How does the RK Drum compare to other drums on the internet?..
In recent years, there have come a number of other Aluminum, or mixed Aluminum and Stainless Steel drums onto the market. The reason these drums have arrived is because these drums are very inexpensive in terms of purchasing of the aluminum metal and very easy to work with from a labor standpoint. These drums may appear to look nice, and carry a nice price by comparison to Stainless Steel drums. Make no mistake however, these drums are very poor investments in the long term because they are very likely to fall apart within a short time, and have been shown to cause health issues in food grade machines.
Strength, Durability and Conduction.
While Aluminum does indeed enjoy better heat conductivity than Stainless Steel, which means the drum itself will heat up faster, it does not however have the strength of Stainless Steel. As the Aluminum drum is heated above 400F, the metal begins to harden and age and become brittle, which weakens the metal and subjects it to cracking. We believe this makes Aluminum unsuitable as a coffee roaster. The weak structure of the Aluminum additionally will cause the drum to dent or crush.
Aluminum and Alzheimer’s and other Diseases in Food Grade products.
Aluminum has been shown in many studies to cause Alzheimer’s and other kidney related diseases, as a result, we have taken the optimum approach to Health and Safety by utilizing only Food Grade Stainless Steel in all of our coffee drums. A study on Aluminum intake and its effect can be found here for those that have interest.
Lifetime Warranty with the RK Drum.
We have considered making Aluminum drums in recent years to try and offer reduced prices, however, we have decided against this as RK has an undeniable and longstanding reputation for producing quality drums. We believe that you should be able to buy a drum once and own it for life. If we were to make drums out of aluminum, then you would see weakening of that Aluminum at temperatures above 400F. Eventually, this means that the drum will begin to get sloppy and eventually fall apart and you will be frustrated and wishing you had bought a better drum to start with. If you take into consideration the linked health complications, we feel that the risk isn’t worth it. We only want to make the best products for your roasting projects and as a result, we will only use full welded, heavy gauge, food grade stainless steel!
About RK Drums
RK Drums has been providing roasting advice for coffee aficionados and small business owners for over 15 years. We specialize in making coffee roasting accessible to anyone who wants to roast, and sell complete solutions to roast coffee using a barbecue grill.
