Ss Grain Mill from Ss brewtech preorder

[Dland]

Has anyone else seen the uneven gap issue with their new mill? I saw THIS thread in the SS user group today. One person has the mill gap vary by over .050" from one side to the other! Definitely not acceptable for a $800 premium mill.

"Beta buyers beware" often holds true, probably even more so with overseas contracted production. I learned this the hard way with a much more expensive piece of machinery a couple of decades ago, but in that case the company was even obscuring the fact main components were made in China, with American flags pasted all over the thing. (thanks caterpillar).

On a positive note, as someone who frequently uses rye and wheat malt, the durable non knurled rollers and gap adjustable on the fly are nice features.

 

[SundayBrewer]

This guy had a issue right out of the box. Skip to 12:40.

 

[augiedoggy]

"Beta buyers beware" often holds true, probably even more so with overseas contracted production. I learned this the hard way with a much more expensive piece of machinery a couple of decades ago, but in that case the company was even obscuring the fact main components were made in China, with American flags pasted all over the thing. (thanks caterpillar).

On a positive note, as someone who frequently uses rye and wheat malt, the durable non knurled rollers and gap adjustable on the fly are nice features.

Off topic but the owner of blichman came from the company Caterpillar.. which is where he got the idea of using non standard sized components that customers couldn't find replacement parts for easily without going through them. At least thats what I read somewhere..

 

[augiedoggy]

Has anyone else seen the uneven gap issue with their new mill? I saw THIS thread in the SS user group today. One person has the mill gap vary by over .050" from one side to the other! Definitely not acceptable for a $800 premium mill.

Your link was removed from facebook it seems.

 

[Blazinlow86]

View attachment 659134View attachment 659135

Doesn't it come with a base of some sort to keep the dust down?

 

[Blazinlow86]

"Beta buyers beware" often holds true, probably even more so with overseas contracted production. I learned this the hard way with a much more expensive piece of machinery a couple of decades ago, but in that case the company was even obscuring the fact main components were made in China, with American flags pasted all over the thing. (thanks caterpillar).

On a positive note, as someone who frequently uses rye and wheat malt, the durable non knurled rollers and gap adjustable on the fly are nice features.

It's the made in china curse. Like so many things made there the consistency isn't there. Like the other chinese mills or the brewie. Some people have great experience and others don't. It's so hit and miss. Cheers

 

[jready]

Doesn't it come with a base of some sort to keep the dust down?

No there is a table that is supposed to be available soon.

 

[effeffe]

Has anyone else seen the uneven gap issue with their new mill? I saw THIS thread in the SS user group today. One person has the mill gap vary by over .050" from one side to the other! Definitely not acceptable for a $800 premium mill.

That user got the units wrong: it was millimeters, not inches.

Tolerance in manufacturing is a thing regardless of the price, and one should ask whether 0.05 mm is within an acceptable tolerance for the price. To be honest, that is a pretty small length...

Your link was removed from facebook it seems.

I still see it, as a member of the group.

 

[augiedoggy]

That user got the units wrong: it was millimeters, not inches.

Tolerance in manufacturing is a thing regardless of the price, and one should ask whether 0.05 mm is within an acceptable tolerance for the price. To be honest, that is a pretty small length...



I still see it, as a member of the group.

Doesnt sound like barleypopbrewer was a member... If I had to guess id say they made the group private to try to prevent the situation that occurred with the brewie.. I could see not allowing people to post comments unless they were a member but they had no reason to hide the user community discussion... Unless they feel they do and that wouldnt be good..

On all the other mills being sold the owners have the capability to adjust the gap to be equal on the left and right sides independently so if this really isnt adjusting evenly it can be considered a negative here... Honestly for $800 the units shouldnt be going out the door with broken power switches/ soft start circuit boards either but I can see from the color of the cardboard that the packaging and quality control is happening in china on this product. I'm suree ss will take care of the early adopters who may be dealing with these issues but again for the very high cost here for what it is, if the mills arent very high quality and getting proper quality control before going out the door what actually justifies this cost?

 

[augiedoggy]

Doesn't it come with a base of some sort to keep the dust down?

Want to take bets on how much that tables going to cost?

On a serious note I was surprised to see it runs off a dc motor .. The huge dell micros pc style power brick hanging on the cord isnt all that appealing so I see why I hadn't seen it in any ads until the review..

 

[augiedoggy]

It's the made in china curse. Like so many things made there the consistency isn't there. Like the other chinese mills or the brewie. Some people have great experience and others don't. It's so hit and miss. Cheers

Again... The worst homebrewing mill complained about on this forum most often is american made so from factual point of view this just isnt accurate. In fact likely over 90% of all the equipment discussed on this forum likely comes from china whether sold by american companies or not.
In this case quality control is 100% the responsibility of an American company.. They are the ones likely buying these for a fraction of the retail from the chinese manufacturer or from multiple manufacturers and having another company put them together and package them (In china). They are the ones with their name on that chinese box. Maybe they were wise to start out with the pricing were it was so they have more wiggle room to make improvements were needed.

Same deal with Iphones or samsung products which are some of the best quality in the industry... also made in china. although at this point I think they have more control over component manufacturing as well as factories where they are made. Even with these you can find clones that sometimes best the OEM products for much less $.. Which makes people question the real costs involved.

In my lifetime Ive worked for many companies including ones that sold $40 replacement motors for $2,100 and one that made equipment which was marked up to over 10x the cost resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars of markup a piece so I am fully aware of markups on unique products in niche markets..

 

[Blazinlow86]

Again... The worst homebrewing mill complained about on this forum most often is american made so from factual point of view this just isnt accurate. In fact likely over 90% of all the equipment discussed on this forum likely comes from china whether sold by american companies or not.
In this case quality control is 100% the responsibility of an American company.. They are the ones likely buying these for a fraction of the retail from the chinese manufacturer or from multiple manufacturers and having another company put them together and package them (In china). They are the ones with their name on that chinese box. Maybe they were wise to start out with the pricing were it was so they have more wiggle room to make improvements were needed.

Same deal with Iphones or samsung products which are some of the best quality in the industry... also made in china. although at this point I think they have more control over component manufacturing as well as factories where they are made. Even with these you can find clones that sometimes best the OEM products for much less $.. Which makes people question the real costs involved.

In my lifetime Ive worked for many companies including ones that sold $40 replacement motors for $2,100 and one that made equipment which was marked up to over 10x the cost resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars of markup a piece so I am fully aware of markups on unique products in niche markets..

No debate there's definitely some crummy made in american products out there but it's usually consistently crummy in those cases and therefore easy to avoid like the barley crusher you used as a example. The Chinese stuff can be all over the place and the malt muncher is a perfect example of that. You have had excellent results with yours and I had poor results. Now I think of it the chinese mills are actually really the only brew related chinese made items I've had issues with more than once and majority of my systems chinese made. I agree that the chinese made products should be checked one by one once they arrive in there finale destination and that would improve the situation but until that happens it's a moot point. Cheers

 

[speavler]

I was in the "second round" and received mine on Friday. Used it for a brew on Sunday and it worked flawlessly. I was a little confused on the gap setting - do you set it with the lever lined up to the setting or with the screw inserted in that setting screw hole? I settled with the lever lining up to the 0 setting. Also, the power button seems to have just a slight bit of a delay? So I cringed a bit when I watched that video above when the guy clicks the power off and on repeatedly without allowing it to respond. Anyway, I'm thinking of getting a harbor freight cart and cutting a hole in the top shelf to install this puppy on - the 'setting on top of a bucket' method is specifically mentioned in the manual as not a great idea.

 

[Blazinlow86]

I was in the "second round" and received mine on Friday. Used it for a brew on Sunday and it worked flawlessly. I was a little confused on the gap setting - do you set it with the lever lined up to the setting or with the screw inserted in that setting screw hole? I settled with the lever lining up to the 0 setting. Also, the power button seems to have just a slight bit of a delay? So I cringed a bit when I watched that video above when the guy clicks the power off and on repeatedly without allowing it to respond. Anyway, I'm thinking of getting a harbor freight cart and cutting a hole in the top shelf to install this puppy on - the 'setting on top of a bucket' method is specifically mentioned in the manual as not a great idea.

It looks way top-heavy to just sit on a bucket like pictured. Cheers

 

[augiedoggy]

I was in the "second round" and received mine on Friday. Used it for a brew on Sunday and it worked flawlessly. I was a little confused on the gap setting - do you set it with the lever lined up to the setting or with the screw inserted in that setting screw hole? I settled with the lever lining up to the 0 setting. Also, the power button seems to have just a slight bit of a delay? So I cringed a bit when I watched that video above when the guy clicks the power off and on repeatedly without allowing it to respond. Anyway, I'm thinking of getting a harbor freight cart and cutting a hole in the top shelf to install this puppy on - the 'setting on top of a bucket' method is specifically mentioned in the manual as not a great idea.

That's what I did as far as the cart for my $250 motorized mill at the brewpub however I got chastised in the other as grainmill thread for mentioning it because it isnt the "trashy looking cobbled together" solution brewtech mill owners are looking for apparently so YMMV.. It does seem funny to spent $800 for a mill and see someone mention mounting it on a $40 cart... kind of like $3,000 designer golf clubs in a walmart carrying bag... maybe that's just how I'm seeing it though.

 

[jready]

It looks way top-heavy to just sit on a bucket like pictured. Cheers

It was fine on the bucket but a dedicated cart table would be ideal. It’s heavy but not crazy heavy and even with wheat running through it I did not need to keep a hand on it to keep it steady. Only one crush so far but hit all my numbers and no issues with a stuck mash.

Does it make better beer? No.

 

[jready]

Oh and looking closer at the pic I am happy that my flower beds on that side of the house aren’t full of weeds but my lawn needs some work.

 

[dan46nbrew]

If you are ordering one of these mills you need to check if the rollers are parallel. Check out the thread I posted here. The gap on mine varied by more than going from one setting to the next I think setting 4 to setting 5. So far SS did not want to refund my money or replace it with a mill that has parallel rollers. They say it won't make a difference but then why would there be a setting on the machine that changes the gap LESS than the variance between the right and left side of the rollers? Also there is another thread on how bad the soldering was on one guys unit. SS also told me they have extensive tests showing the rollers not being parallel is not a problem but so far has refused to show us those tests. Buyer beware....

 

[dan46nbrew]

Has anyone else seen the uneven gap issue with their new mill? I saw THIS thread in the SS user group today. One person has the mill gap vary by over .050" from one side to the other! Definitely not acceptable for a $800 premium mill.

There are numerous posts on different forums about this, I linked mine above. Also there are several YouTube videos on the gap being uneven. If SS does not show us proof their mill will function as advertised without us having to do a sieve test it will be the last SS product I ever buy.