Avancini SP5 spiral mixer for mtlstyle

[mtlstyle]

Behold!

This machine will satisfy my kneads. BOW BEFORE ZOD!

I am now the terrifying owner of an Avancini SP5 spiral mixer. The population of Tokyo flees like ants before me. Purchased from www.mrcappuccino.com (Calgary, Canada) for 1350$ and delivered to Montreal for 122.50$ in 2 weeks. 110v power cord included. Non-tilting head. Non-removable bowl. No output for attachments (pasta, meat grinder, gatling).

As mentioned by others here, it weighs a ton. It kneads dough like a knife through butter. A pleasure to watch. Since the bowl is not removable, I've placed the whole thing in the sink. Makes cleaning it much easier. Then, I just hang it out the window to dry.

It's built to last forever. I'm sure I can leave this to my children when I die. Whether they want it or not, even if it's the last thing I do. Bunch of ingrates. Don't appreciate good gluten. Survival of the species is so overrated.

[Jackie Tran]

mtlstyle congrats on your new toy.   I'm sure you'll have a great time with it.  I hope you don't live in a one story as I can see that mixer walking off by itself.   

It sounds like you looked at a bunch of them before deciding on this one.  How and why did you choose this particular brand or model?

Chau

[mtlstyle]

I already owned a Cuisinart tilting head planetary. I figured that the Kitchenaid non-tilting head would be better. Then, the Electrolux dlx magic mill and the various Bosch seemed even better. Watching videos of all these, I was not convinced that they would work the whole batch uniformly. I didn't feel like taking the chance. I was then tempted by the Santos fork mixer but worried that the bowl would just stop turning if the dough settled in the wrong way. All that was left was to get a Spiral mixer. If I was living in Europe then I would have gone for the Haussler Alpha (tilting head, removable bowl, timer, quieter). In a compromise with my wallet, I opted for a model distributed in Canada. At the time of ordering, I knew of only one, the Avancini SP5. A week later, I discovered the Mecnosud PK5M out of Toronto. I leave it to others to evaluate the Mecnosud and report here.

[Matthew]

I already owned a Cuisinart tilting head planetary. I figured that the Kitchenaid non-tilting head would be better. Then, the Electrolux dlx magic mill and the various Bosch seemed even better. Watching videos of all these, I was not convinced that they would work the whole batch uniformly. I didn't feel like taking the chance. I was then tempted by the Santos fork mixer but worried that the bowl would just stop turning if the dough settled in the wrong way. All that was left was to get a Spiral mixer. If I was living in Europe then I would have gone for the Haussler Alpha (tilting head, removable bowl, timer, quieter). In a compromise with my wallet, I opted for a model distributed in Canada. At the time of ordering, I knew of only one, the Avancini SP5. A week later, I discovered the Mecnosud PK5M out of Toronto. I leave it to others to evaluate the Mecnosud and report here.

Congratulations on your new mixer.  To clean it just add about 1/4 cup hot water to the bowl & wipe it down with blue disposable shop towels. Within a minute or so all the dough residue should be completely dissolved.  Grab another towel to absorb the remaining water & continue wiping while wringing out the absorbed water.  Take another towel & disinfect the bowl by spraying water & vinegar & wiping it dry.  That's it.  The whole process takes less than 5 minutes & is very easy.  There's no need to lug it into your sink & risk getting water in the motor.  I made life alot easier for myself by removing the safety device that shuts the mixer off when the guard is raised.  It was a bit of a pain to remove but well worth it.  Not only does it make cleanup much easier as I can keep the machine running while wiping the interior of the bowl without the guard getting in the way, it also allows me to gradually incorporate my flour to the mix without relying on the narrow opening on the guard.
Where in Toronto did you find the Mecnosud?  What was the price?

Matt

[mtlstyle]

All I know about this Mecnosud source comes from the www.faema.ca website. They have a showroom in Toronto (and others in Ontario) and they sell the Mecnosud line of spiral mixers, including the Mecnosud PK5M and PK8M. The price is not listed and I didn't call them for one. If some future reader is shopping for a spiral mixer, I'm sure some of us would be interested in getting some more complete and up to date information. Or not.

PS. The faema website is very clumsily designed and buggy. It's a pain to get at information and sometimes it just stalls "loading...". It seems to have problems with Firefox but the Chrome browser seems ok to get at the dough mixers. Start with the "Quick Browse / Commercial / ..." button on the left.

I wonder how many 5 kg spiral mixers get sold to individuals annually in North America. I bet it's not much more than 10, maybe less. And yet, there are more than a dozen models from different Italian manufacturers.