I purchased a Kaleido Sniper M2, and I was able to roast my first two batches today. Kaleido is a newer company that hasn't been mentioned before on HB. There are currently no distributors located in the United States, so I had to purchase from China.

I've never roasted before, and I haven't actually tasted the roasted coffee so far since I just roasted it a few hours ago. It looks good though, and I wanted to start a thread to see if there are others who own this roaster (or are interested in it). Kaleido has other versions besides the M2, but I believe they all are pretty similar.

Feel free to ask questions or add your experiences if you own one of these. I'll plan to add updates over time as well.

It's a bird, it's a bat mobile, it's a coffeeroaster! A few less cool and more intelligible pictures, along with some kind of description, would help. Also, since you never roasted before, how did you stumble into this machine?

Holy moley, someone finally bought this!

another_jim wrote: Also, since you never roasted before, how did you stumble into this machine?

These are everywhere on Aliexpress. I think if you search coffee roaster there it'll be one of the first you see. Certainly eye catching for sure, but interesting choice nonetheless for a first timer.

Would love to hear more and see more of what's going on with this roaster.

Is it gas powered?

I found out about this roaster after seeing it a couple months ago on a Facebook group called Home Coffee Roasters. That group has around 10,000 members with various levels of equipment and experience. There is also a smaller Kaleido Sniper Coffee Roaster group.

I've been thinking about trying out roasting for a while, but I starting looking into it a little more seriously (and reading about the pros/cons, cost, time commitment, taste, etc.) around 4-5 months ago.

I read information on the roasting forum on HB as well as various other sources. I personally wanted something that could roast at least 8 oz. at a time. I also was looking for something electric instead of gas. I decided I didn't want to spend more than $2000 USD for this additional hobby, to include all of the add on stuff (which ruled out the Bullet for me, although that was one I thought about pretty hard). I also wanted a decent amount of control for the roast process.

I read about the Gene Cafe, Fresh Roast, Behmor, Hottop, etc., but I was having a hard time deciding. I stumbled onto the Sniper about two months ago, and at first I thought it just looked cool...but it actually has some good features as well!

The two main versions made by Kaleido are the M2 and the M10. Each of these also have an "original" version or a new PRO version. The prices go from $1200 USD to $2800 USD (not included shipping and import fees). I have the original M2. The PRO versions connect to Artisan via Bluetooth, but cost around $500 more than the original versions. The M2 is designed for up to 400 grams and the M10 is 1.2 kg. Kaleido also has a M1 and K3 version, but I didn't really get as involved with researching those.

I messaged several people who had purchased this roaster and got a better idea about how it works. A great resource I found was a YouTube channel called Caffe Martella Singapore (the guy in the videos is CY - he is very informative and answered some questions for me when I contacted him via email). His videos were basically my instruction manual for using the Sniper. I'd highly recommend anyone interested in this to watch some of his videos.

Again, I'm new to roasting...so I don't have anything to compare it to. The Sniper is pretty new also, so I don't know the longevity of this item. It appears to be solid, heavy, and well constructed. The first two batches were fairly easy, given that I had videos from CY as my guide to start out.

I'd like to end this post saying that I'm not getting anything from Kaleido for posting this information. I'm just wanting to see if others have purchased this and start some conversation about this roaster. I put a lot of trust in the HB community when I got into espresso a few years ago, and this website was my primary source of information. With this being a newer roaster, there isn't a lot of information about it available (especially in the US market).

If anyone has specific questions, let me know. I'm not an expert by any stretch, but I'll try to answer questions.

The aliens have landed, is this a reciprocal visitor from Mars ?

Interesting addition to the field of roasters, welcome to the Guild of Home Coffee roasters! Can you log temperature with this, like with Artisan ?

You can record your roast to artisan with a Mastech thermocouple with the original version. The PRO version can connect directly to Artisan via Bluetooth.

Both the original and the PRO version have small screens for viewing the roast as you are using the roaster. I found a couple pictures of the screen online and I also have a not so great picture of my screen from my first roast (sorry about the glare). My version of the screen is only in English.

nrh wrote:You can record your roast to artisan with a Mastech thermocouple with the original version. The PRO version can connect directly to Artisan via Bluetooth.

The Mastech is a device that reads the temps from the Thermocouple. You say it can send the readings to Artisan, but then how do you get the on the screen readings as well?

If you know more precisely how this would work it would help others be interested in this machine.

These are neat looking units.

What was your batch size? Have you experienced a max capacity yet?

How much time does it take to get to FC?

It looks like it is using IR heating (ie halogen bulbs, is this the case? How much power does it pull?

I'm not sure how the Mastech is integrated vs. the screen. I don't have a Mastech at this time, but I've seen both the Mastech and the screen being used at the same time on videos.

gullygossner wrote:These are neat looking units.

What was your batch size? Have you experienced a max capacity yet?

How much time does it take to get to FC?

It looks like it is using IR heating (ie halogen bulbs, is this the case? How much power does it pull?

I've done two batches. The M2 says it is a 400 g. Max capacity. I did two batches of 340 grams, which is 85% capacity. I don't think I'd push past that.

The first batch reached FC at just under 11 minutes and the second batch was at 10 minutes.

Yes, it appears it is a halogen bulb. I asked about this when I bought it and they said they bulb would last 5000 hours, but they sent me a second bulb for free also. Additional bulbs cost around $19. The unit shows from the paperwork that is is 800 watts.