Sparky paddle mixer review

Roger Bisby takes a first look at the 240 V Paddle Mixer from  Sparky.

Sparky is a  power tool manufacturer from Bulgaria that also rebadges many of its products for other power tool companies. So if you see something very similar to this paddle mixer this could be because it is a Sparky tool in another colour and probably at a different price.

With paddle mixers you need a decent size motor. The motor in this tool is rated at just over 1000 watts depending on whether it is in 110 or 240 volts so that produces a lot of torque, hence the two handles. This is a bit smaller than some paddle mixers on the market in terms of wattage and I would suggest you would only want to mix a bag of Hardwall at a time.

I have heard of people burning the switches out on paddle mixers and being very scathing about this tool because it is low priced. A thousand watt motor is drawing a lot of current and if you continuously overload it and draw excess current through the switch it will cause it to heat up. There are three ways to avoid this. One is to put a big copper heat sink on the switch, the second is to use electronic protection to cut the motor off and the third is to rely on the operator using the tool with some sensitivity. The bottom line is that if you have a labourer who can’t learn the art of mixing gently and gradually by adding the powder a half bag at time you need to buy an expensive paddle mixer and by expensive I mean one costing twice as much as this one from Sparky.

If however you use this mixer intelligently it will stay the course and give you good service.

We have sent it out on site for some prolonged testing and will bring you an update in a couple of months.

Update

Six months down the line it is still going strong and, since the demise of Ian’s larger Bosch mixer he is using this for everything. We told him not to but he is knocking the life out of it.