I finally stepped up and bought the Brod & Taylor proofer and I am over the moon with it. In my early experience with it I thought of two hacks that I'd love to do:
- Some sort of light to make checking the state of the rise easier
- Insulation of the sides
Anyone have thoughts? Also any advice or hints from the mavens would be welcome.
Thanks,
Terry
I've had mine for a couple years, and never really thought about modifications. It works flawlessly the way it is. A light seems like an interesting idea, though. Maybe rig some sort of LED with a switch mounted on the side. But then that could interfere with the ability to fold and store it. If anything, simply looking through the window always works for me.
I am with you, though. I have been really enjoying mine!
I'm contemplating building a cabinet that would utilize the base of the proofer but do away with the collapsible walls and the lid. IOW I'm considering of taking advantage of the electronics (the controls, thermostat, etc.) while adding a lot more capacity. As it stands, the B&T is too small for my needs and the larger capacity collapsible alternatives that I've managed to locate (all of which happen to be manufactured in Japan) are more than twice the price of the B&T. The idea, then, would be to fit an insulated cabinet with out-swinging glass door onto the base, thus taking advantage of the base while adding more capacity.
Thoughts?
Drawbacks I envision would be a) the cost of purchasing the B&T only to dispense with the foldable walls and lid and b) the lack of an easily relocatable thermostat that could be placed nearer to the ceiling to ensure more accurate readings. Both Japanese proofers I've found that are tall feature thermostats placed midway up the height of the proofer.
Advantages I see are the neat, self-contained design of the B&T base over a complete DIY version with a hodgepodge of exposed wiring wires, heat source, controls, etc. Plus, it's always nice to be able to avail myself of a warranty should the base malfunction/die. I would design the cabinet to mimic the way the collapsible walls nest into the base (probably making the cabinet collapsible as well) so no modification would be done so the warranty would still be enforceable.
for homemade proofer. You may find some of the posts have ideas that you can employ for less cost than modding a B&T proofer.
Paul
Paul - I appreciate the suggestion. However, I was already well acquainted with the notion of a full DIY proofer (hence why I chose to add to this thread over all the others) - that's why I detailed the attractiveness of making use of the self-contained B&T base. I would appreciate that we stick to the express point of this thread.