i currently have a commissary making my dough and want to start making it myself. I use between 200-800lbs of flour per day depending on the season. What size mixer should i purchase? Will a 60qt hold up if i get one of the legacy models or do i need an 80qt single phase or 3 phase?
60 we should be fine. … While the legacy brands are good, don’t overlook something else that has good rep and local support.
3 phase if you can, but don’t stress if single is what you end up with. bigger concern is keeping the consistency with what you have been using.
I would get an 80 or a 140 quart. Lots of guys use a 60 qt. mixer to make batches with 50lbs of flour, but it is overloading the machine and overfilling the bowl. If you plan to use 50lbs. of flour/batch, an 80 qt will work better. We use a 140qt. hobart and mix 100 lbs of flour/batch. For the volume you are talking about, this would be a good option. Don’t forget to consider a dough rounder for that volume, you will want/need it. You can pick up a good 80qt hobart used in the 3-5k range or a 140 qt. in the 4-6k range, and most used hobarts will outlive their owners.
Hi Dumo
We have placed hundreds of reconditioned Hobart 60 qt Mixers nation wide.
Our chain accounts prefer them over the legacy model.
George Mills
I use an empire spiral mixer that I mix 100 Lbs of flour at a time in. Could mix 150Lbs but find that time wise, 100Lbs works best for us. I would second what perfect pizzas said regarding a dough rounder. We use an A and M MFG R-900T and it works great. Makes cutting, balling and traying 100Lbs batches a one person operation at 15 minutes per batch. http://www.ammfg.com/dough_R900T.html
I’m in the same boat with Paul 7979. In a commissary operation, mixing that amount of dough a spiral mixer with a 150 to 200-pound flour capacity would be my first choice. Spiral mixers are real work horses, they can mix a dough sized down to 25% of rated capacity or as large as 125% (though not recommended as a steady diet). The divider/rounder is hard to beat, but if cost is an issue, you can always hand divide and machine round (still very fast). The main reason why we don’t see spiral mixers in greater use in pizzerias is because they are a dedicated dough mixer. Most do not have an attachment head and do not use a paddle/flat beater for sauce preparation. Many pizza commissaries use the spiral mixers very successfully.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor