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Quick mixer question

J

JConk007

New member
Hello all!
Brief intro my name is John I can’t figure I pad how to get to bottom of message so sorry and thank you!
FYI I have been posting over at pizza making.com for the last 6 or so years.
I built a WFO in the back yard 6 years ago and instantly became obsessed with Neapolitan pizza I have recently started a small mobile wood fired pizza catering. Based on demand! I see there are a few members here with mobile experience who I look forward to speaking with. Everything is paid for and my target market is small private catering (for now) 3-5 parties a month. It’s a passion for me but may as well make a few $ while at it 😃
My mobile oven is 40" and my average party is like 50 dough balls
I do a Neapolitan style dough @ 62% hydration Caputo flour. So…

My questions On the mixers are as follows
I have found a great deal on a 30 qt Hobart
What’s the minimum flour these mixers like?
Maximum?
How are they with the higher hydration dough
Aside from being more cost effective can they make the quality dough of a similar sized spiral mixer?
And finally how do they compare with the spiral mixer aside from they are priced better
 
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A 30-qt planetary mixer will mix a dough based on as little as 5-pounds of flour to as much as 15-pounds. I say this very cautiously tough as all mixers are not equal, in any sense. An older, or well used mixer of that size may not handle more than only 10-pounds of flour, or it has been abused, even less. Your mixer will be a 3-speed, put the water in the bowl first, then add the flour and the rest of the ingredients, holding the oil (if used) out until the dough has mixed for about 120-seconds. Mix at low speed for 2-minutes, add the oil, mix one more minute in low speed, then, if possible, mix for 8-minutes in second speed. If the mixer won’t handle the second speed part, do all of the mixing in first speed, the total mixing time will br about 17-minutes. Feel the top of the mixer after mixing a dough, if it is extremely hot, reduce the amount of flour used, of if the mixer stalls while mixing, this is a sure sign that your dough is too big for the mixer.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Go to the Hobart site. They have a chart listing maximum flour capacity for each mixer as a function of hydration level. Tom has a good point in that an older tired or abused mixer may not be as capable as a newer mixer.
We use 2- 20 quart mixers in our mobile operation with 13.5# of flour/batch at a 67% hydration level. Final mixing is done on speed one. If the mixer heats up then we switch to the other mixer. We’ve thought about going to a 30 quart but they are a bear to move.
 
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Do keep in mind that the flour weights given by Hobart are for a bread dough having an absorption of 5 to 7% less than most pizza doughs, that combined with the use of high gluten flour will make for a potentially stiffer, tougher pizza dough, which reduces the mixing capacity of the mixer.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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For a dough with a total bakers precent of about 160, that figures out to roughly 12.5-pounds of flour weight.
In case you’re wondering how I did that:
  1. Add up the total of all the bakers percentages for all of the ingredients inthe dough.
  2. Move the decimal point two places to the left (that is actually dividing the number by 100)
  3. Then divide the total dough weight by the product of #2 above.
    Don’t ya just love math?
    Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Thanks all for the replies! I have decided to hold off on the hobart style mixer as I have access to a Diving arm that does 25 lbs of flour. I asked the owner if he minded and said anytime just come on in Being I am making a neapolitan style dough t 62% hydration I want to be gentle and this mixer is amazing 25lbs should cover the parties I am doing at this time.
Thanks again
 
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Curious…does “Diving” arm mixer mean a Spiral Mixer? Never heard that one before.
 
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i have a hobart 30 quart and we mix 26lbs of flour in it every day 4 times a day for 2 years now never had an issue with it
 
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The Diving Arm is a more gentle way to mix the Neapolitan dough I am working with at 65% hydration. It keeps it cooler and does not overwork it, designed to simmulate the hand motion stretch and fold method. Little hard to clean but produces an excellent dough!
and
 
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