Apple pear and fruit mills

Winegrowers Supplies - Mills - for milling apples, pears and other fruit without stones, others for vegetables including leafy vegetables

Before hard fruit such as cider apples and perry pears can be pressed to obtain their juice they first need to be milled; grated, chopped, shredded or scraped into a pulp.
There are different size mills available, the choice depends on how much fruit you need to process.
For plums, cherries and other stoned fruit a special de-stoner/pulper should be used first.

From conversations with my customers who use a hydro-press, the yield can be from 55 to 75 % depending:-
- on the type of apple: early large juicy ones or small hard cider apples.
- on the way the apples are milled: scraper mills producing mushy pulp, grater or chopping mills producing small pieces which hold the juice until pressing.
- on whether you re-press or not: mushy apple pulp tends to clog the holes in the press sack and the channels in the pulp through which the juice flows out, just as happens with grapes, so the time spent re-pressing is worthwhile as you can extract significantly more juice.
Customers with chopping mills have told me they usually do only one pressing in a hydro-press.
With a hydro-press it's possible to extract virtually all of the juice, as with a Pack Press, but you may need to do a re-pressing.

Note: if the apples are over-ripe they will have more 'mush' with the pieces. The same applies for pears, which are always mushy.
A Belt press also struggles to press pears or very mushy apple pulp. A pack press is the best in that situation, with very thin layers of pulp.

Small electric Mill: £624.00

up to 600 kilos/hour, 230 volt 1.1 kWatt motor, stainless steel hopper 35 cm diameter, only 95 cm tall,
inside the hopper is a kind of auger which also prevents anyone reaching down to touch the chopping blades (Health & Safety requirement).
The stainless steel chopping blades are the same as in the larger mill below, it's made by the same Italian manufacturer.

Italian Mill: £659.00 or all in stainless steel £749.00

both have stainless steel chopping blades:
throughput up to 1000 kilos/hour, strong stainless steel hopper, 230 volt 1.1 kWatt motor,
with switch and short supply cable with EU-plug, 27 kilos, this is a very solid machine, 140 cm high x 60 cm x 53 cm,
the top of the hopper is about 5 cm lower in height than the Speidel mill.
The clearance under the pulp outlet is 35 cm.
This is a high quality mill and should not be confused with similar looking but smaller and slightly cheaper mills.

It comes with a short supply cable with 2-pin (+ earth) Schuko plug. You can buy an IP67 waterproof cable connector (eg. from www.toolstation.com 96672) and extend the cable with this.

Spare pair of stainless steel chopping blades, £44.00

or the Speidel Mill: £695.00:-

There is no electricity supply cable with the Speidel Mill, it has a blue Schuko type plug as shown in the photo.
To connect to this, I can supply a rubber Schuko trailing socket with earth pin: for £8

Before loading apples into the hopper, switch the motor on first, or apples may jam between the blades and housing, then the motor will hum and not turn.

It's quite noisy so I recommend wearing ear defenders.

Voran RM centrifugal grater mills:-

with a rotating 'tool' and replaceable screens/graters to adjust the size of milling.

   RM 1.5 - including the stand, 1938 Euros
              about 650 kilos/hour, 230 volt 1.5 kWatt, height of pommace outlet 690 mm,
              496 mm x 434 mm x 885 mm high, 28 kilos + 14 kilos for the stand,
              including an 8 mm cutting screen/grater.

              extra screens/graters:-
              cutting screen/grater: 8 mm, 47 Euros
              round hole: 10, 12, 14, 16 mm, 33 Euros each
              slotted hole: 9, 17 and 25 mm, 47 Euros each

   RM 2.2 - including the stand, 2685 Euros
              about 1000 kilos/hour, 380 volt 2.2 kWatt, height of pommace outlet 666 mm,
              532 mm x 519 mm x 1151 mm high, 45 kilos + 14 kilos for the stand,
              including a 9 mm cutting screen/grater.

              extra screens/graters:-
              cutting screens/graters: 7, 9, 12, 16 mm, 59 Euros each
              round hole: 12, 16 mm, 38 Euros each
              slotted hole: 9, 17 and 25 mm, 59 Euros each

or with 230 Volt motor, 290 Euros extra

   RM 5.5 - including the stand, 4234 Euros with cable and plug,
              about 4200 kilos/hour, 380 volt 4.0 kWatt, height of pommace outlet 470 mm,
              875 mm x 735 mm x 1510 mm high, 55 kilos,
              including a 9 mm cutting screen/grater.

              extra screens/graters:-
              cutting screens/graters: 7, 9, 12, 16 mm, 99 Euros each
              round hole: 3, 5, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16 mm, 68 Euros each
              slotted hole: 9 (cherries, rowanberries), 17 (plums) and 33 (peaches and apricots) mm, 99 Euros each

RM 5.5 Version with shredder disk, 4498 Euros

The RM mills above are mainly for apples, pears and other hard fruits and vegetables, there are optional different size graters.
Advice is to use small-hole cutting screens for crunchy/fresh apples and larger-hole cutting screens for stored apples or softer apples.

For leafy vegetables like Kale and Spinach or others with a lot of fibres the only Mill that really works is the RM 5.5 Version with a shredder disc.
The shredder disc is installed above the standard RM 5.5 milling system, it cuts the long fibrous material into shorter pieces, afterwards the RM 5.5 mills as normal.
The shredder disc must be removed for milling apples, pears etc; it's easy to change.

Voran BG mills:-

The main use of the BG mills is for milling waste material, prior to composting. They give good results with leafy vegetables.
They are not suitable for apples or other fruits because the rotating 'tool' is too fast and mashes fruits too finely.

The rotating 'tool' on the BG pushes some material better through the sieve/screen than the tool installed on the RM5.5.

BG2: 5120 Euros, including kit for wet material and screens 3, 5, 8, 12 mm.,

   up to 4500 kilos/hour of wet material, 380 volt 5.5 kWatt, height of outlet 475 mm,
   replacement pre-cutting double-knife, 236 Euros
   extra sieves/screens:, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 12 mm, 66 Euros each
   the shredder disc is 266 mm diameter.

BG3: 7490 Euros including kit for wet material and screens.

   up to 9000 kilos/hour of wet material, 380 volt 11.0 kWatt,
   replacement pre-cutting double-knife, 277 Euros
   extra sieves/screens: 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 12 mm, 86 Euros each
   the shredder disc is 300 mm diameter, up to 1500 kilos/hour of dry material (eg bread).

Prices shown are exclusive of Vat, as at April 2024.
Delivery will need to be charged at cost.