April 28, 2018 - 8:20am
First time here; interested in buying an electric grain mill
Just discovered this forum and I have a first-time interest in considering home-grinding of grain, so thanks for being here. I'd like to purchase an electric grain mill for (1) grinding hard wheat into whole wheat flour for baking, and (2) grinding field corn into polenta and corn meal. Would appreciate suggestions on which mills to consider. I've read about the WonderMill for about $180 and the KoMo for about $500. Thanks for your thoughts.
Share
I own the KoMo and also the WonderMill Junior. Both mills are great, BUT the WonderMill is a workout to use. I like the ability to grind most everything with it, though.
Hace you considered a Mockmill? They are cheaper than the KoMO and I’ve heard good reports.
I paid a lot for the KoMo, but I don’t regret a penny spent on it. I am very happy with the purchase. I’ve used it for years and had no trouble. And I don’t expect any trouble in the future. It’s well built and beautiful.
Dan
Thanks, DanAyo. This is for my home use, for one person. My neighbor bakes me a loaf of incredible sourdough whole wheat bread once a week in exchange for flour, and up till now I've been getting it from Whole Foods and I'd rather grind my own. I've also wanted to experiment with grinding corn for polenta/corn meal/grits. Given these needs, would you say these three -- the KoMo, the WonderMill (senior) and the MockMill -- are the three most appropriate models for me to consider? I see the MockMill for $300. Not sure how to decide and assess among these. Would they all be able to grind corn, which I know is extremely hard, into a coarse meal? Thanks much.
I grind corn easily in either of my mills. But beware, once you get the mill you will find others uses.
I have an idea, call Pleasant Hill Grain. They are an authority and are very willing to help you. Many users on the forum think the world of them. I surely do. https://pleasanthillgrain.com/appliances/grain-mills
Fantastic. Thanks for the idea; I'll give Pleasant Hill a call. I see they carry the KoMo, the MockMill and the WonderMill so they should be able to give me a comprehensive sense of what would be best for me.
Yep, I am SURE I will come up with other uses.
Let us know which one you choose. They are also a good source of bulk grain.
Dan
I am very happy with it, can’t comment on the others but Dan’s idea to contact Pleasant Hill is a good idea. I easily mill wheat, spelt and rye to varying degrees of coarseness, but haven’t tried corn.
good luck with your decision.
Leslie
I have the version of the Mockmill that attaches to a KitchenAid mixer and am very pleased with it and with the service I received from the manufacturer when I had a problem. It does an excellent job with hard, dry grains. I have used it to grind several different types of wheat, rye, and dent corn. DanAyo's Wondermill Jr comes with stone and steel burrs and, as he points out, that adds a wide range of materials that it is capable of processing. He also points out that its operation is manual and a 'workout'. Good luck with your decision and keep us up to date with your experiences.
The Mockmill 100 makes excellent flour. https://breadtopia.com/store/mockmill-100-grain-mill/
I had a good conversation today with a rep at Pleasant Hill Grain. I've narrowed my choices to either the KoMo Classic or the MockMill 200. I was originally going to go with the MockMill 100 but I noticed that at 3.5 oz/minute it's considerably slower than the MockMill 200 at 7 oz/minute because of its less powerful motor. She estimated that if I'm grinding flour for a 1.5 pound loaf it would take about 10 minutes on the 100 but 5 minutes on the 200. So that's something I have to consider.
I found this interesting review comparing the MockMill 200 with the KoMo Fidibus 21.
Interesting that the KoMo Classic has a 300 watt motor whereas the MockMill 200's motor is double that at 600 watts. But the KoMo's specs say it grinds at 8-9 oz / minute whereas the MockMill 200 even with a more powerful motor grinds slightly slower at 7 oz / minute. Not sure how to explain that. I guess there are more factors than wattage that go into grinding speed?
Sftobos, I have the Komo classic, but don't think you would be unhappy with either. I also have the Lee, which is pretty slow, but since I generally load it with berries and walk away when it is running till it has finished, the time it takes to grind is not really an issue for me.
Barryvabeach, thanks very much for your note. It helped me think through the fact that waiting 10 minutes for a pound and a half of wheat grain to grind is not the worst thing in the world -- I didn't quite understand that you can just put the grain in and walk away and come back 10 minutes later. I was envisioning that you have to keep on feeding it in batches. Now I understand that the MockMill 100 hopper can fit about 2 1/2 pounds of wheat so I can put it in and come back. So .... I just ordered a MockMill 100 from Pleasant Hill Grain. It'll be the first electric grain mill I'll have ever owned and it'll be the first time in my life I'll have ever ground flour. Thanks much for all the help.
Let us know how you like the mill. While I understood the concept of making the Komo good looking so you can leave it on the counter, every mill I have used it quite loud, and if they milled enough flour for a loaf of dough in a few seconds, i can see that being okay, but they all take much longer than that, and I can't stand that loud a noise for the time it takes. So I keep my mill either in a pantry or the garage, fill the hopper, turn it on, and come back when the noise dies down.
Pleasant Hill Grain's Grain Mill Buying Guide and comparison table (at the bottom of the guide) could help shoppers compare various grain mill models.