Opinion: Why – and How! – We Should Learn to Work on Roasters

By Arno Holschuch

There is no emergency in the world of specialty coffee like a roaster emergency.

When the roaster at the center of a coffee business goes down, it takes the whole shebang with it. The production crew stops roasting and bagging, the delivery drivers have nothing to deliver, the cafés have nothing to replenish their stock of brewed coffee, it all stops. If you miss a delivery, your wholesale customers start sharpening their pitchforks, lighting their torches, and calling your competitors. All positive economic activity essentially stops dead, while those responsible try and find a way to get their roaster back up again – or find someone willing to let them “borrow” a roaster.

It’s nothing like an espresso machine going down – as catastrophic as that is – and yet, for every qualified roaster technician, there are probably 100 qualified espresso-machine technicians. The ability to step into an anxious roastery, deliver a professional diagnosis, and chart a path to recovery is a rare one. This is due to a group of reasons, including lack of access to education and the relatively high risk, but it is also not a situation we should accept. There’s too much good business and too many good deeds being left undone.

The Same, But Bigger

Modern espresso machines look complicated when you first open them. There are a lot of wires in there. But after you’ve figured them out, they have enough design commonality that most techs can figure out how a machine works without even consulting the schematic.

Not so much with roasters. In spite of the fact that roasters share a lot in common with brewing equipment: There’s a heat source, there are motors, there are usually temperature sensors, and it’s all working to heat some coffee up and drive specific chemical processes. They’re kind of like other machines we deal with, just far bigger. So why do more technicians know how to fix ice machines than roasters?

Coffee roasters are significantly more complex than an espresso machine. They are an industrial machine rather than a commercial machine and are often – though not always – manufactured using industrial grade PLCs and switchgear. Being (usually) gas-fired appliances, they are also manufactured to comply with numerous national and international regulations and should never be serviced by anyone who does not hold the relevant formal qualifications and licenses.

A big reason is that there are fewer roasters in the world than espresso machines, and they tend to cost a lot more. This makes the most traditional path of technical education – tearing apart an old machine and rebuilding it – unfeasible. It is understandable that a company is unlikely to allow a novice to disassemble a $60,000 device in the name of education.

As mentioned above, servicing a coffee roaster carries a large amount of risk which and any service person needs to protect themselves before commencing (including liability insurance, service documentation, and licenses). If an inadvertent mistake were made and the roaster was made unserviceable, the cost to restore it to correct operation could be excessive not to mention loss of income claims. The worst-case scenario with an espresso machine would be to temporarily swap out the machine and get them back up and running. 

And techs cannot just buy ratty old roasters, either, as they tend to have much more value on the used market. Few organizations have a spare roaster lying around. They’re too valuable for that. So that means you are generally working on a machine that is mission-critical and needs to roast well, today.

The Path That Remains

So how, then, is a tech to learn?

While most technicians do not know a lot about how roasters work, our siblings in the roasting trade tend to be very technologically well-versed. They are the first, best source of knowledge. A barista may not know about the flow restrictor that makes their preinfusion soft, but an experienced roaster will usually know exactly how to restrict airflow on their roaster. They generally know how to disassemble them, and what breaks the most frequently. They can provide you with a map of the landscape you are trying to explore.

What roasters cannot do, as a rule, is diagnose the deeper technical malfunctions. But a good brewing equipment technician can. We diagnose and replace broken relays. We swap out temperature sensors. We can ohm out the coil on a solenoid and assess whether it needs to be replaced, and we can spot a safety interlock that’s malfunctioning. We have the knowledge of plumbing and electronics and problem-solving skills.

By working with our friends in roasting, we can – over time – build up the set of skills required to support the beating heart of our industry. And we need to.

A Call to Wrenches

Why venture outside of our comfort zone and explore roasters?

A primary reason for a “brewing equipment technician” to take on the task of servicing roasters is the financial upside. Adding another skill to your quiver will add new potential business. I still field calls from owner-operated micro-roasteries here in the Bay Area who are desperate for help, and I haven’t turned bolts for a living in a couple of years. Roaster techs are usually better-paid than their colleagues who service brewing equipment. It’s a rarer skill, much in demand. (Electrical and gas qualifications, licenses and experience are what is needed to serve coffee roasters)

But servicing roasters is also really part of our calling. This is about the role we have carved out for ourselves in our industry. We do what we do so that our colleagues can always shine like a brand new penny. And in this case, our roasting colleagues are desperate for help, especially if they are too small or too new to have an established relationship. We are Coffee Technicians. It is our responsibility, our privilege, and the completion of the role we have chosen to play.