KA Problem, Dilemma, Aargh!!!

[Wart]

Good used small Hobart mixers are a dime a dozen at used restaurant supply stores.

I could buy one in a heart beat [12qt] and not pay more than 200.00.

Weeellllll Yeeaaah ....

I'm not known to give into impulse buying , but Wife and I were walking through Sears and came across a Pro 5 (5 qt 450 watt lift bowl) for $225, $75 or more off retail, ~25% off, It was so hard to walk past ... I didn't.

Used restaurant supply ... I'll keep that in mind, Just when I saw the price ...

I should start a new thread about my discussion(s) with KA customer service.

I have a cup of coffee, I think i will.

 

[jim262]

Both flour power and motor wattage are products of the marketing department and are best ignored when dealing with practical limits of the Professional 5 Plus and Professional 600. I do not believe that the Professional 600 has any more bread dough capacity than the Pro 5 Plus. On the replacement parts market, the same motor is specified for both mixers and I assume that the same motor is used on the production line as well. It is a nice, competent 250-300 motor that is tortured into outrageous maximum wattage numbers so the marketing department can have its say.

The bowls or both mixers are the same shape with the 5 quart bowl a bit more than ½” shorter. Since I seldom use the top half inch of my six quart bowl when baking bread, I believe that the additional capacity of the big bowl does not translate into anything usable when mixing bread.

My old Professional 6 is about to have its fourth birthday and have found that as long I keep the flour amount below 1kg\35 ounces I can knead any dough to completion as long as it is hydrated at 62%-65% even if I want to knead for 8-10 minutes. With multigrain and\or high proportions of whole wheat, I find that the mixer is most comfortable with 28-32 ounces of flour.

Whenever I have tried to exceed these amounts, the strain on the mixer increases very quickly. The dough starts to escape and if the dough nears full development and has significant amount of gluten, the dough ball can almost stop the mixer in its tracks.

In practical use, 40-48 ounces of flour is more than is prudent regardless of what the marketing department says about the theoretical maximums of the mixer and which mixer you are using. I am also convinced that a mixer does not necessarily “wear out” with heavy duty use over a period of time. Most problems are the result of a single catastrophic event of overload.

I decided many years ago that preserving my mixer was more important than getting the most dough possible out of it per mixing session and have been rewarded with many hundreds of loaves of bread with no discernible wear on the mixer when the gears are examined.

 

[justplainbill]

Both flour power and motor wattage are products of the marketing department and are best ignored when dealing with practical limits of the Professional 5 Plus and Professional 600. I do not believe that the Professional 600 has any more bread dough capacity than the Pro 5 Plus. On the replacement parts market, the same motor is specified for both mixers and I assume that the same motor is used on the production line as well. It is a nice, competent 250-300 motor that is tortured into outrageous maximum wattage numbers so the marketing department can have its say.

The bowls or both mixers are the same shape with the 5 quart bowl a bit more than ½” shorter. Since I seldom use the top half inch of my six quart bowl when baking bread, I believe that the additional capacity of the big bowl does not translate into anything usable when mixing bread.

My old Professional 6 is about to have its fourth birthday and have found that as long I keep the flour amount below 1kg\35 ounces I can knead any dough to completion as long as it is hydrated at 62%-65% even if I want to knead for 8-10 minutes. With multigrain and\or high proportions of whole wheat, I find that the mixer is most comfortable with 28-32 ounces of flour.

Whenever I have tried to exceed these amounts, the strain on the mixer increases very quickly. The dough starts to escape and if the dough nears full development and has significant amount of gluten, the dough ball can almost stop the mixer in its tracks.

In practical use, 40-48 ounces of flour is more than is prudent regardless of what the marketing department says about the theoretical maximums of the mixer and which mixer you are using. I am also convinced that a mixer does not necessarily “wear out” with heavy duty use over a period of time. Most problems are the result of a single catastrophic event of overload.

I decided many years ago that preserving my mixer was more important than getting the most dough possible out of it per mixing session and have been rewarded with many hundreds of loaves of bread with no discernible wear on the mixer when the gears are examined.

Thanks Jim.
Since I do not think the time necessary for peparation, clean up, and proper oven preheating is justifiable for less than 4 1/2 pounds of bread(~48 oz flour), it seems your telling me to forget about KA machines.

 

[jim262]

If I want an input of 48 to 60 ounces of flour and an output of five pounds or more of completed bread, I find it quicker to divide the batches and mix two sequentially rather than contemplate a mixer that can do it one build.

Stopping the mixer to rearrange the dough and scraping it down off the dough hook can be a whole lot more time consuming than a second mix. At the end of the second mix, the dough can be briefly kneaded together for one bulk fermentation or you can use a second rising bucket.

You can opt for donut hole mixer like a Bosch or Electrolux or even search for a 10-12 quart commercial Hobart that can handle loads like that. I know a few bread enthusiasts who went the Bosch or Electrolux route and all of them keep a KitchenAid in the stable for cakes and cookies since the KA seems to blow the doors off those mixers for those applications.

It all boils down to the right tool for the job and the right job for tool and when budgetary considerations are taken into account, the wide bowl KitchenAids make more sense to me than finding a mixer that will yeild copious amounts of bread in one mix. KitchenAids are incredibly cheap today, but a 6 quart KitchenAid is not a 12 quart Hobart, but it seems that the capacity of 12 quart Hobarts is expected by many users.