My Monster 3 has failed to feed one time out of exactly ?? batches. It was the one time I had failed to thoroughly clean the rollers with a stainless steel brush (from the welding department at Lowes) before grinding.
Dumping the uncrushed grain and brushing the rollers solved the problem. Gap is set to 0.003 inches.
Edit: 0.003 inches? Oops. Maybe more like 0.030 inches.
I had a Barley Crusher and for a vast majority of the time it worked pretty well but ran into the same things posted by others. Eventually got a Captain Crush from Northern Brewer and I like it quite a bit. Easier to get a good crush than it was with the Barley Crusher (crushing things fully but keeping a lot of intact husks) Obviously havenāt had it as long as others have been running theirs but with it having stainless rollers Iām not sure what would wear out.
I have the Barley Crusher and never had a problem with it until Sunday. Itās been in storage for a couple of years, so maybe needs to be cleaned?
Anyway, I was crushing for my first batch of the day and about halfway through it felt like something broke. I couldnāt really tell what was going on, but the hand crank lost almost all resistance and I thought the roller must have broke off. I dumped the grain out of the hopper to get a better look, and it seemed fine. Dumped the grain back in and commenced crushing without problems.
Second batch also crushed without any issues.
Iām still not sure what happened, but now I notice threads all over the forum about problems with these mills and Iām nervous for my next batch.
I too have a Barley Crusher and like others have said I would not buy one again. While the free wheeling thing is frustrating, the reason I wouldnāt buy one again is the total lack of customer support. Once they have your money you are on your own because they donāt care about you.
This is very nice to know, Marc. I may be retiring my Barley Crusher soon for a MM3 as well. I can justify the $250 investment if itās going to last a long long time. Iāve had my Barley Crusher for 6 or 7 years nowā¦getting annoyed at it taking nearly 10 minutes to mill 10 pounds of grain. The grain also falls around the back sides of the rollers and doesnāt get crushed. Iāve been double crushing to make sure it all gets crushed.
Sadly, thatās the way it is is in the 21āst century. Places that stand by their products are the exception, not the rule.
It used to be that ābeing the bestā was measured by the loyalty of the customer base. Now, the only measure that matters is the bottom line on the profit and loss.
I have to say that BC did stand behind their product but I had to really push them to do so. I think they actually put new rollers on my mill to be honest. I took a month of effort and without my mill but it did start working better once they got it back to me. Still all in all after having used my mill for less than a year thatās not a product I can highly recommend.
This is very nice to know, Marc. I may be retiring my Barley Crusher soon for a MM3 as well. I can justify the $250 investment if itās going to last a long long time. Iāve had my Barley Crusher for 6 or 7 years nowā¦getting annoyed at it taking nearly 10 minutes to mill 10 pounds of grain. The grain also falls around the back sides of the rollers and doesnāt get crushed. Iāve been double crushing to make sure it all gets crushed.[/quote]
I run generally 500 to 600# of grain at a time. It runs for about 45 to 60 minutes straight. So you know the bushings they have in it are pretty robust. Probably indestructible for home brewing.
Sadly, thatās the way it is is in the 21āst century. Places that stand by their products are the exception, not the rule.
It used to be that ābeing the bestā was measured by the loyalty of the customer base. Now, the only measure that matters is the bottom line on the profit and loss.[/quote]
JMcK I couldnāt agree more. Unfortunately Iām going through this with Morebeer. I will likely not shop there due to this.
Sadly, thatās the way it is is in the 21āst century. Places that stand by their products are the exception, not the rule.
It used to be that ābeing the bestā was measured by the loyalty of the customer base. Now, the only measure that matters is the bottom line on the profit and loss.[/quote]
JMcK I couldnāt agree more. Unfortunately Iām going through this with Morebeer. I will likely not shop there due to this.[/quote]
Not to be too off topic but thatās shocking honestly. I bought a 2-stage temp controller from Morebeer, and plugged it in and the second stage wouldnāt work. It said it was on but no power was on the second outlet. So I called them and within 2 minutes they shipped out a new one and said to return the faulty one in the box that the new one came in, postage paid. Because of this I would never hesitate to buy anything from them again. NB has also offered equally good customer service and went out of their way to make things right. Both great companies in my opinion.
The thing is, with the Barley Crusher having a lifetime warranty, I believe itās on the manufacturer and not the retailer to deal with problems.
What surprises me is that suppliers continue to offer the Barley Crusher after hearing all the negative feedback. Even though itās on the manufacturer to deal with issues, ultimately it makes the retailer look bad for offering sub-par products.
If I was running a homebrew retail outfit, I would take the decision to drop the Barley Crusher after seeing the walls of complaints.
Happy MM owner but it is disheartening to see issues reported with the BC. You guys do realize you need the 5 cent o-ring on to get the other roller to spin right? Also, the rollers wear. Itās life. 5 years plus and regular brewing might do it. FWIW, MM offers hardened steel upgrades for you guys milling tons of grain. That said, I am crafty enough to try and source someone to mill a new edge on mine and it would be cool if they could be re-milled for a few bucks from the mfr.
Iām not sure what you mean by the .05 cent o-ring. Iāll take a look at mine and see if there is an o-ring there.
But anyway, Iāve seen people complain about this problem with brand new units. I assume new units ship with the o-ring in place?
Yes, it ships with o-ring. What I meant is only one roller moves unless you have the o-ring. During normal use the o-ring falls off and the grain forces the other roller to move. Clear as mud? In any event, Iād be surprised if a teardown, good cleaning, and lube wouldnāt fix the issue. I will tell you this, my MM2 is a beast, really.
I did a search ā got it.
Iām going to check for the o-ring and do a good cleaning sometime soon.
Took my mill apart, cleaned it up, and gave it a lube. It really didnāt seem to have a lot of gunk in the works, but the free roller does spin much easier now.
No o-ring. I donāt recall losing it but Iāve had the mill for a long time so who knows.
Weāll see what happens when I crush my next batch.
Had the same problem again even after cleaning and lubing the mill. It doesnāt make the mill unusable, itās just a bit of a nuisance.
What Iāve noticed is that once the mill is going properly, if I donāt stop it runs fine. Problem is I usually hand crank and my arm gets tired!
drill motorā¦. drill motor. Sneezles61 :cheers:
I understand that Lowes is offering a special deal for home brewers: if you buy a drill motor for milling grain, you get a drill motor you can use as a drill motor at no additional cost. :mrgreen:
But I already have a cordless drill for my drilling needs! Supposedly cordless are no good for grinding grain though.
