20-quart mixers

[YoChefGregg]

You can't go wrong with a Hobart.

Hobart

[MarieinLA]

I bought a used 30 QT hobart 6 months ago (from a used kitchen equipment shop in LA). I love it. My only word of caution when buying used is make sure the attachments are also hobart. My paddle wasn't and turns out it was a smidge too big and started scraping the bowl - had to buy a hobart paddle to replace it...

[RETREVR]

Hobart is the standard. I haven't checked prices lately, but I imagine a nice used one with mixing attatchments will run about $1000. They are dammed heavy, so buying on ebay may be tricky, with the shipping aspect. I bought a 20qt last year and the wisk was the wrong size. It was nice to make a phone call across town and have it handled the same day.

A standard convection oven is Blodgett. There are many other good ones on the market, and now there are many more options with steam injections. For basic baking, a Blodgett will do the job, and they are built like a brick house. You can spend $1500 on a used oven pretty quick, and you may have to spend more to get a decent one. If you have any chance of doing breads in the future, go ahead and spend the extra money on steam injection. I don't really have experience with the new fangled ovens...maybe someone else can direct you there.

There are several range makers. You might go new and get one of cheaper brands, unless you find a buy on a nice condition top name. I personaly would spend my money on the convection, to get what I want and then get a decent range.

Same with a fryer....everybody and their brother makes one and most of them are about equal.

If you buy used refers, make sure your dealer will stand behind them or buy new. You will always need refer repair work now and then, but it would suck to spend too much on used units and then spend the first sixty days spending money on repair work.

[devlin]

I'm in the market for a used 20 quart mixer, but I'm not familiar with brands. Anybody have any recommendations other than Hobart?

A search renders these for comparison:

Globe

Berkel

Varimixer

Anybody know anything about them?

[K8memphis]

I gotta Berkel. It's not hooked up yet I got a beautiful deal on it on ebay. $600!

But more important than the brand is how heavy is the machine to the type of product you are mixing. You can get a weany mixer in any brand and be in trouble. Except I don't think Hobart makes any weanie ones. So so long as the other brands are heavy duty enough for your stuff.

So what are you mixing? And yeah all those brands are fine.

[devlin]

I gotta Berkel. It's not hooked up yet  I got a beautiful deal on it on ebay. $600! 

But more important than the brand is how heavy is the machine to the type of product you are mixing. You can get a weany mixer in any brand and be in trouble. Except I don't think Hobart makes any weanie ones. So so long as the other brands are heavy duty enough for your stuff.

So what are you mixing? And yeah all those brands are fine.

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Cool! I've been looking on Ebay. I've got one bread I need a heavy-duty mixer for, 20 quart minimum.

I see that the other brands cost substantially less than the Hobarts, and I figure why spend twice what I need.

Thanks. That's tremendously helpful.

[dejaq]

Berkel does make a terrific piece of machinery, if you can get one on the cheap(new, whew!?)more power to ya,

as for Vari, hmmmmm, I pead the fifth Amendment.....don't say I did't warn you...

M

[devlin]

Berkel does make a terrific piece of machinery, if you can get one on the cheap(new, whew!?)more power to ya,

as for Vari, hmmmmm, I pead the fifth Amendment.....don't say I did't warn you...

M

←

But warn me about what?

Please! No constitutional objections!

[dejaq]

Berkel does make a terrific piece of machinery, if you can get one on the cheap(new, whew!?)more power to ya,

as for Vari, hmmmmm, I pead the fifth Amendment.....don't say I did't warn you...

M

←

But warn me about what?

Please! No constitutional objections!

←

Varimixers technology, looks terrific on paper, a clutchless, adaptive arm which raises, and anchors the bowl in place, along with poly sweeps that "scrape" the bowl as it rotates, you know what they say about cars, the more they clog up the water works...my assistant is having problems with her "S" class Merc, B/C it's over engineered...esspec. the brakes, gotta luv the Germans, man their smart...

M

[pastrymama]

We had a 60 qt Varimixer when we first opened a restaurant, it came with a guarantee that it could do the pizza dough with no problems. The recipe used 50 pounds of flour. They had to come and remove the mixer and we got a Hobart because the Varimixer couldn't mix the dough it would scream and stop and scream again. Also the grinder attachment gears wore out from girinding meat within a month.

[devlin]

To everybody, thank you so much, that's all good information. I'm keeping my eye peeled for a great deal on either a Berkel or a Hobart.

[CurlySue]

I have a 20qt made by Toledo (the scale people). Found it on Ebay and didn't know much about it but DH looked at it and said it looked heavy duty and that Toledo makes reliable stuff. It's been great, although I've scaled down my business and never use it anymore. I should sell it. It weighs an absolute TON though.

[devlin]

I have a 20qt made by Toledo (the scale people).  Found it on Ebay and didn't know much about it but DH looked at it and said it looked heavy duty and that Toledo makes reliable stuff.  It's been great, although I've scaled down my business and never use it anymore.  I should sell it.  It weighs an absolute TON though.

←

You should sell it?...

Any idea how much you might should be selling it for?

[K8memphis]

This is getting interesting!

Ehh, before some mod zaps you, in love of course. Maybe do pm's

Edited May 22, 2006 by K8memphis (log)

[devlin]

This is getting interesting!

Ehh, before some mod zaps you, in love of course. Maybe do pm's 

←

Um,... , could you translate that into Devlin speak?

Edited May 22, 2006 by devlin (log)

[miladyinsanity]

This is getting interesting!

Ehh, before some mod zaps you, in love of course. Maybe do pm's 

←

Um,... , could you translate that into Devlin speak?

←

K8's saying Private Message her.

I don't think you're allowed to sell on the forums.

[BigboyDan]

Two things, get one that you can get parts and service for locally. And, if the 20qt (usually table-mounted) is too "light" for your needs, drill holes in the feet and secure to table with bolts, do the same with the table to the floor.

[devlin]

This is getting interesting!

Ehh, before some mod zaps you, in love of course. Maybe do pm's 

←

Um,... , could you translate that into Devlin speak?

←

K8's saying Private Message her.

I don't think you're allowed to sell on the forums.

←

Ah.... Gotcha.... Although I gotta say I've read it over again, and again again, and I'm still stupid about it.

But anyway, yes. Thank you. What a good idea.

[Just loafing]

Of course you can't go wrong with a Hobart ... but whatever you end up with, try to have it with a spiral dough hook, rather than a J-hook. I was reminded of this today, using my old 20-qt Taiwanese back-up mixer which has the J-hook , to do a small amount of white dough. My 30-qt Hobart has the spiral dough hook, which seems to work way better. Susan

[K8memphis]

This is getting interesting!

Ehh, before some mod zaps you, in love of course. Maybe do pm's 

←

Um,... , could you translate that into Devlin speak?

←

K8's saying Private Message her.

I don't think you're allowed to sell on the forums.

←

Ah.... Gotcha.... Although I gotta say I've read it over again, and again again, and I'm still stupid about it.

But anyway, yes. Thank you. What a good idea.

←

Yes, mods = moderators or hosts of our egullet forum (big brother

zap = gently chastise you for doing whatever is against the board policy

pm's = of course are personal messages that you & Curly Sue can send back & forth to each other to see if her wanting to sell and your wanting to buy could be a match.

If you look at the grey line beneath every post, on the far left under the poster's name you see a little blue button that says "PM", If you click on that it will give you a way to write a personal message to that poster.

My mixer has a weird plug and it's a 220 and we haven't hooked it up yet because I just have had a few casual orders that I can handle with my other ka's. But I'm gonna try to ramp it up. And get my oven hooked up too--maybe switch to an electric one, mine's gas.

Umm, but I LOVE mixers and getting mine was a hoot even though it's been a dust catcher for a coupla years. I actually found mine when the bakery girl in Washington here on egullet was looking for one. I found that deal as a pick up only in Nashville, agh OK Memphis to Nashville I can do that!!!

So you did you find your new mixer???

Edited May 23, 2006 by K8memphis (log)

[devlin]

Yes, mods = moderators or hosts of our egullet forum (big brother

zap = gently chastise you for doing whatever is against the board policy

pm's = of course are personal messages that you & Curly Sue can send back & forth to each other to see if her wanting to sell and your wanting to buy could be a match.

If you look at the grey line beneath every post, on the far left under the poster's name you see a little blue button that says "PM", If you click on that it will give you a way to write a personal message to that poster.

My mixer has a weird plug and it's a 220 and we haven't hooked it up yet because I just have had a few casual orders that I can handle with my other ka's. But I'm gonna try to ramp it up. And get my oven hooked up too--maybe switch to an electric one, mine's gas.

Umm, but I LOVE mixers and getting mine was a hoot even though it's been a dust catcher for a coupla years. I actually found mine when the bakery girl in Washington here on egullet was looking for one. I found that deal as a pick up only in Nashville, agh OK  Memphis to Nashville I can do that!!!

So you did you find your new mixer???

←

So when does EG start offering a tutorial on forum language?

I've already got two kitchen aid mixers, one I bought years ago, a 5 quart, and then about a year ago a 6 quart. So far, with the exception of the one bread dough, I do all my breads using the folding method which I prefer. But I also get a lot of requests, more now than I'm able to handle with current equipment, for Carol Field's super wet "crocodile" bread. And I'm thinking that because more folks are expressing an interest in some of my cakes, a bigger mixer would work all the way around for me right now.

But no, I haven't found THE mixer yet. Still looking. If anybody has any leads, please email. I can drive anywhere within about 100-150 mile radius to pick one up.

Thanks for the EG as a second language tutorial.

Edited May 23, 2006 by devlin (log)

[devlin]

Update: we finally got around to getting down that little road out here in the middle of nowhere where we'd been told we'd find an old place out of some guy's barn with used restaurant equipment. This was after checking out a used place downtown in Louisville only to be told they only very rarely find used 20 quart mixers.

Anyway, the guy down this little road in the middle of nowhere (close to our place) has two barns jammed full of all sorts of used restaurant equipment and more mixers of all sizes than I've ever seen in my life. And behind the barn a space the size of half a football field with even more stuff. So we wandered around, got the spiels on all the Vulcans, the Reynolds's and the maybe 20 or so Hobarts in various sizes, and found a great old 30 quart Hobart for 900 bucks with bowl and attachments and the guarantee he'll give me a loaner should I ever need it worked on, which he can do himself. Runs beautifully.

Edited June 11, 2006 by devlin (log)

[K8memphis]

Wow - you gotta great deal!

Happy Mixing To You

[dejaq]

Wow - you gotta great deal!

Happy Mixing To You 

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Ditto, you did well, bravo!!!!!

[kalypso]

The 20 qt. Hobart mixer at work finally quite working. It's at least 20 years old and probably more. I'll be the one selecting the replacement unit.

While simply replacing a Hobart with another Hobart might be the most logical solution, new Hobarts are pretty pricey and considerably more than most other mixers.

Has anyone had experience using 20 qt. mixers from Globe, Berkel, Blakeslee, or ???? I am interested in hearing how other mixer manufacturers stack up against Hobart. The mixer will be used primarily for muffins, brownies, quick breads and an occasional cake or two, up to 4 days/week for an average of 2-4 hrs. each time depending upon production that day.

Whatever I end up buying will need to be durable, reliable and last at least another 20 years.

TIA