Bosch Universal Stainless Steel Bowls

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Jim — No Comments ↓

Information about the original Bosch Universal Bowl in stainless can be found here: The Original Bosch Universal Bowl.

MUZ6SB3 & MUZ6SB4

L’Equip is making two stainless steel all-purpose bowls for the Bosch Universal mixers: the MUZ6SB3 and the MUZ6SB4. Both bowls will fit either the classic Universals or the Universal Plus. Both come with a removable drive shaft for easy cleaning. Both are 5.5 quart bowls with a dough capacity of 12 pounds.

The difference between the SB3 and SB4 is the number of splash-ring locking pins. The SB3 has three pins that will allow it to use the 3-pin splash-rings of the MUZ6KR4 plastic bowl. The SB4 has four locking pins to match the Universal Plus’ MUZ6KR4UC plastic bowl.

Below is the SB4. Note the white bit of plastic on the splash-ring. It is a lock to keep the splash-ring from moving about while the mixer is running.

MUZ6ER2

Bosch makes the MUZ6ER2 stainless steel all-purpose bowl. It has 4 splash-ring locking pins and a removable drive shaft for easy cleaning. It is a 6.5 quart bowl with a 15 pound dough capacity.

Bosch Universal Plastic Bowls

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Jim — 2 Comments ↓

The Bosch Universal plastic bowl is an all-purpose bowl for the Universal mixer. You can knead dough, whip egg whites or make your favorite cookie dough. This bowl can use a dough hook, French whisks, batter whisks or [easyazon-link asin=”B000F6SP3I”]cookie paddles[/easyazon-link]. This bowl has been described as donut-shaped or Bundt shaped because of its center post. That center post houses the drive shaft for the attachments and is topped with the spur gear that runs the whisks and cookie paddles.

First Generation

The first generation of Bosch Universal plastic bowl will hold 5.5 quarts or 12 pounds of dough, and has three splash-ring locking pins on the outside edge of the bowl. The splash-ring is plastic and fits down over the top edge of the bowl.

I have narrowed the release date of this bowl to sometime between 1961 and 1970. I believe it ended its production run in 1984 when Bosch redesigned the Universal mixer.

Second Generation – MUZ6KR4

This second-generation plastic bowl, Model Number MUZ6KR4, moved the splash-ring locking pins to the inside of the bowl. The splash-ring now sits inside the bowl, preventing anything from making it’s way down the outside of the bowl as could occasionally happen when the first-generation bowl was filled to capacity. This bowl maintains the same 5.5 quart and 12 pound dough capacities as the first generation plastic bowl. All attachments are interchangeable with the first-gen bowl.

I believe this bowl to have been released with the 1984 Universal redesign. It is still in production today.

Third Generation – MUZ6KR4NUC

Released in 2007 with the Universal Plus mixer, Bosch upped the capacity of this all-purpose bowl to 6.5 quarts or 16 pounds of dough. This bowl also has a redesigned cover and splash-ring. The cover has a higher dome than the previous bowls and the splash-ring mounts to the bowl using 4 locking-pins. This bowl also has a removable driveshaft that allows for easier access to the center post for easier clean-up. I’ve seen this bowl listed as the MUZ6KR4NUC and the MUZ6KR4UC without any explanation of any differences between the two model numbers.

The Original Bosch Universal Bowl

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Jim — 15 Comments ↓

1951 – present

Bosch introduced the Universal series of mixers in 1951. The original bowl was a 6-quart, dough-only enamel-on-steel bowl with a bottom-mounted dough hook. The rated dough capacity of this bowl is 14 pounds. This bowl used a three-pin metal splash-ring that fit down over the outside of the bowl.

I have a German Bosch Universal manual from 1961 that shows this bowl on a Universal Model 1, and so can suggest that it had at least a 10-year production run.

Generation 2

The second in the “Original Bowl” series is a stainless steel version of the enameled bowl. It still had three splash-ring locking pins on the exterior of the bowl, but they had moved on to a plastic splash-ring that was interchangeable with their plastic bowl.

Generation 3 – the MUZ6ER1

The third generation of the original-style Bosch Universal bowl made only minor changes. The splash-ring locking pins are on the inside of the bowl and the splash-ring sits inside the lip of the bowl. My guess is that this change was made to prevent flour from making it’s way down the outside of the bowl as sometimes could happen with the older splash-rings. I have no supporting evidence at this time, but it would make sense that this bowl was introduced with the 1984 re-design of the Universal.

This third-generation bowl is still in production today as the model [easyazon-link asin=”B0006DOROQ”]MUZ6ER1[/easyazon-link]. The ER1 will fit both Classic Universals as well as the [easyazon-link asin=”B001V5XZGO”]Universal Plus[/easyazon-link]. However, with the new Universal Plus, people are recommending rubber bumpers be used to stabilize the bowl. While I don’t have a Universal Plus, it is my understanding that the ER 1 will be somewhat unstable without the bumpers in place on the mixer.