Huky (Kuanho Li's workshop)
Tabletop and countertop machines, Taiwan.
History
Huky is not a company, it is a man. Kuanho Li is Taiwanese, a machinist-fitter, a retired former shop teacher. He works without a company name and without a website. An email address serves as the storefront, and the machine leaves Taiwan in about ten days. A few machined parts are subcontracted to a CNC shop, that is, to computer-controlled machine tools. He assembles everything else himself, which leaves him the freedom to accept modifications on request. A numbered plate bearing the words “Hand Made” is screwed onto the front. The first known model is the Huky 300, already on sale when an American forum mentions it in December 2008. The Huky 500 succeeded it: a video shows it in December 2009, and a customer places the switchover in March 2010. A review published in January 2012 notes that he had then been building them for about six years. Since 2014, a New York reseller has distributed it worldwide and keeps stock. This changes the machine's life: it leaves the sole word of mouth of the forums, and it can be bought without writing to Taiwan.
What it makes
A single type of machine: a 500 g countertop drum, with no heating element at all. The heat comes from a gas stove placed underneath, butane or propane, which is not built into the machine. The manufacturer sold it as an accessory, and the distributor today supplies it in its kit. It is therefore a flame-heated roaster, scaled down to the countertop. The drum is 304 stainless steel, 2.5 mm thick and 130 mm in diameter, mounted on ceramic bearings. It exists in two versions, and this choice decides the heating mode. Perforated, it lets the burner's hot gases pass through the sheet and touch the bean: it is direct flame. Solid, it transmits only the heat of its wall, hence conduction. A flap at the back adjusts how much the drum is exposed to the burner's radiation. A six-inch fan, rated at 230 cubic feet per minute, provides the draft for the fumes during the roast. A second fan, with its own screened tray, cools the bean on exit. The front takes a sampling spoon, an analog thermometer and two probes, one in the bean, the other in the drum air. A third probe, placed in the fumes, remains a paid option. A batch lasts from eight to fifteen minutes.
The models
Huky 300: first model, attested before December 2008 and abandoned around 2010. Its data sheet was not found, so its capacity remains to be established. Huky 500: 0.5 kg per batch. The manufacturer's sheet circulated in 2011 states 150 to 500 g, and its 2016 price list states 75 to 560 g. The current distributor lists 500 g at most and 150 g as a sample load. A published review retains 330 g as the most comfortable load. The machine weighs 6 kg and fits in 40 x 19 x 35 cm, which explains why it sits on a countertop. Huky 500T: same capacity, different front and piping. A T-pipe there separates the loading chimney from the extraction duct, which the 500 combined in a single funnel. That funnel had to be moved between two batches, hence the redesign. A conversion kit from the 500 to the 500T exists: front, T-pipe, elbow with wooden collar, 383 dollars in 2026. Workshop price list in 2016: 1,078 dollars for the 500, 1,180 for the 500T, 99 for the infrared stove. In 2026, the complete kit distributed in the United States goes from 3,005 to 3,564 dollars. The difference comes from the probe set chosen, thermocouples or resistance probes.
What you gain
Gas delivers what an electric outlet cannot. A portable stove supplies about 9,000 BTU per hour. The BTU per hour is the unit of thermal power used by burner manufacturers, and 9,000 equals 2.6 kW. An electric roaster plugged into 110 volts tops out, for its part, around 1.8 kW. A 500 g load therefore has power in reserve, and the rise needs no boost. The flame reacts within the second, without the inertia of a heating element. The 2.5 mm drum keeps enough mass not to follow every jolt of the burner. Finally, the choice of drum, perforated or solid, sets the heating mode before the first profile.
What you lose
The burner is not designed with the machine, and that has a cost. A butane cartridge cools as it empties, its vapor pressure drops, and the power falls in the middle of the roast. The original infrared stove offers only three notches. Fine control requires adding a needle valve, which doses the gas to a trickle, and a pressure gauge to read the pressure. The perforated drum scorches the surface of the bean if the load is small. Six kilos without insulation follow the room temperature, so the device must be stabilized between two batches. Nothing is automated. The extraction blows into the room unless it is routed outside.