PowermaticIII+

I started out with a hand crank model years ago. Very aggravating, slow, and broke in no time. I deliver tobacco to a smoke shop at work, and asked the guy what is the best rolling machine. This was years ago. And without hesitation he said the Powermatic II +. He was correct. I used it for many years. My wife and I both smoke and I was trying to do a week's worth of cigarettes on my day off. And it was eating up a lot of my time. There are several critical steps you have to do with that machine to make it work. Which I mastered, but again, too much time involved for me. Enter the Powermatic III +!!! Much more expensive, but a dream if you know how to use it right. The most important thing is to prepare your tobacco correctly. It can't handle long shreds of tobacco that is super moist. I use the good stuff gold. It needs only a very quick and simple preparation. Just take a pile of tobacco and lift up the longer shreds that clumped together and snip them a little with a scissors. The majority of this tobacco is mostly just fine to begin with. The tobacco must be able to fall into the chamber with the help of the machine. If the shred is too long it can't get down in the chute. It only takes me a minute or two to prepare a large amount of tobacco. I don't even need to worry about the moisture content. After that just put the tobacco in the Hopper and fluff it up. And once in awhile just fluff it up again until you put in the next batch. Then it is just a process of putting the tube on the machine and pressing the button. I use the medium setting and do king size tubes. And I never get a jam or a failed cigarette. And it's fast! Probably at least three times faster than my previous machine. You can do whole lot of cigarettes in a short amount of time. And the cigarettes are perfectly packed. Right down to the filter. This is a wonderful machine.

Being new to the roll your own game I have tried all the machines there is to offer. I own the old school slide type, a crank type (top o matic), a powermatic2+, and now the powermatic3+. They all respectively have there advantages but the pm3 takes the Cake.The pm3+ makes life way more easier and less time consuming to make your cigs...I mean we're trying to save money on cigs here, not devote every free minute to making cigs. The automated process makes the task so simple a caveman can do it (lol). Just fill the Hopper with your favorite tabacco, select your cig size (King or 100s) slide a empty tube on the nozzle, press the start button and Bam! Ready to smoke cig in about 4 seconds. If you like me, I still like to hand pack them a lill more after the process so I can get close to a perfect cig. But the automatic compression and injecting makes this much more of a enjoyable task over a crank type machine and even the pm2 for that matter. The pm3 is kind of big and bulky compared to the other machines, but fits on my McDonald's tray I use for rolling with room to spare. Clean up is a easy task, and comes with the same cleaning tools as the pm2. The piece counters add a nice touch (lifetime counter and resettable counter) to keep track of how many you have made. I'm not like some of the other reviewers that like to boast about how quickly I can make cigs, but this machine definitely cut processing time in HALF, and I can make let's say 40-60 cigs in about 15 minutes, hand packing each one while watching my favorite movie/show or talking on the phone.Now with that said, some disadvantages...-the pm3+(not the pm3) doesn't have the 5 stage compression setting that I hoped for, which was standard on the non-Plus model (pm3). They now have just 3 selectable sizes King, King mid I guess?, And 100s. After testing all settings (on King tubes) I've found that King setting rolls a lill on the loose side, King mid rolls a lill tighter, and 100s rolls the tightest. This also varies on your tabacco...how dry or moist it is, the cut etc. I tend to switch back and fourth on these settings while making my cigs.-your tabacco choice, and or prep MATTERS! When I read the reviews on this machine I tended to blow off the reviews that said to prep your tabacco before using this machine...they weren't joking. The automatic Hopper is a finiky beast on this machine and if your tabacco is too moist it will throw the Hopper light on about every 4-5 cigs. Same goes for longer cuts, problem is the machine only tempers (packs the tabacco) for a set amount of times, so if it takes longer then what's programed to fill the slot for your set cig size it will turn on the Hopper light. And in my use so far I've found moist and longer cut tabaccos to cause this issue. I use Ohm and The Good stuff for now, and helps to let it dry out a lill in open air for about 10-15 minutes before making cigs.-like other machines, this thing DOES NOT pack the tabacco all the way to the filter. This is something that has bothered me since day one of rolling my own, and obviously I've tried every machine possible. I've just come to realize hand packing after injecting is a must for me...still doesn't quite get it perfectly Everytime but it still makes more consistent enjoyable cigs. I think most people in the RYO community just deals with it and looks more at the cost savings then having your tabacco touch the filter (lol)Well hope this long winded reveiw helps others with there purchase. It's really a great investment when rolling your own, it will pay for it self in no time! For the more budget minded people the pm2 is a great investment as well. But the pm3+ is a must have if your looking for less time invested over cost.**UPDATE 6/19/20**The pm3+ is still going strong! Counter reads 8407 cigs rolled (more than this have been rolled, I'll explain in a sec) and still counting! It has made life so easy with rolling my own cigs, and Ive saved so much money as well. Pm3 payed for it self within the first month. Couple things I want to bring up.....- I've noticed that at probaly month 3 or so the injector started getting louder, kinda like dry parts rubbing each other sound... Almost like it needs grease or extreme interior cleaning. But with no service access I just continue to use it and it hasn't gotten worse.- when rolling, occasionally the Hopper light will come on which is supposed to indicate you need more tabacco...but you open the door and notice you still have half full Hopper?? Even with properly prepared tabacco it still does this, I found that you can shut the door and press the start button again and it will complete the cig but it will be packed way to tight. So another solution is keep the door open and press start and the machine will push out the injector (part of it's cleaning process) and you can complete the cig that way without it being uselessly tight. This way does not show up on the counter though which leads me to believe I'm up to about 9.5-10k cigs rolled instead of the 8400 it actually reads.- as in my initial review I brought up the cig settings and stated I go back and forth on the settings while rolling...I now tend to roll most of my cigs on the "king" setting which keeps them a lill loose but enjoyable, but on occasion it tends to roll too loose in which I switch the setting to "king +" (the middle setting) for a few cigs till it tightens up some and then I switch back to "king" size to complete that Hopper load. The 100's setting rolls way to tight on king tubes...and keep in mind I still hand pack each individual cig.-last but not least, I noticed at about month 4-5 it kinda spits the tube off early depending how packed the tabacco is. I have remedied this by lightly pushing on the filter towards the machine as it injects which helps getting the tabacco further in the tube but also keeps it on the nozzle.That's it for now! I still love this machine, you just have to learn it's quirks to make your desired cig. I love it so much I think I will buy a back up machine in the next month or 2 just to have it if this one decides to fail. Hope my long-winded review helps some people as I know this is not a easy purchase for some. But look at it this way....I was spending roughly $420-500 a month on store bought cigs, I now spend $60-100 a month on tabacco and tubes. It's a no brainier if you ask me.