Retsel Mill company concerns

[jenn]

Checking here- anyone ordering from them or getting repairs/ maintenance from them this year or recently? I sent my mill late April/ arrived to them early May, spoke with their staff end May about repairs, nothing since. Worryingly when I called the number for the lady I spoke with before, a female said the number was not a Retsel number. Dunno if she has been laid off or if the number is disconnected/ new user.

Luckily my kids and I are not starving due to this, but it's been over 2 months since they got it and I think they will not do the service until they tell me the cost and I send payment- which I am now a bit hesitant to do! BBB has 2 complaints- both re specialty orders, and precovid even. I had no problems at all when I bought it new almost 30 years ago but everything was different then- doubt I was online ordering it!

[mzgarden]

I do not personally have any experience to share, however looking on the BBB's website, this company is rated a 1 out of 5. There seems to be a common theme with complaints about slow/no customer service and responses. Interestingly enough as I poked around out of curiosity, it looks like the BBB has this address for a Retsel food processing equipment business: 1567 E US Hwy 30, McCammon, ID 83250 link
that same address comes up on mapping software as Marsh Valley Tire Service. link

Maybe I did a bad job of searching and poking around, but it looks to me like something is hinky in general with the business that maybe used to do grain mills. Hope you can come back and tell me I'm wrong.

[mogal]

I hate to hear about your experience, Jenn. We bought our Retsel mill in '82. I don't want to jinx myself by saying we've had no problems with it over the years. Hope it stays that way.

[jenn]

Jul 8, 2021 2:31:12 GMT mogal said:

I hate to hear about your experience, Jenn. We bought our Retsel mill in '82. I don't want to jinx myself by saying we've had no problems with it over the years. Hope it stays that way.

Mogal- don't be like me. On a quiet season open up your engine as much as your family has the skills to do without breaking it (or forgetting how to put it back together LOL- take pictures along the way?) and dust/ canned air away any dust/ flour/ plus the animal hair if you're like our home. Had I done this (as my husband suggested) and not said "I'll let them do it, probably needs some new grease anyway" I would have a functioning motor which no longer sparked now and then; frightening me, and it would have never left my home. Feel like I need to pay ransom or something.

But perhaps y'all are smart and you do that regularly already which is why it's worked well for about 15 years longer than I've owned mine!

[mogal]

Jenn, we've never opened the machinery but do take off the burrs to clean around/behind them.

I think you and I are the only two people who write "y'all" in our posts. I was born in Arkansas, raised in AR, MS and TN before coming to Missouri. We've been here over half my life.

[mogal]

Jenn, are you still waiting for your Retsel mill?

[jenn]

Aug 20, 2021 22:30:59 GMT mogal said:

Jenn, are you still waiting for your Retsel mill?

Yes still waiting. However they got back to me (texts worked better than emails or telephone calls in the end) with a quote, I mailed a check, and I hope to get it mailed back (based on their estimates of time for repair) in September. Given covid and mail system I will wait until October to get mad (but I'll text some more mid September).

[jenn]

Update: I have given up after reading a financial article about "sunk costs" ie throwing good money after bad, and spouse saying "Just buy a new one, but definitely not from them!" (And also having just come across some home ground whole wheat flour from Mom's freezer and knowing when it's gone, that's it.) Today I ordered a Country Living motorized mill which was pricey, but how do I know- last time I bought one was in the 1990s! I went to Retsel to comparison (wish I could) shop, but their website is barely functional and states that BOTH THEIR PHONE NUMBERS are nonoperational due to covid. So definitely don't deal with Retsel for now.

I might have a grain mill before Christmas. It just won't be the one I planned on. Hopefully Retsel in Idaho is being very cautious and just having labor issues as so many places are, and hasn't suffered multiple deaths from covid. And hopefully they'll recover fully and I can give away whichever grain mill I like less to one of my kids when/if they send back my motor someday.

[mogal]

wow, jenn, sorry to hear this final chapter in a not so good saga. Better luck with the new Country Living mill!

[countrymom22]

I'm sorry this problem still hasn't been resolved. But you know that as soon as your new mill arrives, the motor will arrive a few days later! Might be nice to use one and keep the other as a back up.

[jenn]

Got my Country Living Mill with motor set up. Seems to grind flour even more finely than the Retsel, and with a steel grindstone! Just ran a few grains test. Hoping that maybe with steel grindstone I won't need to dry my grain so thoroughly to prevent glazing. Corn will be the real test- could not grind that with stone since it was so greasy- but will try grinding wheat flour with no drying once the flour hopper arrives. Or when I give up on it getting here soon...

[jenn]

Miracles happen! UPS says my mill is en route back to me- 15 months after I sent it. Now what shall I do with two mills? Need to reassemble and ensure it works first, and actually receive it.

This has me temporarily optimistic for another few events we are hoping will turn out positively.

BTW the Country Living Mill has been fine, but have not challenged it nor used it too much, and am trying to decide if stone ground is crucial or not.

[jenn]

Now I have the two mills side by side, and our new house is a lot less humid than the old one (not opening windows since it's high summer still, not living next to 3 ponds and on top of a spring and next to a swimming pool?). The Retsel is SO MUCH FASTER than the Country Living though I am not positive about the settings- similar flour though so not too far off. And my prior issue of having to toast/ dry grain in the oven before grinding, and if careless about that needing to put dry rice through to clean the stuck together/ gummed up/ no longer grinding stones- here in this house wheat is dry enough so far that doesn't happen (all kept in airloc buckets, same ones I brought from the old house, so just sitting in a bowl on the counter waiting to be ground, and the grindstones living in my kitchen absorb too much moisture). OATS however, softer grain- did lock it up but putting some wheat through restored the process easily wihtout having to chip away gummed up flour from the millstones. Luckily I always want more wheat than oat flour so far. Haven't yet tried corn through the Country Living Mill (have to change to steel stones for that on the Retsel since that would definitely grease the stones into not working). And haven't yet tried making peanut butter etc in the Retsel with the steel stones as the Countryside advertises it can do (if I purchase a special adapter- have the corn adapter already, it wasn't so expensive). The Country Living is steel- so for what that's worth can't make 'stone ground' flour with it.

DH says "keep them both, we have room". Well, yeah, sort of, but I could certainly use the counterspace for something else... All in all the pandemic and its effect on poor Retsel company leading me to doing without my Retsel motor for 14 months has cost me a few months of grinding grain, plus the expense- $100s- of getting the Country Living Mill and attachments after several months. And maybe the Retsel will die before I do, and I fear Retsel Company may be on its last legs with the experience I had with them the past year.

[mogal]

Jen, I've had our Retsel glaze as you mentioned with corn but I think it was the batch of corn rather than the mill because I haven't had the problem in a long time. Normally, I open the stones to use a plastic utensil to scrape off as much as possible of the glaze and set it aside for the chickens. Then I run some rice through the barely closed stones to clean the rest, tightening the space between the stones as I go. Another thing you might try is to pour in corn a few handfuls at a time rather than filling the hopper, something I can do with no issues with wheat. I can get pretty fine cornmeal with our mill.

I would NEVER attempt peanut butter in our Retsel. NEVER. I think it would be impossible to get the PB off the stones. We only have stones, no metal burrs for it. We do have a smaller hand cranked unit that would be just fine because the whole thing can be immersed in dishwater and scrubbed. We keep our mill in the basement that is fairly humid despite having a dehumidifier turned on 24/7.

I'm glad you have your Retsel back and finally have some good feelings about its speed. Unfortunately, I bet the company is on its last legs regardless. I think it was family owned and run and if you have no one to take it over, things can go south quickly.

[jenn]

OMGoodness you put corn in the stone burrs? I switch to the steel burrs for corn, can't recall if I had to learn to do that the hard way. I guess it shows how humid my prior kitchen was. if you ever get the glazing problem again consider drying the corn in a 200F oven for several minutes, which is what I had to do with even WHEAT at the old house. I also used rice to deglaze the stone, sometimes having to oven dry the rice as well, and a nut pick but that has probably chipped or worn away at the stones.

I agree about Retsel sadly and I am glad I now have a functioning mill built to last century's standard, and hope I'll find someone able to repair it if needed before I/ my kids quit using the mill. I recommend you consider budgeting for a set of steel burrs from them while/if they are still available, but maybe wait until I try making peanut butter with mine!

[jenn]

Jul 7, 2021 18:18:30 GMT mzgarden said:

I do not personally have any experience to share, however looking on the BBB's website, this company is rated a 1 out of 5. There seems to be a common theme with complaints about slow/no customer service and responses. Interestingly enough as I poked around out of curiosity, it looks like the BBB has this address for a Retsel food processing equipment business: 1567 E US Hwy 30, McCammon, ID 83250 link
that same address comes up on mapping software as Marsh Valley Tire Service. link

Maybe I did a bad job of searching and poking around, but it looks to me like something is hinky in general with the business that maybe used to do grain mills. Hope you can come back and tell me I'm wrong.

DH looked up their mailing address on maps and the tire place is all you can see. We joked to each other that they had asked me to mail in the rest of the mill's parts so they would have a complete mill in hand for their bankruptcy assets and pretty aggressively denied that request (they wanted to assemble and test out the mill before returning the motor).