Manual vs. Electric Grain Mill:
Which do I need?
Most people buying a manual (hand) mill do so either to be prepared for power losses, or because they want to grind oily items which won't work in an electric mill, such as peanuts or flax seed.
As you might expect, hand mills are more cumbersome to use than electrics. To grind enough grain to make 3 loaves of bread, you would spend about 12 minutes hand cranking a Wonder Junior Hand Mill, or 2 minutes running automatically in a WonderMill. The
Wonder Junior is an excellent manual mill whose long cranking arm makes grinding as easy
as possible. Even so, using any manual mill will be time-consuming and will give your arms a bit of a workout.
For this reason, if you are planning on using your mill on a weekly basis to grind grain
for bread, you might be happier with an electric like the
Nutrimill or
Wondermill. Our family of six uses about 30 cups of flour per week, so we grind wheat and corn in an electric mill, we grind flax seed in an electric
coffee grinder, and we buy all-natural peanut butter at the store rather than making our own (cheaper for us than buying peanuts).
However, in If you are
not planning on grinding this much flour, a hand mill might work great for you. It is a nice feeling to know that even if an emergency occurs causing loss of power, you can still grind grain
and prepare food.
Another option would be to buy a hand mill and
motorize it. We do have
parts available for this option. Please note that motorization does void the hand mill's warranty, though.
| | Hand Mill
| Electric Mill
|
Needs electricity
| No
(but can be motorized)
| Yes
|
Grinds dry grains
(eg., wheat and corn)
| Yes
| Yes
|
Grinds oily grains
(eg. flax seed, peanuts)
| Yes
| No |
Grinding speed
| 3/4 to 1 c. flour per min. | 5 2/3 c. flour per min.
(90 lbs. per hour)
|
Noise level
| Little or none
| Similar to a vacuum cleaner
|
| Our regular price | $219.95 | $259.95
|
Arm energy required
| Yes | No |
Video demonstration
| hand mills
| electric mills
|
| | | |