Didn’t know that. Thanks. New day, something new to learn.
Nice. What does the exhaust out the window look like?
We just used a piece of board and cut out a hole for a vent (like a dryer vent), then braced it to keep the window from opening (for security purposes). Pretty simple but works great!
Hi everyone. Great to see these set-ups and thanks for posting.
I have just received my Bullet and am about to build a roast workshop for it. My question is about the venting. I am going to use an inline extractor fan to vent through a wall to the outside but I assume the smoke will contain oils and will cause some kind of discolouration to the outside of my house which is newly painted white. I am really interested to hear your opinions and observations about the effect of the smoke on the outside of your houses.
Thanks in advance!
There was another thread about setups that included images of a filter for an inline extractor. The user (@bertje1959) had already killed one inline fan thru contamination. In the replacement setup they installed a box in the exhaust line. Inside the box is a piece of white ScotchBrite (like that used in the cooling tray) set diagonally in the box (to get maximum area). Follow the link and check the images he has posted. The ScotchBrite is easily removed for cleaning.
Bruce
Here are a couple of the images @bertje1959 posted-
Nearly forgot- when you exhaust air from an enclosed space you must provide make-up air, i.e. there has to be a way for the air being exhausted to be replaced or there will be no air flow out the exhaust fan.
Bruce
Thanks for sharing that information. Has anyone tried using an electrostatic filter like you would in a commercial roastery? I know these are huge but you can get portable ones designed for use when welding which means you wouldn’t need any venting to the outside at all. In theory it should be able to filter the air and return scrubbed air back to the room.
From memory the oil and carbon is attracted to the charged metal plates and you can then use a pressure washer to clean the plates afterwards.
Hi everyone,
I am a new Bullet owner and roaster (started on a Gene Cafe).
I roast on my kitchen island near these windows. I open the top halves of the windows for smoke venting. This is fine for most seasons in Boston.
I am considering putting a bathroom fan above my roaster so the smoke vents out directly. I’d love to hear opinions/suggestions. Pic below. Thank you.
Any possibility of getting under the range hood? A bathroom vent won’t contain the smoke at all to keep it off walls & window frames. Roasting smoke is really ugly stuff!
Bruce
Thank you Bruce!
My range hood does not vent out. It recycles the air in my kitchen.
Yes, roasting smoke is nasty. I had very little issue with smoke on my Gene but the Bullet is different.
Opening the windows works well for now.
Another thought I had was to print the attachment on a 3D printer and have a 2 feet run to the outside with no inline fan etc.
I saw a window dryer vent hook up that I thought may work with that set up.
Something like this:
Thanks for any feedback.
If you use the printed exhaust attachment for the Bullet you’ll need to allow an air gap.
I use a crude ‘range hood’ which is a plastic storage box with a 4" flange installed. An in-line exhaust fan gets most of the smoke out but there’s still some left behind. It leaves a nasty yellow-brown glue behind.
A better approach is in the preceding post which incorporates a filter (same material as the cooling tray uses) inside thee square box and sealed plumbing with smooth bore instead of the drag associated with 4" dryer vent hose.
Both these approaches require an exhaust port for an in-line fan (I used 4" dryer hose vs. 4" sealed hard plastic that @bertje1959 used). It appears the window dryer vent you found has that so you’re almost there. The biggest issue is relying on the Bullet exhaust fan to drive the distance and obstructions while working thru an air gap. I suspect (but don’t know!) that there isn’t enough power to handle it and that you’ll need a boost from an in-line fan. Plus there’s back-pressure to cause smoke to exit at the air gap.
The biggest drawback is assembling/disassembling all the pieces in order to roast. That’s a genuine pita!
Bruce
Thank you! This is very helpful and I have pondering my design for a few days now.
I’m wondering if I placed an in-line fan in my system that vents outside using the window vent shown above and then creating some sort of a ‘hood’ with an air gap about 20 inches above the Bullet.
If I use an inline fan, what CFM do you all recommend?
I really like the cooling tray filter idea to prevent the fan from clogging up.
Last night I got thinking about those charcoal rangehood filters. If roasting above a rangehood is recommended, then shouldn’t those filters work just as well in a modified hood?
I am thinking of filters such as these…they come in all sizes and I could easily incorporate that into something I build.
Thoughts?
Thanks!
I used this 4" in-line fan (8-step speed control). Relatively quiet which is what you want… it’s hard enough already to hear 1C and especially 2C. In my case I have it set to the max speed. I start getting a little back flow sometimes and that seems to resolve it (probably has to do with wind causing back-pressure which reduces flow rate.
I imagine the range hood filters would work but I would guess that cleaning them will be an issue. There’s a lot of smoke residue and I’m not at all sure the charcoal element in those filters will survive either the smoke or the washing… clings like glue to everything. It brings to mind the charcoal filters in my HotTop which worked but had a short life (think $$$). In his setup, @bertje1959 uses the white material used in our cooling tray which can be washed with soapy water and reused without diminishing the filtration.
Bruce
Thank you Bruce.
This is helpful.
You are right…dis/assembling is the piece I am not looking forward to since I do not have a permanent set-up.
But I do have a very short run the window vent so that should help…I think. Once I have pics of my setup, I’ll be sure to post.
Thanks!
Here is my setup. I roast in the garage and I built this variable speed exhaust system to vent my Bullet. It uses a cheap Home Depot Broan bathroom vent fan mounted to a piece of 1/2 inch plywood. The “funnel” is made from a vent stack roof flashing (also home depot) with a 3" duct pushed through. ![IMG_3249|375x500](upload://oTL
NduydkEtnuAMajbUD9lLsyrw.jpeg)Creative! Is it permanently up or do you take it down after roasting?
a simple duct-taping solution, under a home kitchen range hoods which we have installed just for this roasting corner
Hi everybody, my name is Edwin, today I just “seasoned” the Bullet and did my first roast, a 1800m natural process Pacamara from my family’s farm @fincacampobello in Cerro Verde, El Salvador. At Campo Bello, we’re planting new Gesha from renowned Panamanian farms as well as Pacamara and Bourbon, consulting with Willem Boot of Boot Coffee and Finca Sophia, aiming to make one of the best coffee farms in Central America.
Had a bit of a surprise with all the smoke that came from the “seasoning” batch! Wasn’t ready for that.
My current setup is a bit minimal, but next week I’m having the exhaust duct installed, as well as buying containers for the coffee, and a bagging station. Really excited about doing experimentation on the Bullet, and about the community sharing their learnings. If anyone here is coming to El Salvador, hit me up for a tour of the farm.