Post by joyojoy on Apr 2, 2008 11:38:33 GMT -5
I finally reached the point where I needed more chocolate output capacity for my business, so I ordered the Santha Spectra 20 tilt model, which will do up to 20lbs. at a time.
It's a big beastie: weighs 135 lbs. But I actually do have it sitting on a table.
The first thing you have to do after unpacking it is to install your own 3-prong blug: because Santha ships to different countries with different socket types, they leave it up to you to add one. The advise you to have an electrician do it, but it's not brain surgery, and I managed okay doing it myself.
So far, I have a few concerns about it. For starters, it runs a lot hotter than the smaller Santhas. In fact, my first batch got slightly burned (it was about 170 degrees when I removed it from the machine). That might have been because I only ran about 10 lbs. through it and I ran it for a full 24 hours. I'm running an average batch size of about 17 lbs. now, usually for 6-8 hours. The chocolate I took out today was 148 degrees after running for about 15 hours (by the way, the reason for the shorter run time is that I'm creating a "milkless" chocolate by just adding dairy-free powder and cocoa butter to 60% dark chocolate chips -- they're already refined, so I only have to run it long enough to smooth out the dairy-free powder). Anyway, after running a batch, the wheels are so hot, that I had to purchase some heavy-duty, thick gloves so I could handle them to clean the chocolate off of them.
Another concern I have about the machine is that it is dropping a lot of black shavings underneath it when it runs. I don't know if this is a part getting "broken in" or if the belt is being shaved off or what... I've run about 6 batches through it so far, and it doesn't seem to be dropping as many now though...
One of the drawbacks of this monster machine is cleaning it. To the best of my knowledge, the drum can't be removed (Santha does not provide much in the way of documentation for this thing... in fact, the instructions they sent are actually for the smaller melangeurs), so I have to have someone else lift it over to the industrial restaurant sink – I share a kitchen with a restaurant – so I can use the dishwashing sprayer to hose it out.
Which brings me to the reason why I was forced to clean the beast this morning: When I was pouring my latest batch out, I found half of the cap that covers the screw that holds the rollers on, wedged betweent the center stem and the rollers. The other half of the cap had been effectively ground up into my 17lb. batch of chocolate, which of course, had to be thrown out. I thought I had placed it snuggly before I turned it on, but I guess not. Oh well... So I hope at least that will be a lesson to all of you to make sure that you get those caps on tight before running machine.
Overall though, I am pretty happy with the big beast. It was a life-saver when I had over 200 orders for chocolate bunnies to get out before Easter. There's no way I could have met the demand with my one little machine cranking out both white chocolate AND the milkless chocolate – especially with the necessary cleaning when changing over from milkless chocolate to white chocolate.
I did discover that setting a lamp with an incandescent bulb directly over the drum overnight is a great way to get the Santha dried out. There's enough room that I can actually set the rollers on their side, so any water in the axel drips down and evaporates while the rest of the unit is drying under the lamp.
Well... gotta go scrounge for some chocolate to replace the 17lbs. I just wasted...
It's a big beastie: weighs 135 lbs. But I actually do have it sitting on a table.
The first thing you have to do after unpacking it is to install your own 3-prong blug: because Santha ships to different countries with different socket types, they leave it up to you to add one. The advise you to have an electrician do it, but it's not brain surgery, and I managed okay doing it myself.
So far, I have a few concerns about it. For starters, it runs a lot hotter than the smaller Santhas. In fact, my first batch got slightly burned (it was about 170 degrees when I removed it from the machine). That might have been because I only ran about 10 lbs. through it and I ran it for a full 24 hours. I'm running an average batch size of about 17 lbs. now, usually for 6-8 hours. The chocolate I took out today was 148 degrees after running for about 15 hours (by the way, the reason for the shorter run time is that I'm creating a "milkless" chocolate by just adding dairy-free powder and cocoa butter to 60% dark chocolate chips -- they're already refined, so I only have to run it long enough to smooth out the dairy-free powder). Anyway, after running a batch, the wheels are so hot, that I had to purchase some heavy-duty, thick gloves so I could handle them to clean the chocolate off of them.
Another concern I have about the machine is that it is dropping a lot of black shavings underneath it when it runs. I don't know if this is a part getting "broken in" or if the belt is being shaved off or what... I've run about 6 batches through it so far, and it doesn't seem to be dropping as many now though...
One of the drawbacks of this monster machine is cleaning it. To the best of my knowledge, the drum can't be removed (Santha does not provide much in the way of documentation for this thing... in fact, the instructions they sent are actually for the smaller melangeurs), so I have to have someone else lift it over to the industrial restaurant sink – I share a kitchen with a restaurant – so I can use the dishwashing sprayer to hose it out.
Which brings me to the reason why I was forced to clean the beast this morning: When I was pouring my latest batch out, I found half of the cap that covers the screw that holds the rollers on, wedged betweent the center stem and the rollers. The other half of the cap had been effectively ground up into my 17lb. batch of chocolate, which of course, had to be thrown out. I thought I had placed it snuggly before I turned it on, but I guess not. Oh well... So I hope at least that will be a lesson to all of you to make sure that you get those caps on tight before running machine.
Overall though, I am pretty happy with the big beast. It was a life-saver when I had over 200 orders for chocolate bunnies to get out before Easter. There's no way I could have met the demand with my one little machine cranking out both white chocolate AND the milkless chocolate – especially with the necessary cleaning when changing over from milkless chocolate to white chocolate.
I did discover that setting a lamp with an incandescent bulb directly over the drum overnight is a great way to get the Santha dried out. There's enough room that I can actually set the rollers on their side, so any water in the axel drips down and evaporates while the rest of the unit is drying under the lamp.
Well... gotta go scrounge for some chocolate to replace the 17lbs. I just wasted...