I roast on my balcony and would like to have a simple and portable smoke filtering solution. My idea: Filling an electric ash vacuum cleaner with active carbon filter material for extractor hoods. The vacuum cleaner itself already has a paper filter installed.
With a kind of funnel I would then suck the bullet’s smoke from a safe distance. Could that work?
I think of such a machine: https://www.kaercher.com/de/home-garden/multifunktionaler-sauger/asche-und-trockensauger/ad-2-16297110.html
I think I recall that others have done this so maybe a little time using search will pay off.
HotTop uses a similar approach which is built into the roaster. With beans that are particularly oily it can get overwhelmed, but then theirs is a very limited capacity system. What you suggest ought to do much better. I’ve seen similar vacuum-based products that are commercially available for smoke collection.
I suspect a significant concern would be power for that smoke collector. To be of any use to you it will need to move a lot of air and that means it will need a fair amount of electrical power. You’ll probably want to consider separate circuits (different circuit breakers) for the filter and for the roaster. Even the V2 Bullet will be sensitive to changes in power line voltage.
Of course, since I’m in the US, I have half the line voltage which means twice the current for the same amount of power. Our household circuits are near their single-circuit limit with the Bullet.
Bruce
I used these:
AC Infinity Cloudline S4 4" blower
https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-CLOUDLINE-S4-Controller/dp/B07JB292JC
4" Air Charcol Filter
https://www.amazon.com/VIVOSUN-Australia-Charcoal-Pre-filter-Reversible/dp/B01DXYMBU6
4" duct
https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-Heavy-Duty-Four-Layer-Ventilation/dp/B071LHCFZ8
4" semi-rigid duct
https://www.amazon.com/Deflecto-Aluminum-Connectors-Silver-MAC36024
I 3d printed the exhaust adapter then used the semi rigid duct to make an inverted J shape over the roaster’s exhaust but I don’t think the adapter is absolutely necessary.
I’ve only done a couple roasts so far and haven’t done any without the filter but I will say on seasoning roasts the smoke is still very significant. The filter isn’t really meant to eliminate smoke more for odors in say a grow tent. That said, I roasted inside and used this setup to vent outside and had no issues with indoor air quality. On the one roast I’ve done just past first crack, the smoke seemed fairly negligible, but I haven’t compared it to having the filter off yet.
I wouldn’t recommend the vacuum approach for a couple of reasons
Volume of air is more important than velocity of flow - you actually want lower velocity so as not to disturb the thermodynamics of the roaster
The vacuums tend to be very loud which would make it hard to hear first crack, etc.
The fan I posted uses very little power - it’s significantly more efficient than a small vacuum. I was able to run the roaster no problem on one US outlet / circuit with the fan on full power. It also moves quite a bit of air - 200 cfm if I recall.