Northern Industrial Portable Cement Mixer with Poly Drum - 3.5 Cubic Ft., Model# PCM350
4.5
5
20
20
Replacement parts.
Mixer is a life saver as long as it's working proberely, but expensive to repair. After about 30 hours of use over 1.5 years, the starter capacitor burned out.. Can only replace this part by purchasing the complete motor/gearbox unit which cost ~ 70% of a complete new unit. My feeling is, they should provide the capacitor seperate from the motor and the motor seperate from the gearbox.
March 5, 2013
Very Pleased
My husband and I got it for projects around the house. Small slabs and maybe some pavers. We poured 149 bags of 60 lb concrete and so far no complaints. We had an uneven area 10' x 12' we were pouring a slab that ended up about 5" deep. It worked effortlessly. The only complaint we had was that because of the height of our forms, we didn't have much pouring room. The barrel was too low. It emptied right at the top of the form. We built a small ramp/platform in which to set the mixer on to pour from and it was great. About the height of a wood pallet. We couldn't fill it fast enough. We poured 76 of those bags that time. The wheels were great for mobility. Even I could pour it full. Clean up, a breeze. Hose it out and wipe a few spots. We highly recommend it to anyone for their projects.
July 9, 2011
Great little mixer!
I bought one of these for some projects around my mother's house and mine thinking that it might mix small batches and save my back a little. I was very pleasantly surprised to say the least ! I put it together (it only took a few minutes and simple hand tools) and it was ready to go. My friend and I have been doing some projects together (he has done a lot of stone and brick masonry) and he was extremely skeptical of it before we actually used it. We started with pouring a cement slab. We thought - "Now this will be a really good test for this little machine." We mixed nearly fifty 80 lb bags of Quikrete in under an hour and a half and we were able to dump it right into the form without losing hardly any mix right out of the mixer. After we got through, we cleaned it up by just spraying it off with water and rubbing on some of the stubborn spots and rinsing. It still looks like brand new and it only took maybe 5 minutes to clean up! The tires are a great help and make handling the load very easy. You can load at least 120 lbs of mix with no problem (we were on an incline) and on a flat surface you might get two 80 lb bags into the hopper and mix thoroughly. You can load this machine with a little water, dump a bag of mix in, add a little more water to get the right consistency, and it will mix it perfectly in just a minute or so. My friend was extremely surprised at how well it performed and I was really happy about having bought it. I recommend this machine to anyone who is planning on doing any concrete work around the home. It will handle a lot of material very quickly and easily and can save you enough $$ to pay for itself with the first few jobs that you do and save your back and arms too!!! Our first job saved several hours of hand mixing in a pan or the cost and hassle of renting a mixer from a rental dealer. If we had contracted to bring the cement in on a cement truck at the minimum delivery cost alone we saved over $100 and we weren't rushed to get it poured !
March 22, 2011
Saves a lot of time
I have mixed cement by hand many times. This mixer is low to the ground which helps when you are loading cement. It is easy to pour from the mixer right into your forms. I have enjoyed using it and plan to use it for many years to come. Cement work is hard but this makes it reasonable.
March 21, 2011
Excellent value
Mixer seems durable and works great! Only complaint is that there is no seal between the drum and mounting plate so there is some drippage while the mix is really wet.
March 21, 2011
cement mixer review
Unit is a little small for real use. A wheel barrow would do just as well.
Unit came timely and in perfect condition. It is easy to store due to size. It will fit in a corner very well. Perhaps a larger version of this would be better.
Ended up renting a large unit to do the job that this was intended for. Will have to wait to see if it works better with a smaller job. Until then it will sit and wait for the next job.
March 14, 2011
Handy little mixer
After realizing how many concrete projects I have to do around my house I decided to buy a mixer instead of renting. I wanted something small enough to fit down stairs so I could replace the floor in my basement. This mixer fit the bill so I ordered. I have owned the mixer 4 or 5 months now and I can say I have gotten my moneys worth. I have mixed around 300, 60 lb bags of ready mix with this mixer without a single mechanical problem. The mixer is easy to clean, easy to move when loaded, and easy to pour. It mixes 2, 60lb bags at a time with no problem. I have even started and stopped the mixer while loaded without a problem. To take it down stairs you can easily take the drum off and carry the mixer in two trips. It was just about an inch too wide for my stairs otherwise I could have just rolled it down . There are only two things I do not like. One, it is easy to get the bags caught on the mixing paddles while loading. Two, it can be tricky to load with a shovel because of the size of the opening and the closeness of the paddles. You have to learn to flick the mix off of the shovel into the mixer. Not a big deal. All in all it is a great addition to my tool arsenal.
November 24, 2010
Great Mixer
I have used it for concrete shed pads and retaining walls. The capacity is large enough to mix more concrete than the average home owner can use at one time. As noted by another viewer, the assembly instructions are poor in that there is no way to determine whether parts are missing from the package. This is because much of the machine is preassembled and identification of the supplied parts is difficult. Assembly is almost intuitive if you ignore the part verification stage and just put the pieces in the box together. Not being able to start or stop the machine while it is loaded is annoying; however, this may be characteristic of small electric mixers.
November 20, 2010
Excellent Mixer but Poor Assembly Instructions
The mixer has performed remarkably well in the construction of a long sidewalk and in preparing concrete for filling blocks in a retaining wall. I plan to use it soon to mix perlite, peat moss and compost for use in raised bed gardens. Two problems. The assembly instructions are poorly written. The instructions say to first check for a long list of parts, but many of these parts have already been assembled at the factory and you can't see them all. This leads one to think there are missing parts when in fact the assembly is much simpler than the instructions imply. Second, you have to leave the mixer running continuosly, which, to me, is a minor irritant. All in all, it is an excellent piece of equipment for the handyman.
November 16, 2010
Small project king!
Recently, after having to rent a concrete mixer for both large and small projects, I finally purchased this mixer. . . And I'm not sorry I did. A "little" but able workhorse. Being a few years older than your average manual concrete mixer, I find this product easy to handle and lets me mix just the amount I need and eliminates the laborious hand mixing with hoe and tray. So far, I've set a pasture full of fence posts, poured a entry apron into my studio, a partitioned slab for my tractor implements, and other small slabs for the greenhouse. It went to work immediately after assembly out of the box. I would wholeheartedly recommend this to any "handy-man (woman)" oriented person. I already have a list of folks who want to borrow it. . .
August 31, 2010