Choosing a commercial blender is a drastically different experience than choosing a blender for your home. Your business’s blender must stand up to heavy use, produce consistent results, and ensure easy disassembly and maintenance. You need a piece of equipment that can always be relied on to mix ingredients safely and dependably to create high-quality products. If you aren’t sure what to look for in a commercial blender, let the criteria below guide the shopping process.
What to Look for in a Commercial Blender
- Capacity: When looking for a commercial blender, a top consideration should be how many pounds of ingredients it can hold. If you choose a blender that can carry as much as 14,000 pounds of product, it can save time by allowing operators to blend a recipe in one batch. However, if your processing plant does not mix batches that large, you can cut costs by choosing a blender that just holds 150 pounds of product.
- Strength and Durability: Look for a blender with a heavy-duty drive chain and paddle agitators. Blending tough and abrasive products requires extra motor work, so consider investing in a blender that has a double motor system complete with gearboxes to prevent motor burnout. For mixing spices and other dry product, a single shaft blender will get the job done. However, more difficult blending jobs might require a dual shaft blender that has a heavy-duty agitation system, which will ensure a consistent product mix.
- Safety Features: Make sure you are getting a blender with excellent safety features. Vacuum-release valves protect the blender against rupturing or imploding when pulling a strong, powerful vacuum. Some manufacturers allow you to add on a split safety grate with interlock or a weld in the top safety grate. Your operator’s safety should be the top priority.
- Ease of Use: Consider the operator’s needs when choosing a blender. Some blenders come with a touch-screen feature that allows users to easily control settings. Make sure the blender you purchase has a temperature probe with a digital readout to help the operator monitor the blending process.
- Operating Voltage and Frequency Drive: If you will be using the blender to mix a variety of items, purchase a blender that can operate at a variety of voltage levels and variable frequency drives.
- Rapid Cooling: For product that is hot in temperature, some blenders, such as the Dual Shaft CO2, provide quick cooling with a steady injection of CO2. The Dual Shaft CO2 blender also features a vent that safely releases CO2 outside of the plant.
- Polished Tub Interior: All EnSight Solutions Blenders can be finished with a polished tub interior that makes cleaning much easier.
- United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Accepted: If your facility prepares food provided through USDA food distribution commodity programs, there are certain regulations that your equipment must meet (source). Purchase a blender that is USDA approved.
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Commercial blenders are powerful machines, and purchasing high-quality equipment can make all the difference in your day-to-day operations as well as your bottom line. EnSight Solutions carries blenders that fit a variety of needs, including the Single Shaft Blender, Dual Shaft Vacuum Blender, Dual Shaft Standard Blender, and Dual Shaft CO2 Blender.
To learn more about what to look for in a commercial blender, contact your state’s EnSight Solutions Sales Specialist, send a message to info@ensightsolutions.us, or give us a call at 1-855-736-2195. EnSight Solutions builds world-class food processing and material handling equipment, and the EnSight team has over 100 years of combined experience in the food processing industry. We can help you find creative solutions for your unique food industry equipment needs. We’d love to work with you!