Are you wondering about “What is atta chakki?”
It might be possible that you do not have atta chakki (domestic flour mill, Ghar ghanti) and want to buy or want to know more about it.
That’s okay. Many people do not know about atta chakki, but today, I will explain everything about atta chakki and its usage for domestic and commercial purposes.
I am an electrical engineer, and as I work in the research and development sector, I love exploring domestic machinery like atta chakki or flour mill to share my knowledge with people like you.
What Is Atta Chakki?
Atta chakki is a machine designed to convert whole wheat grains into small pieces or fine powder used to make numerous varieties daily.
The atta chakki machine converts whole wheat grains into fine wheat powder(atta) by applying various forces like crushing, cutting, impact, etc.
If you talk about domestic atta chakki, the sole purpose is to have fresh atta with nutrients like carbohydrates, Vitamins, Proteins, and Fibers.
If you want to know more about the working principle of atta chakki or domestic flour mill, read my post on how atta chakki works to get a better idea.
Not only wheat but you can also grind various other grains, pulses, and masalas(depending upon the atta chakki type), as mentioned below:
- Wheat
- Besan,
- Rice,
- Bajara,
- Daliya,
- Mehandi,
- Moong,
- Kali Mirch,
- Maize,
- Jowar,
- Coffee,
- Rava,
- Udad,
- Dhaniya,
- Haldi,
- Salt,
- Aavla, etc.
What Do We Call Atta Chakki In English?
In English, we call atta chakki, a flour mill. The flour mill or atta chakki can be domestic or commercial. There are many types of both.
They are majorly classified into two categories.
Stoneless & with stone.
For domestic applications, stoneless is popular, and for commercial purposes, both are popular according to sizes and other engineering factors.
You can read my post on types of atta chakki if you want to understand more in detail.
What Is Domestic Atta Chakki?
Domestic atta chakki is a smaller & compact version of the industrial or commercial flour mill. It is convenient for the users to get fresh atta at home.
It comes in various sizes, capacities, and functionalities.
New development in domestic atta chakki is an ongoing process, so every manufacturer tries to provide more comfort, safety, and advanced automation to its customers.
In the domestic category, you will find standard atta chakki, auto clean atta chakki, with stone or without stone, thousands of designs, and aesthetic looks.
Few manufacturers manufacture 2-in-1 atta chakki with various masala grinding and additional accessories.
Domestic atta chakki, home atta chakki, or domestic flour mill is for mostly dry grains grinding.
You can read my article on the 10 Best Atta Chakki For Home In India to choose the best one for you.
What Is Commercial Atta Chakki Or Commercial Flour Mill?
Commercial atta chakki or commercial flour mills are big sizes with higher grinding capacity and high power.
It is a complete grinding mill that can involve different processes like separating grains from bran, cleaning it with microprocessor-based technologies, and finally achieving the desired sizes of outputs.
Commercial atta chakki is mainly based on production capacity and input power. Many manufacturers customize the machine according to their customer’s needs.
So, a small shop with a 10hp powered flour mill and an industry with a complete setup of 1000s of hp motors used for the same process is called a commercial flour mill.
Any flour mill or atta chakki which is not solely used for domestic purposes is called a commercial atta chakki or commercial flour mill.
What Is Stoneless Atta Chakki?
Stoneless atta chakkis are modern atta chakkis that use cutting instead of crushing. It has a grinding chamber with blades or cutters, with the help of which the grain gets cut and converted into the desired size.
The atta chakkis, with stone, use the wheat crushing principle to get flour from whole wheat grains.
It has two stones or rollers, one is fixed, and the other is moving. The grain falls between these two stones and gets crushed.
Origin Of Atta Chakki
Atta chakkis came into existence in the ancient era, when people used to manually grind wheat or any other grains with the help of a stone.
You might have heard the famous dialogue in many Bollywood movies like “Jail me chakki me atta pisna padega.”
That simply means one needs to do hard work to get some food.
Anyway, coming back to the point.
In ancient times, people invented circular stones, and with the help of rotating them one over another, the grains became smaller and smaller in size.
At that time, people were getting the powder form of any grain through the same process. However, the entire process was tedious and time taking.
The benefit of the old-age methods is having the atta with the highest level of all nutritious value retained.
Modern technology can never retain 100% of the nutritious value because of the process involved in making grain powder or atta.
Commercial atta chakkis mainly come in two types.
Dry grinding, wet grinding, and sometimes, both.
Mostly, home atta chakkis are dry type.
What Is Mini Atta Chakki?
Mini atta chakki is widely used as an alternative name for domestic atta chakki or domestic flour mill. If I talk about commercial flour mills or commercial atta chakki, it is about the sizes lesser than the regular ones.
For example, if one commercial atta chakki has a power rating of 10hp motor, and the second has a 30hp motor, then you can call the first atta chakki or flour mill mini atta chakki.
However, mini atta chakki is not famous as a commercial flour mill due to less production.
What Is Gharelu Atta Chakki Or Gharghanti?
Gharelu atta chakki or gharghanti is another name for domestic atta chakki or domestic flour mill. Especially in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh & Madhya Pradesh, people use the word “gharelu atta chakki” instead of domestic atta chakki.
Gharghanti is a famous word in Gujarat & Maharashtra that replaces the word “Domestic atta chakki.”
So never get confused with similar names that have the same meaning.
Domestic atta chakki = mini atta chakki = gharelu atta chakki = gharghanti or ghar ghanti
What Is Electric Atta Chakki?
Any atta chakki, whether domestic or commercial, runs on electrical power called electric atta chakki.
Now you might be thinking that this definition is not new. Right? Let me tell you that some types of atta chakkis that run on petrol and diesel engines!
Did you know that?
Anyway, those atta chakki are for commercial application and only used where electricity is not available easily.
But, as you are reading this article, you should know that petrol or diesel-operated atta chakkis exist in India and the world.
And I am sure you know about the ancient atta chakkis operated by animals! Yes, animals like bulls and horses. The unit of power – horsepower comes from this fact only!
Interesting? I know it is.
Which Atta Chakki Should You Buy?
If you are planning to buy an atta chakki for your home, you should go with a stoneless atta chakki. Stoneless atta chakki has less maintenance than atta chakki with stones.
You can buy wide variety of atta chakkis online as well as from local market. Some branded atta chakkis are natraj,milcent,prestige, hystar, navdeep, navkar etc.
However, you should be very clear about your requirement and only buy atta chakki, which fulfills your requirement and are also budget-friendly.
You can read my post on why should you buy atta chakki for home in case you want to understand the benefits before spending money to buy atta chakki.
Wrap up
So you now get the basic idea of your question, what is atta chakki? I hope you can now decide which atta chakki to buy according to your requirements.
For domestic atta chakki or flour mill, you can buy easily online via amazon or Flipkart. In case you want atta chakki for commercial purposes, it is highly recommended that you visit the manufacturer, understand the machine according to your requirement and then make a final buying decision.
Investment in home atta chakki is significantly less than commercial atta chakki or flour mill, so it is not a wise decision to buy commercial flour mill online.
If you ask for my opinion, stoneless atta chakki is the best choice for domestic purposes.