Stand Mixers 2002 – 2011

[prasantrin]

I bought my 300-watt Kitchenaid refurbished from the service centre for about 40% less than the regular retail. I've only had it for a year, but so far so good. And the tendonitis in my whisking elbow has subsided considerably!

Add acupuncture and deep tissue massage, and it will vanish (or nearly vanish) in no time!

rona (I speak from experience--had it in both elbows, as well as carpal tunnel in my left wrist)

[Marlene]

So I ended up getting an KA Artisian mixer. Watts, 325, tilt head, 5 qts. Yes yes, I know the bowl lift is better. But at the end of the day, when I was looking at these things, thinking about what I would use it for, the Pro 6, was way more machine than I needed. I'm going to use this primarily for cakes and cookie batters, no dough etc, so I think this one will work well for me.

[Marlene]

The first thing one does when one gets a new toy is to play with it of course . So today I had to make a cake using my new mixer. All I can say is What took me so long to get one of these?! Never mind the muscles I'll gain just by lifting the thing out of the cupboard, I'm thinking of the muscles I'm saving by having it do all my work for me. Normally, my shoulder would be on fire after creaming butter and sugar for 5 minutes. Today, just put the ingredients in, and stand back and watch it go to work.

I'm in love. With my new mixer.

[Sandra Levine]

Enjoy your Kitchaid, Marlene. I've had mine (bowl lift) for 25 years.

[Marlene]

Thx Sandy. For the life of me, I could not get the hang of the bowl lift in the store, which was another reason I ended up with the Artisan. Frosting next!

[Mottmott]

Marlene, enjoy you new KA. After awhile you won't even bother to put it away (unless you have absolutely NO counterspace).

Besides using it to make cakes, pie dough, mayonnaise, yeast breads, meringues, whipped cream, etc., you can explore the world of attachments. I use mine with a meat grinder to make ground meat which I think tastes better than what you get at the supermarket as it is fresher and made from the cut you choose. It also can be cooked rare more safely. Or use it to prepare sausages, pates. Also, if you're into pasta, making it is a snap. You can prepare the dough in the bowl and use the KA attachment to roll it out.

[Transparent]

I'm currently looking for a stand mixer. The Kitchenaid Artisan seems pretty sturdy to me, but the price is a bit steep. Channel surfing through to HSN, I found a Wolfgang Puck Bistro "Commercial Rated" Mixer for $200. Retail, that's $100 cheaper than the KA. It's also 700W and comes with an extra bowl. It seems pretty tempting, but I'm not sure of the quality of it. Does anyone own one of these?

[Mottmott]

Can't speak to the Puck machine, but: In buying something like a stand mixer initial cost is not the only question. How powerful is it? How easy to service?

My KA is so old that at today's prices, it's cost me about $5-10/yr, it's so old I can't remember what it cost. And my grandchild will be using them. My tilt model had to be serviced about 10 years ago, the 5 quart never.

Add ons: My motto? happiness is fewer gadgets. But the KA will take accessories requiring power. So despite my motto, I've been happy to have the meat grinder and recently added the pasta roller.

[Richard Kilgore]

The KA Artisan tilt style should be about $250 at Williams-Sonoma. But you still may be able to find a more powerful factory refurbished KA Professional (350 watt) lift style on Amazon or eBay for well under $200 ($140 - $170).

[jgarner53]

I second the notion that while the initial outlay of cash for something like a KA mixer, or a good food processor, seems steep, if you think of how much use you'll get out of it, and how long you'll have it (my mom's 25-year old mixer is still going strong), the cost becomes minimal.

And definitely check out e-bay and amazon for the factory refurbs. I know someone who just got an Artisan for $90. Yeah, $90.

[fiftydollars]

I strongly recommend you give the quality and performance of the mixer more consideration than the price. A broken mixer is the most expensive kind of all.

[Transparent]

Thanks for your comments. I decided not to go for the Wolfgang Puck branded mixer, and got a KA Artisan. The Black and White models are selling for $150 (rebate+$25 off promotion!). I can't wait for my brand, spanking new mixer!

[alligande]

I worked at an inn doing Pastry work for breakfast and afternoon tea! and had 2 KA's, one day I was having problems with one, and so found a local service guy, and on collection and a bill for $30.00 he told me that the machine was 27 years old. The machine went back into service and continued to work hard ( i used them for everthing, pastry, bread dough you name it.) Consequently I have only used Kitchen Aids.

[Redsugar]

On the subject of powerful, new stand-mixers, have any of this forum's contributors used the awesome 7-qt., 1000 (!) watt Viking model? (It lists in the USD $500-$600 range.)

Please refer to the manufacturer's press release:

http://www.vikingrange.com/whatsnew/stand_mixer_press.html

[gourmande]

I seem to have gotten by without one most of my life, but just about everyone I know owns one, every cooking show I watch makes use of one, and all the glamour kitchen shots I see have the obligatory stand mixer on the counter... so they must be indispensable right, or are they?

Baking is not one of my strong suits (or interests truth be told) and so far my food processor has been able to handle most of my mixing needs... so... tell me why a stand mixer is the appliance I can't live without.

Oh and by the way, a Kitchen Aid model is currently on sale at my local restaurant supply store so I need to be convinced before they run out

[Marlene]

Until recently I didn't own a food processor. And I only got my stand mixer about 14 months ago. I use the stand mixer a lot, particularly as I have an arthritic shoulder that prevents me from whisking, beating, etc a lot. Cookie doughs, whipping cream, beating eggs, certain pie crusts, ceasar salad dressings, cheeseballs, etc are all made in my stand mixer.

I didn't think I needed one either, but now that I have it, I wonder how I lived for so long without it. I use mine so much I got a second mixing bowl for it.

[Smithy]

I hate to burst your buying bubble, but if you don't bake much you may not need a stand mixer. You have a whisk, or a stick blender, or a hand mixer? I use the first two far more in cooking because I can take them to the sauce pan.

My husband bought me a lovely Kitchenaid mixer, to replace the Hamilton Beach job I own that's older than I am (a real antique, that) and then it developed that he doesn't eat cookies or cake! I make them sometimes anyway, and the mixer's handy for that - and for the meringue when I have someone to help me eat the all-important lemon meringue pie. Lately I've gotten into bread making, and the mixer's finally coming into its own. But for a long time, he wondered just why I'd thought the mixer would be so neat.

[gourmande]

...Lately I've gotten into bread making, and the mixer's finally coming into its own.  But for a long time, he wondered just why I'd thought the mixer would be so neat....

Does it make bread making less daunting? That alone ups the "pro-mixer" factor

[chefpeon]

I don't know what I would do without a stand mixer....but then, I bake for a living.

If you think about it, there's a lot you can do with a stand mixer, especially a KitchenAid.

It does make bread making quite easy.....it kneads the dough for you!

You can also buy attachments for it! Like the meat grinder, the pasta maker, the juicer......

[gourmande]

...You can also buy attachments for it! Like the meat grinder, the pasta maker, the juicer......

That's the part I like since I find my manual pasta maker a bit, no, A LOT difficult do handle alone and rather cumbersome.

[wlg]

There's one time a year that I really crave a stand mixer, and that's a couple of weeks before Christmas. Although I usually don't bake a lot during the rest of the year, I try to cram it all in making all sorts of Christmas cookies. A hand mixer just isn't fun to cream butter and sugar for nights on end... If you have the space to store it, go for the stand.

[JAZ]

One question to ask yourself in determining whether a stand mixer is a good investment is how often do you use a hand mixer (not an immersion blender, not a food processor, not a blender, but a hand mixer)? If the answer is often, then I'd say the stand mixer is an excellent investment.

I had a food processor and a blender but didn't have a stand mixer for quite a while. When I found myself using my hand mixer more and more, I broke down and got a Kitchenaid and found that having it really made a difference. It's not that I use it very often, but when I do, it's so much better than the old hand mixer.

The reasons I love it? You can add ingredients so much more easily. You don't have to stand there with mixer in hand -- you can whip cream or egg whites while you're doing something else. You don't have to worry about your bowl moving around. You don't have to keep clearing out the beaters so they'll still mix stuff.

But if those aren't things you need to do, then it might just end up being another expensive item that sits in the cabinet.

[fiftydollars]

I bake a lot, but I don’t use my stand mixer nearly as often as I thought I would when I bought it. I bake a lot of bread, which requires kneading for which the 6qt Pro Kitchenaid (or any comparable stand mixer I’ve tried) is not quite suited. It kneads bread, of course, but not nearly well enough, so I usually still need to put in about 6-10 minutes worth of hand-kneading.

It is, however, and excellent mixer and whisker, so it is a must for cakes and buttercream. It also runs a whole host of accessories like the grain mill I use to mill flour for bread, the grinder I use to make sausages, the food mill/strainer that I use to process tomatoes, etc… So it more than justifies its existence on my countertop. But still, I can do without it for months at a time.

[JayBassin]

Check this thread on stand mixers in the P/B forum.

[culinary bear]

I'll admit right away that I work as a pastry chef, but don't let that detract from the 'home-needs' aspect of things.

At work, I use mine probably a minimum of two dozen times a day. I have my big 5-gallon Hobart on the floor which gets used for the bread (twice a day) and anything big. Anything more than a 10-egg sabayon for genoise sponge, for instance, and the Hobart does the work.

Whipping cream, meringue, scone dough, pastry, sabayon... all stuff that would be impractical to do by hand due to time constraints, RSI, or lack of gullible commis chefs. I'd never, ever be without my mixer.

'Mine' being the right word, as it's my 40+ year old domestic Kenwood, bought for my Mother a long time ago, that I took in to work to replace the US$500 Kitchenaid - the 'professional' one that broke after a year.

You could, as some people have suggested, get away without a stand mixer - it's just very convenient, and some jobs are undoubtedly performed better by a stand mixer than either by hand, with a food processor, or a stick blender.