Well everybody, my cup runneth over with frustration at the table top tempering machines on the market today.
I am tired of replacing motor after motor, and control board after control board on the tempering machines that are currently on the market today.
Pavoni Mini-Temper = FAIL (service, every control board, every motor, and control board logic)
ACMC = FAIL (all motors and all plastic parts, and the chocolate volume is too small)
Rev 2 = FAIL (control board logic and fan and heater, and the chocolate volume is WAY too small)
...and WTF is with lightbulbs as heating elements??? Don't these companies know that incandescent lightbulbs are a thing of the past?
Note that the failure is not on just one machine. I own SIX of each!!!
I pulled the trigger and started the design of my own table top tempering machine. It will have the following features:
- industrial strength Motor OUTSIDE of the heating/cooling chamber
- Control board OUTSIDE of the heating/cooling chamber
- Seperate motor control (ACMC has this, but not Rev 2 or Pavoni)
- 5 programmable and automatedtempering cycles
- all stainless steel construction
- LCD style touch screen controlpanel (no more buttons to wear out).
- No light bulbs as heat supply (heating element and fan combination)
These machines will be designed to withstand the amost abusive staff, will be designed torun 24/7, and will be made from parts that can be ordered off the shelf from pretty much any motor supply place or hardware supplier.
The cool thing will be how the programs work. There will be 3 set points (similar to the Pavoni). However unlike with the Pavoniyou can do what you want with them. For example, The tempering cycle may be set like 43c to 27c to 31.5c. As the day progresses and the chocolate begins to thicken, you switch to program 2 which increase the temperature 1 degree. The 3set points would then be 32.5 to 32.5 to 32.5. Maybe your chocolate continues to thicken. You could program the machine to do 33.5 to 33.5 to 33.5, to make the chocolate more fluid.
OR...
Maybe you work with5 different types of chocolate, and each has a specific tempering cycle. You could program the machine to operate 5 different cycles automatically depending on which chocolate you are using that day.
In our shop, we will reserve program 5 as our heating and holding program. At the end of the day, our staff will set the machine to program 5 (43c to 43c to 43c), turn the motor off and go home. The machine will take the chocolate to that, and hold it until the next day when my staff arrive, set the machine to program 1 and start the bowl turning again. At that time it runs through it's cycle, and in an hour it's automatically back in temper, and ready to use.
I will offer a 3 year unconditionalwarranty on the failure of all parts due to manufacturer defect (not user defect), and the machines will hopefully be priced around the $1500 dollar mark.
No more cheap plastic parts, and failing motors.
Who's interested?
Cheers
Brad
updated by @brad-churchill: 04/10/15 17:09:40