New Harbor Freight Meat Grinder. Worth it for $30?

500

Found this at Harbor Freight in the open box clearance section. 250 watt motor. Worth it for $30 or still a waste at that price?

Charlie tuna

250 watts isn't a very strong motor and grinding food take some guts!

Raymont

Do it. I'll buy it from you if you don't like it.

nolaegghead

The reviews are pretty good.   My old KA mixer had 275 watts.   It struggled sometimes when the meat was a little more frozen than ideal, but it did the job.  I would expect, having about the same power, the same for this one.  That's pretty cheap, so not a lot of risk.  But if you really want to get into serious sausage making, you might want to hold out for a more powerful unit.  For the occasional grinding, this should be fine.

500

@Raymont, they have 2 in stock, open box. The boxes look water damaged, but open box items usually come with warranty and 5 day full return policy. Nola, I'd love to stuff my own, but one step at a time.

U_tarded

I got a LEM given to me last Christmas and it has a 250 watt motor. It ground 20 lbs pork and 10 lbs beef no problem as long as they were par frozen. I did try to stuff with it and that was a whole entirely different fiasco it got the job done but was a lot of work. I will grind for burgers etc now but no big sausage batches.

Raymont

@500 Thanks but I've got the KA attachment. It's not great, but I've learned to get the put the parts in the freezer and near freeze the meat before grinding. Works pretty good now, so I'll stick with what I have for now. I don't think you can go wrong at $30! (I think the KA attachment was $100!). 

nolaegghead

U_tarded said:

I got a LEM given to me last Christmas and it has a 250 watt motor. It ground 20 lbs pork and 10 lbs beef no problem as long as they were par frozen. I did try to stuff with it and that was a whole entirely different fiasco it got the job done but was a lot of work. I will grind for burgers etc now but no big sausage batches.

Raymont said:

@500 Thanks but I've got the KA attachment. It's not great, but I've learned to get the put the parts in the freezer and near freeze the meat before grinding. Works pretty good now, so I'll stick with what I have for now. I don't think you can go wrong at $30! (I think the KA attachment was $100!). 

I got that LEM 5# piston stuffer.  The KA sucks to stuff with....a two person job.  The LEM is the way to go.  Get the stuffer before upgrading your grinder...the grinder isn't that bad.

U_tarded

Yea no the grinder isn't bad for grinding but stuffing is a whole different world. I will get a dedicated stuffer before I do it again

Arbucklej

U said two i will buy the other

500

@arbucklej, but these are in Richmond, VA.

To everyone else; Do y'all enjoy home ground burgers and sausage better than store bought?  How's the cost comparison per pound by grinding your own?

SoCal_Griller

Cant speak to the sausage (yet), but after grinding my own burgers (chuck roast) I don't think I can go back to store bought ground beef.  I have even ground my own beef/pork for smoked meat loaf.  Unbelievable.   As far as price, grinding your own costs more, but you are also getting quality ingredients.

nolaegghead

500 said:

@arbucklej, but these are in Richmond, VA.

To everyone else; Do y'all enjoy home ground burgers and sausage better than store bought?  How's the cost comparison per pound by grinding your own?

I wouldn't do it to save money....you aren't going to save much and you're going to spend some additional prep time, especially with sausage.  But you can make much, much better food - you control the meat quality, freshness, spices, cuts.  It's a lot of work to make sausage, but you can make large batches and there's efficiency of scale.

fishlessman

other than just making better sausages, you can make sausages that are just not found in your area, instead of having simply sweet or hot italians, you can spice it up with a greek loukanika and serve it with some ouzo and roasted fennel, its a whole nother road to go down in your cooking
)

Eggcelsior

nolaegghead said:

500 said:

@arbucklej, but these are in Richmond, VA.

To everyone else; Do y'all enjoy home ground burgers and sausage better than store bought?  How's the cost comparison per pound by grinding your own?

I wouldn't do it to save money....you aren't going to save much and you're going to spend some additional prep time, especially with sausage.  But you can make much, much better food - you control the meat quality, freshness, spices, cuts.  It's a lot of work to make sausage, but you can make large batches and there's efficiency of scale.

I grind my own burgers. A world of difference. It usually comes out a little cheaper to do my own vs the equivalent ground chuck or sirloin from the meat counter. "Ground beef" is in no way equivalent to grinding your own chuck. It's the parts of cows(yes, multiple animals) that aren't used from other processing(steaks and roasts).

If you have a butcher that grinds daily, that is the best compromise on convenience and quality.  

fljoemon

I just bought this last Thursday for $40 new (had a 20% off coupon). It does work fairly good. As everyone suggests, just cut up your meat and freeze it for around 30 to 45 minutes and you are good to go. I have had no issues so far on 2 rounds of grinding that I did using a mix of sirloin and chuck roast.