May 20, 2010 - 4:12pm
Thunderbird 10 qt mixer
My wife is looking for a mixer that will knead copious quantities of dough and also serve as a day to day stand mixer. I have been looking at the Thunderbird 10 qt--which is a big mixer but appears to have the power to mix concrete if necessary.
My question is this--a person at Thunderbird told her that the mixer made a single pie crust for his wife. Do y'all think that this mixer is able to handle small jobs as well as larger ones?
I am not a baker, the mixer may be overkill, but can anyone help me out? (Another consideration is that the TB accepts attachments--which the 8 qt globe doesn't).
Our KitchenAid, which was supposed to be eternal, has been reduced to a smoking ruin of burnt transmission and stripped gears.
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Last year I got an Anvil 10 qt mixer and it has been great. I demolished my KitchenAid, thus forcing me to upgrade to a commercial mixer (I was baking for the local farmer's market). You can get it for less than the Thunderbird (from what a quick look showed me).
From my experience a 10 qt commercial mixer can do the work nonstop and about twice the load of a KitchenAid, but don't expect it to do too much. A KitchenAid can comfortably do a load of dough using a pound of flour, my Anvil can do a load using 2 lbs of flour, and I don't have to worry about straining the motor. But much more and it would probably start having issues. It can also do a smaller load of dough with 1 lb of flour.
Last year I got an Anvil 10 qt mixer and it has been great. I demolished my KitchenAid, thus forcing me to upgrade to a commercial mixer (I was baking for the local farmer's market). You can get it for less than the Thunderbird (from what a quick look showed me).
From my experience a 10 qt commercial mixer can do the work nonstop and about twice the load of a KitchenAid, but don't expect it to do too much. A KitchenAid can comfortably do a load of dough using a pound of flour, my Anvil can do a load using 2 lbs of flour, and I don't have to worry about straining the motor. But much more and it would probably start having issues. It can also do a smaller load of dough with 1 lb of flour.
You might be underestimating your mixers capabilities. Manufacturers of residential type mixers tend to express capacities of mixers by flour weight, but commercial man. usually state limits by weight, which is much more telling of what they can do.
As far as commercial mixers go, I'd be pretty disappointed in a 10qt mixer that could only handle maybe 3 1/2 lbs of dough based on your flour weight. I use a 7 qt Cuisinart at home now an it can mix 5 lbs of 60% hydration dough with ease. I had a 30 qt Berkel with a 1 hp motor for about 4 years when I owned a deli/bakery. (The Thunderbird is 1/2 hp) and the Anvil is 1/3hp) This mixer would mix up to 22 lbs of a 57% hydration Italian Bread dough every day and sometimes twice a day with little effort.( or as little as 5 lbs of dough or about 17%) A good commercial mixer should be able to handle 70% of its bowl capacity by weight. I would expect a 10 qt mixer to mix close to 7 lbs of dough. Of course this number is variable depending on the stiffness of the dough! Your mixer will tell you immediately if it is working too hard.
John
I expect the top end ability will be great. It should mix all the bread I want to bake at any time. I usually mix a 57-58% AR dough, 3-1/2# total batch size, surely not too much for a pro like these my lovey-hubby is steering me toward.
The real question is: how will it do AS MY ONLY MIXER? Will I be able to mix up a single batch of banana bread, or meringue for one pie? Do I need to plan to accomodate two separate mixers in my rather smallish kitchen? I'm leaning toward taking my chances, and putting the Thunderbird on a rolling work table if necessary.
I have been looking at the Anvil, but it doesn't have a meat grinder, which is important to me. If I need two mixers, one for bread and one for small baking, the Anvil works fine and it fits under my kitchen shelf. I would get another KA with which to use the attachments. If I need only one, the Thunderbird speaks to me even though it may need an island.
Did you ever get one of these mixers? I just bought a used Thunderbird mixer. I really feel I need a planetary mixer as I'm not loving my DLX as much as I should. I mean, I LOVE it compared to the KitchenAid I had for a minute, but, I have to babysit WAY too much and I'm always having to push the dough down and work with it WHILE it's kneading, and that's just not efficient.
Don't have the new mixer yet, and I'm not getting rid of this DLX mixer until I truly find the love of the planetary, but I think a smaller commercial mixer would be a better bet for me (I hope).
ETA: I thougth I had bought one, but the seller was too shady (wanted outside ebay payment - money order.
I have a Hobart C-100 10 quart mixer that I absolutely love. It does have some issues with the bowl arms because of rough treatment from a previous owner and a rough weld - but moter and everything else has worked wonderful for past year up until this weak weld just gave away.
Downside to Hobart C-100 10 quart is it hasn't been made in 40 years and is hard to find parts for. Hobart doesn't make anything smaller than a 12 quart mixer anymore. It weighs about 96lbs which is pretty heavy if you need to move it around. Unfortunately I take mine to Church a couple times a year. This is a lot lighter than most 10 quarts on the market today but 15 or 20lbs heavier than the Thunderbird. It only has a 1/4 hp motor if I remember right but that has never been an issue...motor is tough.
Upside is they are built really tough and they have a #10 hub which is the same size at the Kitchaid mixers. This means that if you are moving up from a Kitchen Aid mixer all of your attachments like grain mill, pasta maker etc. will all work on the Hobart. This is a really nice feature and I haven't found any other mixer larger than the 6 quart Kitchen Aid that has a #10 hub. It mixes like a dream and I have mixed bread dough in 3lb batches and up to 9lb batches always with wonderful results. Kneads dough wonderfully.
They can be found on ebay or craigslist for around $900-$1,100. I got mine for $125 without any attachments but like I said it has some structural issues with the bowl arms which I was aware of and took a risk. I found bowl on line for about $200 and dough hook for about $100 I think. Regular beater can also be found online for around $60-$75. So there are still attachments that can be found...you just have to look for them.
I would receommend the Hobart C-100 or C-100T to anyone (T has timer) who already has Kitchen Aid attachments and wants to move up to a 10 quart mixer. I don't have personal experience with the other 10 quarts discussed but I will say that the Thunderbird seems to have an odd sized Hub at a #8 where most Commercial Mixers have a #12. That being said I have looked at them before I got the Hobart and almost bought one because I really liked the specs and weight.
I was a professional baker in a previous career although I never worked with anything smaller than a 360 quart during that time. From that experience I can tell you that my 10 quart does a much better job of kneading bread than my Kitchen Aid and I wasn't unhappy with it.
I bought a C-100 for my church kitchen and they dearly love it. Strong, dependable, and with a #10 hub!
The church ladies are in seventh heaven.