Does anyone here make their dough in a spiral mixer instead of a planetary mixer?
I had an Impasti for years…wish I kept it!
Spiral mixers are known for their durability, low maintenance and repair costs. What else could one ask for? An attachment hub. That’s the only real down side to a spiral mixer. It means that you will need to have another mixer with an attachment hub, or a grinder or VCM to shred your cheese and do other shredding and grinding chores around to shop, its not necessarily a problem, that’s just the way it is. Spiral mixers will mix a dough as small as 25% of the stated bowl capacity, which can be anything from about 50 to 300-pounds of flour weight. Keep in mind that with most, if not all of the smaller size spirals, the bowl is permanently attached to the mixer, so if you are accustomed to mixing your dough on one side of your shop using a planetary mixer, then detaching the bowl and pulling it (on a dolly or otherwise) across the shop to the cutting table, this will not work with a spiral, instead, you’ll need to move the mixer closer to the cutting table, or pick up a fairly inexpensive cart or dough tub to put the dough on/in to move it to the cutting table.
As to what brand is best? I’ve looked at, and evaluated a bunch of them, and for the mosr part, there isn’t a bad one in the bunch, just make sure to buy something that you can readily get parts and service for…just in case.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor