Fruit crushers / Apple mills
Apples must be pulped before going into the press. You can do this with a wooden pole in a tub, if you have the stamina! However, more convenient and faster for larger quantities, are our wide range of apple crushers, mills or ‘scratters’.
Fruit crushers/ apple mills currently out of stock:
The manual option apple mills and apple crushers are suitable for presses of up to 30L – depending on how many people you have to help.
Some apple mills can take whole apples, so you don’t need to cut the apple into halves or quarters before feeding into the machine. Our most popular of these is the Apple Scratter SSFD. It is really like a rotating grater. Simply place apples of any size in the hopper, place a food-safe plastic tub or bucket in front of the shoot and turn the handle. This efficient little machine can shred about a bucketful (5kg) of apples in about three and a half minutes. These ‘scratters’ are probably our best-sellers as they are mounted on a stand, so there is no awkward set up.
The Vigo Hobby Apple Mill can cope with whole apples too, and can be put on top of a cross-beam press, or suspended (eg. between two chairs) above a bucket or tub. Then put the apples in the hopper and turn the handle. It is equally as fast as the Apple Scratter SSFD, but instead of grating the fruit, it tears small pieces off and crushes them between the nylon rollers.
Our other apple crushers are machines where you need to cut the apple in half (or quarter large Bramley-style) before you put them in the hopper. Like the mill above, they also need to be put on top of the press/bucket or between two chairs.
They crush effectively and the design of the crushing rollers in each is identical. What does vary though is the amount of assembly you need to do. Some of them arrive flat-packed – for example the Apple Crusher (KSC-FP) and the wooden Apple Crusher (KSC-W.) They need some time (about 20 mins) and a small Philips screwdriver to put together.
Others can be simply assembled in a minute. For example, the Apple Crusher (KSC-7) and the Apple Crusher with Flywheel (KSC-FW.) The difference here is the heavy cast iron wheel. It means that, once you have the momentum, crushing is much easier. This is also true of the Vigo Classic Apple Crusher. The Vigo crusher also has the advantage of stainless-steel rollers, as opposed to the cheaper alloy used in the other crushers.
For presses of 30L or over (unless you have a team of workers) it is probably more sensible to use electric mills/crushers. The Electric Apple Mill LZEM2 can be fitted to a work surface, or positioned to feed directly into the press. All the others stand on the floor, and the main difference to check is the size of the motor. This determines the speed that you can put the apples in. This runs all the way from the small LZEM2, which you feed one apple at a time, to the Fruit Shark Megalodon which can cope with bucketfuls.
If you are ever in Devon, you are welcome to come and handle/view the machines for yourselves. Please email or call before you visit.
Excellent product simple to use and very robust - I previously had a juicer which broke after not much use. This is the product you need if you want more than just very occasional use. This size was right for us to make 3 or 4 bottles of juice a month.
There was a slight problem with screw which was fixed by return of post. Happy with that
Suited our juicing activities with the public and the scratter is a safer model when children are involved. We made a platform-stand for the juicer.
