Mol d'art melters

[KennethT]

@Kerry Beal Wow, it sounds like your husband and I have a lot in common!

[pastrygirl]

13 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

I've got a very handy husband - I'd just hand it over to him and several months later it would come back out of his shop repaired.

 

So if I send it to your husband can he do a rush order and have it back by October for busy season?

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, pastrygirl said:

 

So if I send it to your husband can he do a rush order and have it back by October for busy season?

LOL - that's true! If you send it to me I'll have it done the same day.

[pastrygirl]

So it’s a nut & bolt type situation, but the bolt head has a round hole.   What tool does one use to hold that in place while disengaging the nut?

Otherwise they turn together. 

Edited April 11, 2018 by pastrygirl (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I think that a socket wrench of the right size will handle that - may not need anything to hold the other side. It will be metric because it's from Belgium.

[KennethT]

It looks like you will need a set of metric hex keys for the screw with the hex shaped indentation...  Metric keys are a little hard to find in the US, but I've seen sets bundled with Imperial measures at the Home Depot.  You can either hold the nut with a socket wrench, nut driver, or even a pair of pliers.

[Smithy]

Good eye on spotting the indentation, @KennethT . I was seeing that as a little protrusion (nub) and wondering if it was like a carriage bolt. @pastrygirl, I think most hardware stores will carry metric hex keys - by the way, they're also called Allen wrenches. You can also try a local bicycle shop, if that's closer to your location.

[pastrygirl]

Yes, it’s an innie, not outie, and flush with the surface so there’s nothing to grab. It really looks round, but I’ll see if I can find a tiny hex key that will work. 

 

[pastrygirl]

Ok, with a little determination, I got the bottom off.  No signs of smoke or anything, it's just that the wires have broken where the cord enters the machine, weakened from being bent back and forth.

 

Video on You Tube says cut out the bad part, strip the wires a bit, twist together, making sure it's the same side (one half of cord is grooved, one is smooth), wrap with electrical tape.  Sounds easy enough, right?  I went to college, now I just need wire strippers and electrical tape.  No husband required! 

[KennethT]

Great!  Rather than just twisting with electrical tape, I would rather use wire nuts - they're self insulating and make a better connection than just twisting wires together.  (Actually, personally, I would use a crimped connector, but that's just because I have access to them and the appropriate crimping tool - but the wire nuts would work fine). BTW, if you don't want to purchase wire strippers, in a pinch, I have used a knife - just be careful not to nick or cut any of the stranded wires

[Kerry Beal]

I've got the best wire strippers! Many fewer cuts than using a scalpel. 

 

Agree with the Marrette connectors - they make life so simple!

[pastrygirl]

Thanks for the tip on the wire connectors - 48 cents, one small blister (from getting those cursed screws apart), and a little help from my friends later, and the melter powers up fine again. Hooray!  

 

 

 

[KennethT]

Yay!!

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, pastrygirl said:

Thanks for the tip on the wire connectors - 48 cents, one small blister (from getting those cursed screws apart), and a little help from my friends later, and the melter powers up fine again. Hooray!  

 

 

 

There is something supremely satisfying about accomplishing something like this!

[KennethT]

It can also be supremely frustrating - a couple months ago, I got a vertical rotisserie... after 2 uses, it died... the autopsy revealed that the design was really stupid - the spit motor is located directly under the spit, so as you're roasting away, some grease or juices runs down the shaft and gets into the motor.  Just as I discovered this issue, the 30 day Amazon return expired...  I've been trying to find replacement motors - I've looked everywhere - I can find many similar motors with the similar speed, the same mounting, but the end of the shaft shape (where the spit plugs in) is wrong so I'd either have to remachine the spit or the motor shaft...

 

It's a shame because the heating elements and reflector work great.  Making a new spit myself, or redesigning how the motor interfaces with it may wind up costing more than the rotisserie did!

[Tri2Cook]

7 hours ago, KennethT said:

It can also be supremely frustrating - a couple months ago, I got a vertical rotisserie... after 2 uses, it died... the autopsy revealed that the design was really stupid - the spit motor is located directly under the spit, so as you're roasting away, some grease or juices runs down the shaft and gets into the motor.

I really want to ask if you're sure you weren't using it upside down... but not because I actually think you were, just because I'm a bit of a smartass. 

[KennethT]

Ha!! Here's a pic looking at the bottom of the machine...

It can only go one way!

 

Here's it in action

You can't see the motor but the bottom of the spit looks like a flathead screwdriver and the motors shaft has a slot to accept it. Notice the chicjen grease on the spit - I expected it to run off onto the drip pan, but some just ran along the underside and down the shaft into the motor... unbeknownst to me at the time!

[cslas]

Hi all,

 

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but I was looking at the 6 kg Mol d'Art melters on a couple of sites today and I noticed they seem to be marked down by about $100/$150 USD. TCF is selling them for $545 USD, while Technobake has them for $550 USD. Ordinarily, I'd have figured it was just a sale, but I noticed that on the Technobake site, at least, they seem to be in the clearance section. I'm relatively new at shopping these, so I could totally be misreading this, but I figured I'd ask. Does anybody know if there's something going on with them? Are they being discontinued? Are these amazing deals or just the regular price? They seem to be in stock and not discounted on the actual Mol d'Art site.

[Kerry Beal]

There are a number of new digital melters these days - competition maybe?

 

Why not phone and ask?

[pastrygirl]

Don't know, but that's a good price and I do recommend Mol d' Art.  I have the 6kg and 24 kg. 

 

The chocolate does take some attention to get and stay in temper in the melter, but all of the small tabletop tempering machines are so small, I think you can do more for less $$ with a melter and an EZ Temper.

[Jim D.]

I know I am in a minority on eGullet, but I use a tempering machine, specifically the Chocovision Delta. It can temper up to 7.7kg at a time and as little as 1.4Kg (which comes in handy when you are not making a lot of chocolates at a time). It can handle more than the stated maximum if you have additional chocolate melted and ready to add to the bowl. Its advantage to me is that I premelt the chocolate overnight, pour it in, set the control, and can do other things while the machine does its job, raising the temp to the desired highest point, then down to the lowest point for tempering, then up to the working temp. Its thermostat keeps the chocolate in temper for a long time (with, of course, the usual adjustments needed to deal with overtempering). The biggest downside is its cost, which is $2,329 (though it can be found for a little less than that). That's a lot more than the Mol d'art, but it also does a lot more. Another downside is that dumping chocolate out of molds requires considerably more attention than is needed when using a melter, simply because the Delta bowl is round, whereas the Mol d'art container is rectangular.

[pastrygirl]

4 hours ago, Jim D. said:

I know I am in a minority on eGullet, but I use a tempering machine, specifically the Chocovision Delta. It can temper up to 7.7kg at a time and as little as 1.4Kg 

 

Thats bigger than I though, I was under the impression it maxed out at 5 kg or less. 

Edited August 27, 2019 by pastrygirl (log)

[Jim D.]

12 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Thats bigger than I though, I was under the impression it maxed out at 5 kg or less. 

 

The higher number is when using their so-called "holey" baffle, which allows some chocolate to flow through the baffle, so the whole bowl can be filled. I have never used it, and it strikes me that the level of chocolate in the front section (where one dips a ladle) would reach a lower level sooner, but I don't know that for a fact.

[Beets3]

DR in Canada is having a big sale .

[keychris]

for what it's worth, I have a second-hand 3kg moldart melting bowl that I've had for seven years, it's still rock solid.