The planetary mixer is a mainstay chunk of equipment in many commercial kitchens. Whenever your restaurant or bakery needs a large project done, and done well, more than likely you’re turning to the mixer taking up a whole corner of the kitchen. The tasks you can perform with a well outfitted mixer are numerous, and the speed with which you can accomplish these tasks is impressive.

Of course, as great as the planetary mixer is, it may not be the right mixer for your operation, especially if you’re looking for a mixer that does one specialized task very well. The two most obvious exceptions to the planetary mixer rule are the spiral mixer and the vertical cutter-mixer.

The spiral mixer has a fixed dough hook and rotating bowl and it’s designed for mixing large amounts of dough all day long. Some people even claim that spiral mixers mix better dough than a planetary mixer, but that’s a matter of opinion to be sure.

Vertical cutter mixers are more of a food processor; they can do mixing, chopping, blending, etc., and are ideal for operations that need to process large amounts of a specific food product day in and day out.

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So what makes the planetary mixer so great?
Well, to start, it’s a very versatile machine that can operate on a large scale. Different attachments allow you to mix dough, whip up creams, sauces, and icing, chop, shred, or grate vegetables, or even grind up meat products. Planetary mixers have a single offset shaft that turns in an orbital motion resembling planets going around the sun, which accounts for the name. When attachments are affixed to this shaft they rotate through the mixer bowl in an elliptical shape, which ensures an effective mixing of the entire contents of the bowl.