Urnex Launches Its First Cleaning Products for Roasters: Sprayz and Soakz

Urnex Roaster Sprayz and Roaster Soakz on display at the recent SCA Expo in Boston. Daily Coffee News photo by Nick Brown.

Over its years of selling coffee equipment cleaning products to consumers and commercial clients alike, Westchester, New York-based Urnex came to realize that many people were also already using their products to clean coffee roasting gear, too.

At long last, and after much feedback and development, the company has unveiled its first two products expressly designed for coffee roasters: Roaster Sprayz, a high-foaming cleaning spray; and Roaster Soakz, a powder for soaking roaster parts.

“Most of our expertise and experience with our internal team has been in espresso machines, and coffee brewing and grinding, not really roasters,” Isaac Cohen, vice president of marketing at Urnex told Daily Coffee News as the new products were being unveiled at the SCA Expo last month in Boston. “We knew that there was a natural interest among roasters, so if we were able to provide something better than what existed, we thought it could be a great fit.”

Daily Coffee News photo by Nick Brown.

Cohen said the company’s flagship espresso machine cleaning product, Cafiza, already came with usage directions for roaster cleaning applications, while also acknowledging that many roasters manage to come up with cleaning solutions on their own.

“I think roasters by nature are a very inquisitive, creative, hands-on group, so they find their own ways to clean and maintain their equipment,” Cohen said. “But the ultimate goal of this product is to save roasters time, and let them spend time roasting instead of cleaning.”

Roaster Sprayz is designed for cleaning various roaster parts — including chaff collectors, cooling trays and impellers — in place. Users vacuum or wipe down the equipment; spray the foaming solution; wait for it to dislodge dirt, oils and detritus on its own; then towel the solution off before finally toweling the treated parts with fresh water.

Roaster Soaks, meanwhile, provides a more powerful powder solution than Cafiza to soak removable roaster parts that might have much more build up. Just one ounce of the powder combines with two gallons of water for parts soaks in tubs.

Both products were formulated to clean buildup that resulted at much higher heat than the buildup typically found in espresso machines, Cohen said, adding that the products were sent to numerous roasting clients for feedback, including past United States Barista Champion Kyle Ramage, now of the North Carolina-based roasting company Black & White.

Urnex unveiled seven new coffee-related cleaning products last month in Boston. Courtesy photo.

Urnex took the SCA Expo as an opportunity to launch a whopping seven new products. In addition to the roaster cleaners, the company unveiled: a spray for stainless steel surfaces called Stainless Sprayz; disposable wipes for stainless steel surfaces called Stainless Wipz; a tablet-based cleaner for super-automatic espresso machines called SuperGrindz; a cleaning powder for various cold beverage machines called One-Pro; and a phosphate-free version of the flagship Cafiza.