Review of $90 Fohere 3000W #12 Grinder

[geostriata]

I started to worry that my kitchenaid grinder was causing a bit of fat smear, so I decided to upgrade my grinder. I was tempted to get the $160 STX grinder, but was turned off by the fact that it has lower power than this one and nonstandard plates.

It's priced at $99, but it looks like it has a $10 coupon right now. So in case anyone else was looking for a cheap grinder, I figured I'd post my thoughts since I'm pretty happy with it. Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BYSS1ZKT

It comes with a bunch of useless attachments, which I verified that they were indeed useless with a quick sausage grind test. It just shredded it and clogged up. Then after reading the instructions, it says it can't slice/shred cheese of meat. That's all I'm interested in slicing/shredding, so in the trash it goes. It also includes a stuffer attachment, which we all know won't work well. In the trash.

I tested it with semi-frozen brisket strips and chunks:

It did a coarse grind just fine, but slightly preferred the chunks over the strip:

I then did a second pass with a medium grind (after refreezing a portion of the coarse grind a little bit), and I was quite happy with the results. I tried bunching it up into balls, and it still needed a push from the rod to grind. However, if I just dropped a few coarse bits in at a time, I didn't need to use the rod at all. Nice!

Initial meat was 2.09lb, and after grind it was 1.98lb. So I only lost about 0.11lb to the process, which wasn't too bad. Cleaning was easy, however, I wasn't quite sure how to clean the parts since it said it can't go in the dishwasher. So I gave em a quick boil in PBW, a rinse and sanitize, and sprayed the moving parts with food safe silicone spray.

How do you all clean your grinders?

In any case, I was rather happy with it and figured I'd leave a review here in case it helps anyone.

 

[Nodak21]

Hot soapy water and the lem brush kit has worked great for me. Nice grinder and thanks for the review!

 

[DougE]

How do you all clean your grinders?

Blowgun on the air compressor makes quick work of cleaning the plates.

 

[geostriata]

Hot soapy water and the lem brush kit has worked great for me. Nice grinder and thanks for the review!

Thanks! I'll give the lem brush kit a try.

 

[clifish]

I started to worry that my kitchenaid grinder was causing a bit of fat smear, so I decided to upgrade my grinder. I was tempted to get the $160 STX grinder, but was turned off by the fact that it has lower power than this one and nonstandard plates.

It's priced at $99, but it looks like it has a $10 coupon right now. So in case anyone else was looking for a cheap grinder, I figured I'd post my thoughts since I'm pretty happy with it. Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BYSS1ZKT

View attachment 692330

It comes with a bunch of useless attachments, which I verified that they were indeed useless with a quick sausage grind test. It just shredded it and clogged up. Then after reading the instructions, it says it can't slice/shred cheese of meat. That's all I'm interested in slicing/shredding, so in the trash it goes. It also includes a stuffer attachment, which we all know won't work well. In the trash.

I tested it with semi-frozen brisket strips and chunks:

View attachment 692332

It did a coarse grind just fine, but slightly preferred the chunks over the strip:

View attachment 692333

I then did a second pass with a medium grind (after refreezing a portion of the coarse grind a little bit), and I was quite happy with the results. I tried bunching it up into balls, and it still needed a push from the rod to grind. However, if I just dropped a few coarse bits in at a time, I didn't need to use the rod at all. Nice!

View attachment 692336

Initial meat was 2.09lb, and after grind it was 1.98lb. So I only lost about 0.11lb to the process, which wasn't too bad. Cleaning was easy, however, I wasn't quite sure how to clean the parts since it said it can't go in the dishwasher. So I gave em a quick boil in PBW, a rinse and sanitize, and sprayed the moving parts with food safe silicone spray.

How do you all clean your grinders?

In any case, I was rather happy with it and figured I'd leave a review here in case it helps anyone.

Are you still happy with this grinder? I see it is $105 now with coupon?

 

[geostriata]

Are you still happy with this grinder? I see it is $105 now with coupon?

I upgraded to the LEM dualgrind and gifted this one to my brother. The reason I moved on is that I needed an extra-coarse 12mm plate and I couldn't source anything that would fit this machine (the plates are proprietary). Another reason is that the machine is LOUD, and my wife found it annoying. The LEM is quieter.

That being said, for the price it gets the job done. I'm pretty hard on my grinders, and this thing could grind fully frozen meat. But since you can't replace the knife and plates, I'd recommend taking care of them well if you get this machine (i.e., sandpaper and sharpen them when needed).

I think for the budget machine, I might recommend the STX instead since you can at least find a third party 12mm plate for that one. That being said, if extra coarse doesn't matter to you or you want to save extra, this guy will work.

 

[Hijack73]

I rinse chunks of meat out in the sink, and I put my grinder parts in the dishwasher.

You absolutely 100% CANNOT use dishwashing detergent. It will oxidize aluminum.

My hot water heater is set to pretty hot, mainly for this reason (135-138) and I use Dawn. Nothing with bleach, as bleach will also oxidize aluminum. I prefer Dawn platinum, but regular old Dawn works too.

Start with about 5-6 drops in the detergent dispenser, and about 5 drops for the pre-rinse. My old dishwasher, I couldn't use very much at all or it would suds up and flood the floor. Each dishwasher is different. I can use more than 10 drops total in my current dishwasher, but I don't need to.

This method gets everything squeaky clean. I'm careful how I set the blades and plates , as I don't want the blades beating on things during the cycle.


I do the exact same thing with my slicer parts and my sausage stuffer canister, horns, and nylon push plate or whatever the technical term for said pusher is.

I did lose a plunger for my stuffer once. It blew off of the racks down into the bottom of the tub and the heating element got it, so I'm pretty anal about placement of parts now.

 

[geostriata]

I rinse chunks of meat out in the sink, and I put my grinder parts in the dishwasher.

You absolutely 100% CANNOT use dishwashing detergent. It will oxidize aluminum.

You totally can. It'll just ruin the shiny surface.

Oxidized aluminum will have no impact on the grinder's safety or function. It will just look less pretty, which isn't a big deal to me.

My hot water heater is set to pretty hot, mainly for this reason (135-138) and I use Dawn. Nothing with bleach, as bleach will also oxidize aluminum. I prefer Dawn platinum, but regular old Dawn works too.

This stuff works great for my grinder: Dawn Powerwash. After I clean the chunks, spray a little of this stuff on the parts and rinse off with very hot water. All that remains just falls off. Faster and better than dishwashing imo. It's great!

 

[Hijack73]

You totally can. It'll just ruin the shiny surface.

Oxidized aluminum will have no impact on the grinder's safety or function. It will just look less pretty, which isn't a big deal to me.



This stuff works great for my grinder: Dawn Powerwash. After I clean the chunks, spray a little of this stuff on the parts and rinse off with very hot water. All that remains just falls off. Faster and better than dishwashing imo. It's great!

You do you. When I can rub enough oxidized aluminum off of grinder parts to turn my finger black in one swipe, that is too much oxidized aluminum for me to eat.

 

[geostriata]

You do you. When I can rub enough oxidized aluminum off of grinder parts to turn my finger black in one swipe, that is too much oxidized aluminum for me to eat.

That's weird. I don't get that at all.

My understanding is that hard oxide layer is quite resistant to further corrosion and protects the underlying metal. In fact, I think technically there's no such thing as bare aluminum (it always has some oxide on the surface).

Possibly your grinder parts were made of something else? What you describe didn't happen with the Fohere at all. This also didn't happen with my KA grinder. After a round in the dishwasher, it turned dark and it didn't have any dust or residue afterwards.

 

[Hijack73]

That's weird. I don't get that at all. That didn't happen with the Fohere at all.

The Fohere may have a protective coating on it, but the ph of dishwashing detergent can be up into double digits, and it probably wouldn't take many cycles to get though it - that's my SWAG. Back in the day we would sanitize the meat cutting room with a bleach and water solution, but it was always an extremely weak mixture - because we wanted to avoid corroding anything in there that was aluminum.

 

[clifish]

Does anyone use Steramine or similar to disinfect the grinder parts or is a good dish soap and hot water all you need?

 

[DougE]

I have never put my grinder parts in the dishwasher. I hand wash only. Blow the worst of the stuff off the parts with compressed air and wash in the sink.

 

[DougE]

Does anyone use Steramine or similar to disinfect the grinder parts or is a good dish soap and hot water all you need?

Soap and water is all that's needed.

 

[Hijack73]

Does anyone use Steramine or similar to disinfect the grinder parts or is a good dish soap and hot water all you need?

Dish soap and water.

Be like Hijack and let the heat dry cycle in your dishwasher sanitize ;)

 

[DougE]

Be like Hijack and let the heat dry cycle in your dishwasher sanitize ;)

What do you reckon people did before dishwashers were invented?

 

[Hijack73]

What do you reckon people did before dishwashers were invented?

What do you suppose they used before dish soap and compressed air was invented? As far as I know, it was heat. Alcohol also, but primarily heat. Healthcare devices still often use heat.

I'm not saying it's the only way or the best way, but it is a viable way.

 

[DougE]

What do you suppose they used before dish soap and compressed air was invented? As far as I know, it was heat. Alcohol also, but primarily heat. Healthcare devices still often use heat.

I'm not saying it's the only way or the best way, but it is a viable way.

Lye soap been around forever

 

[Hijack73]

Lye soap been around forever

It has. It'll eat the enamel off a pan if you mix it strong enough.

Edit: or wrong enough

 

[DougE]

All I'm saying is that modern methods of sterilization, or the need for it, didn't exist through most of the history of sausage making, nor did they know what caused food borne illness. People managed to survive though.