Pulping recommendation?

[bottles]

Hi all.
Looking for everyone's experiences of pulping apples.
My garden has 12 half standard eating apples. I have made a few gallons of cider in the last few years.
I have used a few different ways of pulping the apples. Mainly borrowed or old but i have used a juicer, small woodchipper., hand powered fruit pulper.
What would you recommend for 20kg batches to be used once a week, with easy cleaning. To be used for juice or cider.
Last year it took 13hrs to process 7 gallons of juice from 100kg(?). Most of that time was cutting apples into quarters.
Or what is good for 100kg+ with one person operating?
I'm thinking of getting a cheap kitchen waste disposal system to process the apples. Is this system worth doing as they cost about £30+ second hand new.
Is the metal blade on a metal shaft in a bucket driven by a drill (£20ish) worth using? How well does it crush apples and how long does it last including the bucket.
I am happy to spend around £100 if I get the right tool. I like the look of the shark crushers but not the price tag.
What have I missed or am I after the possible?
Andrew

[Kingfisher4]

A close friend has experimented over many years with various DIY bits of kit ( he has a small orchard at the family home in Somerset) and found it very time consuming and somewhat frustrating until the village clubbed together to get a heavyweight cider apple press.

He has also found a couple of commercial places that will crush your apples for a percentage of the juice each down there. May be worth exploring dependant upon geography.

[orlando]

Have you tried searching on here? I'm sure this has come up befor and can remember a member adapting a waste disposal unit.

[bottles]

I've searched on here but was wanting to hear from people's experiences with pulping options.
Andrew

[Mjr6313]

I hope the blade with drill works well last year it was a stick in a bucket hours of chopping Apples to cubes and hours of smashing with a stick. never ever ever again.

[WalesAles]

bottles,
Is this what you want?........
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=73075&hilit=scratter

WA

[bottles]

I have seen that post and thought it all looked good. Until he points out that the waste disposal can only grind for 45 min and causes a bottle neck in production.
This is why I was trying to go personal experiences.
Andrew

[Madbrewer]

Just in case this helps with yield verses effort ... a friend of mine stated freezing and thawing the apples before pressing yielded much more juice from them!

[lord groan]

I use a waste disposal - very effective but limited to running for about 45 mins before I have to switch off and let it cool for an hour or two. They're not designed for continuous running I guess. Excuse my daughters labelling!
That might vary according to brand though, 45 mins was long enough to get about 25 litres of pulp through, my wife quarters the apples for me and I feed them through the beast as fast as I can

I had to remove the 8" length of pipe just leaving the 45 degree elbow in place, with the pipe it just blocks up constantly
You need to open them up and clean thoroughly after use so thats a bit of a faff, fortunately the 'bell housing' on mine comes off with 4 screws and thats when you discover how much gunk likes to hang around even after blasting through with a hose
HTH

[Daveylaa]

Hi just been through this learning curve over last 3 weeks myself. Started with quartering, then using pulp
Master chopping bucket. Like you i was at it for 3 hours for 5 litres. Washing, freezing, chilling beforehand aside. I saw a traditional cider makers video on youtube and copied him and were there was dark now there is light. Bought a large blue food grade 50 or 70 litre drum. Cut a untreated fence post to chest height. Whole apples in just 2/3 layers at a time and smashed them to pulp about 5 mins per 30 apples. Then put them in press amd another 2/3 layers and filled a 12 litre round press 3 times in about 1.5 hours. It was 3/4 tines quicker and the yield doubled. It was so much more efficient. We made 20 litres of juice in about 3 hours total. PM me abd will send oucs tommorow. Giving pulp master away!