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Louis,

These formulas you provided are incorrect.

I = Volts
A = Amperage
W = Watts

To find Watts: I / A
To find Amps: I / W
To find Votls: W x A

The correct forumulas are:

Watts = Amps x Volts
Amps = Watts / Volts
Volts = Watts / Amps

Gary
 
Great info guys. Keven, I've read here before about the power of the Westinghouse and my mom did use HER mom's old Westy from appx 1950 for a brief period before purchasing the Hobart KA. That Westy looks very well used--not really presentable on a kitchen counter--as it sits in the original box from the KA that replaced it down in the basement but it likely still performs like a champ.

George, thanks for the juicer advice. Since I own a 70's Sunbeam food processor I'll probably pursue the KA juicer attachment.

Pete, you are correct about the noise factor with KA's. My new "Professional" model sounds pretty raspy at low speed but when you crank it up to full blast it smooths out to high powered whirring and whining reminiscent of a jet engine! I've read that with use the raspy sound will decrease. It's an entirely different sound from the "Classic" or "Ultra Power" models I've used in the past. The "Professional" also has a "soft start" mechanism that supposedly keeps things from flying. I haven't mixed anything yet that would test that feature but will be interested to see if it's effective.

Louis, speaking of the Sunbeam's lack of an attachment port, I was coincidentally channel surfing last night and came upon an episode of "Mama's Family" during a kitchen scene. I noticed the old Mixmaster complete with juicer attachment on the counter. Was that the only attachment those models accommodated? Is it the newer Sunbeams that have no attachment port at all? From what I saw and now remember, the design of that juicer seemed superior to the KA's attachment.

So now one more thing. I panicked when I noticed that there was no spring on the beater shaft of my "Professional" model. I called KA customer service and the lady on the other end advised that higher watt KA mixers don't have a spring on the beater shaft. Does anyone know why?

Thanks again for all the input thus far.

Ralph
 
Divinity

Tom its funny you mention that, last week the choir director at church had some for us that she had made, it was wonderful. I've never made it before so I asked how, and she related that I needed an "ancient" mixer to do so. She said she has a Sunbeam Mixmaster from about 1970 that she's kept just for making Divinity. She said her husband had bought her a Kitchenaid to replace the Sunbeam, but she is so used to the behavior of the Sunbeam with certain recipes that she keeps it around. One of them is Divinity.
Apparently the divinity is done when the Sunbeam slows to the point of almost stopping...
I'll see about getting her to share the recipe with me.
 
I prefer to use a manual juice squeezer - the type you might see at an outdoor fresh orange juice stand. These are very fast and effective, probably faster than a machine operated rotating juicer. Don't know if there are qualitatitve differences between the two methods, but I suspect the manual squeeze machine might extract a bit more of the essential oils in the peel than a rotary juicer. So the taste might be slightly more bitter.

I have a model 9 Mixmastger with juicer, but I admit I haven't tried the juicing feature as yet. Also have a 6 qt Kitchenaid stand mixer, but don't have the juicing attachment for that.
 
I have a manual juicer, the type that squashes the halved orange over a cone much like the old Juice-O-Mats or what you often see at a juice stand. This type of juicer generally makes only a glass at a time and I find it a slow process. Since I have a sh*tload of oranges to process over the next few weeks I'm thinking a motorized juicer will make things go faster. Rather than find a place to store yet another appliance I wouldn't be using year 'round, I am thinking the KA attachment would be a sensible option from both a storage and price point perspective. Plus, I want to put the new KA through its paces. Target has the KA juice extractor on line for $25. I may swing by a Target store and see if they're the same price there.
 
Smoking mixers...

I had that with my Sunbeam 12C Tom, I was making a chocolate pound cake and the poor mixer couldn't take it! First the motor slowed down, then the smoke from the front grille...I was beside myself!
 
There are manual juicers, and then there are manual juicers.

The short squat manual juicers look cool in a countertop. but they don't have the gearing or leverage that the tall ones have, and they don't work nearly as well. When I use mine, the main work is in washing and cutting up the oranges, and disposing of the rinds. I guess one's arm could get tired after a while.

I'll have to do a one-on-one standoff between the Mixmaster juicer and the manual juicer. More to follow...
 
PS-The ultimate orange juicer would be one of those automated machines that one might see in a produce market (like Monterey Market in Berkeley). The staff simply loads a carton of oranges in the top bin, and it automatically selects, halves, and juices oranges until someone makes it stop or it runs out of oranges.

I have a Midknight Valencia juice orange tree in my backyard. It gives a fair crop of fruit, but the flavor isn't always as tasty as I'd like. Perhaps that's partly because it's shaded by an out of control Bearrs lime tree - which I'm thinking of removing and putting a dwarf version in its place. It recently did its usual number, bearing so many limes that the weight broke a major branch. It's unpleasant to prune, as well, because of the occasional big thorns.

Right now it's carpeted the garden with fallen limes... it produces far more than I could ever use. Can't even give them away.
 
LOL, Rich I had the same thing with my giant kumquat limiting access to and distorting the shape of the more desirable orange tree behind it. Kumquats are another type of citrus that's tough to give away. The tree was way too prolific to make use of all the fruit. It would end up covering the ground and drawing gnats. After 17 years my partner and I decided we'd had enough. It's gone, gone, gone, stump all ground out and the orange tree is free again to branch out. It actually looks kind of graceful with the fruit weighing the branches down right now.

I know what you mean about the taller type of manual juicers. My sister has one and things do go faster with that kind of leverage. It's been years since I've been to Monterey Market. My sister used to live a few blocks from there on Sutter. But I've seen the juicer you described at a couple of grocers near me and they are pretty slick!

Looking forward to your test results.

Ralph
 
Ralph,

I already have the "true dwarf" Bears lime tree sitting in its original pot in the back yard, got it last spring, and it's been sheltering under the avocado tree. It's already bearing fruit. I think I'll move it to a larger barrel-size container, and the ax the full size lime tree. It was fun seeing it grow up and I like the limes and all, but it's just gotten too big for the space. I could probably prune it down to a stump and it would regenerate into a more manageable size, but it's also near a walkway and I'm tired of having to step over fallen limes etc.

The soil here is so rich, trees and just about everything else grows vigorously, as long as they get water. Over the xmas break I felled a cedar tree that has very nice, soft foliage but was also encroaching upon two walkways and was way too close to the house (fire danger). That thing took some time to shred and chip ... the branches went every which way. Nice aroma, though. And not to worry, some of the tree's branches took root in the soil around it, and when they start to show signs of life I'll probably dig them and and move them to an area where they will be more appropriate.

The valencia tree won't be ready for juice oranges until spring (unless some from this past spring still on the tree are still edible), but I have plenty of limes for the "experiment". Not that I don't have enough to do... like clearing leaves off roofs and out of gutters... enjoying the rain, are we?
 
Hi Ralph--- I'm a KA mixer user who didn't care for the citrus juicer attachment. I use this shapely beauty, a Philips I bought a number of years ago. Let us know what you think of the juicer attachment; for $25 it's certainly worth trying. You may really like it.

The kitchen photo above: Don't square coffee cups increase the chances of dribbling out the corners of your mouth? I suppose one needs to tip it up at a corner.

1-3-2008-21-04-34--Frigilux.jpg
 
Choosing a Mixer

Tempting as it sounds, wattage is not a good indicator how well a mixer performs. You would think since the 1930 an engineer would have created a machine that be nearly perfect but alas that has failed to materialize. I want a mixer that requires little bowl scraping, easy to wipe lean with no crevaces to catch or trap food and slow stir and fast whip with minimal splash or spatter.

Kitchenaid makes a great mixing machine and most of their attachments work well and are durable. The grinder/strainer attachment have performed well. The pasta roller and cutter sure make pasta making more enjoyable and fast than my hand crank machine. The juicer attachment leaves much to be desired, the strainer clogs quickly, juice runs down my arm, and you can't apply much pressure w/o the unit moving. I much prefer the juicing attachment of a Sunbeam mixmaster with the joggling strainerusing a slower than recommended speed setting to have juice with less pulp. However, that attachment has been long ago discontinued. Kenwood, Viking and Cuisinart have similar juicing attachments, but have screens that clog quickly too. I haven't have much success with the pasta extruder attachments either, something I haven't practiced enough to give an opinion. The Cuisinart, Viking and Kenwood mixers are misleading in their capacities, one cannot make big batches like you can with an equivalent sized Kitchenaid. Also Kitchenaid offers far more support to keep their appliances working for you. They have great customer support providing parts for all but their oldest models there is internet and telephone help available as well. Kitchenaid and a forum of users with all levels of expertise willing to repond to problems and or delimas you may have and they do it for free just to be of help. It is moderated by a great group of Kitchenaid employees. Their willingness to help is becoming more difficult to find in this modern world we live in, still believing it the details and little things that matter most in making a difference.

One must also consider the ease of using atttachments, how easy is it use the blender on a Viking or Cuisinart when quick pulsing is needed to control texture?

I prefer using my Robot-Coupe processor for all my slicing, shredding, using Cuisinart wide feed tube blades. The juice extractor is also nice to use. Robot-Coupe processors for home use have been discontinued too.

There are not enough consumers doing "from scratch" food preparation to warrant manufacturing these accessories any longer. Fortunate for many of us, ebay is a way of often getting a vintage appliance or accessory.

I like vintage mixers, among the two beater revolving bowl models Sunbeam models 10, 11, & 12 and MM series are great for cakes and cookies. I had a dough "hook" model but could only make one loaf of bread not using more than 3 1/2 of flour. It required too much attention to enjoy using. The Sunbeam grinder is very slow compared to a Kitchenaid model. Vintage Westinghouse, GE, and Dormeyer mixers require more bowl scraping and require more attendance to get throughly mixed mixture. Their turntables require more manual assistance. As just a mixer using no attachments the vintage Hamilton Beach models H, K, M, and 25 are good choices but it is difficult to find a vintage one without worn gears. Their built in timers are handy it
 
More interesting info just above. That is a very nice looking Phillips juicer Eugene.

Rich, my kumquat was frozen back to 6' stubs in the Xmas freeze of 1990. In a matter of two years it was back to a huge gumball and eventually ate away a chunk of our Australian Brush Cherry privacy hedge.

The rain is welcome but we haven't gotten to the gutters yet either. Our house is called "The Jamaica" model in our 1957 tract and has gutters all the way around. The way the weathercasters hype things so much around here you'd think we should all be battening down the hatches. We'll see just how much wind and rain materializes.

Meanwhile it seems KA is winning in the opinion poll regardless of input or output
 
Divinity

I emailed my choir director for her recipe for Divinity, here it is:
Divinity

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
boil to soft ball, 236 degrees/

Have the white of one egg firmly beaten.

When syrup mixture reaches temp, slowly pour in fine stream into beaten egg white.
Then add 1 tsp of flavoring, and a few drops of food color as desired.

Now the trick is to stop beating at just the point the mixture will hold shape.

Then quickly, spoon onto wax paper covered cookie sheet until it cools and sets.

Good luck.

Barb

I think I will try to find out if the point where it holds its shape and the Mixer stops are one and the same!
 
smoke from the front grill

Jeff, I wish I could have seen that happen! It sounds like an old fashion roadside breakdown, especially as shown in a 1930s Laurel and Hardy or similar short feature. Of course, they would have the obligatory minor explosion which would blow open the double fold engine cover then people would either start hitting each other or running away from the impending BIG explosion.

So after the mixer died, did you have to put on a sweat band and finish mixing the batter by hand? My mom had a very noisy Waring portable mixer. When it was used on anything heavier than whipped cream, it became very hot and smelled hot. It seemed like a good candidate for a motor that starts shooting sparks and flames out through the vents in back while it is forced to keep mixing cookie dough or something else, mortar mix maybe. My mom had two irons that shorted out very dramatically. She was ironing along and suddenly the shell of the iron started flashing sort of purplish lighting around it and it was making these loud, popping buzzing sounds and then everything stopped. The outside chrome shell of the iron was heat tinted in sort of purple and brass tones and had black specks. I was about 5 when the first one went out and thought it was really neat.

In the South, the description of what happened would use the words "blew up." The iron "blew up or blowed up." Imagine trying to schedule a repair on an appliance that "blew up." If it was a gas stove or a water heater, you would be thinking, "Well, they must not be calling from home," but if it is a washing machine that "blew up," you might be hard pressed to get a detailed description of the problem you would face when you arrived. I wondered how this term could have become so ingrained in the culture. Were moonshine stills that prevalent and so poorly maintained or carelessly used that things were blowing up with great regularity and frequency? What else in the region was blowing up? I thought about decades of experiences with improperly processed home canned foods and the resulting exploding fruit jars, but that did not seem like an experience that would be transferred to appliances or cars; well maybe cars, but certainly that would not happen that often for the term to be applied to everything that broke down or stopped working. My parents from the North used terms like "the fuse blew" or "blown" fuse. Lightbulbs were generally described as being "burned out" when they did not light when switched on, but if it was one of those startling experiences when you turn on a light bulb and it lights for a fraction of a second before making a pop and going dark forever, that light bulb did not just burn out, it blew out. If a child were turning on a lamp and this happened while the fingers were still on the switch near the bulb, a wet cleanup might be needed along with a new light bulb. Not to be flippant, but I don't imagine that the cultures of Northern Ireland or the Mid East use that term to describe a breakdown. That term is too "loaded," you should pardon the expression, in those areas.

I realized that the death of the iron created an unexpected expense for my parents. I tried to tell mom that it could be heated on the stove, but she was not interested in that helpful hint.
 
If memory serves correct...

Tom I remember the motor slowing, then the sound of metal grinding together, then the smoke came. It all happened pretty quickly. I shut the poor 12C off and let ot cool for a bit, it was SO hot that I could not touch the top of the motor at all!
I finished the cake with my Kitchenaid hand mixer, which is I think the last time I used that thing too!
 

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