Table-top Conching Machine??

Frank Schmidt
08/03/09 09:42:16AM
@frank-schmidt
My nearly new Ultra Grind + (wet grinder) like the Santha , is just about worn out after 8 months of abuse. When I started this hobby "from the bean" I really didn't know about keeping the cocoa mass warm, pre-ginding sugar in a food processor, adding a little extra cocoa butter to make the conching process easier on the machine. My bad.Worst of all, I let friends talk me into making milk chocolate and just dumped the dry milk in the chocolate all at once.Now I need to buy a new machine and like the Ultra Grind + pretty well. Does anyone have any other suggestions on preference of machines like this? Is there anything just a little bigger or more powerful? Any machine with extra options that might make it last longer? without getting over $1000 in cost?I'm using 110 volt. I do batch sizes of 5 to ten lbs of beans. I'd like to use more organic, and unrefined cane sugar but I know that may be harder on the machine than refined white table sugar.I've got to buy an new machine pretty quick as I'm in the middle of a batch.ThanksFrank