I don't have a professional coffee roaster, because I DIY for $10 with my rotisserie toaster oven which can roast more than a lb of beans.

I looked at a few youtube videos of both machines. I am not impressed with either.

First the Gene Cafe. I see the design will require a special heating element. The heating element will have to be more than a 1000 watts. It is difficlt to have a heating element in that configuration. If the element burns out it will be very expensive to repair and replace. The design probably makes it difficult to hear first and second cracks. Also I think it probably makes a lot of smoke. I don't trust that it can filter out all the chaffs. Some very fine chaffs may get blown out all over the kitchen.

The Behmor does seem to require a lot of user attention in the heating and timing each time you roast. It seems not do a good job with large batches. It uses standard toaster oven heating element design, and those designs are very reliable and seldom need replacement. I don't understand the smoke filter feature. I could find filters for sale on ebay for it.

If I have to pick, I would pick the Behmor. I may turn the Behmor into a rotesserie :-). May be great for very uniform French fries.

dcarch

Dcarch
I think the coffee community would think french fries in a coffee roaster was utter blasphemy. You MUST try it.

Each roast in my corn popper does only enough for one day's coffee (85 grams) and takes about 7 minutes. Then 5 or 6 minutes to cool down before the next batch. The corn popper has easily paid for itself and is easy to use, but I want to do at least half a pound in each roast, so just another corn popper doesn't cut it.

Right now I also am not very impressed with either of the two I listed. They are indeed expensive to repair--and they seem to need repair fairly often. Burman Coffee says the Gene Cafe is their favorite.

I am hoping to hear from someone who has one or the other. They seem to me to be tricky to use and, according I think to Sweet Maria's, to have only a two year life expectancy. That's not long for an appliance that costs several hundred $$$.

I also posted a query on the Appliances Forum and have a few responses there.

I must admit I have been thinking of trying your rotisserie roaster technique. My Capital range has a rotisserie. Can you post details of how you do the roasting? Temperature and time? I think I can find your instructions for making the basket.
Is smoke in the oven a problem?

My rotisserie thingie is very simple, two cheapie strainers put together with an axial I found in my junk box. $10?

Set the toaster oven at 450F and let it run.

I mostly do about 1 lb of beans. I have not actually time it. Basically I can tell by the smell in the air when it is dointg thr first crack and go from there.

Yes there is smoke, but the smoke doesn't bother me. When the beans are ready at the right color. I pour them in a big aluminum turkey baste pan, the throw away kind. I take the pan outside with a fan going and with a scoop to stir the beans. The beans would be cooled quickly and all the chaffs blown away.

Then I take the beans to Trader Joe's (5 minutes away) and use their grinder to grind up the beans (free).

Never had to deal with the aggravation of returning a $500 machine for a $200 repair.

dcarch

Dcarch,
Thank you again and again. I'll save this and decide if I want to figure out the quirks that would let me try this in my oven. Don't see why not.
Anyway, let's keep playing with our food!