Home Coffee Roasting Blog

We offer a selection of the best home coffee roasters and we receive occasional orders for them from customers outside the USA. All of our home roasters are powered by electricity and electric supply varies by country. The USA electric supply is 120 volts, 60 hertz. The following countries have the same electric supply although in some cases plug configuration may differ:

American Samoa
Bahamas
Bermuda
Canada
Cayman Islands
Costa Rica
Ecuador
Guatemala
Micronesia
Nicaragua
Palau
Venezuela

In other words, roasters made for the US market should work in this group of countries without modification.

Please understand that home coffee roasters, particularly those with timed roasting cycles like Behmor and Hottop, have a defined maximum period during which roasting must complete.  This feature is designed for your safety.  If the voltage supply is not sufficient than you will run out of time before roasting completes; if there is too much voltage than internal parts may burn up, destroying your roaster.  Roasters purchased from us have guarantees for the US only so any purchase for use out of country is not covered.

Roasters heading anywhere else in the world will either not work or may, in some cases, work with voltage regulation and plug adapters.  The very best thing that you can do is purchase a roaster that was built for your electric supply rather than buying one made for another country and attempting to convert it.  This latter approach usually leads to dissatisfaction.

It is critical to deliver the correct voltage and frequency (hertz) to your roaster.  Even if it’s made for the US market there are many locations and situations when voltage is inadequate.  During summer heat waves electric companies reduce the output of the electric grid and voltage will drop to save electricity.  Also, for voltage sensitive equipment you should not use an extension cord which will reduce the delivered voltage; plug the appliance directly into a wall socket.  You can use a voltage regulator to even out and to some extent boost voltage moderately.  For example, if your voltage supply is 117 volts (a simple volt meter or Kill-a-Watt device will inform you) you can set use a voltage regulator, like the Variac that we sell, to increase voltage to 120 and the device will keep the supply steady.  The frequency of electricity, expressed in Hertz, must be matched to the electric supply.  Otherwise timing of motors and clock/timers, where applicable, will not function properly.

Two new Hottop home coffee roasters are now available and previous analog and digital models have been discontinued.  The new models are KN-8828B and KN-8828P, known affectionately as B and P.  There are extensive reviews of both on our site: B model and P model.  Both are programmable roasters.  The B allows users to modify four parameters during a roast:  time, temperature, fan speed, heat element power.  The modifications can be saved in one of three slots.  The P model is a highly advanced profile roasting system allowing the user to write up to 10 programs, each with 8 segments that, using the parameters above, sets targets for each stage or segment.

Both roasters can be set to “Auto” which will allow them to work like the previous generation, meaning after the roaster warms you will be prompted to pour in coffee beans, the roaster will follow a factory preset program.  You will be able to increase time at the end of the roast or eject beans at any time.

Happily, the original Hottop body and interior design is intact, and upgrade kits are available for owners of previous generation models.  This consideration for existing owners is a reaffirmation of the previous solid design and allows users to have an upgrade path without the need to buy the complete new models.

The new Hottop roasters and upgrade kits are available now.