Been considering the purchase of a Sono mainly from comments about it highlighting the brightness, which I love, but had a few questions...
1. How does it fare with wet process/ most Centrals?
2. Does it give off much radiant heat? Does the base get very hot or could it sit atop something like a wooden island?
3. Is the cooling done by just shutting off heat and keeping the air running through the beans?
4. If you roast in cold a environment, any concerns over the glass cracking due to heat change, or is the ramp up in initial heat fairly gradual? Does ambient temp seem to affect the roast?
5. Does the chaff collector work well or is there residual chaff that needs to be vac'd after, say, a City+ roast?
Thanks for any help...
I've been using my Sono for just over 2 yrs. now and here are my observations:
1. Centrals are just fine, but it of course depends on each individual coffee. I find it's a matter of finding a coffee that works well with the built-in profile rather than the fact that it's a washed Central. My most disappointing roasts have been with washed Ethiopians. Some are so delicate and I feel I'm losing some of the nuances. On the other hand, some of my best roasts have been natural Ethiopians.
2. There's some radiant heat, but only from the roasting chamber and metal chaff collecting assembly on top. The enclosure has no temperature change so you shouldn't have any problem having it on something wooden.
3. Yup, the cooling is simply air flow without the heat cycle. Very effective too. :-)
4. I think ambient temperature *will* affect the roast, but I haven't had any concerns about a cold roasting chamber with the heat cycling on--at least in terms of cracking or breakage. I'm not comfortable roasting outside in a windy environment or in a cold environment for reasons of ambient temperature swings, but that might just be me.
5. I find the chaff collection is pretty good, though I do always vacuum off some stray chaff before I empty the roasting chamber. I did have some chaff ignite twice while roasting a particularly chaff-y natural a little on the dark side. Not fun, but recoverable and didn't require anything more than shutting off the gas (then the power shortly thereafter) and opening a window... *blush*
Let me know if you have any more questions!