1.6 cu. ft. Concrete Mixer

I bought this for small homeowner type projects after mixing concrete in a plastic tub for years. I wish I would have gotten it many projects ago. I used 60# bags and mixed one at a time. As mentioned in other reviews, I added water first (a little past where the handle starts on a gallon milk jug), then about half the bag. Tilted it to the second hole and let it mix a minute or so, then added the remainder of the bag. A couple of minutes later it's ready to go. I dumped mine into that plastic tub and then shoveled into the forms. This isn't the machine you want if you're doing a driveway, but it's great for small jobs and will certainly save a lot of backs. Seems well made and never bothered the motor to mix a bag at a time. The small size makes it easy to move and store.

I was initially going to mix concrete by hand for my project, until I estimated I would need 24 bags of 80 pound cement. Then I was going to rent a mixer; however, the weather was unpredictable and I would need the mixer on two occasions a couple weeks apart. I didn’t know if the mixer would be available when I and the weather were ready. I researched, read reviews, and watched YouTube videos of a couple small mixers. Given my needs, the cost to rent a mixer (and transport it), and the cost to purchase a small mixer, I decided to purchase the YardMax 1.6 cu. ft. concrete mixer. I am very pleased with my decision! The mixer came unassembled in a surprisingly small box. It would fit in nearly any vehicle. The instructions were clear. The hardware was provided on a blister pack with the pieces needed for each step separated and numbered. It was quick and easy to assemble. I did watch a YouTube video of a guy assembling it as part of my research, which was helpful to gain a couple tips. My current project is pouring footers for a generator stand and screening fence. I’ve used the mixer on two occasions and have one more to go. The first day was a trial / prep run to be sure the mixer was working and I had my process down. I poured one footer for the fence. This was 2 bags of 80 pound cement. All worked well during the trial run, but I did attach a 2x4 to the one leg for stability. I had the mixer on uneven ground, so mixing and pouring the 80 pounds was a bit unsteady with the small footprint of the one leg. About a week later, once the rain passed, I mixed 14 bags in one day. Again, all worked well. For the first two bags, I kept the mixer running while I put the concrete into the footers. However, after the second bag I put water in the drum and turned it off while putting the concrete into the footers. There was no need to keep it running and I didn’t want to take a chance of the motor getting overworked / overheated. The instructions state a weight capacity of 100 pounds. I would say that is the absolute maximum. It handled the 80 pound bags but I wouldn’t go too much more than that. You could put two 50 pound bags in at once, but that would be the maximum … both for capacity of the drum to properly mix the concrete and for capacity of the motor. If I was forced to say something negative, I’d say (1) the stability of the one leg as mentioned above and (2) the size of the drum opening. I understand the diameter of the opening needs to be smaller than the diameter of the drum for mixing. The opening is 9 inches. A bag of cement is 10 inches wide. You just need to be careful when loading the cement into the drum. With the 80 pound bags, I split them in half so I was only handling 40 pounds when pouring into the drum. Both of these have simple solutions. Add a stabilizer to the leg. Be careful loading the cement. Also, I put a plastic tub under the drum. This catches any cement that spills out and can be mixed in with the concrete dumped out of the drum. As for that plastic tub, the large plastic concrete mixing tub (sold at Home Depot) fits perfectly between the legs. After the concrete is mixed, it can be easily dumped from the drum into the tub. I would recommend this concrete mixer for use on small projects.

works great, can mix 2-60lb bags, best suited for homeowner projects

I highly recommend this mixer, bought it to mix cement for my shed, it saved me a lot of time and energy hand mixing. Very easy to put together! ?????

Started off ok but it went down early in project and we end up mixing the concrete by hand

Have to amend my earlier review and downgrade my 2 rating to 1. After the mixer failed and Yardmax acknowledged the failure (see 2 rating, "Hope it does not break") and appeared to promise a fix, nothing has changed in 3 months. The job is done and the mixer is worthless to me, a piece of inoperable metal junk to be disposed of; after I hand mixed 80+ bags of Sakrete. They even failed to respond to a BBB complaint.

I wasn’t sure what to expect because the price is so low. But it turned out to be a pretty good little mixer. Putting it together took a couple of hours but it wasn’t too bad. My main concern was how much concrete or mortar could I mix at a time. It turned out that it handled a 60 pound bag of quickCrete concrete with no problem. It also was able to take one 80 pound mortar bag. At 80 pounds the mixer had just about all it could handle. The first day I used it it was a hot day and the motor tripped out a couple of times. But after waiting a few minutes it started right up again. I was able to pour a patio base slab and mortar in flagstones over a two week period. It took 40 bags of concrete and 20 bags of mortar. I found the best way to load it is to put the water in first and then slowly add the concrete or mortar. The instructions tell you to put the dry ingredients in first. I tried that and it took a lot longer and I had to stop the motor and mix the ingredients inside the drum with a trowel. All in all I’m quite satisfied with the unit but I gave it only four stars because it seems just a bit flimsy. I expect it will take some TLC to keep it running over the years.

Absolute lifesaver ! Works like a charm! Very sid and well built and excellent instructions to put together!

This late 60s old man needed something to help with mixing 18 bags of cement for my basement. Have a trick back that goes out now and then , mixer is the right height for me not too high or to low , I used a 4 1/2 gallon bucket to rest the 60# bag on to shovel cement into mixer, used a small garden shovel to load . DO NOT TRY TO DUMP FULL BAG INTO MIXER ! Will clump in bottom. To empty and transfer to my location I used the 4 1/2 gallon bucket just the right height to fix under the mixer. Keep a stick close by to break up clumps if u load to fast , keep hand out if mixer!!! Used three time before I wrote this review to see what worked best for me and the mixer. Use 60# bags to save on my back but did add up to max of 80# in mixer.

I got this cement mixer and used instructions to put together - but the mixer arms had to be bent to fit in the mixer. I called the number provided for advice before bending and they said they do not have any support for the mixer - they only make it where I called. I'm using for a craft project and working well for that.