There are a variety of consumer appliances made specifically for coffee roasting such as the Hearthware iRoast2, Swissmar Alpenrost, and the Gene Cafe Roaster. These are generally more expensive than home-built options, but offer more automation of the process and avoid the potential hazards of reappropriating other equipment which may be pushed outside of its intended operating range by this unexpected use.

Most of the purpose-built homeroasting appliances are either "air" or "drum" roasters. Commonly, it is held that fluid-bed or air roasting method tends to produce more acidity in the coffee beans while the drum roasting method tends to produce more body in the coffee beans. More recent exploration into the art of roasting in the home has shown that the fast heat up times typical in many fluid bed roasters leads to greater acidity being exposed in the bean, whereas the slower heat up times in drum roasters help develop more body.

Recently, there have been "hybrid" roasters introduced to market that borrow technologies and methodologies being explored in the professional roasting field; most notably the Gene Cafe roaster out of Korea. Recently introduced into North America, this roaster uses an oscillating, off-axis drum rotation to agitate and apply even roasting to the beans, and uses a sealed hot air flow to heat the roast drum chamber.

The main drawbacks with many of the dedicated home roasting appliances are their relatively small batch size (some roasters are capable of handling only 75 grams of green coffee), frequent limitations in the "roasting profile" used by professional roasters to further control the resulting coffee roast, and often slow cool-down abilities for the freshly roasted beans, which could result in a dulling or flattening of potential flavors in the coffee.

Another issue with home roasting coffee is the smoke and fumes that are generated during the roasting process. Because of this, it is preferable to roast coffee in a well-ventilated area. However, when roasting coffee outdoors, the ambient temperature needs to be monitored because this can have an effect on the quality of the roast.

Information Source: Wikipedia and Image Source: Sweet Maria's

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