samaritanxocolata
Neophyte
Seeking Investment Capital for Costa Rican Craft Chocolate Company
Posts: 6
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Post by samaritanxocolata on Jan 18, 2013 12:12:33 GMT -5
Hola...A little over a year ago, I bought 2 Santha 11's for my small fine organic chocolate biz in CR. Within a couple of times of use, I started to have problems with one or the other of them. Being so far from a dealer or proper technician, I had to deal with this issues here. First it was the bearings...no biggie...then the belts...no biggie... Then, finally, one of them literally burned up, and melted the fan all over the top of the motor. I ordered a new motor and fan from SanthaUSA, and had them shipped to a friend who was in the US, but headed this way. The motor arrived, packed well and padded against transport injury, however the fan seemed to have been thrown in as an after-thought, and arrived in several pieces. I contacted the company and arranged for another one to be shipped to another friend's address and hoped it could get there before my other friend traveled to CR. It never arrived, and my repeated attempts to communicate with the company have been met with silence. Finding the right parts in this country has proved futile, and I am now in the high season for my business and am hobbling along with one machine. I am having trouble making enough to cover the demand, and not enough to permit investment in another or larger machine at the time. I need to have both machines up and running, and am wondering what to do? Any suggestions? Anyone have insight into dealing with SanthaUSA or know of another company that sells parts for the Santha machines? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
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Post by Brad on Jan 19, 2013 1:28:59 GMT -5
Samaritan;
I think it's important for you to realize that the Santha grinder is NOT designed for chocolate and certainly isn't designed for any type of commercial production. Its original design was for making meal and so forth for the home East Indian cook. John promotes this machine because it's the closest thing to a chocolate making machine that anybody produces in today's market. To have your income/ micro chocolate business rely on it today or tomorrow is foolish regardless of the support you may or may not have from Santha anywhere in the world.
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Post by cheebs on Jan 19, 2013 11:43:06 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure that you would be able to source an identical or similar fan in Costa Rica. If not, you should contact John directly on Chocolate Alchemy and see if he can help you out. FWIW there's a much cheaper alternative (~$200) that makes only 1 lb less chocolate called the Premier Wonder Grinder. It's available on Amazon. I've been beating the heck out of it the last few weeks and so far it's held up much better than the Santhas. I now have 3 of these for test batches.
Ultimately though, Brad is right. The Santhas simply can't hold up to commercial production. There are affordable alternatives that are purpose-built for chocolate and can take a lot of abuse. If you're interested you can contact me privately for the information.
If it's any use to you I will be in CR in mid-April and could bring the piece with me. I'm in Guatemala but importing things here is MUCH easier than CR.
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Post by littleblue on Aug 24, 2013 15:49:55 GMT -5
As the guys have said above, this is far from being professional kit. In good news, however, it is very *basic* kit. The electric motor on the machine is easily interchangeable with another similar motor that will spin at the same speeds or can be geared to run at other speeds as you wish. It is only a very basic electric motor consisting of copper wire coils and a drive spindle with a fan at the opposite end. Not much different from a car starter motor. If you find yourself a local mechanic who works with lathes and other such machinery for turning parts they should be able to tell you where you can find the bits and pieces to make it the motor you want rather than the one you are maintaining. India doesn't have a lot of tech, most of their industry is working off things that were scrapped from the UK industries a half a century or more ago, so don't go expecting it all to be high tech or complicated, it's not. It's just about as basic as it gets. I know I'm not the normal girl when it comes to being mechanically minded, but if you can safely wire a household plug, then you can deal with this motor, and your local machine shop can help you source the bits you need. Also it will be cheaper than getting it from India all the time! Quicker, too... Good luck. x
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