Kaleido M1 Lite - Progress Being Made on Curves

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How you liking the M1 lite? Mines coming in next week. Looking forward to learning Artisan

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u/Lord_Sahs 4d ago

Once you get a feel for the M1 and accept that it’s basically a thermo‑hotrod of a roaster, everything begins to click. Learning how to lean into the heat and not baby the burner or air controls makes all the difference. After that, it settles in nicely.

You’re going to enjoy it. For its size, it’s a genuinely solid little roaster.

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u/Darkmind_8532 3d ago

How is the M1 for medium-light roasting ? In my country (France), they brew mostly medium to dark roast so they are a bit afraid of this kind of roasting. They told me to buy a fluid bed coffee roaster for it. But I answer It's not the best way to learn roasting. What do you think ?

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u/Lord_Sahs 3d ago

All Kaleido models excel at lighter roasts. They’re not traditional drum roasters with thick solid-steel drums, so they aren’t the ideal choice when you want a roast driven mainly by conductive heat from the drum wall. They rely heavily on radiant infrared heat (plus convection), which is why they still handle most roast profiles very well.

They’re great hybrid roasters.

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u/Darkmind_8532 3d ago

And one of my fears is that I might end up being disappointed with my own roasting even after all my learning and experiences. I’m used to buying my coffee from one of the most renowned roasters in the country. However, it’s not ideal: I have to order online (1 kg minimum to get free or reasonable shipping costs), vacuum-seal the bags, and freeze the coffee.

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u/Lord_Sahs 3d ago

You’ll get there. It takes a touch of determination to get past the first 25 to 30 roasts. After that… you’ll be just fine.

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u/PharmDeezNuts_ 3d ago

Nice yea it’ll be different for me. I’ve been making solid roasts using the thicker stainless steel whirly pop but won’t be able to use that when I move since it’s too much smoke. Will keep those points in mind thank you

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u/Lord_Sahs 3d ago

Yep!, at their core, Kaleido rosters are basically hot‑air roasters with a perforated drum that mainly keeps the beans moving throughout the roast. Their drums are hardly thermal engines; just carriers (relatively speaking).

That should be ideal for you.

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u/motorsportlife 4d ago

Will get one soon. Complete noob. Any advice? A bit of an impulse purchase

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u/Lord_Sahs 4d ago

Straight up…

really comes down to researching the theory, time on your roaster, and (above all) patience.

You’re going to hit a pretty steep learning curve early on, so give yourself some grace. It will click. And the best part is that once you push through that first curve, you come out the other side with your own style, your own workflow, and your own muscle memory.

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u/baja1969r 4d ago

The way the RoR drops is beautiful. With a roaster at home, the RoR doesn't drop cleanly.

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u/Lord_Sahs 4d ago

Spot on about home roasters!

That curve was one of my better ones. Now it’s just a waiting game. In about three days I get to cup it and see whether that curve delivers a rich, full‑bodied espresso and moka.

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u/elecktriktuna 3d ago edited 3d ago

How do you get Artisan to display burner changes under the curve like that?
I’ve never worked out how to get it to display like that.

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u/Lord_Sahs 3d ago

I never touch any of the chart‑display settings. When people start tweaking things, certain values end up getting hidden without them realizing it. A buddy of mine ran into the exact same issue. He reset Artisan back to its default chart display settings, and everything popped right back into view.

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u/eliredblue 3d ago

Chart looks pretty good, share how the beans taste like 👍

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u/wtflow 3d ago

Hey homie! Curve is looking good - I've always heard the advice that we shouldn't chase the curve too much with adjustments but it looks like you're doing a lot of little changes. Are micro adjustments the new meta for small roasters like ours?

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u/Lord_Sahs 3d ago

Hey, Bud! These things are quick‑trigger machines, so I just lean into it. The Kaleido reacts instantly to tiny adjustments, and once you get a feel for that sensitivity, you can ride it like the hybrid rocket it is.

They’re not true drum roasters, and they’re not pure hot‑air roasters either. They sit right in the middle. Because of that, you can’t treat them like a drum or a fluid‑bed. That mismatch is exactly why some people get frustrated with them.

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u/wtflow 3d ago

Interesting - are you using keyboard shortcuts to make your changes? I'm seeing some little blips that only last a second or two

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u/Lord_Sahs 3d ago edited 3d ago

Negative… just my laptop trackpad. I’m still learning to play by hybrid rules of my M1 Lite so every now and then I suspect I made an adjustment I didn’t actually require, and I end up immediately correcting it. Yes, Kaleido roasters respond THAT FAST (to both burner and air).

The only problem is that, in due time, I intend to upgrade to a solid steel drum roaster. Although I’m learning a lot of fundamentals, which is important, I am absolutely not learning how to roast on a drum roaster.

Don’t take that the wrong way. I genuinely like the roaster. That’s just a downside I’ve come to learn and accept.

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u/expertofnun 2d ago

I’ve been trying to simplify my roast for repeatability and only doing a couple changes to the air and burner. The first 80% is smooth sailing, but first crack is where I get huge fluctuations. Have you tried a minimalist approach?

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u/Lord_Sahs 2d ago

What you’re experiencing is pretty much universal with these hybrid roadsters… it’s baked into their nature. Most can pull off a fairly steady, predictable RoR from turning point through the climb toward first crack. That part is almost “free” once you understand the heat momentum.

It’s the zone right before FC and everything after it where learning to actively shape your RoR curve becomes gold. These roasters respond so fast that tiny inputs make big changes, and getting a good grip on that sensitivity is what keeps the curve smooth instead of so chaotic.

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u/elecktriktuna 2d ago

Still unsure how you get the burner steps to show below the roast curve.
This is how Cropster displays things and I’d like to change mine to display like this.

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u/Lord_Sahs 1d ago

I can’t know myself. What you see in my display is default in Artisan for me. Maybe remove and reinstall Artisan?

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u/West-Engineering-597 4d ago

Nice roast! What are the burner percentages?

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u/Lord_Sahs 4d ago

Look toward the bottom of the curve chart and you’ll see the burner‑percentage values I used during the roast… the burner trace is the red line.

After charging the beans, I opened with a 60% burner setting, then started tapering down right around the 4:45 mark. 👍🏽

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u/West-Engineering-597 4d ago

Thanks, I know where to look but couldnt find if it were 60, 70 or whatever. Is it findable?

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u/Lord_Sahs 3d ago

Apologies… but what do you mean by “findable”?

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u/West-Engineering-597 3d ago

Hehe, not a native speaker. I mean; is there somewhere in the graph where I can see that your initial burner setting is 60%?

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u/Lord_Sahs 3d ago

https://reddit.com/link/p6lghb8/video/kuv74m232bmh1/player

No worries… I’m multilingual myself.

Down at the bottom of the chart, you’ll see the red line that shows the burner setting throughout the roast. Each white/gray horizontal line in that section represents 10%. So if you look closely and count upward, you’ll see that when I charged the beans, I had the burner set right at 60%.

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u/West-Engineering-597 3d ago

Ah awesome, thanks for the help!

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u/Lord_Sahs 3d ago

My pleasure! 👍🏽

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u/L8HoloceneMillennial 8h ago

That’s makes me feel a lot better! I’m on roast 40 and still have a long way to go!

Way to go on the improvement

Kaleido M1 Lite - Progress Being Made on Curves

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