KoMo Duett 100

This is the third grain mail that I bought. The first was an inexpensive manual mill that I quickly realized would not grind the flour as fine as I wanted it. The second was a relatively inexpensive electric mill that ground the flower very fine, but could only do small portions at a time, was a pain to clean and I had to take 10 minutes between each grinding to let the motor cool down. Once I decided I was all in on grinding my own flour, I took the leap and bought the Komo Duett and I love it! It’s beautiful so you can leave it out on the counter however it is rather large and kind of heavy, so it would be cumbersome to put away after every use. (They do make a make a mill and a flaker independent of each other, so of course they are smaller and less expensive, but I’m sure they are just as good.) I use it every day and it’s very user-friendly. When my four year-old grandson comes over the first thing he wants to do is roll oats into oatmeal and make flour! Very user-friendly. As far as I’m concerned the only drawback is that it does create a little bit of dust when the flour comes out the spout, but when I put a dishtowel over it that helps keep the dust down. I highly recommend this mill!

We have been using it for a couple months. I highly recommend it.

I previously purchased the FidiFloc and was not impressed with the time and effort involved with making rolled oats. It’s tedious and takes a long time. Well, the Duett with its motorized flaker is as easy as pouring in the grain, and watching it fall into the bowl. I was concerned that the flaker would be noisy, but it is not. As for the stone grinder, It is fantastic as well. Noisy, but top notch. Yes, the price is crazy, but I am completely satisfied with the value.Also, if you have any reservations about the customer service Pleasant Hill Grain provides, they go out of their way to satisfy you.

Bought the 200 model and was very happy with it but short lived. The flaker did not last very long at all until it broke down. Was told by the supplier to send it back even though all we needed was the main hardware grinder part and my husband could have fixed it. They insisted that we send it back So we packed it up and sent it to them. When we got it back the flour grinder did not work and the wooden spout was cracked in three places. He part under the oat flak s gouged like someone had taken a knife to it and stabbed it. Supplier said it arrived to them that way?,? The only thing that is being done is possible replacement of the spout. I really thought this was a good machine but all the problems in less than 6 months. Have only had it since June 2016 so if anyone has suggestions for better brand, please let me know as I have a lot of wheat to grind......most disappointed with komo brand!

As a bread baking enthusiast, I became hooked on milling flour in my own kitchen after tasting William Melville Child's Health Bread recipe that is published in "Beard On Bread." At the time, I had been aware of the claims for superior nutrition using home grain milling--but I was amazed at just how much better the taste was! At first, I used a KitchenAid All Metal Grain Mill, which is a stand mixer attachment. It did an acceptable job except that it was way too slow in its operation for me. After reading "Flour Power" by Marleeta F. Basey, as well as doing a lot of research on the internet, I decided to purchase two grain mills: the KoMo Duett 100 and also the Retsel Mil-Rite Special with both stone and steel wheels.KoMo is a concatenation of the last names of its two entrepreneurs: Wolfgang Mock and Peter Koidl. The name Duett implies two because it is a combo unit, and the KoMo product literature refers to it as a mill/flaker: "The Duett 100 combines the robust Fidibus Classic with the super quiet FlocMan in one device." (I believe that Amazon currently lists those products as KoMo Classic Mill and KoMo FlocMan Flaker, and because prices vary over time you must determine for yourself how much of a discount is being offered to purchase both capabilities as a combo unit.) I have been mostly very pleased with this purchase. The unit itself is gorgeous in its appearance and heavy-duty in its construction.The grain mill works exceptionally quickly compared to the KitchenAid and the Retsel. The only issue that I have with it is an occasional "crunch" or "grit" in the bread. Is this actually a little bit of stone coming off or some grain that is not properly milled? I do not know for sure. It has been my expectation that stone grinding will occasionally pass a bit of stone along with the flour product as the stone wears through usage. My wife and I do not mind it, and it has never hurt my teeth whatsoever, but I am always a little bit concerned about what people I share my bread with think. One person who noticed the crunch remarked that she considered it to be a part of the home milling experience--and she accepted it. She thought that it was great that I would go to that length to create great bread. This issue has not been nearly as frequent of a problem with my Retsel, although it has happened on a few rare occasions. For this reason, I generally prefer to mill fine flour with the Retsel. I tend to use the KoMo unit for convenience reasons if time is short. The Retsel's operation is considerably slower, and it requires much longer clean-up time. I like the Retsel product very much--but their customer service is distinctly bottom quartile. On the other hand, Pleasant Hill Grain (who sells the KoMo) has been a great company to deal with.The mill hopper screws on and there are markings for fine or coarse grinding. This grind setting scale is very useful for consistency. I spent some time figuring out what settings to use for cracked wheat/rye and rye meal, comparing them to commercial products. I can now make all of these things from the berries which I store in a freezer. Rye chops are obviously chopped and not ground, but you can also do a pretty reasonable imitation if you are so inclined. This unit does a wonderful job for all these things. I have uploaded some customer images demonstrating these features. In the case of the cracked wheat, the unit does pass some finely ground flour along with the bigger pieces, and I sifted the fine flour out for the photo.In my bread baking journeys, the Whole Wheat Bread from p. 270 of "Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart has yielded consistently excellent results, and it's worthy of mention here. The recipe calls for an overnight soaker of "coarse whole-wheat flour," which you can grind fresh yourself with this unit by setting the grind setting scale to "grob," which translates to coarse. The rest of the whole-wheat flour in the recipe consists of high-protein whole-wheat flour which you can grind more finely by easily changing the setting on the scale. When you combine the two grinds together you achieve a complex texture--and the flour is as fresh as it can be! Also, Reinhart specifically recommends hard spring wheat, and this has turned out to be a great recommendation here because my results have improved much technically for 100% whole wheat bread using spring berries as opposed to winter. Reinhart mentions variations involving oats, corn, barley, and rye, which can all be processed by this machine.The mill does a very fast job of grinding dried corn, and my wife and I have been very impressed by the taste of home-made cornbread. However, I have not been able to successfully emulate Bob's Red Mill Polenta, which is a very consistent coarse grind. The Duett 100 tends to pass through a lot more fine flour along with the bigger pieces when set on the coarse setting for dried corn than it does with wheat or rye berries.There is also a KoMo Sifter available separately with three different screens which will attach conveniently to this unit. I also own this and find it helpful in creating my own custom flour blends. For these screens, I estimate the extraction rates to be 96%, 90% and 74%. If you are baking out of "Tartine Book No. 3" and require 85% extraction rate, for instance, then your choice is to either use the 90% screen as being close enough or to use the finer 74% screen putting just enough bran back in to make 85% using a scale.The flaker unit does a fantastic job of flaking grains. The most popular option is probably rolling your own oats. The freshness is so much superior this way, and you can make great oatmeal bread! In addition to oats, you can also prepare fresh flakes from other grains such as wheat, rye, barley and millet--but you must prepare them first by softening them with water and setting them out to dry for at least 3-4 hours. This works very well. Fresh flakes can then be consumed immediately as a breakfast cereal with fruits, nuts, seeds, yogurt, etc. For my palate, I prefer to ferment the grains before consuming them, but the choice is yours. Another option for fresh flakes is to add them to bread for texture. With this device, it would seem within possibility to emulate King Arthur Flour's Malted Wheat Flakes should you know how to sprout your own grains and dry them properly, although I have not tried it yet myself.With the flaker, you can also roll seeds such as flax and poppy. Basey writes in "Flour Power" that "the coarse outer shell of items like flaxseed must be penetrated before nutrients can be digested" (p. 159). Another motive for crushing seeds such as poppy or anise is found in "Joy of Cooking" which says that it will release the full flavor of the seed.With the flaker, the only issue I have had with it is that the pin holding the drive axel did fall out once, and it was difficult to find. You will want to make sure that you keep careful track of it whenever you take the flaker apart for cleaning. Both the grain mill and the flaker are very easy to clean.Regardless of whether you are using the grain mill or the flaker, you get as much grain out as you put in. This makes it very convenient if your recipe uses weights. With the Retsel, there is always an ounce or so of flour to clean out of the feeding mechanism so you have to weigh the flour after you have ground it instead of weighing the berries out once only beforehand. Therefore, the KoMo is easier to work with.Overall, my experience with this unit has been very good, although not perfect. You can make some excellent bread with this unit. I believe that you will find the taste of home milled flour to be much superior.