Osttiroler or komo or mockmill?
I'm thinking of buying a new stone mill. Being in Ireland I can get dhl to deliver from Germany very cheaply. I want either an ostiroler a130, a komo classic or a mockmill. All come in around the same price second hand on eBay.de. Which should I buy? I want to mill about 4 kilos (8lb or so) once a week and batch bake. Does the osttiroler have konundrum stones too or naxos. Does anyone know anything about osttirolers. Komo and mockmill do a great marketing job but is the hype just that. There isn't anywhere withing a four hour drive where I can see any one of them in action and pitifully I am the only person I know who mills their own wheat. Please help. I plan on spending about 250 euro ($280) which is more than enough to get good second ones here. Thanking you in advance.
May
May, I have a Komo , and it does a nice job. There are many who have bought the mockmill and like that as well. I don't know anything about the ostitrolers . I don't think you will displeased with either the mockmill or the Komo, and will love the taste of the fresh floor. Barry.
Osttiroler on their website advertises both natural granite stones and Naxos stones. For the model A130 you are interested in, their website doesn't seem to specify which type of stone is installed - but from other websites that appear to be reselling the same mills, I believe it's Naxos.
Is there a performance difference between Komo and Mockmill? They're similar designs by the same designer. Cosmetically there's an obvious difference, but I don't know how the mechanisms compare.
I have a Komo as well. It's a sturdier machine than some of the less expensive ones, and it can handle a larger variety of grains than the cheaper ones, too. I use it almost every time I bake.
I'm looking at the exact thing. I really don't know what the differences are and would be interested in anyones insights. I did receive an e-mail from Osttiroler yesterday, a rather extensive series of e-mails in fact as I'd asked for info. on a number of different mills. They did say that the mill shouldn't be run for more than 15 minutes as it will over heat if operated beyond this time. Is that the same for the other mills?
Thanks Barry David and Film for the info. It sounds like Komo is winning. However I am torn. Osttiroler have won a bunch of prizes for their mills a d the big bakeries use them. Flourist (a Canadian website) picked Osttiroler over any other when buying a mill for their bakery.
John Cullen (with a name like that you have to be Irish too. I'm Kildare based): I'm looking at an Osttiroler a100 or a130. Surely they can be run for longer than 15 mins. What email address did you send the info request to. I might do the same. I'm put off the komos and mockmills a bit because of the konundrum ceramic stones which apparently have some aluminium in. The Osttiroler also use those stones but more commonly use Naxos basalt apparently. Don't quote me. I'm still researching. Its a once in a decade investment I want to get it right. If there is any way you could copy the info you got from Osttiroler to me please do. Thanks.
May, I did some searching on Osttiroler- yes it does appear that the a100 and a130 use Naxos. I get that from this page that says Naxos is self sharpening and Volcanic is not http://www.goodmills.eu/en/Stone.htm ( while it says goodmills, it is a factory linked page ) and the page that describes the A100 and A130 says they are self sharpening.
Actually, my favorite mill is none of those, it is the Lee Household Mill. I don't know when they stopped making them, but a new company has reintroduced it as the Royal Lee. Here is a review of the mill that is pretty unbiased. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_AhCwe17qY BTW, I only use the finest setting for pasta flour and use setting 2 or 3 for bread, and I have the older version , and it is quite a bit slower than the Royal Lee. The reason you may find it interesting, is that nearly every mill mills by having one stone rotate against another, and yes that can cause particles from the stone to get into the flour ( though my guess is that not enough to worry about ) When Osttiroler says the stones are self sharpening, I assume they mean they rub against each other and wear down the high spots and rounded edges. The Lee works totally differently, it basically throws the berries against the stone over and over until the powder is fine enough to pass through a screen, and go into the flour collection bowl. I haven't studied it, but my guess is that unless the wheat berries are harder than the stone, they will never cause wear on the stone, or cause anything to leach out of the stone. The Lee does have some downsides, other than mentioned in the video. Most of the mills in that price range have induction motors - which are much heavier duty, and longer lasting , than the universal motor used by the Lee ( It needs to use a universal motor due to the engineering of the feeding process, an induction motor wouldn't work ) Second, the way it feeds berries is that they need to be a fairly consistent size to work correctly. That does not present a problem for me, since I am generally milling winter and spring hard wheat, and summer soft wheat. I don't know how well it will do with other types of grains. There are many reviews here of the Lee. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/13634/lee-household-flour-mill
og@getreidemuehlen.com. And yep, 15 minutes. That's from the e-mails. And I think, from doing some calculations and conversions, that that would give you about ~2.5 lb. But my math really sucks, so you might want to check that out for yourself. Not sure about the cool down time. I think I read somewhere about 1 hour. And yes, Naxos seems to be the standard stone. In the e-mail's, however, they said something about being able to get a ' "ceramic" ' stone instead. I put it in double quotes because they put it in quotes. I don't know what that means though, so, whatever. And yes, Is Éireannach mé. But I'm born and raised and live in Western New York. My Mom is from the Sligo-Mayo aria. I own some land over there and get over there once in a while. Maybe this fall.
Hi Bealtaine, I'm also based in Ireland (Dublin) and am also thinking about getting myself a mill. While researching them, I got to wondering about where would I source my wheat grains. The choices seem limited to me. Can I ask where do you get your grains?
Thanks.
Hi. We’ll i got my mill working. I’ve found organic wheat at BallymoreOrganics.ie. They are based in Ballymore Eustace just south of Blessington. Order online cos the farm is a b’tch to find. If you can’t order online I have the guys mobile and I’ll give it to you. Best of luck thru the lockdown.
B
I bought the Ostiroler a130 and had it delivered from Germany. It got smashed en route. I haven't been on here as a result. Very glum and disappointed. Then I got sick. No bread baking for months. Thank you all for the great advice and generous assistance. I opted for the ostiroler in the end because it had the highest specs. And the Vendor was a really good guy. And because I like to be different from the herd. And I liked the Naxos stone. And the hype around Komo puts me off. Unfortunately it all went south when a box of mill pieces arrived instead of a mill! I'm going to try to get it fixed if I can find a carpenter who likes jigsaw puzzles.
My small mill broke too. I was milling rice flour to clean it and it literally snapped in two. I had it on too fine a setting! Whoops!
I am now millless (look a word with three "L"s in a row!
I buy (used to) my flour from a local health food store but they import it from the UK - specifically from Dove Mills. Not exactly environmentally friendly. I buy a 25kg bag for €37.00. I believe there's an organic farm near Ballymore Eustace on Kildare Wicklow border where winter wheat suitable for milling flour is sold but I never got there. The farmer won awards but there's no phone number online and I heard he was v unwell. I didn't want to be bothering him if he's unwell.
I might pop over to Austria after Christmas (can't go earlier - am doing the Camino in November) to get advice on getting the mill fixed and I'll find out more about the cooling down time etc. Seems v odd in light of sales pitch for the a130 - they say it's suitable for small bakeries. But a bakery with a machine that can only operate 15 mins out of every 75 would shut down. I will investigate!!
Love this forum. Thank you so much.
May
May, sorry to hear about your troubles - really bad luck to buy a new mill, and have it arrive in pieces. At first i thought it should be an easy repair, but then looked at the shapes on the a130. It probably can be repaired, but it is not like straight sided mills that would be a simple glue up. What was the small mill that snapped in two - I have never heard of that happening?
Hope you get back and up milling soon.
B, glad you got it working. You might want to post a detailed review after you have used it a while, there is not much info on it here.