Lem #10 Electric Stuffer Broke :(

[Apriliamille]

Somewhere on that stuffer is a sticker that states how much water to add to the meat paste with a warning that a dry paste will cause damage. This is the one on my LEM stuffer....
View attachment 699586

i think my Lem meat mixer had an insert saying this same stuff. i hope this isnt a copout for LEM to deny warranty service

 

[rjob]

Reviewing the gear failure, a question for Lem would be "Why the motor did not trip as a result of the load?" Is the gear train designed to fail before the motor trips? The motor specifications state a rating of 33 watts/ 1amp. Perhaps the motor overload "reset button" is allowing a high load resulting in the gear failure.

 

[geostriata]

Reviewing the gear failure, a question for Lem would be "Why the motor did not trip as a result of the load?" Is the gear train designed to fail before the motor trips? The motor specifications state a rating of 33 watts/ 1amp. Perhaps the motor overload "reset button" is allowing a high load resulting in the gear failure.

Exactly what I'd think! Or if not a trip, then at least some sort of current-sensing (current goes up as motor works harder) or heat-sensing (since motor heats up as it works hard) mechanism.

That being said, I suppose it'd be very frustrating if this mechanism was too sensitive: poor calibration could result in stuffers not working when they should. In addition, the same motor is used for the #10, #20, and #30 models (meaning different calibrations for each). Possibly that's why the motor didn't trip in this case, because with the #10 model, it's the most powerful...

Maybe, rather than complicating the system, they make it easy to swap out the gears if anything should break. It'd be cheaper to build and possibly more reliable that way. And I have to say, it was pretty easy to open the stuffer up and find and remove the broken gears.

 

[geostriata]

i think my Lem meat mixer had an insert saying this same stuff. i hope this isnt a copout for LEM to deny warranty service

Fortunately, it looks like they're sending the stuff! So I'm guessing it's not a copout, but rather a way to reduce product failures by informing customers.

Unfortunately, it's delayed a month since a part is backordered :(

Time to get my jerky cannon some heavy use for a while. I'll just take that as an opportunity to make a whole bunch of experimental small batches, starting with Samosa Sausage :)

 

[Apriliamille]

sweet news

 

[Winterrider]

I guess lesson learned. A little extra moisture isn't going to hurt anything. Easier on equipment and easier for you. Glad they are working with ya.

 

[indaswamp]

My 30# LEM electric stuffer will trip the breaker when too much pressure is built up.

 

[rjob]

Good news on the replacement parts. Bad news on the delay.
SmokinEdge commented on the limit contacts. Have the 20# stuffer each session we test the limits by by running the vertical shaft to full stop up&down without the o-ring on the disk.
IDS mentioned the 30# tripping on load. We had the same happen with the 20# which made us pay more attention to how "stiff" the mix was after mixing.
In regards to the motor would believe one size fits all without any special calibration.

 

[DougE]

"Why the motor did not trip as a result of the load?" Is the gear train designed to fail before the motor trips?

That was my thought awhile back. The motor should crap out before any hardware failure occurs.

Motor overload should trip before anything breaks and if hardware is breaking before the overload on the motor trips, they need to fire some engineers.

 

[geostriata]

That was my thought awhile back. The motor should crap out before any hardware failure occurs.

Motor overload should trip before anything breaks and if hardware is breaking before the overload on the motor trips, they need to fire some engineers.

Maybe then it could've been a defect. That is, where it's expected that the motor would trip before anything breaks. However, in this case the gear tooth was more fragile due to some metallurgical reason, and that resulted in it breaking before the motor trips. I suppose it all depends on how the units are tested.

 

[Winterrider]

The shaft material when broke the teeth off ours seemed like it was a very very soft metal. Almost to the aluminum stage.

 

[geostriata]

So I found out to my dismay that I lost a piece while I was disassembling the stuffer. A little key thingy that helps the gear hold the shaft piece in place. I let LEM know and they simply added it, despite me flat-out losing the piece.

Just another nod to LEM customer service.