Economics

  • No, all software is included in the purchase of your Bellwether.

  • Bellwether offers many third-party financing options which are all available to you at checkout. Terms vary based on the finance tool you choose and your individual circumstances but most applicants should be able to find a financial product that works for their business.

  • Roasting in-house with Bellwether is less expensive per pound than almost any wholesale offering and with lower startup costs than traditional roasters. To understand how much you could save per pound and how much additional revenue you could realize by roasting with Bellwether, check out our ROI calculator.

Installation

  • The Bellwether Shop Roaster requires a 240v single-phase outlet with a 30amp circuit. The Shop Roaster can be operated without wifi but your best experience will be with a dedicated wifi connection.

    The Bellwether Series 2 can be operated on either a 240v single-phase or 208v three-phase outlet with a 50amp circuit and wired ethernet connection.

  • If your site meets the requirements for power and internet, the roaster can be installed and used in any location it will fit, however, we don’t recommend placing the roaster in a moving vehicle unless properly secured. Contact us if this is part of your business plan and we can discuss your requirements.

  • Yes! As long as your supply meets the power requirements for the roaster, you can use any alternative energy source that suits you.

  • Bellwether’s network of service partners are available to install your roaster, provided you are in a serviceable location. The flat rate for installation is $450 paid directly to the service partner at time of installation.

Capacity and Throughput

  • The Bellwether Shop Roaster roasts in 1.5 kilo (3.3 lb) cycles and the following parameters:

    • 8-12 minutes per roast + 4 minute cooling cycle

    • 3-4 roasts per hour

    • A full 20 kilo batch can be roasted in about 4 hours of continuous, automated roasting, totalling about 13 roasts.

    • A single roast requires about 2 minutes of labor per roast, while a Continuous Roasting Cycle requires 2 minutes of labor to complete 13 roasts.

    The Bellwether Series 2 roasts 6lbs at a time, and between 3-4 roasts per hour.

    Customers can easily roast 400 pounds per week on a single shop roaster or 500 pounds per week on a series 2.

  • Your roaster can run continuously without needing cooldown or shutdown, but will incur more wear and tear sooner, and will require maintenance at more frequent intervals. If you think your business might require a schedule of this nature, talk to us about the economics of adding a second roaster to your fleet.

Service

  • Like any machine, the life of your Bellwether will partially depend on the wear, tear and care it is subject to, but in most average use cases, you can expect your roaster to last as long as any other roaster on the market.

  • Unlike conventional roasters, you’ll never need to source your own parts for your Bellwether through traders or scour used equipment websites. We manufacture or supply all parts and materials for your roaster. We may occasionally supply service providers with inventory they need to service your roaster but you’ll never be left sourcing any parts yourself, ever.

  • Our network of service providers is available 7 days a week. Your Bellwether Warranty covers repair work—including parts, service, and labor—for the first 12 months or 5,000 roasts, and every machine comes with a 5-year or 25,000 roast Hot Path Warranty.

  • In addition to technical support, our Customer Success Team has compiled a host of resources to help you plan for your roaster arrival, integrate roasting operations into your existing business, build your coffee menu, and grow your brand over time. You’ll gain access to our exclusive Bellwether Knowledge Base where you’ll find everything you need to become a successful, profitable roaster.

Technology and Software

  • No. Traditional air roasters use hot air to loft the beans inside the roast chamber, heating them evenly as it does so. The Bellwether Roaster instead uses a rotating drum with a fixed blade that agitates the coffee throughout the roast while heating elements apply heat directly to the drum (conduction) and also heat the air entering the drum (convection) creating a dense and even roasting environment for the most consistent heat application possible.

  • Of course. The Bellwether Roast Manager allows you to create new roast profiles from scratch or clone, edit, and delete existing profiles. Bellwether allows you to control charge temperature, finish time, finish temperature, and rate of rise. Airflow and heat application are controlled automatically by the roaster based on your profile requirements.

  • You’re never required to purchase Bellwether sourced green coffee, but we love the coffees in our Marketplace and we think you will too. In addition to industry-leading transparency and living incomes for farmers, each coffee comes with a pack of custom roast profiles ready for use on your Bellwether roaster. If you’d like to use your own green coffee, you can make your own profiles using our software.

  • The Bellwether Marketplace is an online store for sourcing green coffee where you can select from a global menu of fresh, sustainable coffees sourced by our team of experts and provided with transparency. Coffee can be purchased in full bags or 10 kilo (24lb) boxes that are shipped directly to your door. Once arrived, the custom roast profiles for your coffees will automatically appear on your Bellwether.

Environmental Impact

  • Bellwether’s all-electric, ventless technology reduces the carbon footprint of a pound of coffee by almost 90%, requires no fossil fuels to operate, and has the lowest emissions impact of any commercial roaster. Even other electric coffee roasters must rely on afterburners or ventilation which increase the energy requirements while continuing to emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

  • Nope! A third party study conducted by Boundless Energy found that even in regions where the electrical grid was powered by natural gas or even coal, roasting on an electric, ventless Bellwether was still cleaner than roasting with natural gas.

  • While carbon offsets are technically a “net-zero” approach to emissions, the best way to avoid the harm caused by carbon emissions is to reduce consumption at the start. It's environmentally better to not even have to offset the carbon in the first place by eliminating the source rather than displacing the impact somewhere else.

    Carbon offsets are not a regulated market in the US and the valuation of how much carbon counts per credit can vary significantly. There is also no system in place to ensure that the carbon you emit will be offset by improvements in your area. If you're burning carbon in California, you could be buying offsets in a totally different part of the world which won’t impact the air, water, or soil health of your neighborhood or even your region.

Coffee Quality

  • Bellwether has closed the quality gap between gas and electric roasting and thanks to our adaptive closed loop roasting system, offers the most consistent roasted coffee available today. Renowned coffee expert James Hoffmann recently endorsed the quality of Bellwether roasted coffee in this interview, stating that even he couldn’t tell whether the coffee was roasted using electricity or gas.

  • The craft of roasting is expressed in the strategic application of heat, air and time as decided by the tastes of person roasting. Whether you apply those factors manually, in real time or whether you program those requirements into the roaster to follow, makes no difference whatsoever to the final product. A coffee roasted with a well made roast profile will taste the same whether it was created using inputs made in-the-moment or pre-programmed into the roaster, as long as the technology can meet the demand of the profile. Many conventional roasting manufacturers are releasing “roast profile replay” technology for this very reason.

Availability

  • Bellwether is currently available in the US, Canada, Japan, the UK and Europe.

    • Customers outside North America and those in Hawaii and Puerto Rico will not currently have direct access to the Green Coffee Marketplace but we will work with you to source coffee directly while we are bringing the full Marketplace to your region.

    • Some very remote areas may be required to manage their own service with virtual support and local providers, but our team can discuss this with you if you believe this might apply.

    The Bellwether Shop Roaster will begin shipping in Q3 of 2024.