I’m beginning what is probably going to be an adventure; hopefully a good one, possibly a bad one. I just ordered an R2 Pro which won’t be delivered for a good three to four months. I could have gone with an R1-V2, a proven winner; but opted for the as yet unknown instead. I currently roast on a Hottop 2k+ using Artisan and am quite happy with it. Having gone through a learning curve with that unit and finally hitting some good roasts, I began wondering if there is more that can be gotten out of roasting with a different appliance. I’m not expecting drastically better coffee from the Bullet, but once I have it roasting decently I can certainly share roasted beans with others more-so than from the 2k+. The Hottop is built like a tank, but was designed with so many safety features that at times I feel suffocated by it. After roasting a batch of beans there is a requisite cooling down period that must be honored before another roast can begin, something I wouldn’t expect from a machine as heavy duty as that one is. The Bullet has no such requirement and can do roasts one after another, something I will welcome. I will say this about the Hottop: once connected to Artisan, one or two of the safety features go away and won’t bother you. Hopefully some of the inevitable bugs will be worked out of the R2 Pro by the time mine is delivered and there will be semi-smooth sailing after that. I saw on Sweet Maria’s that the new R2 display panel has some bugs that need to be fixed via firmware updates and hopefully that will be a soon remedy. I’ve been reading a lot of articles about the R1, but not sure how much of it will translate over to the new models. I really wanted to buy the roaster from Sweet Maria’s, but I have a delivery window that they couldn’t hope to meet; so I went straight to Aillio America. No free 10 lbs of beans, but delivery on my terms. Once I have my Bullet in operation I will try to keep this thread updated with my progress; both good and bad.
Congratulations- I just received mine yesterday, after using an R1 for several years. I wouldn’t worry too much about bugs- Aillio has learned a lot over the years, and although I’ve just been through my first seasoning batch, the R2 Pro appears to be a much more refined machine than the R1- and any issues that pop up, I am sure will be addressed by Aillio efficiently.
It depends on if you get a good machine or not. I have had a lot of issues with my machine. I think I found a way to get it to roast normally, but waiting to hear back from Aillio tech. It is Christmas, so they won’t really be back to discuss things till almost mid January most likely.
That being said, the Bullets are pretty simple machines, which is a good thing . Only so many parts to go wrong. But one wrong part can cause a chain reaction sort of effect and then other issues occur and distract from the actual cause.
The engineers are very reluctant to admit any issues. So it has been over two years trying to get them to listen to me and they search for any solution that isn’t what I say.
I think you will like the Pro. It is expensive (can get a used gas machine for not much more with 5x the capacity), but you have a mobile machine.
The extra power and finer steps of control is very useful. And the airflow sensor for more repeatable roasts looks very interesting. I’m curious to see how much maintenance it requires. The Bullet is surprisingly high maintenance for the tasks one has to do between batches. but then you also get the automated bean cooling tray, so they may be a huge relief and make everything else feel negligible.
I don’t think aillio should have a plastic chaff collector on the Pro, especially for that price, because of how their airflow system works. You really don’t want to rely on plastic under heat for airflow.
Yes, I’m hoping it will be a roaster I really like. Having a commercial gas fired unit would be overkill for me even at a comparable price since I don’t have a place for it; and as you said, this one is portable. First batch of the day warmup will take longer on this than it does on the Hottop, but probably not as long as for a cast iron commercial unit. If I have problems with plastic parts I will search for aftermarket metal replacements. This will be my last roaster, so I will make the best of it.
I’m going to be using some robusta beans to season mine when it arrives. I suppose you pretty much run high heat until 2nd crack and then drop the power to zero and run the fan on high for a few minutes. I’ve never done s seasoning roast, so this will be new territory. Aillio appears to be trying to produce good roasters that hold up well to heavy use. The biggest change from R1 to R2 appears to be controlled airflow; they have also switched to higher precision components in the heat control circuit, but that may not have a huge effect. I hope it performs at least as well as the R1 does.
From my interactions on the forum, not all bullets warp. Seems to only happen to a few machines. I think some have a tolerance issue that causes airflow issues and heat build up. Does not seem to be a universal issue, but has big impact on roasting from what I can tell. It happens gradually over time, so it can sneak up on you.
Both of my rear chaff boxes started flush and then recede and shift in shape towards the top. I assumed the first one was my fault, but the second one also warped. So now I think it was a manufacturing or design issue.
Wow! Is the drum replaceable without sending the whole unit back? Hottop makes a replacement like that very easy; I hope Aillio does the same.
A question here: since the pro heating is rated at 2300W and there are now 14 steps to get there, are the levels P0 to P9 equivalent to the levels on the R1, with P10 to P14 covering from 1550W to 2300W? That would make using existing R1 roast profiles easy. But it probably isn’t like that at all as even the changes from V1 to V1.5 to V2 made profiles incompatible.
Parts should be easy. Or they seem to be getting easier to find. Shipping from Taiwan is expensive though. So if Sweet Marie’s doesn’t have it in stock then you could have to wait some time.
The Power settings idea sounds good, for sharing recipes.
I’d still like to see more P steps. About double. Or maybe Bézier curves option between settings. Occasionally I’ll see a stall in the temps dropping from P7 to P6 and yet P7 is too hot. So I need to time the drop sort of blind to avoid a flick. Though, most people don’t have the same machine issues I do, so they seem to be able to work fine with the current number of P settings. I have found that when I do certain adjustments to my machine it roasts normally and has better flavors, but I can’t get Aillio tech support to agree about the issue. Other than that, they have been good. But I’d rather have a working machine. Haha. But if you machine is good, I don’t think you will have any issues buying parts or chatting with support. They are pretty good. I just don’t know why they were resistant from the start, and that started me off on not caring about flattery or sugar coating anything with positivity. Haha.
I guess buying a roaster is like anything else: there will always be a ‘lemon’ or two in with all the good ones. Aillio probably doesn’t have an answer because none of their test machines are doing what yours does. But, still it would be nice if they could find the answers from their remote testing on your machine while it is roasting. I would like to see them offer a potentiometer for heat control so that we would have infinite control rather than steps. On the downside that might make it difficult to program power levels into a recipe. Or do what Hottop does and give us 100 steps of heating.
It would be nice if they listened to me and tested out the theory. It has been almost 3 years! Haha. 
I used the hot top once. The coffee came out ok. I got a little uneven, but it roasted like a coffee. felt it did a good job. I just didn’t enjoy the experience.
Roasting on the Bullet is more engaging. I think if you have a good operating machine you can have a lot of fun.
I found that with the Hottop I have to react quickly to charge the beans because it doesn’t control the preheat temperature. I have to be ready to put them in as soon as the temperature is where I want, otherwise the temp goes on up and sometimes trips the safety which kicks it into cooling mode. Like you I don’t think of the Hottop as being fun. I believe the Bullet will offer more enjoyment along with a greater appreciation of roasting. If the machine misbehaves, then I suppose I will be back to the HT.
@brucemunck.3mHa the power levels 1-9 are equivalent to the R1. I repeated several profiles yesterday from my old R1 and they followed closely on the R2 Pro. The RoR curve tracked pretty closely however the R2 curve has more variability along the curve- i suspect due to higher precision temp readings.
The machine overall works as expected- very quiet drum rotation compared to my R1, and the magnetic control panel is a big plus for maintenance. The cooling fan in the electronics pumps out a lot of heat which should bode well for the durability of the main board.
For me, between roast maintenance is a non- issue. Pull off the chaff collector and compressed air cleans it out in seconds. I’ve never had an issue with the plastics in my R1 over 5 years of use, so I’d expect the R2 Pro to be no different.
I received my R2 Pro a little over a month ago and have been very pleased with it. I came from a Fresh Roast 800 with extension tube, so I cannot draw comparisons to the R1 but I can say that after a few learning roasts, I’m producing coffee that tastes as good or better than the FR800 (but in much larger batches!).
As far as bugs, I had a weird glitch when I did a 3rd back to back roast. The roaster dropped out of roast mode mid-roast and refused to go back until I hard booted it. After that happened, I realized there was a much newer firmware available. I updated the firmware and have had no issues since.
Yeah…MUCH larger batches! Lol I started off with an FR-700 which connected via usb to my pc and allowed for stored roast profiles. It is sitting in my closet where it has been for about ten years. I didn’t get to the point of producing really good roasts on it and gave up rather quickly. No extension tube, so very tiny batches. I expect I could do more with it now, but why bother as I have an HT and will soon have a Bullet.
Good to hear about the power levels. I was hoping that would be the case. As for cleaning, well it shouldn’t be too much different than for the HT. I routinely clean the chaff tray, remove the drum and vacuum inside the roasting chamber, clean the sight glass.
I’m glad the R2 is quiet…it might help to hear the cracks. Reliability shouldn’t be an issue, so I’m ready to get started. Once it arrives!
Great to hear.
That is what pisses me off about tech support. I’m telling them I have burning plastic smell and warped plastic and they say “no that isn’t the issue”.
The between batch routine on a Probat is pretty simple. Just dump a new batch in. And then at the end of the day or week empty the chaff container.
With the Bullet:
- chaff container empty, but be sure to check the rubber plug. And make sure the rotation of the chaff basket collar isn’t off, otherwise it can me with airflow.
- chaff basket swap every two batches otherwise it throws off airflow. They come out hot. (Plus the cleaning later on to get rid of the oil build up)
- checking for stuck beans in the temp probe or bean chute
- checking for dust build up in the door (if dust builds up, it tends to lead to beans eventually getting stuck between the door and drum)
- cleaning the IBTS before or after a few sessions or every session depending on the amount of roasted coffee.
- making sure the fan is on underneath the Bullet to prevent over heating
- swapping out chaff and dust filter for the cooling tray
And while roasting keeping an eye on the bean chute plug. It can get knocked askew or completely off.
Turning off the cooling tray fan without accidentally changing other settings or even ending the batch (not a Pro issue)
Confirming the temps and power draw are not out of spec. (Constant issue on the R1 in warmer climates)
And if you want to monitor airflow temp, that is a whole additional thing with note taking.
You get used to the little things, but there are more things to keep track of that can mess up a batch. I’d say bigger machines have a much more tedious deep clean. So I’m not really talking about the amount of work, I’m just talking about focus. On a bigger machine I find my focus to be on the roast. With the Bullet I have to constantly be aware of all the little things, since they can just come open or fall off, or build up real quick
I posted the FYI on my new R2 Pro, usb Connector:
I am probably one of the unlucky ones, lemon for lemonade, my R2 Pro from Sweet Maria’s was delivered just before Christmas:
I was watching the Aillio unpacking video and pausing between steps. this is not a cheap machine, and I wanted to do everything right.
- The shipping box looked great, no dents, scrapes and tapped well.
- Packing inside look good, packaged nice, made easy to remove for main box with pull handles.
- unboxed everything on the garage floor, and put all the packing back into main box.
- I lifted the Bullet and put on my work bench.
- I unpacked all the parts from the cooling tray, at this point I did notice a difference from the video to what I had, the Control housing was already mounted onto the Bullet, and the video showed the step of mounting the control housing to the bullet.
- I removed the protective film from the control housing glass face, and immediately notice the glass was cracked at all the silver screws. On further inspections of the control housing the plastic housing was cracked in several places and chucks of plastic missing. I searched all over for the pieces of missing plastic control housing, box, packing, floor, bench…not luck. This was very concerning to me that the broken parts were not in the box, lead me to believe this product was package broken at the factory.
- Stopped what I was doing and email Aillio support. They got back to me in a few days from Taiwan, surprised so fast considering the Holiday.
- Matt from support, wanted me to power on the unit, and run a seasoning roast, to see if I needed a new housing, new control unit, or a complete replacement. With the time difference I did the steps the next day.
- I powered on the unit, everything seem to light up ok, but when I cycled through the preheat process, something was moving in the drum and when I opened the door a plastic piece of the control housing come out. How in the world did that get into the drum? and now I am really concerned about what is inside the drum and quality control at manufacturing.
- Second issue, could not get the bullet to connect to my MacAir 2022, all updated, using supplied cord. Determined the issue was hardware when I removed the supplied usb cord and noticed the control housing usb connector coming out of housing. I could push it in and out with my finger
- I manually set the seasoning setting and started the first seasoning process. everything seemed ok, but as the temp was getting closer to preheat temp, smoke was coming out the back, thinking it was factory oils burning off, but had a burnt plastic smell.
- Third issue, the speaking is not working, not prompts to charge beans.
- I was able to get to second crack and dumped beans in bowl of water.
- Emailed Matt all my findings, he called later that evening and said he would send out a new Control unit. The lemon road process has started.
- While I waiting for a new control unit, I thought I would take a look at the usb connector on the control unit and take it off, reverse mounting procedure. Doing this really showed how damage this unit was, it’s cracked all over, unscrewing the glass cover, chucks of glass came off, the housing was cracked all over, so much I only had to remove 2 of the 4 screws holding the board to the housing. After loosing the board the usb connector stayed in the housing hole, off of the board. Looking at the board and connector it seemed this should be more protective and better built. For what this devise does, temperature and how it is used, this usb connector is going to get used. There is even another usb connector on the board, probably for diagnostics, and it is connected the same way, and will probably never be used. (this might explain all the usb connection issues I have read?)
- The damage to the control unit is amazing consider the box is in pristine shape. I am very concerned and disappointed.
When you spend this type of money, you do expect more, but that’s just how it is sometimes. From a $500 Behmor to $5000 Bullet in the hopes to increase knowledge with more professional equipment, knowing I am not going to get 10X roasted bean quality. I get that things happen during shipping, but this seems to be a manufacturing issue, and when that happens corners get cut, I don’t get the correct cooling tray until 2025. I don’t have high hopes for this machine, lemon road, but maybe I will be able to update positively after everything is working?