Huky 500 - 1.1lb roaster. . . Has anyone seen / heard about them?

[Tex]

I was thinking more along the line of bearings/bushings and other hardware that simply wears out from use.

[hankua]

Interest in the Huky500 is heating up. Dennis over at HB picked up a Huky and has it paired with a Cajun cooker stove. Several other members are about to pull the trigger on one. Dennis recommends getting the standard version "direct fire", with both thermocouples and skipping the optional stove. You can read about it on his blog.
http://10000shots.com/

[Roasting Realtor]

Very nice looking, but I wonder how many folks have a 22,000 BTU gas burner at their disposal?

The all-grain boys around here would.  I'd be looking to pair it up w/ something like this;

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/brewing-equipment/burners/low-profile-banjo-burner-burner-and-stand.html

Don't you think the 9,000 BTU burner it ships with will work???

[hankua]

One would assume the burner sold with the Huky would be sufficient, but Dennis changed to a Cajun cooker burner. The optional stove has an IR burner which is different than an open flame. A custom solid drum roaster was ordered with many modifications, so that development may be interesting to follow as well.

[JW]

So my Behmor started acting a little funny. No surprise as I pretty much killed it ( about 400 roasts in 9 months). So I bought a Huky. It arrived today!!
I am impressed with the build quality on this roaster. It arrived in 3 days from Taiwan too. SO nice as I'm off from work on mondayswhich allowed me to...
Roasted 6 pounds in a little over 2 hours. I decided to not use the offered IR stove and bought a 20,000 BTU propane burner( the same one Dennis from HB is using). I added a needle valve and a pressure gauge (0-15"WC). Did some fast roasts(1C @ 9min) and some slow roasts(1C @ 12:30) with varying drop temps. Overall I am very happy with it. In a few days I'll cup them and let everyone know what I think.

[BoldJava]

... In a few days I'll cup them and let everyone know what I think.

Look forward to your reports on it.  I am budgeting and saving for mine, Spring 2013.

[expy98]

wow 6 lbs in 2 hrs...  it'd take me 2 afternoons to do that much with the Hottop. 

3 days from Taiwan?  are you in ... Taiwan?  :-)

[JW]

3 days from Taiwan?  are you in ... Taiwan?  :-)

New Jersey of all places... Got the email it was shipped at 8:30am friday. On the plane from Taipei to JFK saturday. Got it this morning at 10 am. I couldn't believe it. 

[hankua]

Congratulations on the Huky!    How about some pictures........

[expy98]

I'm waiting to learn and benefit from you and all the early adopters,
ready to upgrade from the HT.  The 1lb HT thread has gone silent,
guess it's not progressing (fast enough).

[JW]

I'll be roasting on Sunday Afternoon. I'll take lots of pictures and if I can get artisan to work I'll post some profiles. I did a 24hr post roast cupping today on coffees I've previously roasted on my behmor and can already see a dramatic difference. All seemed brighter,sweeter, more aromatic, and very , very enjoyable even though still degassing. One coffee( the El Salvador Los Mercedes Bourbon from Klatch) I roasted fast(9 minutes to beginning of 1C) and slower (12.5 min to 1C) and the faster one seemed much more complex and sweeter. I definitely liked the faster roast much better, but both were enjoyable. One coffee that I thoroughly disliked from last year (nicaragua dipilto finca la union from SM) that I roasted just to break in the roaster was so good I was shocked and surprised ( the cupping was blind, a friend and myself cupping and a 3rd party preparing the pourovers). Honestly I'm kind of overwhelmed  by the difference in cup quality which I know will only be getting better. 

[hankua]

JW - Are you logging the info from your roasting sessions? My 800n is similar in design to your Huky and I log temp(BT)/time/ventilation/gas flow.

[JW]

Hankua,
Tried to use Artisan to log the roast info but it kept crashing, so I roasted with out a log this first time. Posted on Arpi's HB thread and he gave me some pointers to correct the Artisan problem. Hopefully it will work. I really like seeing graph profiles. I"m hoping to log BT, ET, time, fan (on/off),damper(1/4 increments), and gas flow in 1/2" water column increments. The 800n or the San Franciscan 1 lb are my dream roasters, but they are out of my league cost wise. Actually so was the Huky, but after 4 months of complaining I got permission.   . Just using it once I love it already.

[hankua]

I'm stuck with a paper log, my roaster has a control box with a pid (one BT thermocouple). Not smart enough to figure out how to hook it up to a computer.    And I really don't think the 800n/mini500 is worth spending three times what the Huky costs. It's even possible the Huky has some advantage over the 800n/mini500 with the "direct fire" drum and powerful air fan. The perforated cast iron drum is an option on the mini500; I stayed with the basics being a noob. Direct Fire roasters are very popular in Taiwan; they roast a lot lighter than we do. Barismo in MA has a Taiwan direct fire roaster and it's mentioned in their bog. Something about being a hybrid between drum and air roasting.

Did Mr. Li mail you some profile instructions to get started with?

[JW]

No instructions of any kind and no recommended profiles were included. No literature at all. Its what I expected. Sink or swim. Well I'm kind of doing the dogpaddle/treading water in a circle. I truly figured I would burn through(excuse the pun) 20+ pounds before I even had a drinkable cup. I was wrong. 
I can tell this is going to be quite a learning process. One I'm going to enjoy...