Best grinder under $200

[BigAntlerGetter]

We did that and went through a grinder a year, save some money and buy quality nothing worse than being half way through grinding and the grinder burns up


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[Pilsner]

I have the old Cabelas brand and 3/4 HP. Unless you are grinding a ton of meat, 3/4 is fine. Alot of guys go up to 1 or 1.5 HP tho

Be advised that since the BPS takeover of Cabelas that their current offerings have ZERO warranty and plastic gears instead of the old good metal gears.
Old Cabelas gear = good.
current Cabels/BPS gear = trash!

 

[nobody]

I had a stand-alone grinder I bought at academy a decade ago. It worked fine.

My wife bakes and has a kitchen aid mixer. I bought the 70.00 grinder attachment for it. It works great for us.

I prefer to grind when I’m going to cook ground meat. So I freeze cuts of meat whole that I’ll grind later. That said, I’ve done 3 small whitetails worth of ground meat at one time with this machine and it worked great.

Of course a commercial grade purpose built machine will be best. But this is a nice option.

Amen to the kitchen aid. That’s all I use, still haven’t bought another grinder. Highly recommend.

 

[Pilsner]

The actual question is:
Do I want to buy once, cry once and have a machine that will last a lifetime
-or-
be cheap and get through this season while watching a tool die?

The cost difference is very little.
An el cheapo is $199 vs a lifetime machine from Vevor or Meat which is $399.
The same math works out for your vac-packer too by the way,

 

[Pilsner]

Amen to the kitchen aid. That’s all I use, still haven’t bought another grinder. Highly recommend.

The Kitchen Aid works great for sub-30 mins grind events. Perfect for grinding by the meal but do NOT try to wait until the end of hunting season to grind multiple animals with just one as it is not built for bulk work. At least not without frequent and annoying breaks for cooling.

Last year we did 74 pigs, 2 buffalo, a water buffalo, a neighbor's cow, 2 elk, and an unknown number of whitetails. So while our needs are much higher than yours, we started out where you are trying to save money and it ended up costing us $$$ in the long run.
And the money saved by buying quality once is not dependent on the number of critters worked up.

 

[nobody]

The Kitchen Aid works great for sub-30 mins grind events. Perfect for grinding by the meal but do NOT try to wait until the end of hunting season to grind multiple animals with just one as it is not built for bulk work. At least not without frequent and annoying breaks for cooling.

Last year we did 74 pigs, 2 buffalo, a water buffalo, a neighbor's cow, 2 elk, and an unknown number of whitetails. So while our needs are much higher than yours, we started out where you are trying to save money and it ended up costing us $$$ in the long run.

Very true. We use it for one mule deer at a time or small batches, which it’s great for. But it’ll burn up if you do what you’re talking.

 

[Pilsner]

Very true. We use it for one mule deer at a time or small batches, which it’s great for. But it’ll burn up if you do what you’re talking about,

My old KA was a champ at doing small batch grinding for sausages before it finally died - not due to over use but due to a power surge.
A great tool that I miss but I am not willing to pay current prices for a new one.