Has anyone made a comparison of mixing bread with a dough hook or dough spiral? Is on better than the other? do they both work well on large or small batches?
Hello,
My standard mixer (with a dough hook) is a Kitchenaid Commercial 8qt mixer, my spiral is a Famag IM-8 High Hydration Spiral mixer (Italy). I’m also in the throws of purchasing my first twin diving arm mixer, but I’m still comparing the features…
Both of my mixers work great, but the Kitchenaid is better for smaller batches. The Famag is a heavy chain driven beast and can handle anything you put in it with aplomb. I much prefer the spiral hook for some doughs, the regular Kitchenaid hook works great for some things. The spiral mixer does amazing things to the dough… I’m so glad I have one in my home boulangerie and patisserie.
My next mixer will be a two arm diving arm mixer and then the large countertop Hobart mixer. That will complete my mixing needs and will give me four mixers to handle my needs. Mixers are like sports cars, you can never have too many… The diving arm mixer was “Amore a Prima Vista” for me… Can’t wait to get one in and give it a go!
Cheers!
Apparently, the KitchenAid 8qt commercial mixer is essentially the same thing as the KitchenAid 7qt pro mixer with a slightly larger bowl and a contractor’s orange power cord, and nice knobs. Both use the same 1800 watt motor, and I suspect the same heads as users have complained the commercial mixer often bogs down and stalls requiring smaller mixing loads. The KitchenAid commercial mixer, complete with the contractor’s orange power cord, can now be had for $550 at Costco Business Center stores, $250 less than the $800 MSRP. Note: the regular Costco Warehouse stores do not carry the commercial mixer, only the Costco Business Center stores do. My next planetary mixer will be a Teddy, 5qt bowl.
If you buy the Hobart N50 counter-top mixer, be aware warranty and any other repairs may be an issue for your home-based business. Hobart does not maintain a repair center, all equipment repairs are done onsite in restaurants. Hobart will not come to a residential location to effect repairs, warranty or otherwise, and there is nowhere for you to take the mixer for warranty repairs. Hobart claims the N50 does not come with a warranty if used in a home, the warranty is only for N50’s in restaurants … and all planetary mixers require periodic maintenance.
I believe the Famag is chain driven only for the spiral hook and belt driven for the bowl. Not sure that it matters, except, again, for necessary periodical maintenance to tighten the belt. The SpiralMac is completely chain driven, both the spiral hook and the bowl. There are many spiral mixers coming out of Italy and Russia. (Russia is also big on smaller, counter-top, double arm mixers.) I had a SpiralMac for a short while. A spiral mixer is definitely a game changer for bread dough, never got around to trying it with pizza dough but I can imagine it would be fantastic. My KitchenAid has never gotten close to mixing dough as silky and smooth as a spiral mixer. I’m waiting on a tweak for the SpiralMac before buying it.
It is amazing how quiet a spiral mixer is. The down side of a spiral mixer is the amount of flour/dough necessary to make it work. The mixer above supposedly works with dough made with as little as 1/2kg (500g) of flour. When I tried 500g of flour and 375g water (75% hydration), the machine mixed the dough properly, but then pulled it right up into the center of the spiral, and it went around and around and around … nothing got kneaded.
Thanks for your reply Otis… I’m on old Kitchenaid user from back when I was a young lad. The unit I had required three rebuilds over twenty-five years (I did all of them) before I scrapped it. I kept the lower mounting base unit and the two bowls and I mount one on the base (no upper unit motor) and use it as a supplemental bowl for various tasks. It has sentimental value to me…
My Kitchenaid 8qt Commercial mixer is not used for heavy dough mixing. It’s used for light to medium duty tasks and whipping primarily. My unit has the commercial wire safety cage that is not shown in your photo.
I was aware of the Hobart issues you mention. I was interested in their Legacy series,12qt model. If that comes to fruition, I would probably buy a used unit, so “no warranty” is not an issue in this instance. I believe you are correct on the Famag chain and belt drives, IIRC…
My current equipment does not see heavy usage, so it tends to last. I also take very good care of it…
Cheers!
Hello again Otis,
Some spiral mixer manufacturers offer a special breaker bar that is closer to the spiral hook than the regular bar and is recommended when using smaller batches in the mixer.
It helps to prevent the “merry-go-round” effect of the dough ball riding the hook when processing smaller batches of dough.
You might check with Spiralmac to see if they have a similar breaker bar for processing smaller batches. Just a thought…
Also, the Kitchenaid Commercial 8qt mixer is NSF certified and comes with all solid stainless steel attachments and a stainless steel wire bowl guard, the Pro 7qt you mentioned has coated attachments (dough hook and flat paddle according to the Kitchenaid website) and a stainless steel wire whisk.
That’s a big difference for me, as I prefer solid stainless steel for better durability.
Cheers!
Correction… The metal bowl guard I mentioned in the above post on the Kitchenaid 8qt Commercial mixer is chrome plated metal (probably steel), not stainless steel. The edit window has passed, so I noted the correction in a follow up post.
Cheers!
Their newer Royal models seem to solve this problem, according to the description in Italian and other languages, but not in the English version. Here’s the translation: They all have a close breaker bar, upgraded components, and reverse gear capability as standard. (Montano tutte di serie spartipasta ravvicinato, componenti potenziate e possibilità di Retromarcia.)
Thanks for the info (and translation) on the breaker bar and mixing small batches. The Spiralmac hook spins about 1/4 inch (or less) from the breaker bar, about 1/8 inch from the bottom of the bowl, is spec’d to mix a minimum of 1/2 kg flour. One of the spiral mixers (I think it was Famag) introduced an optional breaker bar with a bend that put the bar closer to the spiral. I wasn’t sure why they did that, perhaps to mix smaller batches of dough?
Cleaning spiral mixers has always be an issue, typically, they do not disassemble for cleaning, so the bowl and hook just get wiped down. The Spiralmac is a design that allows for removal of the bowl, breaker bar, and hook for cleaning. Both Famag and Haussel have spiral mixers with heads that tilt up to facilitate removal of parts for cleaning. The Spiralmac differs in that removing the breaker bar allows for removal of the hook, similar to a KitchenAid bowl-lift stand mixer, then a twist to remove the bowl. No tilting head. The SS bowl alone on the smaller size 5 Spiralmac weighs around 7-lbs.
The Spiralmac Royal, with speed control and reverse, is the model available in America. The tweak Spiralmac is doing is a redesign of the current spiral hook retention scheme. I’ve noticed all of the Spiralmac Royals with the hook retention problem are now off the market. A retrofit with a new design is in progress and the mixers will be back on the market shortly. A spiral mixer is an absolute game changer to bread making, on par with a proofing boxes and grain mills for improving the quality of bread and pizza dough, and supposedly knocks it out of the park for pasty dough, too. Downside is the cost of the machines. For someone that makes bread occasionally, it is probably not worth getting one.
Yep, I replaced the coated hook and paddle on my 7 qt pro with stainless steel ones after seeing the chipping missing pieces of coating 
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