Hi Everyone,

I am now at the stage of looking to upgrade from my several tabletop premier grinders, to one machine that will handle much more chocolate, and with room to 'grow into'.

Not a lot available here in the UK apart from the Santha machines. I am looking at the Santa 65 the 100, but reading reviews on here about the smaller santhas have got me wondering if these are the right units to be look at.

So any reviews, tips, thoughts, recommendations would be brilliant.

I am also looking at a commercial grinder from the makers of the small premier units (Diamond Custom Machines) so if anyone has also used one of these and could let me know how they got on that would be great.

Thanks,

James

updated by @james-hull: 07/20/16 13:34:41

We actually made the move from CocoaTown small melangers to the Santha 40 in the last few months. It has been the best move we've made in our 3 year company's history. The machine has been a reliable tool that has increased our production capacity and lowered our stress level.

I would, however, advise you to NOT buy it through HotDishes. Our salesman's name was Sham, which is defined as "something it does not appear to be." That was exactly who we got. They sent a machine from India to the USA which came with a plug that was only usable in Europe and then refused to fix it. This should not be an issue for you, but be sure you do not get one that's only set for the USA.

Overall, the Santha 40 has been a great machine. Since we got it out of the box we've had no maintenance or repair issues and the stone-on-stone grinding has produced greatly smooth chocolates.

I hope this has been more helpful than not.

Hi Sandy,

Thanks so much for replying!

A very apt name for your salesman then, is on the same line as my dentist name being Dr Pulley.

I am glad you have had a good experience with the machine, as i havent had any experience with the santhas yet, only having small premier grinders. I have been wary of purchasing the santha grinder due to reviews of their smaller grinder machines are not all that brilliant, with people having problems with overheating, and the belts constantly breaking. But i believe their larger grinders use chain belts which should help?

The santha machines appear to be the only larger grinders available in the UK, which certainly goes in it favour, as otherwise it means paying a massive shipping cost with added customs and other taxes added if i were to buy a cocoatown, fbm, or the new large grinder from DCM who make my small premiers.

Thanks again for your insight, and hopefully other users will also add their experiences too

Hi James,

I've been using the small Santha 11 for a little over a year now, just for development purposes.  We recently upgraded to the Santha 100 as we prepare to launch our line of craft chocolates.

While I have not used it excessively to provide an in-depth review, I have found that the quality and performance of the Santha 100 has been good.  As Sandy mentioned, these are typically drop shipped from India so you will need to change out the plug yourself or have a qualified electrician do it for you.  This was something that was disclosed to me prior to purchase so was not a surprise.  I bought my unit from John Nanci at Chocolate Alchemy who was very helpful with support and setup.

Aside from size and power, there a couple major differences between the Santha 11 and Santha 100.

1.  The Santha 11 is belt driven whereas the Santha 100 model is chain driven.  This is a big plus as I had my belt shred on the 11 model.

2.  Speed controller.  The Santha 100 comes with a speed controller which can be very useful.  At very high speeds you may find some of the chocolate splashing out of the bowl.  The speed controller can help you to dial it down or up as needed.

3.  Tilting mechanism.  This is a must for the Santha 100.  Not only does it help with getting the chocolate out (I couldn't imagine picking the bowl up by hand) but it also helps with the cleaning process, making it very simple.

Hi,

thanks for the reply.

It sounds like a very good machine then. Thank you for sharing your view on it, its really helpful as for me being based in the UK these larger machines once shipped and customs sticking tax on it end up being very very expensive so chosing a good machine is crucial.

cheers,

James

I've used the smaller Spectra 11 units, and can confirm they burn out belts like crazy. The Spectra 40 however has been chain driven since we bought our unit a couple years ago, and I absolutely love it. Just make sure that if you buy a used one, you get one that's chain driven... We have of course had some issues with it over the years, with mixed results as to how quickly / easily of a time we've had getting spare or replacement parts. However, we did have the seal on the drum go out in less than a year from purchase, and Santha stood by their one year warranty and shipped us an entire new drum free of charge. Between this action and the price on these machines, I'm convinced they're the best option on the market right now if you're dedicated to refining with stone. 

Hi Brian,

thanks for taking the time to reply. You have certainly helped me make up my mind and I will place an order for the 65lb chain driven machine tonight. Did you order from SanthaUSA.com?

Yes, we did. Of note: they'll tell you that shipping is included, but not that its only to your nearest port. You'll need to pick it up from there or pay a good amount of money to get it to you via a LTL intermediary. There will also be misc fees to bring the equipment in, paid at the port of entry... Also there are storage fees that can rack up pretty quickly at ports if you don't pick the equipment up or arrange for an intermediary to do so quickly, which is a little annoying since the arrival date is never set in stone. Santha didn't make this crystal clear to us, so the few hundred extra dollars and man hours we spent to finish the transaction was a sizeable annoyance. I say this to encourage you to ask lots of questions and to be prepared to jump on it when you receive notification that it has arrived. 

This is useful information. Following

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the heads up, i got shipping confirmation today and requested tracking details so hopefully i can gauge when its going to arrive and be ready to collect. I just hope it turns up to an airport nearby. Also got crate size and weight details in case i turned up with a van to small. Thanks again, huge help.