6
Dropping:
The term dropping means to release the beans from the roaster. The drum door’s balance
weight keeps the door closed. It also keeps the door open when fully raised. To drop the beans, place
the collector bin tightly under the roaster’s front and lift the handle. The beans will exit quickly, with a
few of them lingering until the drum's vanes drive them out.
Do not raise the balance weight while the roaster is operating; beans will begin to exit, and it
will be difficult to completely re-close the door with the beans in the way.
Cooling the Beans:
Once all the roasted beans have dropped, cool them immediately to stop the roast
from coasting beyond the desired roast level. Quest roasters have an inbuilt cooling facility that uses
the chaff collector at the roaster’s upper back. To cool this way, drop the beans into the rectangular
collector bin (where supplied) and insert the bin fully into the chamber. Run the blower on its highest
setting. Alternatively, cool the beans with the optional bean cooler. The Quest’s rectangular collection
bin and cooling chamber can only handle loads of about 300 grams or less. The round bin supplied with
the M6 and its optional fan/cooler unit will easily cool more than 500 grams (about a pound) of beans.
Be careful with the heater control when the collector bin is in the cooling chamber. Inserting
the bin into the chamber stops all air from passing through the roasting chamber, even when
the blower runs at high speed. Unless the heater control is turned off or set to a low current, the
roaster will quickly exceed the recommended ET/BT for an empty roaster of 250° Celsius.
Continuous Roasting:
After dropping the first batch, set the heater power such that the roaster attains
and maintains the desired charge temperature for the next batch.
Cooling the Roaster:
When finished roasting, turn off the power and open all the doors to cool down
the roaster. Bear in mind that the roaster will be dangerously hot for a while. Although running the
blower is not strictly required during cooling, it is prudent to run the roaster for a short time with the
heaters turned off.
Cleaning and Maintenance
Cleaning the roaster often avoids the accumulation of tough stains. More importantly, it keeps the
roaster operating at peak efficiency and safety.
Cleaning Between Roasts
After the roast has dropped, briefly run the blower on high to move any retained chaff into the cooling
chamber. Clean the cooling chamber and its filter at the roaster’s top back and the drawer at the
roaster’s bottom front (where fitted). Although hot, cleaning both of these when doing back-to-back
roasts is easy using a small shop vacuum. Failure to remove the ash and chaff will reduce airflow,
which will prevent the roaster from producing repeatable roasts. It could also result in a fire.
Caution: To avoid damage to the vacuum when removing the chaff from a hot roaster, do so
very quickly.
