What to do when mixer goes down Fri. Night!

[Ouzoshots]

Haven’t posted for awhile, been over 4 months with my new pizza place (first time owner/operator in pizza). Last Friday my Hobart 60qt started making the wonderful grinding noise of metal, looking down into gear housing, I suspected no oil. Fri afternoon took a trip down to Hobart and picked up some oil. Got back to the shop in the evening. Lamenting the expense of pouring this expensive thick liquid, I start feeling like I accomplished something without the need of a tech. Several minutes later all the oil is sitting in my bowl and under the motor. Fortunately, I had purchased another used mixer at a ridiculous price which I kept not far from the shop. Saturday morning we placed it on a wooden moving cart and pushed it down the street with three other people for several blocks. It’s not everyday you see guys with aprons pushing a 60qt mixer up and down sidewalks and driveways. Anyhow, got the other one up and running, but the stress alone was enough for the whole week. We made dough just in the nick of time, I was down to a just few dough balls.
I started thinking of backup plans if my other mixer didn’t work.
Have any of you guys (&gals) worked up any war plans for such scenarios? This could happen to ovens as well.

 

[d9phoenix]

Generally i have enough dough in the walkin for 3 days of regular business. And i have had the mixer break down before, called my tech in and he had it up and running the next day. Would have rather not had to pay the extra for on call, but hey, i stayed open and in business.

As for the Ovens, in my years it has happened a few times. Never had both ovens go out at the same time tho (i have always worked with double stacks).

Must oven guys that i have dealt with are available almost 24 hours. They might be on another job but can usually make it to you within a day tops under these conditions.

 

[GotRocks]

You must have a horseshoe up your butt to be lucky enough to have a working back-up mixer close by.

Gee Thanx;
You had to go and remind me that my spiral mixer is at least 15 years old, it was a cheap import, and there are no parts or services available for it anymore (Impasti Brand). And if it decides to give up the ghost, I may be hosed on the pizza end of our restaurant for a bit. I also have a “Globe 20 QT” that I wouldn’t even try doing dough in, the darn thing pops the overload breaker just from using the grinder head.

a bakery down the road from us is closing shop, and they have the exact same mixer, so maybe I call them and offer them a few bucks as a parts back up…

 

[paul7979]

There have always been a couple other stores in town that are part of my franchise so in the worst case scenario I would have to make dough there. I have been fortunate with my mixer only going down once in the 18 years I have been in business and in this situation I made dough in my VCM which I normally use only for grinding cheese and mixing sauce. My mixer was down for a few weeks and the VCM worked fine for making dough for that time.

 

[December]

If youre going to be without a mixer for a few days in the future, id suggest looking to see if there is a dough buisness in your area. Call them up and ask if you can buy dough from them in a pinch. I have a dough buisness a quarter mile from my store.
Or ask your bread supplier if they make pizza dough. Both of mine do.
Just to get you back on your feet and take the stress away for a bit

 

[Georgiascp]

The best thing you can do is what you did have a back up in case one goes down. We have had our mixer break on a busy weekend because of course that is when it happens. At that point we didnt have a backup and you gotta do what you gotta do to keep going I got all hands on deck to mix dough by hand and it was a nightmare something I never want to do again. We now have a hobart 80qt and a vcm so if one or the other goes out we can still keep the business going. As for the ovens you want to have at a minimum a double stack for the same reasons one goes out you use the other and yes it does happen your oven will go out at some point just like your mixer did. Just be prepared have your service guys # on hand and call them out right away. If you would like to pm me I know a guy in the montebello area that works on hobart mixers he does a good job and not as expensive as hobart.