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Attaching the smoke vent that comes with Hearthware I-Roast
home roasters is necessary for those that need to be able
to use the unit indoors, simply because the unit creates a
lot of smoke. The main problem with attaching the vent adapter
"as is", is that when the recommended 4 inch diameter
flexible dryer hose is attached to it, the weight of the hose
can make the vent adapter fall off; not a good thing when
you're in the middle of a roast cycle, as the hose gets hot
and trying to re-attach it can be dangerous, leaving you with
a smoke-filled house!
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The weight of the dryer-hose causes the vent attachment to lift
off of the chaff collector. |
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This image shows the four prongs that attach the vent to the
chaff collector. These prongs will need to be bent to create
an interference fit against the chaff collector mounting holes. |
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This view shows how to bend each of the 4 prongs to create the
interference fit of the vent onto the chaff collector. It is
kind of a "kinking" motion. |
Since the four prongs are now bent, it will
probably be necessary to use a screwdriver to help fit the
last two prongs into the chaff collector lid. |
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Time to attach the hose. Use a worm-clamp that can be found
in the same place you bought your 4 inch dryer hose (home improvement
store, hardware store, etc.) A word of caution; make sure
to use a metallic flexible dryer hose and not
a plastic one! The temperature exiting the coffee roaster will
reach temperatures well in excess of 400 degrees (F), which
is easily hot enough to melt a plastic-type hose. |
Run the hose out of your house or roasting area however you
like. You can put it by a cracked open window and block off
the area around it with cardboard to keep both the cold out,
and also to keep the smoke from blowing back in. The vent fan
on an oven range will work to, but only if it is higher volume
than what is considered "standard issue" that the
average home is equipped with. It (the range vent) must also
have a clean grease-trapping screen. |
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| The exhaust duct successfully
vents about 98% of all smoke emitted from the I-Roast coffee
roaster making it adequate for the job, but only if the it
(the duct) is connected firmly to it (the roaster). The user
must also make certain that the chaff collector is firmly
attached to the roasting chamber. If it is not, there are
some tabs inside of the collector that can be modified (bent)
to tighten the fit there also. The majority of the roasters
we've opened and checked indicate that a loose chaff collector
is a rarity, but sometimes they do come that way out of the
box.
I used a standard 7 ft long, 4 inch diameter hose for our
ducting-project and found that the hose seemed to increase
the rate of roast. This is probably due to a small amount
of back-pressure created by ducting the smoke for 7 ft compared
to just venting is outside the roaster with no hose attached.
I would recommend trying lower temperatures and/or shorten
the amount of time per each stage of your roast profile (assuming
you're using your own profile and not the pre-sets that are
part of the machine). On the other hand, for those of you
that are aware of the difficulty the Hearthware I-Roast has
with properly roasting decaffeinated green coffee, the addition
of a little induced back-pressure caused by a 7 foot flexible
exhaust probably would be beneficial ....something I will
try out soon and post results for.......victor
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If you lost your vent attachment,
we stock a them. Just click
here to go the I-Roast replacement parts page
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