January 16, 2021 - 12:55pm
Famag IM-5S Help, dough climbing up
Hi, Can any other Famag Grilletta owners help me out here? I am mixing my first batch of pizza dough with 74% hydration. 1350g 00 flour and 1000g water (and yeast and salt of course). I mixed on speed 2 for about 2 minutes until the dough was combined and then bumped it up to speed 6. Almost immediately the dough climbed up to the top of the hook and I had to stop it. This happened once before but it was on a small batch of bread, total weight of around 1.8 lbs and lower hydration. I figured at that time that it was due to the small batch and low hydration. This is not the case here. I cannot move the breaker bar any closer to the spiral.
My Famag is new from PHG with the curved breaker bar.
Any advice? Thanks!
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For future searchers I have decided to keep this post here, as embarrassing as it is. It turns out I was trying to go in reverse. I guess I did not read the directions. The arrow pointing to the front of the machine is the one you need to press. I, idiotically, was pushing the one pointing to the rear of the machine, which caused my wife to buckle with laughter. So, be sure you are pressing the right button and it will work!
"Curved breaker bar"? That's a recent modification? We're considering this machine, but undecided between fixed and tilting head.
Yes, it is a new feature, in the last year or two I guess? At least that is what Pleasant Hill Grain ships. I'm in the US, it might be different depending on your vendor. It helps with getting the bar closer to the spiral. Here is a pic of it. I've been really impressed with the machine. Yesterday was a 2.6kg batch of pizza dough, which worked out great after I figured out the buttons. Today was a very small batch of ciabatta, around 900 grams. It handled that easily as well. Tomorrow is going to be about 4 kg of whole wheat sourdough, which I'm excited about. It should be fine. In my short time with it I would recommend it. Also, the curved bar doesn't seem to have the same structural issues as some of the reviews I read with the straight bar, which moved on people. I opened up the casing on the top and the bar seems pretty secure to me.
One last edit, I see you are deciding between tilt and fixed. I have the tilting head version. It needs a lot of vertical clearance and I have to turn the machine so it comes out from under my cabinets to tilt the head all the way. That said, I like it because the clearance inside the bowl is small. Like I said, I made ciabatta today and it is super sticky. I cant imagine removing it with the fixed bowl. Being able to tilt the head and get the bowl out to my work space really helped. I only tilted it slightly to get the bowl out and that worked fine for me today. Cleaning is also easy with the tilt head and removable bowl. I'm not sure what the disadvantages are to the tilting head, one more piece to fail maybe?
Your comments on your experience are very helpful. I can see that a sticky dough would be hard to dig out of a fixed bowl. Without making any judgement on which is better, there are actually quite a few things different between the models to accomplish the tilt. Just trying to do my just prudence before jumping in. I can imagine that they're amazing to work with.
I own the same machine as you, but with the previous straight breaker bar. It would be great if you could post a pic of the newer, curved style breaker bar.
I wondered why the machine even had a reverse and pressed it out of curiosity. As you may guess, I was astonished how quickly the dough climbed to the top of the spiral and made a bit of a mess.
Aside from that, I find it to be nearly an industrial grade machine with awesome kneading capability.
Yes, the reverse button is a bit confusing. I guess it works to combine the ingredients, but as soon as you start kneading the dough flies up the hook! Here is a pic of the breaker bar. You can see it is closer to the spiral. I think it is also more secure, having read some of the reviews I was expecting to have to support it more, but it doesn't seem to need it. I agree, its a great machine. After I figured out the buttons I made the pizza dough which was not even a challenge for it. Today I made a small batch of ciabatta and tomorrow a large batch of whole wheat sourdough, which I'm looking forward to.
Thanks for giving us a look. It appears to be the same bar stock with a bend applied by a press in just the right place. Must improve the kneading action. I've never had a problem with mine moving, glad all is well with yours.
The tilting head does indeed take up space. I have to pull mine out from under a cabinet to tilt it as I only have a bit more than 17 inches of clearance between the counter and the shelf. Aligning the drive pins with each other in order to lower the head does take a small bit of fiddling. A small price to pay to have such an awesome machine to use at home.
I'm a home baker who has a hard time understanding what kind of user is best served by the fixed head. It does save you $50 to go fixed head. In my humble opinion there is a convenience to cleaning the spiral and breaker bar with the head lifted and to being able to remove the bowl as well. Without actually using one yourself, it would seem hard to evaluate this advantage.
I happened to visit PHG when they had just received the very first FAMAG. It had a titling head and at the time I didn't even know there was a fixed head version. I ordered the titling head and can't see myself wanting to fuss with a fixed head, but I'm speaking of my wallet and preferences, not yours. If someone has a fixed head, I'd love to know the appeal.
Yes, I am at a great disadvantage trying to assess what a fixed head mixer would be like without seeing one in person, which is why I'm trying to learn from other's experiences. I'm having a hard time finding any comments by someone who owns a Famag fixed head. I also have the added difference of being in Canada which does not have a Famag distributor. Only other brands available here as far as I can see. All with fixed head only. The quote that I received from the US distributor is about $600CDN to get it to my door. So I would have to be convinced that the fixed head were a huge disadvantage before importing a tilting head. The comments here have been helpful. Thank you. Don't wish to hijack this thread.