OK, but I don't consider 4-5 years long. How much of the positive feedback is price motivated rather than durability. Monster mills have been around for much longer. They have been proven to be durable.
That said, the cereal killer is next on my list. And very likely what I would end up with based on price and reputation.
To be fair I said at least 5 years possibly longer.. and thats longer than most of the popular home brewing products talked about on this site.. like the grainfather and all the spinoffs of it, the pico, unibrau, colarado brewing systems, the spike welded kettles, conicals, blichmanns latest american made kettles, quick carb, tc based elements, the ss brewing temp control conical system, blichmanns breweasy all the unitanks... well you get the picture... as far as homebrewing equipment goes its been around long enough to prove itself one way of the other. If you google "grain mill problem" or issues you will find about 90% is related to the barley crusher and its failure to spin freely due to dust impacted in the bushings and worn rollers and lots of comments about having to pull it apart and clean it even with its lifetime warranty its still a terrible value but due to marketing and being made in the usa it was hands down the most popular mill for a while....
You wont find many complaints if any on the cereal killer short of a few people who werent adjusting the cams correctly to set the gap.
We have a 3 roller monster mill and a kegco 3 roller mill for our nano... the MM sticks from time to time according to the owner (my business partner who also owns the barley crusher collecting dust because he is untrusting of lesser / cheaper brand names) and looking at them side by side I would swear the MM is the cheaper Mill. if I wanted a 3 roller mm with real bearings like the $150 kegco has I need to spend over $600 for the mm equivalent. Why?
Your right There is a bias that goes with each consumer though... You have the MM made in the states (like the barley crusher claims) and these mills which are chinese. that always comes up and even if it doesnt you can tell it influences peoples opinions some so much that facts like how its actually engineered and built dont even matter to some because all they see are the politics of economy and were its made. others are more concerned with branding and marketing and only buy "what they trust" which often means much higher prices to pay for no questions asked returns that some consumers often take advantage of while footing the bill back to other customers.
and that plays just as much influence on review and opinions as price does for others in a different situation.
If these mills were reviewed and side by side comparisions were done without anyone knowing origin and price I think hands down the opinions would be much more one sided about which mill would be the preferred choice.
Being someone who repairs and sells flatscreens as a hobby I find that if I sell the same tv for much more money I get a totally different type of consumer with different questions and priorities than if I advertise it for less... funny how that works. Ive had folks tell me they dont want that cheap vizio junk even though they have no problem with buying the same tv from either one of the same manufacturers with 95% or the same components like LG or sharp. Because they have no idea, They go by the stereotypes and pricing to enforce their beliefs. (And these companies totally use this to their advantage)
I guess that why a lot of the tvs I repair are really the same model tv with different branding and covers sold at drastically different prices.. marketed to different demographs of people ... heck most of my customers really think an "led tv" is some new improved different non lcd tv thats better than the older lcd tvs when the reality is the joke is on them. they are just way cheaper to make and much less reliable in most cases.
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