Caffe Rosto Problems

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

NickS

2003-08-03 13:00:40 UTC

Greetings All!

I'm a new member here and joined because I am suffering a number of
frustrations with my new Caffe Rosto. Perhaps someone can advise.

I've been a Sweet Maria's customer and fan for years. I've owned
several roasters and when my third Hearthware Precision up and croaked
awhile back after nearly 2.5 years of heavy use, I decided to buy the
Caffe Rosto until the Precision is once again back on the market
sometime this fall.

First, The Rosto wouldn't heat up right out of the box. After numerous
phone calls to BrightWay I finally got an RMA and returned it. I guess
they repaired it because I seem to have received the same machine
back.

It heats up alright, but it takes 15 minutes to get to a light city
roast and I'm not even sure if it went to second crack. I don't think
it is capable of producing a French roast. The brew is vapid and
tasteless.

Should I return the roaster and purchase a different brand? If so,
which?

Is there anything I can do to overcome the Rosto's anemic performance?
Is there a tweak I can perform to step up the temp?

TIA,

Nick
Jupiter, FL

R@L

2003-08-03 13:25:11 UTC

Permalink

Hi,

Do a google groups on 'user report imex roaster' where I desribed how to use
the Rosto. For an image of the modification goto:
www.netspresso.com/imexmod.jpg
--
Ronald Lever

http://www.netspresso.com The espresso Infosite.

Post by NickS
Greetings All!
I'm a new member here and joined because I am suffering a number of
frustrations with my new Caffe Rosto. Perhaps someone can advise.
I've been a Sweet Maria's customer and fan for years. I've owned
several roasters and when my third Hearthware Precision up and croaked
awhile back after nearly 2.5 years of heavy use, I decided to buy the
Caffe Rosto until the Precision is once again back on the market
sometime this fall.
First, The Rosto wouldn't heat up right out of the box. After numerous
phone calls to BrightWay I finally got an RMA and returned it. I guess
they repaired it because I seem to have received the same machine
back.
It heats up alright, but it takes 15 minutes to get to a light city
roast and I'm not even sure if it went to second crack. I don't think
it is capable of producing a French roast. The brew is vapid and
tasteless.
Should I return the roaster and purchase a different brand? If so,
which?
Is there anything I can do to overcome the Rosto's anemic performance?
Is there a tweak I can perform to step up the temp?
TIA,
Nick
Jupiter, FL

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Sunnyfield

2003-08-03 13:25:00 UTC

Permalink

Ronald, an a.c.regular aka ***@L, came up with the following modification:
Loading Image...

This will limit the amount of hot air flowing out of the roaster.

Good luck
Eward

Ken Fox

2003-08-03 14:33:54 UTC

Permalink

Sure, you could modify it, but clearly the one you got is defective. The
one I got originally had a broken top (plastic separated from glass) and
they basically just replaced the top. It does however roast black as burnt
toast in about 6 minutes if you don't use it on a variac or use "roastus
interruptus" (turning it off for a bit of time during the roast).

I don't believe it is your responsibility to sorta get this defective thing
to work. I think you should send it back to SM for either a replacement or
a refund. My guess is you will have better luck with them than trying to
deal with Brightway again. Also, I'm pretty sure they have more power in
dealing with Brightway than you do.

Imex/Rosto switched factories some months ago and there have been a lot of
problems with the roasters coming out of the new factory. That is their
problem, not yours.

Good luck.

ken

cliff-i

2003-08-03 17:30:15 UTC

Permalink

Greetings,

Brightway's customer service is a joke. It takes forever for them to
respond. My Caffe Rosto has made several trips back to its maker. The
roaster suffers from a lack of quality control and has design flaws.
If we stop buying them maybe the distributor will finally figure this
out and force the manufacturer to improve the product. Instead we try
to work around the defects.

I switched to a Fresh Roast+. It doesn't sound like a leaf blower and
I can actually hear the cracks.

Cliff

Mmorkel

2003-08-04 08:32:36 UTC

Permalink

Post by Ken Fox

Post by NickS
Greetings All!

snip

Post by Ken Fox

Post by NickS
It heats up alright, but it takes 15 minutes to get to a light city
roast and I'm not even sure if it went to second crack. I don't think
it is capable of producing a French roast. The brew is vapid and
tasteless.
Should I return the roaster and purchase a different brand? If so,
which?
Is there anything I can do to overcome the Rosto's anemic performance?
Is there a tweak I can perform to step up the temp?
TIA,
Nick
Jupiter, FL

snip

Post by Ken Fox
Sure, you could modify it, but clearly the one you got is defective.
ken

I would not think so. The ROSTO/IMEX is very dependent on ambient
temp., plus roast length varies a lot with amount of beans. When I got
my IMEX I brought it back to the shop after the first roast, because
after 20 minutes beans were merely at 1st crack. The shop owner
demonstrated to me that the unit was o.k., but he roast inside his
shop where it was some degrees warmer than outside (...especially
AFTER the roast :-)).

Finally I also used the alu foil trick, and since then the roaster has
been working flawlessly for 2 1/2 years. If you do not want to use
these little tricks, the ROSTO/IMEX will not work properly. In this
case you should bring it back and get a refund. IMO you can´t expect
to get your unit repaired, because "it´s not a bug, it´s a feature"...

Markus

Ken Fox

2003-08-04 13:20:08 UTC

Permalink

Hi Markus,

You are "forgetting" one thing; the factory manufacturing this item has
changed in the last few months. A very high percentage of the units out of
the new factory have been defective. This one purchased by this altie is
from the new factory, almost for certain.

I think the old hacks, the old solutions, were meant to work on good units,
and this one is likely not a good one.

Good luck!

ken
p.s. maybe he can comment on the ambient temperature and voltage situation
where he uses the thing?

Post by Mmorkel

Post by Ken Fox

Post by NickS
Greetings All!

snip

Post by Ken Fox

snip

Post by Ken Fox
Sure, you could modify it, but clearly the one you got is defective.
ken

I would not think so. The ROSTO/IMEX is very dependent on ambient
temp., plus roast length varies a lot with amount of beans. When I got
my IMEX I brought it back to the shop after the first roast, because
after 20 minutes beans were merely at 1st crack. The shop owner
demonstrated to me that the unit was o.k., but he roast inside his
shop where it was some degrees warmer than outside (...especially
AFTER the roast :-)).
Finally I also used the alu foil trick, and since then the roaster has
been working flawlessly for 2 1/2 years. If you do not want to use
these little tricks, the ROSTO/IMEX will not work properly. In this
case you should bring it back and get a refund. IMO you canŽt expect
to get your unit repaired, because "itŽs not a bug, itŽs a feature"...
Markus

Ken Fox

2003-08-04 05:55:13 UTC

Permalink

I suggested he send it back to the dealer he bought it from -- SM -- not to
Brightway. I don't think he would have this sort of problem with SM.

ken
p.s. so you are suggesting that if you buy a defective product you should
just keep it, because after all having the defective product is better than
having nothing because the producer/importer is all screwed up? Quite the
product endorsement!

Personally I would not send it back. Mine went back for the second time -
arriving there on Feb. 26 - that's over five months ago. Numerous attempts
to connect with Brightway have produced nothing. If it were not for UPS
tracking, I would not even know that the machine had arrived there. No
response to any emails at all. If I had it all to do over again I would
have kept the machine and attempted to bypass the thermal fuse or replace

with one that worked.
KenR.

Ken R

2003-08-04 13:41:38 UTC

Permalink

Not so. My first one did not get to anykind of dark roast although if I
recollect correctly I ran it to 18-20 minutes. I contacted SM and they were
having much difficulty in making contact with Brightway. Finally got a
replacement from Brightway.. Then the replacement stopped working
altogether, no heat at all. That is the one I sent back to Brightway. My
thinking, which I aparrently did not communicate well, is that
if I had known ahead of time that I would be sending my product into a
black hole, and have nothing at all
then I would have kept it and tried to make a repair myself.
I really liked the machine - when it worked. Customer service definitely
bites the elephant.
Not intended as a suggestion, merely a sharing of personal experience.

KenR.

p.s. SM is not offering the machine as of 7/3/03 until they "get the
problems worked out".

Post by Ken Fox
I suggested he send it back to the dealer he bought it from -- SM -- not to
Brightway. I don't think he would have this sort of problem with SM.
ken
p.s. so you are suggesting that if you buy a defective product you should
just keep it, because after all having the defective product is better than
having nothing because the producer/importer is all screwed up? Quite the
product endorsement!

with one that worked.

[snip}

John Roche

2003-08-18 02:25:41 UTC

Permalink

Send it back. I got this roaster and its my least fav to date (HWP, ALP).
Maybe I got a bum unit too but I even tried the mod w/ tin foil covering 2/5
of the exhaust but still could not get DSB to second crack after 20 minutes.
I had more success w/ some decafs but still plagued by inconsistent roasts.
Wasting too many beans, so back it goes.

john

2003-08-18 14:54:20 UTC

Permalink

Post by John Roche

Imex/Rosto is very sensitive to line voltage. If you have a 120volt
heating element and line voltage around 110, that could be enough to
produce all the symptoms you have described above. If you are in
Jupiter, you don't have much cold weather, so ambient temperature
should not be a major influence - although it does make a difference
in Rosto performance. My 220 volt Imex works beautifully in the hot
Hong Kong summer; it is marginal or non-functional when the
temperature drops below freezng.

JR

Nucer

2003-08-18 16:14:27 UTC

Permalink

You might think about the ZAD (Zach and Dani's roaster). Check google and see
that the complaint ratio is very low! You may have probelms roasting really
dark with the ZAD but I haven't. In any case good luck.

Bob L
(Still drinking the ramanants of the Misha's coffee in Fort Worth, Tx)

Opother

2003-08-18 21:55:56 UTC

Permalink

I have the Z&D Roaster it's heat output is anemic and it's average roast time
is about 20 minutes for half the amount of roasted beans (only about a half
cup) That I can do with my modified popper.

The flavour on my popper is much richer. The Z&D is about $150.00 give or
take a few dollars and will do FAIR job on most beans, but a down right lousy
job on some.

Also the Z&D is a hackers nighmare so I wouldn't have much hopes of doing that
very easily.

I belive their customer support is pretty good however this one just doesn't
cut it either.

The popper usually runs at around $12.00 - $20.00