Weston #12 Meat Grinder - Butcher Series - 0.75 HP

The Butcher Series are Weston's less expensive model grinders. The #12 Butcher Series is what I have in my test area and it has worked very well for us for about a year now. When we first started carrying these I contacted Weston and they said that the only differences between the Butcher Series and the Pro Series is the horsepower, the housing (meaning no convenient carrying handle) and the way some internal gears work. This was a vendor exclusive for them for a long time and when the exclusive agreement expired they were able to sell them to us. The #12 Butcher Series comes with all of the accessories that the more expensive Pro Series would come with, so it is going to work as a stuffer as well. Though in my opinion stuffing off of a grinder causes a few issues with certain products, if you can afford to buy a real sausage stuffer you will save a lot of time and head aches. So what is the reason for this being $60 cheaper than the Pro Series? It has 0.75 horsepower instead of the full horse of the Pro Series. This doesn't cause a problem for what I use the grinder, I am doing small batches for testing or for videos. If you are processing more than a deer or two a year I would think that full horsepower is going to be well worth the $60. Having said that this is a good small batch grinder and if you think you would mostly do about 25 lb at a time then this does offer a good value.