Recommend a meat grinder

[jgradyc]

Our meat grinder started making a horrible gear whining screech. I think it's a goner. I need a recommendation for a new grinder. We use it to grind up turkey for our dog food. It needs to be strong enough to grind up small bones. We give the larger bones to the dogs as snacks. 

Our old one came from Northern Tools and lasted about 8 years, I think. It looks like this one on their website. Unless anyone has a better suggestion, I'll just buy another one like this one. We don't use it for any other purpose.

EDITED: We grind about 1 large turkey every three weeks.

EDITED AGAIN: It doesn't have to be cheap. The Northern Tool model (~$100) I have was okay until it broke, but I'd be willing to pay more if it were better, faster, etc. We buy really expensive dog food, so over time the cost will be amortized in dog (and cat) food savings.

Edited July 29, 2016 by jgradyc

[KahrMan]

One thing to watch for in the newer inexpensive meat grinders are plastic gears.  They will not hold up to grinding bones and will wear out.  

The LEM brand has some nice grinders that a lot of people use to make dog food.  Most of the reviews will tell you to go with the metal geared versions.

[Omega]

I bought a Country Trails grinder from Rural King after looking at many models.  For the price ~$60 at the time, I figured if it lasted a couple deer seasons I would be OK with that.  It does have the plastic gears so I was wary about that, but so far I have ground over 100lbs with it with no issues.  I do want a LEM, but I have to have much more use for one than I do now to justify the price.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Country-Trails-Heavy-Duty-3-4HP-575-Watt-Meat-Grinder-113-/381594883935

 

[KahrMan]

3 hours ago, Omega said:

I bought a Country Trails grinder from Rural King after looking at many models.  For the price ~$60 at the time, I figured if it lasted a couple deer seasons I would be OK with that.  It does have the plastic gears so I was wary about that, but so far I have ground over 100lbs with it with no issues.  I do want a LEM, but I have to have much more use for one than I do now to justify the price.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Country-Trails-Heavy-Duty-3-4HP-575-Watt-Meat-Grinder-113-/381594883935

 

If you are not grinding bones(like for dog food), these inexpensive grinders are great at grinding up a couple of deer a year.  

[jgradyc]

I'm guessing we grind 150 pounds of turkey a year. 

[Omega]

Yeah, the HP rating of these grinders are deceptive.  This one is rated at 3/4 HP, 575 Watts but it did seem to bog down a bit on the chunks of pork fat(didn't need to reverse).  But for years all I used was a hand grinder so that may make this one a whole lot better to me relatively speaking.  

[jgradyc]

This is the one I'm looking at... Weston #12.

I don't know if it's worth $300 more than the others recommended here or my old one.

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by jgradyc

[Omega]

For that kind of money I would go with an LEM.

https://www.amazon.com/LEM-Products-W780A-Stainless-Electric/dp/B00E8MADPS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1469904134&sr=8-4&keywords=Lem+meat+grinder

Edited July 30, 2016 by Omega
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[KahrMan]

Weston is right up there on par with LEM. Both are great machines. 

[10-Ring]

I would say I grind the equivalent of 5 whole deer per season.  I quit using grinders years ago.  I use a food processor, the biggest one that I could find.  I paid about $50 for it and it works great.  I've never had a true electric grinder but I had a hand cranked one before and the food processor is much better.  I can do 20-25 pounds of meat in under 30 minutes and it's pretty easy to clean.

[Omega]

11 hours ago, 10-Ring said:

I would say I grind the equivalent of 5 whole deer per season.  I quit using grinders years ago.  I use a food processor, the biggest one that I could find.  I paid about $50 for it and it works great.  I've never had a true electric grinder but I had a hand cranked one before and the food processor is much better.  I can do 20-25 pounds of meat in under 30 minutes and it's pretty easy to clean.

I tried that, it works but unless you have a monster of a processor the dedicated meat grinder will run circles around it; even the extremely cheap one I have.  Like I said, it may be because I stepped up from a hand grinder, which worked decently enough, to the electric I now have but it sure make it much faster.  The thing I didn't like about the food processor is having to cube most of the meat before feeding it into the chute.  With this one as long as the piece is small enough to fit into the throat the auger will pull it right in.  I was feeding steak size pieces into mine with no issues.

[Omega]

13 hours ago, KahrMan said:

Weston is right up there on par with LEM. Both are great machines. 

I could not find what kind of motors the Weston uses, but I read that the induction motor on that particular LEM is very good, much better than the brush motor on their (LEM) cheaper models.  I almost went with one of the cheaper LEM grinders until I read that they had different motors and were not US made.  For non-US I might as well save a couple hundred, so I bought the $50 non LEM one.

 

Edit - On reading about the Westons, the #22 and#32 are the only ones they will warranty for pet food use.

http://www.westonsupply.com/Weston-Commercial-Meat-Grinders-p/commercial grinders.htm

http://www.itsallmeat.net/which-meat-grinder-can-grind-bones/

 

 

Edited August 1, 2016 by Omega
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[Dane]

Go ask your local butchers for recommendations.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[jgradyc]

Okay, now I'm looking at the LEM #8.  $313 on Amazon. Comments? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010DNIEJW/ref=s9_dcacsd_bhz_bw_c_x_3

 

[Omega]

Since you plan on grinding bone on a consistent basis, I would go with at the minimum a #12.  But even the LEM #12 I linked above says not to grind bone (according to the reviews it will do it though).  Of course they mention bones on the #8 too though.

Have you looked on craigslist for one?  Here is one for the #8: https://nashville.craigslist.org/app/5676368833.html for $250