SS brew tech grain mill review

[bradleym734]

So after being a long time supporter of SS brew tech gear I have found something that not only disappoints but completely pisses me off. Firstly the components are neatly packaged. That is where the positives stop. After unboxing and screwing the hopper to the mill I rummage through the box to find mounting hardware to mount to a table....... nowhere. Then I set the mill on the table and plug in the massive power supply..... no light on the switch. I then press the power the button and nothing. Being an electrician I open the power supply and man what a mess. The solders look like complete crap (pictures posted) so I check the input for 120VAC and it’s there but no 24VDC. I then begin to try and troubleshoot down to the faulted component and after getting pissed off that I am having to do this in the first place I remember that my RC car charger is a set of 1000W server power supplies that I put together to charge big 12S batteries I cut the connector off the brew tech power supply and splice to my 24VDC power supply. The mill does work but man for $800 you would think it would work out of box and come with 4 measly 1/4 20 fasteners to mount it. And this is petty but what happened to the days of buying expensive specialty products and them coming with swag. Hats, stickers.... anything. I will write them and I’m sure they will make it right but very disappointed and pissed off. Next time I’ll buy the motorized monster kit with hardened rollers.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Good luck trying to find the heat damaged component in that dumpster fire.

I'm sorry to hear that what should've been an awesome day turned into a mess.

Edit: looking at your board again this morning, that bank of three resistors in image two is just hideous.

 

[Sammy86]

Did you contact them yet? That is ridiculous! Get yourself a new one/refund!

 

[Iseneye]

That's just the starting point of issues for the mill. Have you checked to see if the mill gap is even at either end of the rollers? I have seen two reputable reports of the mill gaps not being even. Ridiculous for an expensive piece of gear. Check the gaps and if they aren't even throw it back at them for a refund.

 

[bradleym734]

I checked the gaps on the mill and the rollers are straight throughout the range of adjustment. After reading others reviews I can say there is a quality control issue going on. Makes it more sad that these problems are out there. I doubt many people are buying this mill solely based on price so you would QA would be even higher on their list priorities

 

[DarkNoonBrewer]

I don't understand why they trusted an electronic motor control for an application like this. That component has to work and the giant power supply which doesn't store away easily.

 

[dan46nbrew]

OMG, that looks like a blind monkey soldered that thing. I do some electronics work, build guitar amps and I have never seen any commercial product with soldering that bad... not even amateur for that matter. To add to this mill's problems I'm starting a separate thread to let others know they need to check the rollers. The rollers are not parallel. I watched some YouTube videos and several mentioned this and thought nah I'm sure mines fine. Well its out of tolerance by 17.5%.. spec should be less than 10%. I emailed SS a little while ago. Very disappointing.

 

[bradleym734]

It was pretty bad. I have used twice now with my power supply while I wait for SSBrewtech to send out a new one. Can say I’m not happy with it at all. I use a 3 vessel rims setup and I used to condition my grain and mill on an old malt muncher powered by a drill and I was able to run the recirc pump wide open the entire mash with no problems and now with this thing I am having to open up the crush to get the lauter tun to flow without sticking. I’m sure I’ll eventually figure out a crush that works with my system but a motorized monster mill will be my next mill.

 

[dan46nbrew]

Before I bought the SS I ordered a monster mill. Haven't set that one up either but I'm glad I have it now. Thought I was going to sell it after seeing how nice the SS looked.. oh well.

 

[stealthfixr]

It was pretty bad. I have used twice now with my power supply while I wait for SSBrewtech to send out a new one. Can say I’m not happy with it at all. I use a 3 vessel rims setup and I used to condition my grain and mill on an old malt muncher powered by a drill and I was able to run the recirc pump wide open the entire mash with no problems and now with this thing I am having to open up the crush to get the lauter tun to flow without sticking. I’m sure I’ll eventually figure out a crush that works with my system but a motorized monster mill will be my next mill.

What was the final resolution on this? In the end, do you think the mill is worth the $$$'s?

 

[Bobby_M]

I wouldn't use that mill if it was half the price.

 

[stealthfixr]

I wouldn't use that mill if it was half the price.

Which motorized mill would you chose, if you were buying?

 

[Bobby_M]

Monster is what I've mostly used but it requires some DIY savvy to motorise. I would also look at the Blichmann if you expect running high volumes.