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Krea Swiss vs Mol D'art


Danimal10

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I am looking to take my home based chocolate hobby to the next level or at least make bigger batches. I'm debating between the Krea Swiss Chocmelter 6kg and the Mol d'Art 6kg melter. I'm leaning toward the Krea Swiss as it is digital and sounds like it melts faster, but there aren't many reviews out there. I saw from their Facebook that Kerry Beal used one at the Toronto Chocolate show. Can anyone tell me if they have any experience with the Chocmelter, good or bad?

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I have both in my possession right now as you noticed.

 

Pros for the Krea Swiss - fast melting, small footprint, fully stainless steel, smaller surface area of chocolate exposed, love the handles on the sides.  Cons for the Krea Swiss - slow to cool down, smaller area for dumping molds back into the pool (6 kg size - 12 kg would be fine), the probe - it goes through a hole in the corner of the melting pan so has to be wrestled with and when you dump chocolate out of the pan invariably you pick that corner to pour. You can take the pan out to help the cooling time - but then you do have to wrestle the probe out to do so. You still need to stir to determine what the temperature of the entire mass is - and it's not always the same as what it was reading before stirring (it is reading one point in the mass and it's in a corner). Shorter history - one of my units was not working properly and will need to be replaced - that being said - they are very responsive to my concerns. 

 

Pros for the Mold'art - ease of dumping molds back into it, no probe to wrestle, long history of trouble free function.  Cons - large areas of the chocolate that is not exposed directly to heat - so over crystallization seems to happen more quickly (this is an impression - not sure if it's truly true), slower melting.

 

Is digital necessary - I don't really think so (but others do which I why I have these units) - I would be thrilled to have the Swiss Krea without the probe - or with a probe that didn't have to go through the melting pan - just a nice long probe that comes over the side and could be put in the middle of the mass and moved out of the way easily when you want to muck with the pan. 

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I only have the Mol d' Art 6 kg so can't comment on the other brand but I'll share my experience.  It is a good size for molding, big enough to dump chocolate back in without too much mess.  Yes, it does melt fairly slowly so if you can plan ahead and leave it to melt overnight that's best.  Right now mine is full of Santa scrap to be made into more Santas in the morning!  Kerry is right, you can get a very thick over-crystallized layer on top of the chocolate if it sits for a while at working temp.  If I'm between tasks, I'll turn the melter up to 35 or 40C to prevent that.  Or melt it out with a hair dryer as needed.

 

But honestly, I don't use it as much as I thought I would when I bought it.  I often end up melting chocolate in a large bowl over hot water and just working out of that.  Sometimes I'll melt the chocolate over a bain marie then pour it into the melter to temper and work from.   I recently got a $20 heating pad that is almost as good.  Since it's not a tempering machine, you're always going to have to check and adjust temper & temperature, so don't expect worry-free chocolate making.

 

How much chocolate do you usually temper & use at once? 

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I usually only temper 2-4 pounds a few times a year. I was looking for a smaller model, but the mol d'art 3kg is almost the same price. Is there a smaller chocolate melter with accurate temperature control? 

I've used a hot pad for melting. What heating pad did you use? 

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I think this is the heating pad I got:  https://smile.amazon.com/Sunbeam-756-500-Heating-Pad-UltraHeatTechnology/dp/B00006IV4N/ref=sr_1_4_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1479946467&sr=8-4&keywords=heating%2Bpad&th=1

 

I don't use it for melting, just for keeping things warm.

 

I love to buy kitchen toys as much as anyone, but I would have a hard time justifying a $6-700 melter for a few pounds a few times a year.  And the 6 kg might be a little big if you are only using 1-2 kg at a time, that's why I don't use mine as much as I thought I would, I don't bother with it unless it will be at least half full (3kg).  That's the problem with chocolate equipment, it's often either too big or too small and frequently expensive!

 

Do you do more molding or dipping or something else?

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You could always get something like this - it's made for candy melts (compound) so it runs a little warm - but if you attach it to a dimmer switch you can reduce the temperature quite nicely. 

 

I got a bunch of them for our first eGullet Chocolate and Confectionery workshop - so we could set up some stations for people to dip. 

 

Might still be a couple of them around if you want me to check. 

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