Floor mixers are essential pieces of equipment for operations that specialize in baked goods. Many restaurants that offer a traditional breakfast/lunch/dinner style menu use these pieces to help with baking bread, making desserts or even whipping eggs.

The biggest differences between standard and pizza dough mixers are that the latter has lower RPM (revolutions per minute), utilizes gears instead of belts, has a dough hook attachment and features heavy-duty construction. This makes pizza dough mixers, often called spiral mixers, better suited for dense dough. Mixer designs have generally remained unchanged in the last 50 years.

Service Agent Q&A with David Duckworth, director of field operations and training and development, Commercial Kitchen, San Antonio, Texas

A variety of foodservice operators — including restaurants, bakeries and pizzerias — use countertop mixers to prepare dressing, sauce, batter, dough and other items from scratch.

Service Agent Q&A with Jim Mucher, service agent, Commercial Appliance Service Inc., Sacramento, Calif.

Bakeries, pizza places, scratch kitchens and cupcake specialists are among the operations that rely on a good mixer. A mixer's belts, gears and even transmissions make it one of the most mechanical pieces of foodservice equipment. As a result, taking care of mixers is essential to their proper long-term operation.