Weston575 Watt Electric Heavy Duty Grinder, Silver

I would give it a 5-star if the gear was metal ( but factory used plastic), therefore, it’s only worth a 4-star product. This heavy-duty meat grinder works very well and it grinds meat very fast, very easy to use and very easy to clean, all parts come out separately for easy cleaning, if you only use a meat grinder a couple of times a month or once a while, this is the grinder you need, no need to spend couple hundred dollars to buy a meat grinder, this small, compact meat grinder works just effectively as a $300 dollar meat grinder. We decided to buy a meat grinder after my wife and I spent over $20 from a grocery store on ground pork and got home realized the meat went bad, but we cannot return the smelly meat because this store has no return policy on meats and vegetables, not many stores sell ground pork ( lots of ground beef ), buying ground pork from store is you'll get lots of FAT pork, I do believe store grounds pork uses lots of FAT pork as possible, buying your own meat grinder, you can strip all the FAT out and grinds only the lean pork your want, so, we’ll never waste money and get the most FAT meat any more and we’re very happy after our first use of this Weston 575 watt electric heavy duty meat grinder.

I make cat food for my cat and needed a grinder that would grind chicken bones and this one does. I was amazed it took me an hour to grind up a 5 pound chicken and some extra liver for a couple of months worth of cat food.Raw Cat Food Diet Recipe Made WITH Real Bones2 kg [4.4 pounds] raw muscle meat with bones (chicken thighs and drumsticks or, better, a whole carcass of rabbit or chicken amounting to 2 kg; if you don't use a whole carcass, opt for dark meat like thighs and drumsticks from chicken or turkey and remove/don't use 20 to 25 percent of the bone; if using whole rabbit, which has a higher bone-to-meat ratio than chicken, dilute the extra bone by adding another 20 to 25 percent of plain muscle meat and skin and fat from rabbit, chicken, or turkey)400 grams [14 oz] raw heart (best not to use use beef heart; if no heart is available, substitute with 4000 mg Taurine)200 grams [7 oz] raw liver (don't use beef liver; if you can't find appropriate liver, you can substitute 40,000 IU of Vitamin A and 1600 IU of Vitamin D--but try to use real liver rather than substitutes) NOTE: If you cannot find the heart or liver and decide to substitute with the Taurine/Vitamin A and D, then remember to REPLACE the missing amount of organ meat with the equivalent amount of muscle meat. In other words, if you cannot find heart, you add another 400 grams of the meat/bones. If you can't find the liver, add another 200 grams of meat/bone.16 oz [2 cups] water4 raw egg yolks (use eggs from free-range, antibiotic-free chickens if you can)***4 capsules raw glandular supplement, such as, for example, multigland supplement by Immoplex.4000 mg salmon oil (see note at bottom of recipe*)800 IU Vitamin E ("dry E" works well)200 mg Vitamin B-50 complex (i.e., four capsules of B-50)1.5 tsp. Lite salt (with iodine) (optional: 4 tsp. psyllium husk powder (8 tsp. if using whole psyllium husks; see note at bottom of recipe**)NOTE: If you will not be using the food immediately and freezing for more than a week or two, toss in 4000 mg of additional Taurine to make up for what may get lost during storage. It is also not a bad idea to sprinkle extra Taurine from a capsule on the food as you're serving it two or three times a week, just to be certain your cat is getting plenty of this critical amino acid.1. Remove about half of the skin from the muscle meat. Chunk up (i.e., cut) as much of the muscle meat (minus most of the skin if using chicken or turkey, but leave skin on if using rabbit) as you can stand into bite-sized (nickel-sized, approximately) pieces. Save the chunked meat for later. Do not grind it.2. Grind the raw liver, any skin, raw meaty bones, and raw heart. Once ground, stir this meat/bone mixture well and return to refrigerator.3. Fill a bowl with 2 cups of water and whisk everything (non-meat) except the psyllium. If you had to replace liver with Vitamin A/D or replace heart with Taurine, add the substitutes now. Add psyllium at the end -- if you're using it -- and mix well. Finally, put the three mixtures together--the "supplement slurry" that you have just mixed, the ground up meat/bone/organs, and the chunks of meat that you cut up by hand. Portion into containers and freeze. Don't overfill the containers. The food expands when frozen and you don't want lids popping off. Thaw as you go. The food shouldn't be left thawed in the refrigerator more than 48 hours before serving. To serve, portion into a 'zipper baggie' and warm under hot water in the sink. NEVER microwave the food. Cats like their food at something approximating "mouse body temperature." *Every two or three days, I suggest sprinkling a few drops of fresh salmon oil from a newly-opened capsule on to the cats' food. The Essential Fatty Acids in salmon oil are extremely fragile, and since we do not know exactly how much gets lost during freezing, I think it's wise to use a bit of fresh salmon oil directly on the food a few times a week. Most cats love the flavor. **Not all cats require additional fiber (psyllium) in their diet. If your cat has been eating low-quality commercial food for several years, especially dry food, she may have lost bowel elasticity and may benefit from the extra fiber. As a general rule, I recommend using psyllium when an adult cat first gets raw food. I rarely add much psyllium to my adult cats' diet. Bear in mind that some cats seem to get constipated without additional fiber, whereas other cats seem to get constipated if they get too much fiber. Each cat is unique, and you'll have to judge what works best for your cat.***If you don't want to waste the egg whites and don't feel like making an angel food cake, poach them, grind them, and throw them in with the food. A nice phosphorus-free source of protein.

This model has been rated BARF friendly (good for pet food, grinds smaller chicken bones) on various web sites, but it IS NOT. It will not grind the smallest chicken bone, and states twice in the instructions not to put bones in it. If you are grinding chicken, you may run into the problem I had. I cut up boneless chicken breasts into 1" cubes as the directions stated, after removing any visible tendons. This thing sucks the meat in faster than you can put it in the hole, so it does do 3 lb. a minute as it claims. However, I still had to take it apart 3 times during the grinding of 3 lbs of meat due to "strings" of chicken totally jamming up the grinder and blade. Extremely fast, but what's the sense if you have to constantly stop and unjam it? Did not try any other meat as I use it strictly for pet food and my cat only eats chicken. I imagine it would be great for sausage and grinding beef, but pet owners beware, this IS NOT for anyone wanting to grind small bones. Gave it a 3 star rating for this reason as it is advertised elsewhere as being meant to grind bones (this is actually the Wesson 8 model) and the fact that they do not mention in the sales ad you need food safe silicone spray to use it. By the way, this is simply Pam or any other non-stick spray, so you may actually have it in your house and not realize it. But it would be nice if you knew you needed it BEFORE you cut up your meat. Model is smaller than most which is nice, and not as heavy. Machine did not shake when in use, but grinder did not seem to lock into place as tightly as it should. For the price, not a bad grinder for making sausage or hamburger, but watch out when grinding chicken. Also, very cold meat grinds much easier than room temp meat or slightly cooled meat. Would not recommend for pet food.

Bought this grinder for my two dogs who are unstoppable eating machine.Every three weeks my wife and I process just under 100lbs of raw chicken. We buy chicken carcasses which are about 50% bone in terms of weight. This means the grinder has to process a lot of spines, hips, etc...The only drawback is the narrow chute - if we had more money we would have bought a larger grinder. To prepare the carcasses we use a large rubber mallet and a cloth to smash the chicken before grinding.The machine is quite loud when running but this isn't an issue for us.Grinding the chicken takes about an hour and the whole time the grinder is running. So far it hasn't overheated once.The final drive is plastic and easily replaceable. We've replaced it once using the spare that comes with this grinder. This was after about 600lbs worth of chicken.The machine is easy to clean and the reverse function is great.I highly recommend this grinder, but if you have the money get a larger model with a larger chute.

Be careful ordering from this company. The description was for a heavy duty meat grinder and when it finally arrived, my dad was very disappointed. He has butchered his own meat all his life and would not describe this product as heavy duty. The plastic parts would not hold up and you could only feed small cubes of meat in small amounts into the grinder.When I went to return it, I discovered that their return policy was very rigid and almost sounded accusatory as in -'how dare you try to return this". I had to get their approval first within a short time of arrival- I think it was 10 days- receive a code and then get the product back to them within 10 days of receiving the code AND I had to pay for the shipping which cost me $50. As I live in the north, it's very difficult to get anything to the States in 10 days and they certainly didn't get it to me in 10 days. Also, as I didn't get a full refund, I'm guessing they charged a restocking fee.If you check the company out online you will see several consumers had problems with them and I wish I had done more checking but I trusted Amazon. I am surprised that, with Amazon's great reputation, they would deal with this company. Be careful!

Got this grinder specifically for making raw dog good. Although the instructions say you shouldn't grind bones, it has no problem going through any chicken bones and large but smashed up turkey necks, quickly, too. I wish the chute was a bit wider, but it's not really a big issue. Rewind feature is helpful, the machine is powerful and with a few shorts breaks it never overheats. I really like that the cable tucks neatly into the body for easy storage. Internal parts need to be hand washed and seasoned after, but it only takes a moment. So far after about 300lbs, I'm very happy with it and would definitely recommend this machine, especially if you're getting into making raw dog food and are looking for an economical, compact solution.

I purchased this as a Christmas present for my husband, a hunter who also custom butchers his game. He is very satisfied with the grinding power and the texture of the product. He likes the large tray on the hopper. We have made about 20 lbs of moose sausage so far, in a short time - the grind rate that is claimed is accurate. I find it a little difficult to control the rate for filling the casings, creating a lack of uniformity and a few casing "blow-outs" . Could just be my lack of expertise with this product.

I ordered it six months ago to make catfood with chicken legs and it's still working great. I always break the bones with my knife prior to putting them in the grinder.Je l'ai commandé il y a six mois pour faire de la bouffe à chat et il fonctionne toujours bien. Je casse toujours les os avec mon couteau avant de les passer dans le broyeur.