Meat grinder Horse power?

justin davis · Mar 16, 2016

We used to an old grinder passed down through the family. It finally died awhile back.

I've been wanting to get a new one. Was looking at the cabelas commercial ones.

Which Horsepower do you guys reccomend?

I was thinking either a 3/4 or 1 HP. I saw a 1 1/2 HP forsale locally. Great price but I thought this might be too much power!

PantherCity · Mar 16, 2016

I've used a LEM .35HP grinder and can't see a need for anything more for my occasional use. It grinds as fast as my hands can feed it. It works just OK as a sausage stuffer though. I might buy a dedicated Sausage stuffer in the future.

5MilesBack · Mar 16, 2016

justin davis said:
I was thinking either a 3/4 or 1 HP. I saw a 1 1/2 HP forsale locally. Great price but I thought this might be too much power!

Is it possible to have too much power?

I have the 1hp and it works great, but if I found a great deal on the 1 1/2 or the 1 3/4hp I'd jump on it.

Brock A · Mar 16, 2016

justin davis said:
We used to an old grinder passed down through the family. It finally died awhile back.

I've been wanting to get a new one. Was looking at the cabelas commercial ones.

Which Horsepower do you guys reccomend?

I was thinking either a 3/4 or 1 HP. I saw a 1 1/2 HP forsale locally. Great price but I thought this might be too much power!

I got a 3/4 cabelas one last year. So far it's done 1 bear, 5 or 6 deer and 2 elk. Hasn't missed a beat. Plenty of HP for home use.

Calbuck · Mar 16, 2016

Ditto on 3/4 horse Cabelas..several deer and a couple elk, it grinds as fast as I can stuff it..

Vids · Mar 16, 2016

I have the 3/4 HP LEM version. Works great, it grinds as fast as I can feed it.

I second the idea of a dedicated sausage stuffer, I gave up on trying to stuff sausages with a grinder attachment a few years back. I have a 5lb manual vertical stuffer, it works great. My only complaint would be that I should have gotten the 15lb stuffer just so I wouldn't have to reload it so often.

Bulldawg · Mar 16, 2016

1. No such thing as too much power in a grinder

2. 3/4 is usually enough for most people's needs

I have a one horse but would like to get the 1.5, I tried selling mine but shipping is outrageous on a big heavy grinder like that. The thing that the bigger ones do is it is faster so the meat isn't in the machine as long with the chance of warming up, thus slowing it down and can change the texture of the fat sometimes.

If you found a deal on a 1.5 horse I'd jump on it

camping1601 · Mar 16, 2016

I don't know the HP of my Cabela's but it has the #22 plate. It has worked well for but if I had it to do again I would have bought the next size up.

Trial153 · Mar 16, 2016

I have the 1hp grinder. I wouldn't go any smaller.

BackcountryMT · Mar 16, 2016

My .35 HP LEM is a tank. I have purposefully tried to overload load it and bog it down and it keeps on rolling, even with frozen meat.

ChrisS · Mar 16, 2016

justin davis said:
I saw a 1 1/2 HP forsale locally. Great price but I thought this might be too much power!

My butcher friend has a Hobart 5hp for his deer processing biz. I saw it in action and I think you could feed an entire carcass in there no problem. That is one helluva machine. He ground 40lbs of venison in like 30 seconds.

Jason Snyder · Mar 17, 2016

I have a .25 HP grinder, been using it for over 10 years. I would go bigger if I was to do it over. More HP = less time, which is a big deal when you are grinding over a 100 pounds of burger in a day.

Ray · Mar 17, 2016

One of the things that I learned when borrowing a grinder is to have one with a reverse option first, then consider HP, then consider batch volume.

Yellowknife · Mar 18, 2016

I've owned a 1 hp Cabelas grinder for the last 8 years or so. Share with with friends and it's done dozens of moose and caribou plus the odd goat and sheep with zero issues. What I really like about it is that is quiet... the 0.7 hp LEM grinder I used at a friends this year was a screamer and really annoying to be around

The big time savings on the bigger grinders is that you don't have to cut the pieces as small. They will swallow big chunks, and that's a major convenience when you are cutting up something the size of a moose.

elkbowkevin · Mar 18, 2016

I used a buddies cabelas pro grinder last weekend to grind up about 40# of elk. It worked great, Used the sausage stuffer for stuffing the burger bags. Took a little time though to do that part. Would probably do the burger bags manually with a funnel next time.
That thing is a beast though, Took less than 30 sec to grind 5 lb bags up.

robie · Mar 18, 2016

I went with the Cabelas 1.5 HP grinder #32. I don't need any bigger. I'm pretty sure I got it at the bargain cave for around $500. I've had it for 7 years and haven't had an issue with it.

Do yourself a favor and get the foot pedal if you get one. Amazing when you hands are covered in meat.

bowtech3dhunter · Mar 19, 2016

3/4 here. Have done several elk and deer. It grinds faster than I can feed it.

Mark · Mar 20, 2016

.75 HP Cabela's Carnivore. Plows through 50 lbs of meat in a hurry.

justin davis · Mar 20, 2016

So if I got the 1.5 would I have a problem making sausage? I hear some guys say they like a dedicated sausage stuffer?

ChrisS · Mar 20, 2016

The grinder is fine for sausage. I'm not sure how it works for stuffing, but a separate stuffer allows for better control. Grizzly makes a decent LEM knockoff for 5lb stuffer. It has poly gears, which are fine for home use. But it will take the LEM steel gears if you're doing 500lbs of sausage every month

Meat grinder Horse power?

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