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DeLonghi(Kenwood) Mixers?


Richard Kilgore

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I have a 17 year old Kenwood 5qt that I adore. I use it constantly!! My only added expense was buying an extra bowl! It works well on egg whites, whipping cream, right up to stiff bread doughs. Do note, however, that the Kenwood is a very noisy beast. My friend has TWO 7 qt Kenwoods and one 5 qt model. She makes bread twice every week and they have served her very well. Her older 7 qt has needed to be repaired once last year but it must be said that her machines are pushed to the max. Make sure you have a reset button on your model...that feature has been a blessing!

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I'm still partial towards the Electrolux mixer, I like the design and I've heard nothing but positive remarks on it's performance. Now on the other hand I was down the parts center for a hose for my dishwasher and the parts guy says it's very difficult to get parts for some foreign products, I don't know if it includes Kenwood or Electrolux. So go from there.

Polack

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Thanks Safran. That's good to hear. My use would be light in comparison to your friend's.

I would like to hear also from anyone who has used a 7 qt DeLonghi that was made in the past five years or so.

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Hi Richard and Happy New Year from north of the Red River. I have been using a 5qt Kenwood, labeled as Kenwood for 4 years now. My only problem has been finding parts, extra paddles and whips. It seems to work well with smaller amounts. Earlier today, it was working on some pizza dough for me. If I keep it on a low speed, it seems to work better on heavy loads.

I make meringue cookies a lot and it whips the whites just fine. Only problem, my work bowl can be too small at times. Over the holidays, I made batch after batch of cookie dough and it did this with out any problems.

One thing that I dislike, when adding ingredients, you do not have much space to pour this into the bowl while it is working. As for the pouring shield, who uses those things anyway. I have worked in too many restaurants to know that those things go away fast. The designers need to rethink this aspect of the device.

We have a ton of new restaurants up this way, when you coming up for dinner?

It is good to be a BBQ Judge.  And now it is even gooder to be a Steak Cookoff Association Judge.  Life just got even better.  Woo Hoo!!!

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  I have been using a 5qt Kenwood, labeled as Kenwood for 4 years now.  My only problem has been finding parts, extra paddles and whips.

joiei, I know that the outskirts of Montréal are a bit out of the way from where you are, but nowadays, anything can be mailed and these people are fantastic...www.kenwoodservice.com

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At my night job, we have two Kenwoods that are in the later stages of their second decade. We've just added a brand-new third machine. They are absolute workhorses, no question about it. The high/narrow bowl shape can be a bit of a pain for pouring things into, but it's better for whipping small quantities than the rounder KA style.

My only gripe would be the sound level, which is indeed noteworthy. On the other hand, I really love turning it off... :raz:

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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Safran, thanks for the heads up. I will put that address in my file for when I need it and I know I will need it.

It is good to be a BBQ Judge.  And now it is even gooder to be a Steak Cookoff Association Judge.  Life just got even better.  Woo Hoo!!!

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I'm into my 2nd Kenwood; the first one jumped off the counter in a moment of distraction while making bread. I bought a Kenwood again, because the first one (a gift from my late father to my mom) served me well for more than 30 years.

The larger model doesn't work as well with small quantities, but I usually make double-triple portions so it doesn't really matter. The noise, as others have pointed out, is considerable.

A pastry chef friend of mine prefers KA, especially when it comes to the whisk, because he feels that the Kenwood whisk has too many spokes. He prefers fewer, and says that the KA is superior in this instance. However, he feels that the Kenwood is slightly better for handling bread doughs than the KA.

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If you can get it heavily discounted, do it now! I have a DeLonghi 7qt to go with my smaller KA and have had no problems with it. I agree that it is not great for small portions (that is what the KA is for) it works well with larger volumes and heavier doughs.

One tip to keep it from moving around too much is to put a piece of that 'grippy' drawer liner stuff underneath it.

Wearing jeans to the best restaurants in town.
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I have the previous generation 5 quart DeLonghi mixer. I got it cheap, this past June I think, when they introduced the new line. I bought it because I was pissed off that my KA died on me, but I gotta say after working with it a while the KA is overall a better piece of machinery.

The design of the Delonghi is such that you can't mix nearly as much in its bowl as you can in a KA 5 qt. mixer, because the spot where you plug in your paddle/whisk/hook is much lower than on the KA-- it literally dips into the bowl.

In addition, although the machine's motor has a 10 year warranty, the rest of the parts do not. And the rest of the machine is not nearly as solid as the KA. There are numerous plastic parts, and just a general air of flimsiness that the KA doesn't have. I tried making my sourdough dough with the DeLonghi and while the motor sounded fine, I was afraid for a minute that the whole machine was going to fly apart. Since that time, I have grown to love and rely upon hand-kneading, so I never put lean, French bread-type doughs into the mixer any more.

It does a fine job with egg whites, cake batters, and wetter bread doughs. And the non-stick paddles and hooks are nice. I use the machine almost constantly. But I've basically decided the stand mixer isn't the way to go with regular bread.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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I have the previous generation 5 quart DeLonghi mixer.  I got it cheap, this past June I think, when they introduced the new line.  I bought it because I was pissed off that my KA died on me, but I gotta say after working with it a while the KA is overall a better piece of machinery.

The design of the Delonghi is such that you can't mix nearly as much in its bowl as you can in a KA 5 qt. mixer, because the spot where you plug in your paddle/whisk/hook is much lower than on the KA-- it literally dips into the bowl.

In addition, although the machine's motor has a 10 year warranty, the rest of the parts do not.  And the rest of the machine is not nearly as solid as the KA.  There are numerous plastic parts, and just a general air of flimsiness that the KA doesn't have.  I tried making my sourdough dough with the DeLonghi and while the motor sounded fine, I was afraid for a minute that the whole machine was going to fly apart.  Since that time, I have grown to love and rely upon hand-kneading, so I never put lean, French bread-type doughs into the mixer any more.

It does a fine job with egg whites, cake batters, and wetter bread doughs.  And the non-stick paddles and hooks are nice.  I use the machine almost constantly.  But I've basically decided the stand mixer isn't the way to go with regular bread.

Wow, seems like a much different machine than the 7qt machine that I have!

Wearing jeans to the best restaurants in town.
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I have the 5 qt. Kenwood (fka Rival Select) and I do not feel that any part of it is flimsy. I have no problems making as much stuff as in my friend's 5 qt. KA, and this machine is a workhorse. I knead lean dough in it and while I admit it is loud, it has never sounded like it was going to fly apart. I like it much better than the KA I use at my friend's, with its speeds that are never the speed I need (Kenwood has infinite speed control), plus the KA walks a lot more than the Kenwood. I've had mine for several years now (I think 6 or 7), and it has never given me a moment's trouble.

My only complaint is that it is difficult to add ingredients because the paddle attachment is set low. But put the ingredients to be added on a piece of parchment and you're set.

Perhaps the newer Kenwoods (DeLonghis) are not as sturdy as the older ones. I haven't seen any to compare with mine. I know that the newer KAs are a lot less sturdy than the old Hobart ones.

Edit to add: my attachments are not nonstick. They are cast aluminum.

Edited by Darcie B (log)
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IT SUCKS!!! I did a previous thread on it as well, telling people not to bother. It's wimpy, noisy, the whip breaks every 5 minutes etc.. can't work stiff doughs at all.

Okay, so I'm not the only dissenter. Although dissenter may be a bit strong. I think the DeLonghi is fine for most baking tasks, but for stiff doughs it seemed to me it wasn't up to the job. (And then again, most stand mixers aren't really up to the job either.)

I seem to be in the minority on this opinion, and I'd try it again, but I don't want to break another mixer!

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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