Too Much Coffee

I think - think - that the UK and European models are basically the same, but are designed to take slightly different voltage - 210-220V and 240V - simply because when I bought mine from Steve I had the option between the 2, though I think -think, again! - remembering him saying it made a difference only in a kind of subtle way. In all honesty, you'er better of contacting him directly, before I start talking even more rubbish

Nott Steve, you should really take a serious look at the Gene Cafe. It has many advantages over the basic HT, its also cheaper.

1. It creates less smoke - because the chaff is removed from the drum as the roast progresses.
2. It can be connected to a duct to remove the smoke from the roasting area - smoke emanates from both the top and the rear of a HT
3. It will roast 250g on a low supply voltage - the basic HT struggles with 200 on anything less than 235v
4. It can roast back to back - the basic HT has to cool down and then reheat before doing another roast. This takes around 15minutes per roast and is a complete pain in the a**. For me this factor alone would make me discount the basic HT, far, far too time consuming.
5. Chaff is collected in a filter box, this is far less messy than the tray in the HT. In addition the tray on the HT should be emptied between every roast; the GC can do at least 5 before this is necessary.
6. The rear and top filters should be replaced at regular intervals on the HT and at around £13 a time (each) adds significantly to the cost of ownership.
7. The basic HT gives you no control over the roast profile, the Gene Café is a very simple manual device giving a reasonable degree of control.

The only factor s where the HT scores over the GC is in noise production and in cooling. The HT is almost silent whereas the GC sounds like a hair drier. The Cooling tray on the HT is also very good.

I have taken part in taste comparisons and the results are very close.

i have a ht for sale in the clubroom! And if i don't sell it quick, i'll just hang onto it!