Customer Reviews

Back To Basics Meat Grinder Pro

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

1. bad guality - hall for driver shaft was off center.
2. bad body metal - was reacting with meat made it dark and darkened itself.
3. Body is too deep - hard to reach to wash it.

very bad metal quality. Easy oxidize with white patina after every wash. First few grounded peaces always have black color.
Not worth buying.

grinds well, easy to clean. After one year (about 8 uses) the on/off switch broke. Runs loud.

Worked well first 3 times. On the 4th broke (goes in reverse, but not forward). Turns out 5 weeks old and already out of warranty. I never heard of 1 months warranty on new products before. Found stories of people shipping defective products to them at great expense ($20+) and never getting anything or even hearing back.

Bad quality, on/off switch and plastic ring broken after 1 year.

My wife and I bought this model several years ago, and it worked fine the first time we used it. She ground about sixteen pounds of venison into hamburger. It took all day, but it worked.
Now, some years later, I attempted to make more venison hamburger from this seasons catch. It did not go well.
After four pounds made, the grinder blade suddenly stopped turning while at the same time there was the unmistakable, loud(er) sound of grinding gears from inside the unit.
I must confess that I did not realize how lightly constructed the unit was. My wife ordered the unit and I had never handled it until today. When I did, I said to myself, "This plastic thing is too light. It can't be very strong inside."
I am a mechanic and old enough to know that light things usually are not very strong. I was right about this one.
It is not worth the low price for this unit. Get one with good reviews.

I hate to go against what all the others are saying. But 6 years ago this was a high quality item. I can't say the others are wrong because may be that the product has since changed. I have NO PROBLEM with breakage or parts turning color. Good powerful motor. At least it was 6 years ago. I was going to buy a second one for a gift, but may hold off now that I have seen the other reviews.

I wish I understood why some have gotten the white patena. the metal bits are die cast aluminum according to the manual so they shouldn't patena at all. I am just washing mine in warm soapy water and scrubbing it with a tooth brush to get the tight spaces clean and no issue with either the metal or meat changing color at all. I made some english banger sausages last night with a combo of pork, beef and a bit of venison (you know: whatever was cheap or I could trade for.) and the meat mix for that is almost doughy it's so sticky and it did fine. I do chunk up my meat into about 1" or slightly smaller chunks because I know this is only a home use machine and I don't want to over work the poor thing. For bangers the first grind is on the medium plate and the second grind is on the fine plate. First grind was easy peazy, but when I got to the second grind I did have to do it in 2 batches as the machine was getting warm. Understand that this is a home/light duty machine. This isnt meant to take the place of a professional machine. I did just over a 6 lb batch of bangers and just for stuffing it took about 2 hours, of courst my mum was helping and that time includes a couple of cups of tea and lots of giggles and fun had along the way. One suggestion though would be use a bit of cooking spray on the top tray and down the neck if your making a "sticky" sausage like I did with the bangers and it will slide through much easier.

Product works great! Easy to use. Easy to start. Easy to clean. Hope it lasts awhile, we have lots of deer to grind. Fast enough for the price i paid. This was a refurb and it was supposed to have a scratch on it but I found nothing. EXTREMLY happy with it. Would suggest to friends and family.

Beware Back to Basics. The on/off switch on our 4500 grinder broke this morning (cheesy design). When I called the company for a replacement switch, I was told that they don't sell parts for the internals of the machine; If the guts go bad, just throw it away. Fine way to do business.