How Many Bags Of Concrete Can You Mix In A Harbor Freight Cement Mixer?
Mixing and utilizing concrete in a construction project, be it in a professional capacity or as part of a home DIY project, is generally a pretty slow-going process. Despite some impressive efforts to revolutionize cement in recent years, it still requires you to get dirty. It takes a few minutes to mix up a batch of concrete to its ideal viscosity for pouring and shaping, and this is all under the assumption that you have a cement mixer handy in the first place. The point is that, if at all possible, you want to get your mixing done in as few trips as possible to save yourself the pain of lifting bags and the impatience of waiting for it to mix.
As it so happens, Harbor Freight sells a handful of small-scale cement mixers through its in-house brands: the power-tool focused Bauer and Central Machinery, which deals in heavy-duty appliances like portable saw mills. The idea of being able to mix your concrete anywhere instead of needing to use a trowel and a pan or rent an entire cement truck is appealing. However, that appeal goes out the window if the small mixers can't mix their contents in a timely fashion. So, exactly how much cement can these mixers handle at once?
Bauer Cement Mixer
The first device on offer at Harbor Freight is the Bauer 4 cu. ft. cement mixer. The mixer's product description says it's supposed to be able to handle up to two 80-pound bags of concrete mix in a single batch. According to concrete mix manufacturer Sakrete, this is the standard mix load for a small-scale cement mixer, so if the product page is accurate, then that's a good sign.
Based on user reviews of this mixer, it seems to hold true to its promises. Multiple users have confirmed that they can load two full bags worth of concrete mix into the mixer with no problems. The mixer has both the capacity to handle the full load, and its motor has enough power to get the whole thing spinning properly. Several users also added that this mixer was able to handle multiple two-bag loads over the course of an entire job, with one user claiming to have run over 6,000 pounds of concrete through it over the course of a couple of weeks.
Central Machinery Cement Mixers
The other two mixers available at Harbor Freight are both from Central Machinery, with the first measuring in at 3.5 cu. ft. Unlike with the Bauer mixer, neither of these mixers have their estimated capacity listed on their product details, but we can still get an estimate from external sources. DIY YouTube channel StatUpBox put the 3.5 cu. ft. model to the test with the standard batch of two 80-pound bags. The first batch of concrete seemed to give the mixer's motor some difficulty, but in subsequent batches, it began to mix more cleanly, eventually reaching peak performance after ten bags worth.
The other mixer, measuring in at 1.25 cu. ft., is noticeably smaller in stature than both its sibling and the Bauer mixer, and according to user reviews, the difference does impact its batch size. Several users have noted that the mixer can handle one 80-pound bag of concrete, but simply isn't big enough or strong enough to handle two. Most users opted instead for a single 60-pound bag, which mixed a bit more cleanly. Given the size and reduced load capacity, this mixer is better suited for quick patch jobs rather than full projects.