Upgrading tempering machines

I know there are a lot of opinions about what tempering machines to run and the answers vary widely based on capacity and needs.

We've been running several Chocovision 3z's for almost 2 years now and I love them. However, my business is growing and their shortcomings are starting to cut into my efficiency. Most importantly, we are making on average 300-400 chocolate bars twice a week and hand pouring each one is quite labor intensive. I know there are machines out there with depositors and I'm hoping to find one that is metered so we can dial in various amounts based on what types of molds or products we are making.

Another factor is that the 3z's take quite a long time to heat up even though we are pre-melting a large portion of our chocolate. Idealy we want to upgrade to a larger capacity machine with the ability to deposit and at least has an option for enrobing as that is something we are interested in moving towards. I've been looking at Selmi machines and some Hilliards as well. Are there other good machines people have experience with? My biggest concern is reliability so we aren't down a machine in the busiest time of year.

Russ -

Given the time of year I generally do not recommend that you try and put a brand new machine with a different technology into production right now. The time you spend to get it integrated into your work flow can lead to production interruptions. You are right to worry about being down at the busiest time of year, but that should not be an issue for a brand new/demo/refurbished machine. Going forward, good preventive maintenance is the issue to keeping the machines in production at the busiest times of the year - something that many people neglect to do.

The challenge I see (and that you neglected to mention in your post) is that your chocolates are sweetened by honey. It's a challenge to temper honey-sweetened chocolate. FBM does have customers who do, but in general it takes larger machines - with longer tempering pipes and greater cooling capacity - to handle this kind of specialty chocolate because of the moisture in the honey, which inhibits crystal formation and spread.

As you may know, I represent FBM, in part because I believe that they are technically superior machines to Selmis. I don't think I have a machine in the US that is kitted out to handle honey-sweetened chocolate reliably. It would require testing and I don't think we could get that done in time to get you into production before Christmas. Because of the way I know that Selmis are built internally, I think that would be no more effective than FBM. The same is true of Gami, Bakon, Pomati and every other company that uses the tempering screw approach.

I'd like to say it was easy, but it's not. If you were working with conventional couverture I have at least one small demo machine (a PRIMA) here in the US (220V, 3-phase power) that I could get to you in a week or so. However, I could not in good faith recommend it for honey-sweetened chocolate without extensive testing. 

I know of no measured depositors that attach to your Chocovision machines.

:: Clay

PS. Here's the link to the FBM web site where all of their chocolate machines are listed. The one being used for honey is the Maestria, outfitted with the craft chocolate upgrade and the pneumatic doser. The list price on that machine is about €31,000 which is a lot for 80kg/week of bar production.

Thanks Clay! I'm definitely thinking after the holiday season is over, we are most likely 3 months or so out from an upgrade but I want to get my research done soon so we're ready to pull the trigger.

Just out of curiosity, what is your opinion on Savage Bros machines? I've had my eye on them for a while but haven't hear much either way about them.