Commercial Catering Equipment :Planetary mixer : Buying Guide

Commercial Catering Equipment :Planetary mixer : Buying Guide

Planetary mixers are an almost essential part of any kitchen. Thesemultipurpose mixers allow users to make a variety of mixes from pastryto whisks. Planetary mixers are available in various dimensions and withvarious specifications. This article will assist those looking to purchaseone to select the best for their needs.

As with all commercial catering equipment, getting a quality productsuited for your specific needs can mean the difference between a hasslefree lifelong use versus constant changing and shifting.

Planetary mixers can come in either a gear driven variety or a belt drivenvariety, with a tilt-able bowl or not and in various capacities and powers.The first thing that MUST be understood is that it is not a dough (orspiral) mixer. Although all planetary mixers can mix dough, they cannotmix large amounts of dough as they are generally not designed to be astough.

Attachments- Most if not all planetary mixers come with attachmentsfor mixing dough (dough hook), whipping (whisk) and mixing (beater).Changing the attachments is often a straightforward process and a safetyguard ensures that this procedure cannot be carried out whist themachine is running.

Size- Sizes for a commercial planetary mixer range from a small 5 Litrebench-top unit having a very small footprint and similar capacity to adomestic unit, to over 100L units for large scale applications such as incake shops, pasta manufacturing etc. Some general advice on selectingthe right size unit includes:

Get a 30-40% larger capacity unit than the maximum amount of product you wish to mix, most products expand on mixing and may spill if loaded to the brim.

As a rule of thumb a 10L mixer would be able to mix around 2kg of dough.

Some optional and special features you can consider with yourplanetary mixer

Mix Speed Controller – Mix speed simply means the revolutions perminute (rpm) of the relevant attachment that is fixed to the unit for aparticular job example a whisk. Mixers mostly come with two kinds ofspeed controller. One kind allows you to have a set of three to fourdifferent speeds. These are useful when you have to vary the mixingspeed of the mix in the bowl. The second kind is the fixed speed whichis one standard speed for all mixing.

Timer - Some units come with an automatic timer which allows you toleave the operation running for specific time. This is useful for certainrecipes and is a great help when you have other things to attend to.

Bowl Material - most mixers come with a standard stainless steel bowl.However, you can get a cheaper version of a tinned finish. Stainless steelis more reliable when it comes to mixing food that has high acidiccontent. Tinned finish bowls are prone to rust if left wet after washing.

Splash Cover - To stop splashing, which occurs when mixing lightsauces or batter at high speeds and maximum size loads, you can use aspecial cover that fits around the rim of the bowl.

Bowl Scraper – Some mixers come with a factory installed bowlscraper. This feature is particularly useful when mixing certain types ofliquids where the ingredients tend to stick to the side of the bowl, whichcan cause incomplete mixing. To deal with this, the machine must beturned off a couple of time to allow the operator to scrape the sides of

the bowl with which can be an inconvenience. However, some machinesnow offer the bowl scraper that can be attached to the mixing part. Thescraper automatically scrapes the sides of the bowl during mixing.

Bowl Lifter – If you run an operation that is mixing dough all day long,this is a useful option to consider. It is a mechanism that raises the bowlinto place for mixing so that the operator does not have to manually liftit as it can be quite time consuming and not to mention heavy whendoing this manually with loaded bowls.

Ingredients Shaft – This piece allows the operator to add ingredientsinto the bowl while the mixer is running. It is great for addingingredients like sugar and flour to obtain the best mix!

Remember, whatever the size and need of your operation, AustralianCatering Equipment Supplies can provide the best match for your. Notonly can we assist you with the best of commercial cateringEquipment and food and restaurant equipment supplies but we can alsohelp you with making informed choices with honest, well-researchedand reliable professional advice!