Megaforce 3000 Series 5-in-1 Electric Meat Grinder | 3000W Max | Air Cooled | 3-Speed | Size #12 | 5 Grinding Plates | Stainless Steel Blades | Sausage Stuffer | Kubbe Maker & More

I was looking for about a year for my first meat grinder in order to process my own deer and elk. I didn't want a cheap $50 one and I didn't want to spend hundreds for a commercial quality version that I would only use once a year. After a lot of online review reading, I settled on the "STX-3000-MF Megaforce". OK, so the name just screams "cheap Chinese junk!", but the reviews were good and it had everything I wanted, so what the heck, let's try it.First Impressions- I picked up the shipping package off the porch and thought "seems too light". Unpacked it and thought "not a fan of the polished aluminum parts", "the body of the unit seems pretty light", and "hey, at least the grinder plates, auger, and cutting blades are beefy".Assembly- Piece of cake. If you need to read the instructions or go online to figure out how to put this together, just ship it back and make friends with a butcher.First Use: Grinding- So I cleaned out my freezers and pulled about 21 lbs of deer, antelope, and elk steaks and cubed meat out and set it to partially thaw overnight. I also got 9 lbs of partially frozen pork belly and 3.5 lbs of pork country style rib meat ready. The pork was cubed into ~1-1.5" cubes. The game meat was a little smaller, but reasonably well trimmed of silver skin and tendons. I mixed up all the chunks and started feeding the machine as fast as it could take it, which was faster than I could feed it by myself. First pass was through the wagon wheel, second pass was through the 5/16" (?) plate (not the beaner plate and not the smallest hole plate). Working by myself, I double ground ~35 lbs of meat in less than 30 minutes. This machine never balked or slowed at all. I mixed up 9 lbs with summer sausage season and cure and then ~5 lb batches of Polish + cure, Bratwurst, Sweet Italian, Hot Italian, and Breakfast, adding a little less than a cup of water to each 5 lb batch. I'd probably go to a 1.5 C next time. I then ground the Summer Sausage and Polish through the smallest plate to get a fine consistency and left all of it in the fridge overnight to "marinate"(?) (not really sure of the correct term here).Second Use: Stuffing- Next day, I stuffed some large 3 lb casings with the summer sausage and regular hog casings for the rest. This was a bit tedious working alone. I highly recommend getting a partner to help. Also, the key to stuffing the casings was to push the pre-ground meat through the machine as fast as possible. Even on the slow speed setting with the cutting head removed, the auger would "smush" the ground meat into paste if it got held up. This was fine for the summer and Polish sausage, but I wanted a coarser mix for the rest. Eventually, I got into a rhythm where I would load up the vertical tube with the mix, start the machine and push the feed plunger down as fast as I could, stop the machine, twist the case, reload the vertical tube, repeat. This made ~ 1/4 lb links.Clean up- The polished aluminum parts cleaned up super easy. Spend a little time making sure you get all the crannies inside the grinder head and clean out crevices in the cutting head and all the little holes in the plates carefully. After drying, spray the grinding plates with oil to prevent rust. Leave the cutting head, tube, meat tray, and auger dry. Some reviews complain that you can't put the pieces in the dishwasher. Seriously? How are you so willing to put a fair amount of work into making your own sausage but too lazy to wash half a dozen parts by hand?Overall- I am pretty impressed with the power and utility. Having never made sausage before, there was a bit of a learning curve, but this machine made most of it pretty simple and easy once I got the hang of it. No idea of the long-term reliability, but I'll only be using it once/year. Noise wasn't too bad. Obviously its going to be loud with that much power, but you don't need to yell to talk to your partner while it is running. Not a huge difference in the 2 speeds. I mostly used the slow speed, since I was working alone. Never tried reverse since the machine ground through everything. The only thing that caused it to strain was trying to grind 1" cubes of solidly frozen elk. These were fresh out of the freezer, not partially frozen. It didn't like them, but it did grind them. I won't do that again and wouldn't recommend it. The result was pretty mealy anyway.

I received my STX MEGAFORCE 3000W WITH "COWL AIR INDUCTION COOLING SYSTEM" - 3000 WATT" 3.4 HP meat grinder yesterday. It arrived right on time and in perfect condition.I bought this grinder to make my own raw dog food and knew I needed one rugged enough to chew through chicken bones. I considered the STX 1800 WATT" 2.4 HP model since it has such glowing reviews, but this one was only a few dollars more and had more 'ponies under the hood' so I sprung for the newer model. I also liked the idea of the cowl air induction cooling system this model has as I plan on using this machine for many years to come and the cooling system should keep this one running optimally for the long haul. I have to tell you, I am not disappointed!I had it put together and grinding twenty pounds of chicken wings within a matter of minutes after pulling it out of the box. I hand washed all the parts that would touch the food and began grinding. What I noticed right off the bat was that this machine is quiet for such a powerful grinder. I fully expected it to be much, much louder, but was pleasantly surprised.The chicken wings were about half frozen (which is recommended for optimum grinding) and still had the skin on and this machine ground them up easy as pie. Once or twice on a particularly thick bone it hesitated for about a second, then ground it up quickly and thoroughly. It did all twenty pounds without missing a beat - in fact, I had a hard time keeping up with the machine! It was grinding them that fast and easy.So here are my pros:Priced amazingly well for a machine that can do all this one can doThe machine is well built and sturdy but not overly heavy or cumbersomeIt's much quieter than expectedIt grinds through chicken bones, skin and gristle like a hot knife through butterNot once did it bog down or clog up on me through 20 pounds of large chicken wingsGrinds quickly and efficientlyVery easy to put together, take apart, and clean upLots of extra parts for grinding and sausage makingAnd okay, there have to be a few cons, right? But I don't have many and none would stop me from buying this machine again!First, the instructions you get with this machine are terrible. It's one page folded in half (which is okay, BUT . . .) it's written in teeny tiny print that looks like a copy of a copy of a copy - it's that hard to read. (Even with a magnifying glass I couldn't make out some of the instructions.) The saving grace of this 'con' is that this machine is pretty easy to figure out. But still this has been the same 'con' I've seen over and over again on the review page for the 1800 watt version of this machine by the same company and it's time for the problem to be addressed and corrected.My only other con is that none of the parts are dishwasher safe. You MUST hand wash all the parts that touch the food. Now this isn't a huge con for me, I never did mind hand washing and it goes very quickly when you're done grinding, but I do like the sterilizing effect of the dishwasher, so having this as an option would have been fabulous.So to sum up, if you're looking for a powerful, easy-to-use, well-made, excellently priced meat grinder, you can't go wrong with this one. I highly recommend this machine!Update** Okay, I just left this review yesterday, but I had to come back today to add that just a couple of hours ago I put about ten pounds of more than half frozen chicken legs (drumsticks) through the grinder. I have to admit, I wondered before I put them through if I shouldn't let them thaw more, but WOW! No problem at all for this grinder. It ground them up easily and thoroughly.Then I put about five pounds of boneless chicken breasts through that weren't frozen at all, just cold from the fridge. Again, no problem whatsoever even though it is recommended you use partially frozen for best results. This machine didn't care a wit! lolWhen I was done, I put a few whole carrots through to push out all the meat (plus, since this is for my dog, I like the idea of a little bit of veggies in her meat), and of course the STX ground them up beautifully. If you're looking for a great grinder at a fabulous price, go press "buy now"!