Review on 🌾 WONDERMILL - Flour Canister Grain Grinder Mill by Nikki Huang

UPDATE 6-15-18: This grinder is NOT available when grinding chickpeas, whether I use the fine grain attachment or manually feed them 1-2 at a time. We use a lot of chickpea flour, so this is a big problem for us. Sometimes it grinds them at a decent speed and I can get 1 cup of flour in about 15-20 minutes, other times it literally takes HOURS to get 1 cup of chickpea flour. This seemed to work better after I milled the white and brown rice first, but no, not tonight. I made a STUPID mistake trying to grind the chickpeas first. Ha, I'm stupid. I Got 1 Cup of Flour in Thirty Minutes! I stopped this nonsense and ground rice flour and then just tried chickpea flour. NO! None of them will grind even if they only grind rice flour, so we KNOW there is NOTHING in it. This grinder sucks! NOT safe again. You have lost a loyal customer. ------------------------ --- UPDATE 11/14/17 (two more stars removed after last night): Me idiot. Last night we wanted to bake chickpea flour tortillas for dinner, but of course there was no more chickpea flour in the freezer. I figured I'd grind up a little and make tortillas. That was my fault. THINK it will pass FAST. what a joke! Oh, and REALIZATION?! I saw a review that said there was NO dust, but I can tell you that we ALWAYS get dust through the black foam filter on the top of the canister when the grinder is on. no matter what type of flour, and although I wash the filter after EVERY use. I try to time my flour BEFORE dusting because otherwise I get really frustrated that I have to do it twice when I barely have time to do it once let alone twice. . Coming back to last night and our EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING attempt at grinding chickpeas. So I hand feed 2-3 chickpeas at a time, which may sound crazy, but I find it EASIER to use than a clunky grain grinder supposed to do the grinding. Chickpeas, tapioca, etc. Easier. I definitely have a different opinion on chickpeas. The nozzle is TOO SHORT so to get a good grip with your fingertips you can only put a small amount of chickpeas in the hopper when it's in place or when you turn the grainmill nozzle (which, to be honest, is only a small piece of PVC pipe without an end cap) the chickpeas will interfere with your fingers trying to grab the bait. And god forbid you cough, sneeze so that the child comes up and accidentally (or not so accidentally) startles you, causing you to lift the attachment of the grinder. Then ALL the chickpeas end up in the grinder mechanism and you have to unplug it, flip it and start over. SERIOUS?! I can't believe I paid an extra $25-30 for this stupid device that I thought should make using the grinder so much easier when it came to grinding chickpeas. NO! Maybe it would be great for tapioca pearls, but I haven't tried them yet since I can buy tapioca starch cheaply, so I'll allow myself a "trick" - you don't have to grind the tapioca with it. Not to mention that before I got my new grinder with a nozzle, tapioca pearls were selling cheap at the local store. But now they are very expensive so I'm trying to find a cheaper source for them so I don't end up paying double or triple what I buy ready ground tapoica starch. Chickpeas at a time, and I got about a tablespoon or two of ground flour when the grinder got clogged. And so I turned the grinder off, gently tipped it sideways to take out 3 whole giant chickpeas, turned the grinder back on and tried again. EVERYONE. SINGLE. TIME. after that it clogged IMMEDIATELY. maybe he grinds 5-9 chickpeas. maybe 1. but it kept getting clogged. My husband knew I was ready to cry so he tried. and the same thing happened to him. My husband is not new to heavy equipment and machinery so this grinder should be easy for him. stupid middle part that completely blocks the view. I know, I know. This detail is there to discourage people from sticking something into the mesh mechanism to fish out a stuck bean etc, but at some point you just have to balance STUPIDITY with COMMON SENSE and not let that center rod come out (or maybe make it TRANSPARENT that way). can you at least see underneath?) so you can see if something is stuck there, it's just BAD DESIGN. The mill must be used by adults. So if a piece should come out and someone put something in the mill, it's up to YOU. Don't punish the rest of us who have the common sense not to do this for the sake of the few who aren't the brightest lightbulbs. There is a way to lock this center bar but still remove it. As a side note to Wondermill. I've been using our $500 open blade Vitamix for 7 years now and have never been foolish enough to put anything in the blades. I think I'm smart enough to run the mill just as responsibly. like the majority of the population. However, after playing around with my Wondermill for 2 hours to grind chickpea flour, I was at the end of my rope. & we were still hungry for dinner. I decided to throw in some rice and see if it would grind. and it went great. I then ground up about 4 cups of white rice and decided to give chickpeas another try. Everything started well. but then, after a minute or two, the same thing happened. Instead we ate leftover soup for dinner. In order not to be stopped, after eating the soup, I decided to grind more white rice flour. so i mashed up a few cups and then tried the chickpeas again. Back then I got about half a cup of chicken meal before it was completely clogged. I then ground more white rice and brown rice. After grinding a few cups of white and brown rice, the chickpeas went much easier and I did NOT change ANYTHING in my method. the same nut. So I fed 2-3 chickpeas at a time and they ground up pretty well. It did clog up from time to time, but nowhere near as bad as before I added the rice flour. So I'm wondering if the chickpeas are a drier product inside and maybe there's more oil in them when the rice is milled. and maybe the natural oils in the rice act as a lubricant that goes through the milling mechanism? I'm just guessing, but I know I never started chopping chickpeas like I naively tried last night. I always grind the white and brown rice first (and any other grains) and then the chickpeas last because I know it's difficult to grind them to manually serve 2-3 beans at a time, so maybe my theory is correct? In any case, I'm deducting another star because I find this whole IMPOSSIBILITY to grind chickpeas INCONVENIENT at first, since I don't always run out of all the flour at the same time. I also find it quite FUNNY that we find it easier to feed 2-3 chickpeas through the grinder at a time than use a silly little grains/beans attachment. And, YES, I've seen a Wondermill video on YouTube showing how to grind chickpeas with the EASY attachment. but in reality it is no different from any other advertisement. It works fine for a few minutes of demo (which was probably done after milling rice and/or other grains), but it definitely does NOT work that well for a customer. Machine, I'm not entirely sure I'll be buying this grinder again in the future and wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking to grind chickpeas in a timely manner. and you'll still have some sanity left after you grind them. ---------------------- ------------ -- -------- LOVE the gristmill, but the little chickpea grinder is CRAZY SLOW. I know to keep the grinder from clogging, but it's still tiring. I grind all our own flour for gluten and corn free needs. So far we have also bought tapoka starch but now I can grind it myself which I will do once I have tapioca pearls. medium rice, long rice, buckwheat, pinto beans and others. This is our second Wondermill. Our first one was used and recently broke. It lasted a good 4 years with us and was in use for about 2-4 years before it was given to us. The mill is NOT silent, but this HAIR MILL is quieter than our previous WHISPER MILL. Calling him quiet is an oxymoron. it is much louder than a vacuum cleaner. And I'm wondering if ear protection should be worn when using it as it doesn't seem to be any quieter than a lawnmower. One star for SLOW chopping chickpeas.