The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Salzburg mills: Max Spezial vs MT 5 ED?

Matt Tropic's picture
Matt Tropic

Salzburg mills: Max Spezial vs MT 5 ED?

I've been tossing up between buying an MT 5 ED or a Max Spezial as both will grind rice and corn well, but seem to have different strengths and weaknesses. I'd be baking a loaf or two of sourdough (mix of rye and gluten free grains) per week, cracking enough oats for daily muesli, and cracking beans to make tempeh fairly regularly as well.

Fresh Loaf user Tony has an MT 12 and says he has an issue with the flour building up in the exit spout, backing up and glazing the grindstones. (Tony's post is currently at the bottom of this page). All the MT mills have a similar narrow round exit spout, so I imagine the MT 5 ED will do this as well. Tony says he pokes a stick in to solve it, but this seems perhaps like a leaky bandaid on a design flaw. Do other MT users have similar issues, and if so how minor or major is it? Should all Salzburg MT mills come with poking sticks?!

The Max Spezial has a nice wide, square exit spout, but does that solve the flour backing up / glazing issue? The experience of any Max users would be relevant here, as the Max and Max Spezial have the same exit spout.

The Max Spezial has grindstones specially designed for harder, larger gluten-free grains. Does that reduce the grinding quality for other grains in any way? It seems that it might, as these grindstones don't seem to be used in any other Salzburg mills.

A big difference is the stainless steel raising and lowering thread in the MT 5 ED, which is said to remove the necessity of checking the fineness of output during the grind. So when using any of the Salzburg electric mills without the stainless steel thread (anything cheaper than the MT 5 ED), how much does the fineness of the output vary during the grind? Do you have to stop every few seconds to adjust? Does the fineness variability worsen over the years of using the mill? I'm wondering too with the Max Spezial, if harder gluten-free grains might push the grindstones apart more readily and gradually coarsen the output?

Access to the grinding chamber is "without tools" for the MT 5 ED, but needs a screwdriver for the Max Spezial. How fiddly and time-consuming is the screwing and unscrewing for the Max Spezial? How often do you need to access the grinding chamber? Is this a signficant point of difference?

There's a large difference in price, too. Is the MT 5 ED worth the extra money overall for someone baking a loaf or two a week and cracking daily muesli oats and weekly tempeh beans?

Thanks in advance for any help!

pmccool's picture
pmccool

I'd buy either a KoMo or a Mockmill instead of a Salzburg.  The mill I'm using is a KoMo Fidibus and it handles wheat, rye, barley, oats, and corn with aplomb.  Textures range from fine flours to meals to cracked grains, depending on the setting I choose.  While I haven't milled beans or gluten free grains, I would expect it to handle those just fine so long as they aren't oily. 

My two cents.

Paul

Matt Tropic's picture
Matt Tropic

Thanks for your thoughts Paul. The reason I'm considering only Salzburg mills is that I've firmly decided on granite millstones. If you know of any other companies that use granite, I'd be very interested.

pmccool's picture
pmccool

Salzburger seems to be the only option with granite stones unless you were interested in a hand mill.  There are a number of companies that offer commercial-scale mills with granite stones but those are too large for a home kitchen.

Have you looked at the Grainmaker mill?  It uses steel burrs instead of stone and is in a similar price range as the Salzburger mills.

Best of luck with your search.

Paul