well. This SR700 had many more options for the home roaster and roasts faster than the SR500. I am still a novice with roasting but this model is programable (with a windows tablet or computer) for maximum control over each roast. The programable settings are optional and I look forward to learning more and trying them. This is a great starter for the home roaster at a very reasonable price.

Pros: - The pieces fit together well - good manufacturing quality - Capable of making good coffee roasts based on your custom roasting profile - Relatively quick and quiet - Cheaper than other programmable roasters I looked at Cons: - Programming the SR700 is a miserably unintuitive experience. - Requires a USB connection to a computer and their amateurish software to program the roasting profiles. My previous roaster, the Hearthware iRoast 2, could be programmed using just the buttons on the front panel. - No temperature readout on the SR700 front panel. - I cannot find a way to save more than one roasting profile in the SR700 at a time, so changing a profile requires reconnecting to the computer and overwriting the previous one. That's a major drawback for experimenting with different beans and roasts. - Horrendous instructions - printed in a tiny font (maybe 7 points?) on crudely cut & stapled paper. The instructions contain incorrect steps, broken English, and descriptions that don't match the software interface. Plan on reading it a few times and experimenting with the software. - Mistakes in the software interface design cause confusion. For example, the Save and Download buttons are on different screens, and the Download button (used for saving a new roast profile in the SR700) doesn't work until you select each programmed step, click download, and then exit the entire menu. Huh? In general, the software looks amateurish and does not appear to follow basic design standards. - The roaster consists of four main parts (base, glass container, and a two-piece chaff collector) that are held together by gravity and get very hot when roasting. You have to be extra careful not to knock over the roaster, and the chaff collector handles are very hot when the roast is finished. - When you lift the chaff collector off the glass container after roasting, some chaff usually falls into the coffee beans. - No suggested roasting profiles in the manual or in the software. The default profile seems unusable; the first stage was hot enough to take the beans through first crack in just 2 minutes! And by the way, you cannot overwrite the default profile with your own custom profile: you can save one custom profile in the roaster and the useless one always comes up first by default when you plug in the roaster. Here are a couple of roasting profiles I created. I am not a roasting expert, but they worked much better for me than the default setting. I hope you will find them useful as a starting point. Low altitude coffees from Hawaii, Sumatra, & other islands Step 1: Fan Speed 9, Time 1.5 min, Temp Low Step 2: Fan Speed 8, Time 1.5, Temp Low Step 3: Fan Speed 8, Time 1.5, Temp Med Step 4: Fan Speed 7, Time 1.5, Temp Med Step 5: Fan Speed 8, Time 3, Temp High Step 6: Fan Speed 9, Time 3, Temp Cool Standard coffees from South America, Africa, etc. Step 1: Fan Speed 9, Time 2, Temp Low Step 2: Fan Speed 7, Time 1.5, Temp Low Step 3: Fan Speed 6, Time 1.5, Temp Low Step 4: Fan Speed 7, Time 1.5, Temp Med Step 5: Fan Speed 6, Time 1.5, Temp Med Step 6: Fan Speed 7, Time 1.5, Temp High Step 7: Fan Speed 9, Time 3, Temp Cool Note that I added extra time in the last step of these profiles to allow for darker roasts, which means you have to watch the roast and manually start the cooling cycle as soon as you think the beans are ready. I also use less than the maximum capacity of the roaster: 90 grams of green beans, or about 3 scoops instead of four scoops. This helps to keep the temperatures down a little; the roaster seems to run very hot. I do not entirely regret this purchase, but cannot give it an enthusiastic recommendation due to the poorly thought out interface, miserable instructions, and inability to save more than one roast profile in the SR700. If Fresh Roast addresses these design shortcomings, they will have a very good product for small batch roasting. *** UPDATE: June 6, 2016 *** Just a couple of things to add to my original review... First, I have a major concern about the longevity of the roaster. Twice in the last week the fan quit while roasting. Had I not been standing there to pull the plug, the roast would not have finished as expected. 'Not sure if the SR700 is designed to shut off the heating element if the fan quits unexpectedly; if not, it's a fire in the making. From now on, I will always stand next to the roaster until it finishes the roast cycle. Second, as recommended in the comments following my review, I looked at the OpenRoast software solution. It was a nice suggestion, and I am truly impressed by the open source community. (You guys are so innovative!) They have extended the potential of the SR700 to a level way beyond what the manufacturer came up with. Having said that, I spent nearly a day trying to figure out how to get the software and then how to use it. I'm not a software engineer and found all that stuff about Git and Python very confusing. After a few hours of going down the wrong path (I apparently don't need Git or Python), I managed to find a Windows executable and install the software, but my high hopes were soon dashed. Once the SR700 started, OpenRoast was unable to adjust the temperature, which nearly set the beans on fire! The beans were charred and smoking profusely very quickly after starting. I wonder if OpenRoast requires a separate thermometer...? Anyway, it seems that you have to keep a computer plugged into the roaster while roasting instead of just downloading a roast profile, which is very impractical for me so I have completely given up on OpenRoast for now. By the way, I realize the OpenRoast software development is all a voluntary effort, but for those of us who are not engineers, we really could use some simple instructions to get up and running. Having said that, I learned a lot and gained some insights into setting up a better roasting profile that I can download to the SR700 using the klunky Fresh Beans Roaster application. My latest profile (below) seems to be working MUCH better than the two profiles I posted earlier in this review, and so far I have not had to do any manual overrides while roasting in an ambient temperature of around 72 F. I think I'll stick with this for a while, as it is a single profile that gives good results with all of my favorite beans. What a pity, though, that this "programmable" roaster takes so much effort to program, and then only stores only one profile! Not only that, but every time I plug it in, it defaults to the dumb factory profile that I can't imagine using for any beans. Then I have to remember the magic sequence of buttons to push in order to activate my custom profile instead of the default. (Let's see, do I push the power button first and then the mode button, or the other way around?) I sometimes forget when I roast several days later since there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Give me a break!! Step 1: Fan Speed 9, Time 0.5, Temp Low Step 2: Fan Speed 9, Time 1.0, Temp Cool (off) Step 3: Fan Speed 9, Time 0.5, Temp Low Step 4: Fan Speed 9, Time 1.0, Temp Cool Step 5: Fan Speed 9, Time 0.5, Temp Low Step 6: Fan Speed 9, Time 1.0, Temp Cool Step 7: Fan Speed 9, Time 0.5, Temp Low Step 8: Fan Speed 9, Time 1.0, Temp Cool Step 9: Fan Speed 9, Time 0.5, Temp Low Step 10: Fan Speed 9, Time 1.0, Temp Cool Step 11: Fan Speed 9, Time 0.8, Temp Low Step 12: Fan Speed 7, Time 1.0, Temp Low Step 13: Fan Speed 8, Time 0.8, Temp Medium Step 14: Fan Speed 7, Time 0.6, Temp Medium Step 15: Fan Speed 6, Time 0.7, Temp Medium Step 16: Fan Speed 8, Time 1.0, Temp High Step 17: Fan Speed 9, Time 0.8, Temp Low Step 18: Fan Speed 9, Time 1.0, Temp Cool Step 19: Fan Speed 9, Time 0.3, Temp Cool (end) Steps 1 through 10 are repetitions of a short heat/long cool cycle, which gives the beans time to release their moisture before the real roasting begins. I think this improves the flavor. The remaining steps take the beans to the verge of second crack, and then a gentle cool down, resulting in dark brown beans with a smooth, dry surface (no oil). If you like darker roasts, like French or Vienna, I would try increasing the time in steps 15 and/or 16. If you prefer lighter roasts, I would try reducing steps 16 and/or 17. I hope this helps. BTW, I'm keeping my rating at two stars, as the SR700 is still capable of producing good roasts. Should the intermittent fan failures continue, though, I'll drop the rating down to 1 star. UPDATE: June 7, 2017 Just ordered 2 replacement parts, the chaff collector and lid, because they developed holes (plastic pieces just broke off; the heat probably made these parts brittle over time). These parts lasted about 2 years. Replacement cost w/standard shipping is just over $46. 'Not happy about this.

This is a pretty good entry-level roaster and the PC interface sets it apart from the rest of the low-priced crowd. Since it is essentially the RS500 with USB you can search YouTube for how-to videos and have a good choice of which ones to watch. I won't delve too much into the roasting quality since it will be the same as the RS500 which means quite good, but will rather concentrate mainly on the PC connection since that is the only reason to choose this over the 500. Let me start by saying that if you want to roast beans but don't care about the PC aspect, go with the 500. In fact, there are a couple of advantages that the 500 has over the 700 that make it ostensibly the better choice. The RS500 has a fan adjustment knob and heat selector switch, both of which make for instantaneous on-the-fly adjustments. The RS700 has tactile buttons that must be navigated in the proper order to make those same changes. To be fair, the RS700 was never designed as a manual roaster. Manual roasting can be done, but not as easily as with the RS500. If you like the idea of saving your roast profiles on a PC, loading them into the roaster and having the roast performed automatically, then the RS700 is the clear choice. The RS700 even has a real-time temperature readout, something missing from the 500. Overall the software is well conceived and functional although a bit 'clunky' in its execution. The accompanying manual is severely lacking in information and you will find yourself having to figure the software out on your own, especially where profiles are concerned. Authoring and editing profiles takes some getting used to and the procedure is different when you are connected to the roaster compared to when you are not connected. There are some steps that the software requires that seem to be unnecessary and contribute to the 'clunkiness' of the experience. Nothing earth-shattering, just small stuff. Once a profile is loaded into the roaster and the start button is clicked the process proceeds very smoothly from beginning to end. You'll need to be close at hand during roasting for safety reasons as well as observation of the beans so you can take over manual control if necessary, something that probably won't be required if your profile is reasonable. All-in-all this is a nice upgrade from a single temperature corn popper. The chaff collector works very well and is easily cleaned out after each roast. When a roast is first beginning the beans may need a little help to get them moving until they dry out enough to fly on their own. A little tilting of the roaster from side to side, using great care to keep the chaff collector and chimney on the unit, will help you avoid burned beans. This is not the roaster you want if you need a lot of beans roasted in a day's time. It is not built for that type of use and won't stand up to it. For heavy use you will have to look at roasters in a much higher price range. For home use, though, this or the RS500 are worth serious consideration. If you want to use your PC with a roaster this may be your only choice for under a thousand dollars. Update March 24, 2015 I have several roasts under my belt now and I can tell you that my unit runs rather hot. I tried the default 5.9 minutes on high heat and #5 fan setting and had to manually switch to cooling with nearly a minute to go in order to keep the beans from bursting into flames. I tried a roast on low heat at #5 fan and after 7 minutes had a pretty dark roast. I'm finding that when I start off with low heat, #9 fan speed, 2.5 minute drying step that once I switch to high heat and #5 fan speed I start first crack in about 15 seconds and finish it about a minute later. I will point out that my unit gets up to 430 degrees on low heat at max fan speed, so the drying step is actually a roasting step. My first roast today was Ethiopian Yirgacheffe using the following profile: 2.5 minutes max fan, low heat followed by 2.9 minutes high heat, #5 fan. I had to stop the second step with 1.4 minutes left because first crack ended about 20 seconds earlier and the beans were getting awfully dark. After allowing the machine some time to cool I roasted some Costa Rica Dota Estate using the following profile: 2.0 minutes max fan, low heat followed by 1.5 minutes #5 fan, medium heat (which runs 460 on my unit). This produced a pretty nice looking roast, but I won't know the final verdict for a couple of days. I don't know if all these FreshRoast machines run hot like this, but there isn't much time to rest once the roast begins on mine. I expect to find just the right combination at some point. I'm getting pretty comfortable with the profile entry now that I know how it works, yet I am on a mission to make it easier via Visual Basic. Within a few days my profile editor, which will handle profiles in a user-friendly manner, will be ready. During my Yirgacheffe roast I attempted to switch the unit to cool mode by using the pushbutton on the unit itself. It refused to switch. I had to go back to my computer and press the on-screen button. This short period of time made a visible difference in how dark the beans got. I was under the impression that the physical buttons would work at any time, but now I see that isn't so. Back to the drawing board. I will have to find out what needs to be done to have manual control. Once I know I will do another update.

Great coffee roaster when I finally got it to work. The program that comes with it is really bad and even though it shows the roaster temperature you can't tell the program to have a target temperature. However I used the Roastero / Openroast software and it was fantastic it goes by temperature set points and time rather than fan speed and arbitrary heat settings, my roasts were consistent and I could even say where I bought the beans for next time. Why 3 stars? The top of the roaster broke when I put it down on a countertop that was too cold for the plastic and it cracked. So I am currently in the process of doing a return.

OK. There's a lot of reviews that ding this for the batch size, so let's clear this up first. This is a "home" roaster. This is not meant for, nor does it pretend to be a high volume device. But, you can easily roast a pound of coffee in an hour. And, seriously...how bad is life spending an hour roasting coffee?! Second, this is $100 more than the SR500. Is it worth it? YES! The computer connectivity means you can store your roast profiles when you get a good one and there's no guess work to repeat a greatest roast. And, on the computer front, yes the software is clunky. But, there's and active Facebook community for FreshRoast machines where results are posted, recipes shared, and there's a couple guys working on an open source program to control the thing. Now, the really cool thing...fresh roasted coffee for less than half the cost of what you are paying now! If you consider yourself a coffee snob, and aren't drinking truly fresh roasted coffee, your life will change after you start roasting your own.

I received this with a broken foot on the base. I didn't think it would affect the functionality so I let it pass since I had this forwarded to the Philippines and it would bevtoo much of a hassle and too costly to return. The machine runs fine on its own. However, the purpose of buying this model is for me to run profiles on it using a PC. It didn'g work the first time. I installed the FreshBeans software from the CD that came with it. The roaster doesn't get detected. I tried downloading the software from the manufacturer's website but that didn't work as well. I tried uninstalling the program completely and reinstalling still didn't work. I tried installing OpenRoast and for the first time I was actually able to roast something. FreshBeanscstill didn't detect the roaster but OpenRoast did. However, everytime I restart the computer, the roaster would not get detected by OpenRoast and I would need to completely uninstall and reinstall both Open Roast and FreshBeans! Today was the worst because I have been trying to make the roaster work with Open Roast or FreshBeans but it just refuses to get detected. It will get detected for a few seconds by openroast and will drop the connection leaving me with spoiled beans!! I have found out this uses the CH341A from WCH (China) and i even tried to download their drivers but I still have the same issue. This has been a very frustrating experience and just makes me want to thow this roaster away. I feel that I just got a lemon! What a waste of money!

Although there are better roasters out there if you want to spend the extra bucks and roast more at once, this is the perfect size for me. I like the programmability of it. There are open source programs you can get for free that control the roast by temperature. This allows you to research and experiment to get the best roast for your coffee to suit your personal taste. I am retired and this makes for a satisfying hobby to learn how to roast. There is a facebook page mainly for roasters that use this machine and you can pick up recipes and tips to help you produce a better cup of coffee quicker than experimenting all on your own. If you plan on going commercial with your roasting you may want to start with a bigger and more expensive machine. But, if you just want to have the best tasting coffee for your personal use, this is probably the best for the price. I started out using a popcorn popper but after a month I progressed to the SR700 and am glad I did. The chaff catcher works pretty good but you need to be careful when handling it. If you drop it, it breaks or chips pretty easy and spills the chaff all over. I use it under the stove vent and it works good for me. Some take it outside or in the garage cause they don't like the roast smell in the house.

Great improvement over the sr500 Cooling cycle has been increased to 3 minutes. No Problems loading the software on both my Vista and Windows 7 laptops. Not limited to 9.9 minutes as on the sr500.. Just program each step for the number of minutes you want that step to run, then it'll proceed to the next step until all steps are completed. Can be programmed for any roast from very light to very dark and oily. I use a 2 minute high fan / low heat to dry the beans, then 2 minutes at a lower fan / medium heat for additional drying and expansion, then a carefully selected time at low fan / high heat for roast level then medium heat again for uniformity then low heat to lower the temp, and finally the cool down cycle. Works great! {TIP: After the full cycle. I remove the chaff collector and run a cooling cycle at lowest fan speed to blow out any residual chaff. Unfortunately this only needs about 15 seconds but the program uses 3 minutes to complete}.