Spent $150 on a fancy mortar mixer paddle and it almost ruined my job

I was laying a big retaining wall last month and decided to upgrade from my old paddle to one of those spiral mixers. Paid $150 for it at the supply shop. First batch came out perfect, but by the third mix the spiral started wobbling and threw mortar all over my helper. The old paddle I had for 10 years never did that. Has anyone else had better luck with those expensive mixers, or is the basic one the way to go?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_joel14d ago

...and then it just went flinging mud everywhere, didn't it? I had the exact same thing happen with a $200 one I got online. Thought I was being smart spending extra for the name brand. The spiral just started slapping around like a helicopter blade gone bad. My old cheap paddle from the hardware store lasted through at least 50 batches before it finally gave up. Makes you wonder if the fancy ones are actually built different or if they just charge more for the look.

ramirez.sage14d ago

Holy cow, the 'helicopter blade' thing is exactly what my buddy Mike said happened to his fancy mixer. He was doing a patio for a client and that thing threw a glob of mortar clean into the neighbor's open car window. The poor guy had to pay for a full detail job to get the mud out of the seats. He went right back to using a basic beater paddle and hasn't had a problem since.