My wife does a lot of baking and has 2 KitchenAid mixers. Little Suzy is the white tilt head kind and Burtha has a fixed frame with bowl lift and a much more powerful motor. However, Burtha committed suicide by taking a swan dive after vibrating herself off the counter. She still works, but sounds like she's got cancer from smoking 4 packs a day.

Anyway, both mixers struggle hard to mix large batches of dough, homemade icing, etc. and she wants a Commercial mixer. Would like to stay away from the Chinese stuff so she is looking hard at the KitchenAid Commercial (8qt) mixer. Of all the commercial mixers I have looked at, this thing is definitely the smallest and I'm not too sure where it is actually made either and it costs about $950-ish.

Quick search on Amazon yields hundreds of Commercial mixers, obviously made in China for $500 with many in the 10qt to 20qt range with much stronger motors.

Anyone with experience and a recommendation?

Thanks!

There was a discussion here on another thread about some Swedish brand I think mixer that the bread makers here like.

I am not familiar with it, but it seems to get good reviews.


The newer KitchenAid mixers are definitely not built like they were, I just replaced one that was handed down to me after 30+ years in the family and the new one only after two years sounds like it’s struggling already.

One of these?

https://pleasanthillgrain.com/...y-duty-kitchen-mixer

Pleasant Hill has other brands you've probably not heard of too.

Look at Ace Mart for commercial stuff. Be prepared for sticker shock.

https://www.acemart.com/equipment/food-prep/mixers

If I had the extra $$ and was baking more than for just me, I would go with a Famag.

I have the big older model KitchenAid Commercial and it struggles with heavy doughs. I then went with the above Ankarsrum. I like it well enough and it'll handle my heavier wheat breads without complaint, but the Famag (or similar) combines the action of the other two (bowl spinning and spiral) giving a superior mixing/kneading action.

As I recall, one of the bakers here (can't remember who now) recently purchased one and was very happy with it.

My Ankarsrum thread from last summer

It's a great mixer but does have a learning curve.

When I was considering opening a pizza place, the vast majority of shops were using Hobarts.

This is their smallest planetary: https://www.hobartcorp.com/pro...lus-countertop-mixer


It's about $7,500 new, but if you're not opposed to buying one used you can save a substantial amount of money by buying one from a failed restaurant. Made in the US, I doubt you'd ever break it, and if you have kids and grandkids it would probably serve them well after handing it down.

The Ankarsrum looks good except for all the plastic used on their beater accessory including the drive gear. Guess if it were GLOCK plastic it would be different. Wife saw some reviews on these and some complaining about these beaters breaking parts off. Seems she would be better served with a dedicated "dough" mixer and another mixer, probably KitchenAid for everything else.

Webstaurantstore is another site I looked at for commercial mixers. They have a pretty big inventory of everything.

quote:

Originally posted by eyrich:
One of these?

https://pleasanthillgrain.com/...y-duty-kitchen-mixer

Pleasant Hill has other brands you've probably not heard of too.

^^ Hobart is the way to go,

we used them in the Grocery Biz (both chains I worked for) with very few issues,

they just work,


try a restaurant supply place, some bigger metro areas have folks that resell too,

friend is a baker in a smallish ITalian bakery and they use Hobart (and another brand that is freaking huge) w/o problems

I think OP's wife is looking for more of a commercial style home mixer. If you're running a commercial business and mixing a shit ton of dough per day in large batches, then I'd agree that Hobart is the way to go. Commercial business machines is what they do. Most people can neither afford nor have the room (or need) for a Hobart machine for home use.

On the FaMag's, do you want a Fixed or Tilt head and which speed 98-245rpm or 130-212rpm?

She's complaining of the price...my wife is a cheap skate, but Santa may just snag one for Christmas. If he did, it would probably be the 10qt because it's the same price as the 8qt.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
If I had the extra $$ and was baking more than for just me, I go with a Famag.

I have the big older model KitchenAid Commercial and it struggles with heavy doughs. I then went with the above Ankarsrum. I like it well enough and it'll handle my heavier wheat breads without complaint, but the Famag (or similar) combines the action of the other two (bowl spinning and spiral) giving a superior mixing/kneading action.

As I recall, one of the bakers here (can't remember who now) recently purchased one and was very happy with it.

My Ankarsrum thread from last summer

It's a great mixer but does have a learning curve.

quote:

Originally posted by jcsabolt2:
Seems she would be better served with a dedicated "dough" mixer and another mixer, probably KitchenAid for everything else.

I haven't used the Ank for anything other than dough yet so I can't speak to the potential cheapiness of the attachments. I still use my KitchenAid for everything else. They have great pasta making accessories.

quote:

Originally posted by jcsabolt2:
On the FaMag's, do you want a Fixed or Tilt head and which speed 98-245rpm or 130-212rpm?

I honestly don't know. I think, though, that I would like the tilt-head (?). It seems that it would make it easier to access the bowl and make cleaning easier.

Hopefully the fella who has one will chime in. Wish I could remember who that was. As I recall he was using it for pizza doughs.

ETA: Found it. mark60 is the member. He mentions it in this thread.. Maybe shoot him an email for advice. Let us know what you find out.

Most “commercial” mixers are not sized to do the small amount of dough a home baker uses. I’ve had a Kitchen Aid “professional” model for years and while it works well, it still uses plastic gears and requires a certain amount of dough to mix properly, at least when wanting to use the dough hook. If I were looking for another mixer for breads, pizza dough and bagels I’d look pretty hard at the Wolf. A very strong unit for the home baker making some of the stiffer doughs

https://www.webstaurantstore.c...6G9Li4OmzOPJ8PoCxYj0


or a more reasonable sized 5-qt model

https://www.wasserstrom.com/re...Qdz8iEb-4cPtbdLz6t3W

Review:

https://wheatbeat.com/hobart-n50-mixer-review/

Kitchen Aid has a NSF line of lift-bowl mixers, if you've not considered them, take a look. I believe their motors are more robust than the Professional-line. Tilt-head mixers are for the convenances of home bakers, for larger quantities that require higher horsepower, the gearing in the head/arm assembly should be fixed and uncomplicated.

Have you looked at Wolf mixers? All indications are its quite sturdy and reliable however, they only make one size and if your wife is requiring a bigger bowl...

The one downside to an actual commercial one like those Hobart planetary mixers, is check the electrical requirements and if the floor underneath needs reinforcing to deal with the vibrations. There are table-top models however they need to sit on a robust table-stand. Also within the realm of commercial grade mixers, there's also spiral mixers, the Estella spiral mixers is quite popular and its price tag isn't too bad when compared to other planetary mixers.

Not planetary, it’s a spiral

I bought a KYS out of Norway. It’s a beast at over 50#, very quiet. It’ll mix 3kg dough regardless of hydration, at a time and not skip a beat

Check the local used restaurant equipment store if she wants full commercial. I’m sure they will have a Hobart or Globe. Both almost indestructible

We have a Bosch Universal Mixer that's about 30 years old and still works fine making bread.
We have a newer Ankarsrum, and although it has some small plastic parts they have shown no sign of deterioration or breaking after about three years of weekly use.

Pleasant Hill Grain is the place I bought Ankarsrum. If your wife calls them, she will get a very knowledgeable sales person who knows about all the various mixers they have for sale. I strongly recommend that she call them and get their advice.

As noted above, truly commercial mixers are probably WAY beyond what your wife needs and cost multiple thousands of dollars.

BTW we basically only use the Ankarsrum for bread making; the accessories for baking cookies, etc. do seem flimsy and we just have an electric hand mixer for that kind of stuff.

Whatever you buy, shorten the electrical cord so the mixer unplugs itself when it vibrates and begins to walk.

Hobart is/was the parent company of Kitchen Aide. They make/made a size about the same as kitchen aide.

Not sure where is was made, but I have a smaller commercial mixer in my house (Hamilton Beach I think) - but a used hobart off eBay is a great idea. They are very, very reparable, as are the US built Kitchen Aides. (Repairable?)

For a home cook, the kitchen aide/tiny Hobart is a great option due to the accessories and parts.

If you want, I can look at the brand on the 100# mixer at work, but I doubt that company makes anything home sized.

I've been watching Mr Mixer on Youtube for awhile now. Just outside of Wichita KS they make videos of how to fix your Kitchenaid stand mixer. They also sell parts to you and will service/repair your Kitchenaid mixer.

They have good prices on brand new units. Check out their website, give them a call about getting a brand new one, from the guys who fix them for a living. Peruse their website.

Check out LINK to Mr Mixer website and also check out their YouTube channel. I bet you can fix Burtha yourself.

These mixers need routine service, for one thing the food safe grease gets old, dries up, goops up and makes the motor work harder than it should. You CAN do these services if you can use a screwdriver.

Best luck to you.