Differences In Milkshake Machines, And Why It Matters
Posted on: 26 November 2018
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Milkshakes, an American creation as American as baseball, are a popular ice cream treat. Most restaurants offer milkshakes because customers want them, ask for them, and expect them. If your restaurant cannot make milkshakes because it does not have any milkshake machines, maybe it is high time you bought one...or two...or three. Before you start buying your machines, you should know there are some significant differences in models, and why these differences matter.
Number of Mixing Stands and Mixing Wands
You can buy milkshake machines that have only one mixing stand, cup, and blending wand, or you can buy machines that have two, three, four, or even five of all of the above. The trick is to buy something that will fit the counter space your restaurant currently has. If you can only fit a machine with two mixing stands, cups, and blending wands, that will at least get you started. You may figure out later how to add more space to your restaurant so that you can eventually purchase a milkshake machine with more stands and blending wands.
Ice Cream Dispenser or No Ice Cream Dispenser
Some milkshake machines dispense ice cream. Those that do can either dispense the ice cream directly into the mixing cup as it blends, or your servers will first have to put the correct amount of ice cream in using the manual dispenser and add milk and other ingredients before placing the cup on the mixing stand. Auto-dispensing of the ice cream is certainly convenient, especially since you always get exactly the right amount of ice cream in the cup, but they are more expensive machines, too.
Most of the cheaper milkshake machines do not dispense ice cream at all. This requires your servers to scoop hard pack ice cream into the cups themselves, which means you will need to keep hard pack ice cream in your walk-in freezer on the premises. If you are able to do that and have no problems with keeping ice cream flavors stocked, then you can save a bit of money on your machine.
Stainless Steel vs. Hard Plastic
The blending wands of most milkshake machines are made of either hard plastic or stainless steel. Both will refuse to rust or corrode, which is good. However, the hard plastic blending wands wear out over time, and many times they will break if they have to grind really hard chunks of ice cream or blocks of ice. For that reason, you may want to invest a little extra to get a milkshake machine with stainless steel blending wands because they can grind anything and will not break.
Reach out to a company like DSL Northwest, Inc. for more information.