Wheat Grinder FAQs

Wheat grinders are a critical part of your food storage plan if you follow traditional food storage calculators and store large amounts of wheat. Without a way to grind the wheat you will have very limited options on the foods you can make with your wheat. It can also be a large investment to get a grinder and you want to make sure you get one that will meet your family’s needs.

Today we are going to go over all of the questions that beginners tend to have when first researching this and hopefully it can help you make the decision for you and your family!

What’s the difference between manual & electric wheat grinders?

Here is a summary of the pros and cons of manual grinders versus electric grinders:
MANUAL WHEAT GRINDERS
Pros:
-Basic models are inexpensive (good ones are similar in cost to electric mills)
-Can be used with no power source so they are great for emergency situations
-Many models are very small thus requiring little storage space
-Able to grind items such as oily seeds, nuts, herbs, and coffee that would normally ruin an electric mill
Cons:
-SLOW to grind (can take 5-20 minutes to grind one cup of flour)
-Except for the higher-end models, you cannot grind grain into a fine flour
-Some models are inconvenient (messy and hard to fit a large bowl underneath)

ELECTRIC WHEAT GRINDERS
Pros:
-Grinds VERY quickly thus making it easy to use in your everyday cooking
-Easy to select how coarse or fine to grind your grains
-Large capacity for grinding a lot of grains/legumes at a time
Cons:
-Fairly expensive, even for the lower-end models
-Must have a generator or battery pack to use with no electricity (unless you buy a high end model that comes with a manual crank)
-Large appliance to store in your kitchen

COMBO UNITS
Some appliances can also be used to grind wheat either with an attachment or on their own. These are electric appliances but don’t really fall into the same category as an electric grinder.
KitchenAid Attachment: Less expensive than a full grinder, but can burn out the motor
BlendTec Blender: Will grind wheat into a coarse flour
VitaMix Blender: Can grind wheat if you purchase a dry canister
Bosch Family Grain Mill: Come with a hand crank and an attachment to use with the Bosch Mixer

What kinds of foods can you grind in a wheat grinder?

Electric grinder: medium and large grains, smaller grains (with a special attachment), legumes
Manual grinder: all grains and legumes; most nuts, seeds, and herbs
Check out the website willitgrind.com produced by Wondermill to find out exactly what can or can’t be ground with videos of each item.

How do you use a wheat grinder?

This video showcases how to use the Victorio Hand Grinder, WonderMill Electric Mill, and NutriMill Electric Mill.

To see the Wonder Junior Deluxe you can watch starting at 2 mins 30 secs into the video below. These are the mills that we have ourselves.

What recipes can you make using a wheat grinder?

We have posted TONS of recipes that can be made using a wheat grinder over the years. You’ll definitely want to check out our post 17 Ways to Use a Wheat Grinder which gives a summary of some of the best ones.

Can you REALLY make bread using NO ELECTRICITY?

ABSOLUTELY! In this video we use a Victorio Hand Grinder and a cardboard box oven.

What are the most popular brands of wheat grinders?

ELECTRIC GRINDERS
WonderMill Electric Mill: $349.95 + free shipping
The wondermill is very quiet and clean. It has a small grains attachment to enable you to grind small grains and pastas without clogging the motor. The canister can stack on top of the grinding unit making it tall but a small countertop footprint. There is also a flour bagger attachment that helps you to bag up flour to store in the freezer for later.
NutriMill Electric Mill: $349.95 + free shipping
The NutriMill is slightly louder than the wondermill but is another great mill. It’s nice to be able to just pull the canister straight out of the unit ready to use. In our tests it seems to grind slightly faster than the Wondermill. It is not too tall but does have a larger footprint for your countertops. You can purchase a mini seed mill for $10 that can grind smaller items and oily things that will clog your mill.
Blendtec (K-Tec) Kitchen Mill: $179.95 + free shipping
The Blendtec Mill is louder, slower, and messier than the other two popular electric mills. It will still get the job done and is an adequate mill at a lower price point than the two listed above. But we generally feel like an extra few dollars is worth the better quality of the other mills.
Family Grain Mill: $160-180 for manual, $259 to include a motorized base
The Family Grain Mill can be purchased by itself as a hand grinder, with a Bosch attachment, or with a motorized base. It’s one of the only grinders we’ve seen on the market that can really be both manual and electric.

MANUAL GRINDERS
Victorio Hand Grinder: $50-70 depending where you purchase
This grinder is sometimes called a “Back to Basics” grinder so look for that name too. It doesn’t grind into a very fine flour. It’s nice for emergency use only. We had our facebook readers share how long it takes to grind one cup of flour and it ranged from about 7 minutes to 20 minutes or more. Yikes!
Wonder Junior Deluxe: $349.95 + free shipping
The Wonder Junior is our favorite hand grinder. It is as powerful as the more expensive ones but at a reasonable price range. It takes under 5 minutes to grind 1 cup of flour which is reasonable for weekly usage if you can’t afford an electric mill too. We love that you can make nut butters and grind oily seeds in it using the metal burrs. You can grind very fine for a pastry flour or very coarse for cracked wheat or cornmeal. You can purchase a drill bit attachment or motorized pulley to make grinding easier when you have power. Has a double clamp that attaches to your counter or table.
Country Living Grain Mill: $429
This is one of the most popular wheat grinders for emergency situations. Many people have figured out ways to power this mill using pulleys, you can even attach a bike to it like my Grandma did. It is pricey but is very high quality and has a lifetime warranty. Needs to be screwed into a table to use.