Hey, sorry I missed this when you first posted it. It is strange that you are not reaching 1st crack, -even an unmodified popper should have no problems here. A few possible issues come to mind: 1) Are you roasting with the lid of the popper on? If not, do so. It will help retain heat. Keep the butter melter in place as well. 2) Are you roasting in the garage far from the home's main electrical feed? These cheap poppers are pretty susceptible to changes in line voltage. If you are some distance away, it could actually be extending the roast time. In fact, one common solution to the opposite problem (roast progressing too quickly) is to attach a long extension cord between the outlet and the roaster. 3) Are you roasting in very cold weather? This affects it, especially if the lid is off. 4) Finally, do you just have a POS? These units are cheap and cheaply made offshore. My first unit died pretty much right away (about three weeks in). I got a second one and performed the mod, but have been careful not to do immediate back to back roasts, as I think it just stresses it out too much. It's been 21 day, so I'd be curious to see if you found a solution in the meantime :)
Hey! Thanks for the reply, I was just reanalyzing my current coffee dilemma and was disappointed that I had not yet heard from you because I had made no attempts to resolve the issue in the meantime and then, viola: you come to the rescue. 1) Popper lid is on 2) I'm roasting pretty close to the main feed - I don't think that's the issue 3) I was roasting outside in pretty cold weather. I thought it would provide a great solution to the "smokiness" problem and actually never tried roasting outside prior to the mod. I did not think the temperature difference would affect the roasting of the beans, so thanks for mentioning that! This is likely the issue. After seeing 4) I'm realizing what I'm working with here and I'm really taking this thing for granted as it is. I will apologize in advance to my housemates and brew away this week; I'll let you know how it goes. A side note: have you found any solutions to increase the "batch" sizes? I tend to use larger batches but makes sure to stir or shake the beans every 2 minutes. I am curious to your thoughts on the matter. Thanks again for your help and of course the idea!
Regarding #3, yeah, I would recommend roasting outside too, -even in the winter. It just kicks out waaaaay to much smoke, and the popper should be able to handle it just fine. I find that in cold weather, it extends the roast times on my Air Crazy maybe 3 minutes or so (compared to Summertime). If you can't even reach first crack though, after say, 8 minutes, then I'd probably look to just giving it a whirl with another unit. You could have a dog :/ Regarding batch size, I'm running into the same problem myself! I've just recently decided to switch to using a heat gun and a bread-maker, which can roast up to a pound at a time. You don't need a breadmaker though, -some DIYers just use a heat gun and a dog bowl with a long wooden spoon to stir :) It's pretty hands on. As far as batch sizes on the Air Crazy, I roast 80-85 grams at a time, and I generally constantly do a light shake for the first 3 or 4 minutes. I generally stop shaking for sure once I get to 1st crack in cold weather, and let it proceed to second crack in the chamber without agitation. Edit: Forehead slap. I just realized what your problem could be. You mentioned you used a half a cup of beans then decreased the amount to 1/4 cup. With a fluid bed roaster like this, the hot air comes out of the chamber near the bottom of the heating chamber. Decreasing the bean density lets the hot air escape, and increasing it retains it. Roasting with fewer beans actually increases the time it takes to reach 1st and 2nd crack, and roasting with too few may make it really difficult. I would try it with 85 grams of beans. That is the max I can roast in mine effectively. You don't want too many, but you definitely don't want too few! I bet that will help a lot. It should shorten the time to 1st crack to a more acceptable range. Ideally, you want to be hitting it between 4 and 7.5 minutes in.
So I bit the bullet and I moved the project back indoors and there were no problems with the roasting. I used about 1/2 cup of beans and it seemed to have worked out as it did before, pre-thermostat removal. Of course it stunk up the house and required a few windows to be open. I didn't realize there was such a large variance in 1st crack times. I like darker roasts, but am also rather new to this whole thing, so I have been sticking to about 7 min total roast times. About how much volume is 85 grams of beans?