not happy with new grinder

[Dave in AZ]

calvin
I read this entire thread, and your other one on old vs. New. You seem a bit fired up in your responses, I wasn’t going to reply. So, these are just some comments to possibly help your grind, not a critique of you or your experience.

I don’t see any temperatures given anywhere, just generalizations. It is very hard to tell difference by hand between 32f meat that hasn’t frozen yet, and 45f meat, but it makes 100% difference in your grind. All that meat on your fine grind looks warm to me, it is all coming out blended and sticky, instead of separate threads that fall apart. If it isn’t coming out in threads you can flick apart with your finger, the meat isn’t cold enough.

I refreeze my meat between grinds, to the point the 10mm or 3/8" ground meat is frozen but I can easily break it into small chunks and even squeeze it a bit between fingers. So, frozen but not hard frozen. You didn’t mention refreezing meat between grinds

I take meat temp with an instant read thermometer, $15 from Amazon, and pretty essential for good meat processing. My readings are all 32 to 34f, or it goes back in freezer.

I have a 1hp #22 grinder. On my first use I rushed it and didnt refreeze meat. Like your experience, it got bound up on my 4.5mm plate, twisted around inside there on the auger, and stopped. Probe readings showed meat stuck in there was up to 60f just from the 30 or 45 seconds of spinning. I refroze meat to as described above, I froze the entire grinder head. Then tried it. 11 lb pork butt through 4.5mm plate in 2-3 minutes.

So, if you’re not freezing your meat for 4.5mm or 3mm grinds, and keeping grind head in freezer too until ready, you will almost surely get a hot mush in the auger, sticky extrusion that looks like your pics, and grinder binding up.

Also, it looks like you’re feeding strips, not 1" chunks or so. Strips work fine on 10mm plate, but pull too much meat into auger too fast for it to go through the 3 or 4.5mm plates, leading to binding. Small plates need to be fed with smaller chunks.

Just thought my exact same experience and solution that works for me 100% now, might be helpful. Hopefully you don’t tell me I wasted the last 15 min typing this to help you…

[calvin]

dave your right ,i am not refreezing the meat between grinds and i do not use thermometers , but i know when meat feels very firm and very cold it should go through the grinder, i bought this grinder to save some time grinding, instead its going to add time . until today i had never ran a peice of meat through my grinder more than once ,now your telling me this big grinder isn’t up to the job of the little one…i mean that is what your telling me, am i right ? i cut the meat the same , its the same temp i have ground it in the past, but this big one just can’t handle it

[Dave in AZ]

calvin dunno about your new vs ild grinder, just passing some datapoints from MY experience that you may or may not find useful. You are the one telling us the new grinder doesn’t work as good, not me. Folks responding are just trying to give ideas to let you get better performance fromnthe new one so you’re satisfied.

Here’s one more… with 1" chunks of soft frozen meat, I can just grind directly on 3mm or 4.5mm, one single pass, fast. Regrinding is harder for me.

[calvin]

well if i sound angry its because frankly i am . sorry if its shows in my posts , as i said i was hoping to reduce my time spent grinding but instead i have added to it by having to do the same job twice i’ll go spend another $60.00 and get another like the old one …anyone want to buy a grinder ?

[RafterW]

calvin What size is it?

[calvin]

waltons #12

[RafterW]

calvin thanks. Looking for something a little bigger.

[calvin]

what people have been telling me on this thread boils down to this : since i have only been making sausage and grinding meat 8 years or so and since i have been using a grinder roughly 1/2 the size of this one and since i am using meat at the same temp and cut the same way , it can’t be the grinder its got to be me .
there even people here that can look at a photo and tell the temp of meat . my hat is off to you gentlemen you truely amaze me

[calvin]

i had planned to grind and season about 40 lbs of meat today , but i have decided to put that off till i cool off…you betcha i’m ticked off tonight

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

calvin No. People are trying to help you troubleshoot your issue. You have come to the wrong place to complain about a piece of equipment. You are certain that it is in no way user error and therefore, you should take your problem to customer service. Here is a place to ask for advice or share an experience, not get angry with people who are honestly seeking to help each other. Waltons has an extremely good reputation for customer service, I’m sure they would like a chance to talk with you about this. There is no need to treat this community poorly just because you are having a bad day. I can understand the frustration. We have all been disappointed with a purchase, but the intentions of others here are only to help. Please, keep that in mind next time.

[Jamieson22]

Do you by chance have another blade to try? Also what size is that small plate?

I have a different grinder brand and size (mine is L*M #22) but my process never involves freezing meat and I never have an issue. I usually have butts in my garage fridge a day or so that I keep in low-30s. Last batch of sticks I pulled the 25lb boneless butts out of fridge, cut them up, and ran through a 3mm grinder plate with zero issues.

When you say it “stopped your grinder” is the auger getting jammed or something else?
Your pic doesn’t show much meat. Did you you have a steady stream in the auger to keep it pushing or just drop a few small pieces that stopped?
Have you tried long strips of meat by any chance?

Something seems off on your grinder. It shouldn’t be this hard for ya.

[calvin]

thats the part that bugs me , EVEN using the small plate a peice of meat not much bigger than my thumb should not have stopped the auger with a 3/4 hp motor
even IF ( and it wasn’t ) the meat was at room temp , a piece of meat that small should not stop the auger . this thing should have power to spare with a piece that small
what is in the picture is exackly how much meat we are talking about total
customer service is sending me a new small plate , i don’t think thats the issue

[Denny O]

calvin You have a PM If I may be of help.

[calvin]

denny O : thanks for the kind offer just a bit to far
and besides i have friends close by that have grinders if it comes to that
again many thanks

calvin

[calvin]

well folks i just had a friend come over thats been grinding meat since he was knee high , the auger stopped on him the 1st time he tried it using the big plate , then he switched to the small plate , stopped the auger dead in its tracks , he said there was 0 wrong with the meat temp. HIS conclusion …there is something wrong with this grinder but for it to stop the auger the way it did , there has to be a problem withthe grinder its self
we didn’t get a chance to do a side by side but we did do a video of the grinder in action with him running it as soon as i can figure out how to upload it i will

[Tex_77]

Jon or Austin will respond soon, until then the thread will be locked.