Need to melt lots of chocolate and fast? Save yourself time and hassle, and invest in the best chocolate melting machine for your home or function.
For most home cooks, melting chocolate over the stovetop or in the microwave is an easy and perfectly acceptable solution for your chocolate crafting needs.
However, if you have a small home-based business producing chocolates, or if you are catering events with chocolate fountains or fondue, then it’s a different matter. In this case, a chocolate melting machine that can melt larger quantities of chocolate reliably, in a timely manner, and without seizing, is an excellent investment.
In this article, professional chocolatier Simon Knott discusses what you should consider when planning to buy a small chocolate melter machine for your home business needs, whether you are making chocolate products, or running events and functions.
What is a Chocolate Melting Machine?
As your small business grows and your chocolate consumption increases over time, it is important to scale up your supply of melted chocolate to ensure there aren’t gaps in production waiting for stock chocolate to melt. A chocolate melting machine helps fill this gap by supplying larger quantities of melted chocolate for tempering or making fillings.
How can a chocolate melting machine help your business?
Enables high-volume chocolate melting
As your production volume gradually increases, more and more demands will be made on your time. Melting chocolate for processing will become a daily task that must be carried out carefully to maintain quality.
Trying to juggle melting chocolate over boiling water or heating it in bursts in a microwave can easily lead to mistakes such as seized or burnt chocolate. However, a chocolate melting machine can be left safely switched on to melt batches of chocolate gradually without any risk and with little intervention.
Virtually hands-free melting
Once filled and switched on, the chocolate melting machine can be safely left to its own devices without risking the stock. The heating is thermostatically controlled, so there are no temperature spikes. While the only intervention required is to stir the contents occasionally to ensure heating occurs evenly throughout the batch.
No risk of seizing
Some newer chocolate melters use direct heating, where the heating elements are positioned in the melting machine’s walls and floor. Others use heated water stored low down in the machine as a bain marie, which has little chance of contaminating the chocolate directly, and causing it to seize.
How to Choose a Chocolate Melting Machine
The chocolate melter machine’s housing is often constructed from moulded plastic, while a deep stainless-steel tray and a lid slots inside to hold the chocolate. The heating element is connected to a thermostat from which the melting temperature can be set. Melters often use a water bath with a heating element, although some machines (such as the Belgian company Mol D’art) use electric heating pads mounted on the bottom and the sides of the melter.
Chocolate melting machines don’t have a built-in stirrer to agitate the chocolate while it is melting. This means the chocolate needs to be stirred regularly by hand.
Considerations when choosing a chocolate melter
Manufacturer
The home and hobby market for chocolate equipment has been flooded with cute-looking equipment manufactured in Asia at attractive prices. However, you will often find there is little backup if you ever need after-sales assistance or parts. On the other hand, specialist chocolate equipment manufacturers sell simple chocolate melter machines for hundreds of pounds. These may be well-made and more reliable, but do they warrant such a high price tag?
Choosing the best option lies somewhere in between, and your choice will be swayed by your individual requirements. If you use the machine daily, reliability will be higher on your must-have list. Searching through professional machine reviews and buyers’ feedback are the two best ways to learn about other customer’s experiences.
Design
With your own production, think through the day-to-day processes you’ll employ when using your chocolate melter. Can the melted chocolate be easily removed and transferred without spillage or wastage? How easy is the equipment to clean after use?
Capacity
Estimate your planned chocolate production requirements. If your plans go well, will your chosen chocolate melter be up to the job of your expanding production? The melter doesn’t have to be filled to the brim when melting each batch, so melting half a batch will be considerably quicker. Also, consider the weight of a full melted batch. How manageable will it be to transfer it across to the chocolate temperer, or will it need to be transferred in stages?
Speed
When comparing different machines, check their recommendations for how long it takes to melt a batch of chocolate. Often, chocolatiers use a timer to switch on their melters early in the morning so that the first batch of chocolate is already melted when they arrive later.
Temperature Control
The thermostat on a chocolate melter machine is the main control function. It determines the melting rate and eventual temperature of the melted chocolate. Each batch must be stirred regularly to maintain a uniform temperature throughout, thus avoiding hot spots. The only natural movement of the melted chocolate will come from the development of convection currents in warmer parts close to the heater elements.
What’s the Best Chocolate Melting Machine for Your Home Business?
Below are some of my recommended brands and models of domestic melting machines, suitable for home business, events, functions and small business use.
VEVOR Chocolate Tempering Machine (USA, AUS)
Amazon: VEVOR Chocolate Tempering Machine 2 Tanks
Pros:
- Stainless steel construction
- 800W heating
- Water bath heating
- Accurate temperature control
Cons:
- Not a tempering machine
Martellato Meltinchoc Chocolate Melting Pot (USA)
Amazon: Martellato Meltinchoc Chocolate-Melting Pot 3.6 Liter
Pros:
- Chocolate heated by direct heat transfer to the tank
- Stainless steel tank can be removed for easy cleaning
- Different-sized models from 3.6 to 13.6 liter
- Aimed at the professional market
Cons:
- Cheapest model is $721.86
SONGZIMING Stainless Steel Double Boiler Pot (AUS, UK)
Amazon: Stainless Steel Double Boiler Pot for Melting Chocolate – 2 Cup Capacity – 480ML
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Stainless steel
- Inexpensive
- Different sized bowls available
Cons:
- Manual temperature control, no electric element
Fayelong Chocolate Melting Pot (UK)
Amazon: Fayelong Chocolate Melter Machine
Pros:
- Water bath heating
- 2 x 3l pots
- Stainless steel
Cons:
- Nothing significant to note
Chocolate Melting Machine vs Tempering Machine
A chocolate melting machine does what its name suggests: It just melts and holds chocolate at a specific temperature, but there is no stirring mechanism or automatic tempering function.
The thermostat’s accuracy on a chocolate melting machine varies by price and model, so buying a machine with a more accurate thermostat is essential if you plan to temper chocolate by the seeding method in a chocolate melter.
A tempering machine has some similar functions as a chocolate melting machine, but it will have a more accurate thermostat and some form of mechanical agitation to stir the melted chocolate constantly. The mechanism for stirring varies from model to model but often includes a paddle or a rotating wheel, which picks up the chocolate and deposits it into a small hopper.
Using a chocolate melter and tempering machine together
A chocolate melting machine is a cheaper and faster way to boost productivity if you start producing larger quantities of chocolates. The melter can be used as a secondary heater to melt chocolate for subsequent production batches. Once melted, the chocolate can be transferred across to the tempering machine, where it can be tempered and ready for use.
Final Thoughts
Affordable home/domestic models suitable for home cooks on a budget
If you are looking for a budget home solution to melting chocolate on a small scale, you might already have the best equipment without realizing it. A slow cooker is almost identical to many more straightforward chocolate-melting machines on the market.
Simply fill the cooker with chocolate and set it to a low temperature. Keep an eye on it as the chocolate melts and stir it thoroughly, ensuring the chocolate, especially on the base, is well stirred. The thermostat’s accuracy on a slow cooker may be inaccurate, so you might have to experiment to achieve the best melting results.
