Routine / Periodic Equipment Maintenance = Money Saved

Hello Bakers!

     I just got through the "ugly" part of undoing neglected maintenance on a Hobart A200T. I have my Aircraft maintenance license and by law, aircraft have to be maintained. The ramifications of a malfunctioning aircraft are obvious, but the same need for maintenance is true for all mechanical equipment.

     All things have a natural tendency to wear out and fail... Maintenance, whether it is your body or your mixer can hold off the inevitable for a very long time, A properly functioning mixer will give you years of pleasure and trouble free mixing.

    Preventative Maintenance is like it sounds. You do things to prevent problems from happening.

     LUBRICATION is CRITICAL to displace heat and keep parts, that are in contact with each other from destroying themselves. Strait petroleum lubricants break down quickly as they are used. I highly recommend using pure SYNTHETIC lubricants.

     If you buy a used mixer, and see the seals leaking oil *(around the planetary assembly, the transmission shifter, and the auxiliary attachment hub, etc)... it is past due for the grease to be changed. The grease has broken down to the point of separation.  AT this point you may also need a overhaul and the seals replaced. Hobart will not make "house calls" to private owners so you have to take them to a repair facility, do it yourself, or have a trusted mechanic help you...  I also recommend you replace your grease with a synthetic food grade grease.

   The rails on the bowl lifting assembly need to be regularly greased.. These rails are often splashed with solids and liquids..They need to be cleaned and lubricated regularly.

    Over the long run, changing grease is probably the top priority to ensuring a mixer runs properly for a long time. Unfortunately, most mixers are not properly maintained.

     Keeping things clean

     Hobart mixers use air cooling for the motors (5 - 20 qt models that I know of). Air intakes from the underside of the stand and is drawn up through post and past the motor.  My mixer is a later model A200T and the protective grid was 80+% blocked with flour. When I looked at the fan on the motor it was lightly covered with flour. Heat will destroy a motor. Flour/sugar etc will gum up bearings, build up on switches and electrical contacts and  prevent heat dissipation... etc.  burn out your motor and you are looking at $311 for the rotor ( rotating part) and $733 for the stator( around the rotor) for an A200T. This alone may not ruin the motor but all these things add up.

     My repairs were needed because something caustic got on the main shaft that turns the planetary assembly and they rusted together. I was going to take it to Hobart to repair this but they start with a $70 shop fee and $100/ hr labor. A worst case scenario would have cost up to $2000 for repairs...It is also a $60 in gas round trip to take it there.  Hobart mechanics were very helpful sharing their experience of what may be wrong and how to proceed... I followed their advice and finally got things apart. It will cost me about $350 to get this all back together and running like "new".

    As you clean, inspect thing... if you touch the timer/ switches with wet or dough covered fingers.. you may be getting this into the switch, the timer... into the axillary attachment port... the bowl attach point locks. On the back rails of the bowl elevator etc.  Is condensation building up on the mixer?  Is the mixer splashed with, or sitting in liquid? It all adds up.

    My mixer has the original safety cage around the bowel  The front of the cage is $380 to replace and the back stainless shield is $290.  I inspected this front cage... the little magnet is about $50 to replace and it was hanging on by one screw. The top white plastic guide had fallen off ($45)...  Other screws needed tightening too...

   The locking arms on the bowl attach point were loose too...

   Do YOU have a dirty planetary assembly?

   This area is like the area under your bed... it is not that hard to get at but is easy to ignore. The safety cage on my mixer was not hard at all to remove.. 3 screws.. this opens up the underside of the planetary so you can get it CLEAN and inspect for leaking lubrication, or indications of heavy condensation or foreign materials that may get up in there and gum or like mine rust things up.. There is grease on the gears up there too.. remove the castle nut and retaining nut and that whole assembly slides off for easy inspection..

    Do not over stress your mixer

    No matter how good of care you've taken of your mixer, if you push it beyond its structural limits, it will fail.  Hobart has a section in the technical manual that lists what weight of dough and type that can be mixed and by what agitators ( beater/ whip/ hook). There are "sacrificial" parts designed into the mixer that will fail before there is a major over stress, but this will require a tear down to repair. This stress does effect all the parts to some degree. The "next" time one of them may fail.

    This stress can also heats up your motor past its limits. THIS can destroy your motor and is a major repair. You can often smell a motor that has gotten too hot... a very bad sign..

     My mixer was used to make pretzel dough.. one of the heaviest types of dough. The store that used it obviously over stressed this unit because the key that locks the gears on the shaft was fractured and there was sign on the gears of high stress ( abrasion).

   If you can not keep within the structural limits of your mixer, your mixer is too small. You may get away with it for a time, but eventually you will have major problems.

   Be Careful when you buy used mixers. Some people do not really know what they are selling and some know EXACTLY what they are selling. Unless you are into restoring older mixers or abused ones, you may be in for a unpleasant and expensive surprise.

    Safety...

     Is your electrical cord wearing out? Even a genuine Hobart replacement is only $86. You can buy the unfinished cord yourself and build an equivalent quality replacement. (know your limits - and don't skimp in quality) You may find by the time you make this cord it is 75% the cost of just buying it.

    The more you know about your mixer, and can perform maintenance, the cheaper it will be to own one of these commercial quality mixers. They are built like a tank and tanks are very expensive to manufacture and repair. For home and semi-professional use, they should last a life time "With Proper Maintenance"...