The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Retsel Mill Stone Over Heating

rzhou's picture
rzhou

Retsel Mill Stone Over Heating

I just purchase a used Retsel Mil-Master that was manufactured in 1981. The previous owner said that they used it twice and put it away until I bought it from them today. There was some caked on flour and glazing on the stones which I got rid of using rice. But the stones are always very warm or too hot when I try to mill red hard wheat kernels or rye kernals (haven't tried other grain types yet). The flour also comes out very warm. The motor is not overheating any more than normal from what I can tell and the stones are definitely hotter than the motor. I am a newbie at this, could anyone tell me why the retsel stones are heating up so much? I know the point of a retsel is that its not suppose to heat the flour as much as the micronizer mills.

The stone is hotter than 109F, the flour is around 108F. Could it be because (1) there is too much moisture in my grain (I do notice glazing on the stones after grinding rye as well) and (2) I am grinding it too fine on the first mill?

Thanks in advance!

charbono's picture
charbono

Your Mil-Master is faster than my Mil-Rite, so I can’t directly answer your question.  However, my experience is that using a tight setting with hard spring wheat raises the flour temp by 50°F.  With winter wheat, the temp is raised 45°.  Looser settings do not generate the fine flour I want.

rzhou's picture
rzhou

Assuming room temperature is 74 fahrenheit, and according to your experience it is normal for the milling process to increase the temperature of the output by 45 to 50 degrees fahrenheit, my 108 fahrenheit flour output is not too warm?

I had assumed that it was too warm because I read elsewhere on the forum that the temperature of their retsel flour is never over 100F. Also since it is my first time using any mill, I was quite alarmed by how hot the stones became.

Doc.Dough's picture
Doc.Dough

I remember measuring my Mil-Rite output stream at a steady state 113°F with the stones obviously hotter than that. The grain was white whole wheat and it was during the winter so the starting temperature was probably about 65°F which makes charbono's 45-50°F temperature rise match with my experience.  This was with a tight setting but it always produces excellent results.  I deglaze the stones with rice after grinding perhaps 20-30 lb of grain (and use the ground rice to make idli) but I do nothing to precondition the moisture content of the wheat before grinding.

 

loydb's picture
loydb

Based solely on my "how hot is this stone to touch" tests, your temps sound about right if you're grinding for longer than 5 minutes or so. I've never remembered, but I keep thinking about sticking the wheat in the freezer pre-grind in a sealed container so it doesn't pick up moisture.