Question about which Meat Your Maker grinder model I should be looking at.

[Bigheaded]

So I have a bottom bottom grade grinder from Harbor Freight, it works and was super cheap. Now I want to get something better, which would literally be anything. lol

It's not going to see heavy use, I won't be stuffing sausages in it or grinding up entire animals. Mostly some Brisket for smash burgers, or just anything that uses ground beef.

So my budget is $500. They have a 1hp #22 for $500. They have a .75hp #12 for $449 and a .5hp #8 dual grind. So I know more power is better and will last longer. I did some Googling and am really intrigued by the dual grind though. They have a #22 dual grind but it's way out of my range.

Does anyone here own a dual grind model? even if it's the LEM or some other brand? 1hp's a big jump from .5 but the .5 would probably be an even bigger jump from the HF one I have, which I think is 300watts lol. I don't know if for my use the #22 size would matter much over a #8, the specs on the #8 are like 5.5lbs a minute (I think) which is a lot. I probably won't be grinding up even 5lbs very often. But, I don't know much here so I'm thinking I might be missing out on something else and that's why I'm asking. The .75hp is on my radar too as that seems like a decent upgrade in hp and #'s between the 8 and 22.

 

[JckDanls 07]

Myself.. I have a .5 hp Cabelas Commercial ... It does anything and everything I ask it to do... plus you can get other accessories for it (ie. mixer, patty maker, etc.)... It's extremely quiet... and it's in your price range...

 

[Winterrider]

#12 Cabelas, just ground up 25# venison/pork butt in less than 15 mins. Been good for the past 15 yrs. LEM is basically the same unit, well worth it.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I have the .5 hp big bite #8 dual grind from LEM. The grinder will eat as fast as I can feed it and never even grunts. The biggest difference between #8 and #12 is the throat size, personally I wish I would have gotten the #12 just because you can feed it faster. That said, I also like a quality grind for my sausage and even more so for salami, being able to feed fast doesn’t help the quality of the grind necessarily. I rarely grind batches over 10# so really the #8 is working just fine for me.

The dual grind is nice. You don’t have to cube the meat up as small even long strips narrow enough to slide down the throat is fine so it saves a little knife work. Being able to single pass through the 1/8” plate is a big time saver as well. The only negative things I can say about the dual grind is 1) the inner plate which is a kidney shaped plate cannot be changed to different hole size and is a different diameter than the outside plate so you can’t interchange them. 2) The dual grind only comes in #8 or #22. So if you have a #12 and buy the dual grind your throat size is now #8, same if you had a #32 and got the dual grind it has a #22 throat, so in that sense it’s a down grade.

Judging by the OP post I would say you will be more than happy with a .5 hp #8 grinder and for what you describe your use you will most likely enjoy the dual grind version just for the savings in knife work prepping the meat to grind.

 

[LakeErieSMKR]

LEM has 25 percent off this week