|
Note: This is a temperature probe installation on a new roaster only. You must also purchase the Hottop roaster of your choice. A similar product which includes a datalogging multimeter is also available. This product can be fitted to any of the Hottop roasters we offer.
If you've already got a multimeter that can accept a K-type thermocouple, you can simply plug this probe into your existing meter. Fitted with banana plugs!
Passionate roasters have been adding bean mass probes to the bean chute covers for years; but they look pretty ugly and they interfere with simple loading of the beans. The alternative is an internally mounted probe, but this is a much harder job and voids the roaster warranty - and who wants to do that to a brand new roaster? So why not purchase a brand new Hottop with a bean mass temperature probe professionally installed??
First up, why would you want one? As this graph shows, the actual bean temperature can be anywhere from 0 to 30 degrees BELOW the reading on the Hottop control panel, or even slightly above! The bean cracks are critical milestones in a roast, and while a given type of bean will crack at almost exactly the same temperature every time, various factors such as the ambient temperature, roast capacity and roast profile may mean the air temperature required to get the beans to crack is different - and that's what's being measured by the roaster. Since the difference between the displayed temperature and the bean temperature CHANGES as the roast progresses, you can never be sure what temperature the beans are actually at! Without accurate bean temperature data, it can be quite hit and miss knowing how soon beans are going to crack and therefore what program changes to make in anticipation of that.
"What?", you say, "so the Hottop's temperature isn't even accurate?!" Before you panic, for safety reasons EVERY domestic roaster on the market (at the time of writing) employs an 'environmental' sensor, measuring the hottest part of the roaster - the temperature of the air inside the drum (or, in the case of the Gene Cafe, the air after it's left the drum) rather than the beans which are somewhat cooler. The Hottop's environmental sensor is in fact better than most as it sits extremely close to the beans so it's one of the most accurate environmental sensors out there. By employing an environmental sensor the manufacturers can be certain the device isn't going to overheat and catch fire. The environmental sensor can still give an approximate indication of the temperature of the beans but it's never an exact correlation.
This then is where the Hottop comes into its own. One of the beauties of the Hottop's design is its inherent ability to have a bean mass temperature probe fitted, which is simply a temperature sensor sitting in amongst the beans as they're roasting. The drum design of most other roasters makes such an installation impossible to perform, and thus this critical data remains hidden. A bean mass probe gives you an accurate figure of what the beans are doing, thus programming suddenly becomes a lot easier because you have accurate data to work on!
Note: By purchasing this item you are purchasing ONLY the temperature probe and its installation into a new Hottop roaster. You must also purchase the roaster of your choice. The pictures on this page show the temperature probe installed into a roaster to show the finished installed product.
|
