Disabling the safety feature on the Hobart mixer

[spyddie]

I have two brand new hoart machine one 30qt and one 80qt both came with safty guard, they are pain to use it. Does anyone know how to disable the safty guard?

Edited July 18, 2004 by spyddie (log)

[Wendy DeBord]

Yes they are a pain. I believe if you disable them it voids your warantee...........so you might want to double check before you make any alterations.

I just remembered.........I was working in a place that had a brand new 20 qt hobart (this spring) and I accidentally discovered that the shield snaps into the metal band. Look underneath- there is some white plastic those are actually clips and you can knock the shield off it's ring. It takes a fair amount of force to knock it down (if you drop your mixer like I accidentally did-that will do it, HA). You'll still have to play with the ring to engage it, so your mixer will start, but at least the shield will be out of your way.

HTH

[McDuff]

That's a dumbass thing to do. If the machine breaks, Hobart won't fix it till they get the safety thing working again. I got grabbed by a mixer once that had no safety cage, and I've learned to work with them.

[gibfalc]

I DO NOT recommend doing it but magnets run the safeties. If you stick a magnet in the very back where the middle of the 3 plastic tabs would be if it was in place the mixer will work without the cage. Please remember the safety is on there for a reason.

[alanamoana]

i'm sure i've caused all sorts of trouble at my old job, but when we got the new hobart (60qt? or bigger), i hated it because i couldn't add ingredients while it was mixing. so, i had the construction workers (still working on the restaurant at the time) cut a couple of the wires away from the cage so i had a little hole where I could add/pour ingredients through without messing with the safety features in a more agressive way.

i'm sure if hobart came along to do any repair work, it would void the warranty, but let's be realistic and know that most places won't hire the actual company to do the work in the first place.

[McDuff]

If you're working for yourself, fine, disable it and have fun. But if you're working for someone else, DO THE RIGHT THING and leave it alone. Do we need any more lawsuits from people who screw around with something like this, get hurt, and then decide to sue?

I made one comment to the head guy where I work that the rear circular guard on our 80 qt was not in place, and he had Hobart in there the next day to weld it back. Like I mentioned, I got grabbed by a mixer, a 12 qt Univex, not a beast, but no Kitchen Aid either, and it nearly pulled me into it as it shredded the sleeve of my terry cloth bathrobe.

I was making hollandaise years ago, a guy stuck his finger in to taste it just as I flipped the mixer back on, and you could hear the whip rattle across his knuckles.

Two people in my bread class at J&W got hit by dough hooks because they couldn't keep their hands out.

Those machines will show no mercy. I cannot imagine what your arm would look like if a hook on an 80qt Hobart on speed 4 grabbed it.

And I'm also sure that most companies that come along to do the repair work have an eye out for liability issues. Can you hear the testimony in court?

"So, Repairman XYZ, did you re-engage the safety cage lockouts on the mixer in question before or after you did the repair on the chipped gear in the transmission? And if you didn't, why not?"

Edited July 18, 2004 by McDuff (log)

[Wendy DeBord]

My personal opinion.............All great safety points. Yes these machines can be dangerous, so can alot of other tools we work with. And yes I understand why shields are installed and I don't advocate anyone disabling saftey features on any equipment.

What you do in your own personal kitchen is your own business as far as I'm concerned. I wonder when are they going to put a saftey feature on those blow torches we use day in and day out, and that oven oh and the frier, etc....?

I believe we all need to exercise common sense. We all know that theres alot of dangers in kitchens. People need to pay attention to what they are doing and when they personally screw up take some accountablity for their own actions.

..........again just my personal opinion.

[cherimoya]

You really need to think twice before tampering with the guard on your mixer. I work in the field of occupational health and safety and I am aware of many deaths and serious injuries which have resulted from inadequate guarding/lock-out procedures for commerical dough mixers. It may even be illegal to run your mixer without adequate guarding. It is where I live (Ontario, Canada). Please don't compromise your own safety or that of your workers because of an inconvenience.

http://www.gov.on.ca/LAB/english/hs/alerts/i23.html

[mckayinutah]

To add my 2 cents:

I had never even seen , never the less used, a 20 quart Hobart with a safety cage on it until I moved to Utah and learned that the state required it on newer models.

About 3 weeks after starting my present job, I had the hobart repair guy come to check the oil level on my 60 quart model, and asked him if it was possible to "rig" the 20 quart so that the cage could not be used. He sort of laughed, but I told him I was serious, and that having a guard on such a small mixer had to be the stupidest thing I had ever seen.

Adding gelatin or pouring in a hot sugar syrup for making Italian buttercream ( which has to be done while the mixer is running ) has become a very tedious task, as gelatin clumps on the cage and likes to fall in when I am not expecting it, causing my whipped cream to have the notoriuos gelatin clumps that are so nasty to have. Pouring a hot sugar syrup is not as bad, but I still have to be careful not to get any on the cage, while trying to get it poured between the bowl and the whisk.

The cage has frustrated so much in the past, that I once ripped it off the machine and threw it across my bakeshop, which was actually good, because it bent enough as to where I can pour in whole eggs now without dropping half of them on the floor. I have also learned to keep it moving when you lower the bowl, which will turn off the mixer instantly.

DEATH TO ALL WIRE CAGES FOR 20 QUART MIXERS!

Jason

[Wendy DeBord]

I have also learned to keep it moving when you lower the bowl, which will turn off the mixer instantly.

Huh? Please explain..........

[chefpeon]

Can't.....stop.....myself.........must.........post........

This whole safety cage thing is probably my NUMBER ONE pet peeve.

I worked in a shop a couple years ago that finally decided to get a brand new Hobart since our

belt drive Blakeslee couldn't even whip cream without blowing a circuit. (true).

I was so excited......a new mixer!

But of course, our lovely brand new model came with the brand new safety features.

When I figured out that this mixer was a major pain in the ass to use and I couldn't add

anything while it was running (and most of the time my recipes required it), I went back

to using the Blakeslee and just kept running back to the circuit box....it ended up being

less of a hassle than that damn cage.

I mentioned this problem to my husband, who loves to mess with stuff, and he figured

out how to disable the cage switch with an appropriately placed magnet. Yay! Ok, so I

know this is "dumbass".......but you know, I've worked close to 20 years in bakeries

with large mixers and other dangerous equipment, and I've never been dumb enough

to stick my hand in a running mixer. My hair wouldn't get caught because it's tied back.

Don't wear necklaces or any kind of jewelry that may be caught either. Always wear

short sleeves too. I mean, I was taught from infancy that the world is dangerous.....and

one must be careful. Look both ways before you cross the street and all that other common

sense stuff.

But of course, we all know that common sense ain't common, and we as a society, must

protect the proverbial dumbasses from harming themselves. Gee, back in the old days,

dumbasses did a fine job taking themselves out of the gene pool, so perhaps the human

race had a chance of evolving into a higher intelligence. Well, thanks to our newfangled

safety features, we have assured ourselves future idiocy. But I digress.

It's not because Hobart, or your place of work, or the state, or the feds, actually CARE about your safety that the cages are there. They care about not being sued...plain and simple. They're just covering their butts, really. If Hobart actually CARED.....they might actually think about a mixer design that meets safety standards AND allows us to do our jobs the way we're supposed to. I'm pretty darn sure Hobart didn't have any professional pastry people in on the design board when they came up with the new mixer safety features.

Cuisinart, for example, has safety features on their food processors that make sure you can't run it without the lid in place........BUT, since food processors are basically worthless unless you can add ingredients while it's running, it was designed for safety and functionality. There's a feed tube so you can add ingredients, but it's small enough so you can't stick your hand in there.

So, I say, there MUST be a way for Hobart to do the same thing! Somewhat along the lines of the pouring shield that a KitchenAid has. Something that will let you add ingredients while making

sure you don't harm yourself.

Do you hear me, Hobart???

Edited July 19, 2004 by chefpeon (log)

[mckayinutah]

I have also learned to keep it moving when you lower the bowl, which will turn off the mixer instantly.

Huh? Please explain..........

Wendy,

If you lower the bowl while the mixer is still running, and you have a cage on the machine, the machine will turn off automatically. If I have a large batch of whatever on the machine, I sometimes find it good to "lower " the bowl to incorporate the stuff at the top that isn't being affected ( mixed in ) by the paddle, whisk, etc. .. When the machine doesn't allow to do this, I found a way to keep the whip, paddle, etc... moving while I lower the bowl as if I was taking it off the machine entirely.

It is very helpful to incorporate stuff that I would have to scrape down into the bowl. It is just a time saver.

Jason