Kitchenaid Stand Mixer
 

I do a fair bit of cooking at home, but there are a lot of things like making dough, mashing potatoes or whipping up meringue that I just won't do by hand. So I'm in the market for a stand mixer. Kitchenaid makes the only decent one I've seen :
http://www.kitchenaid.com/assets/ima...-largeview.jpg

It retails for about $300, which seems pretty fair, and there are about a trillion different attachments you can get for it but I'd like to know if anyone here has used one or if anyone has any suggestions on other brands.
Thanks for the input.

one of my dreams in life has been to be able to afford a kitchen aide mixer :(

I LOOOOOVE my Kitchen Aid....

I have had a Krups and a few other mixers, but nothing comes close to the Kitchen Aid for power... It creams butter like nobody's business...

The only thing that comes close, is my Bravetti hand mixer which I will use if I don't feel like lugging out the Kitchen Aid....

The KitchenAid is worth every penny spent on it and will last you forever.. mine's about 8 years old, and still works like a champ... (I use it for cookie baking at the holidays, making bread dough if I am extremely lazy, mashed taters it's awesome for, a bunch of things) and the bonus to it, it's still easy to find parts for it... I recently cracked the bowl of my cuisianrt (another phenomenal piece of equipment) and I"m having trouble replacing it without spending a fortune.

The other place to look is on amazon.com We purchased ours there as a refurb, or as they call it "Factory-Reconditioned" and it works great. If you go to amazon and do a search for: kitchen aid Factory-Reconditioned You will find them listed. If they don't have what your looking for check back in a few months.

This is the kitchen-aid I have. I love it beyond belief. It's my stand by work horse in my kitchen, hands down. I've never had a single problem that the few negative reviews talk about. I didn't really compare the specs on them too much, but I think the main difference is that this one is a bowl lift compared to a tilt in your pic. If you can afford one, go for it. It'll change the way you bake and cook.

Thanks for the endorsements everyone. There's a restaurant supply store that I do a lot of business with through work, they give us pretty hefty discounts so I'll probably pick one up through them. I'd like a larger, bowl-lift model. I cook enough to justify having a large one, but I'm not sure if I have the space for it.
My next question is, if anyone has used the ice cream maker attachment, how well does it work? I'm in the market for one of those too, and if the kitchenaid can do the job, it'll kill two birds with one stone.

miss my kitchenaid, just lost it to soon-to-be exwife !

We got one as a wedding gift. It's probably the best mixer that I or my wife have every used. It's just so substantial.

This is one of the things I love abou the TFP; every time I think about starting a thread, someone beats me to it! Looks like my wife will be getting one of these when her birthday comes around (she was drooling over one of them on Good Eats).

The one I am coveting right now (gawd, I am such a girl) is the pink one, that they've donated a portion of the proceeds to a breast cancer charity (Susan Komen I think) - it's just cool to see an appliance that doesn't come in the standard colors.

It's great gift, Redlemon -- you're wife is really gonna show you the love :D or at least bake you some really good chocolate chip cookies, whichever you prefer.

Who says the two have to be seperate?

She's allergic to chocolate, so we'd have to keep those seperate. :D

Back on topic, Pellaz was talking about bowl lift vs. tilt. What's the benefit of that?

I got my wife the uplift a couple of years ago, and we love it, we have the food grinder, sausage stuffing, shredder, and juicer attachement. (we have used all of them) most of these came with the http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...ance&s=kitchen
however I am intrigued by the ice cream maker, any body use it yet?

On lift vs tilt.

You can operate the lift in a smaller space than the tilt, but it's truely a pain in the ass to scrape the sides down. The lift is also more forgiving in terms of making a mess, and you can add ingredients easier while the mixer is running.

I've read that the lifts are better for people who make a lot of bread, and tilts are better for people that do a lot of lighter mixing, but I don't know. I do both, and apart from the scraping, am happy with the lift, and that's a process that, while irritating, quickly becomes rythmic and doesn't seem so bad the more you do it.

As a gadget guy, I come down firmly on the side of the lift, on the all important to cooking basis that the lift is, like, way cooler than the tilt :)

edit: You can also adjust the height on the lifts by small increments, while I believe that on the tilts you're stuck with the factory standard.

I love my kitchen aid... kitchen tested chef approved..

too bad it has to stay with my mom... she gives me an evil eye when I try to take it....and I dont have the heart to tell her no she cant have it.

Theyre so awesome, if I somehow come into contact with another $300-500 Im gettin another one!!!

Really, dont feel bad about droppin 300 for this mixer... they last FOREVER... the ones at school are the "professional"(dont get the commercial you cant use attachments on those) and theyre like 6-10 years old.

*continues to drool*

I love this mixer.

My family has one and from my experiences it is the best type of mixer on the market. Want to knead dough for a while, or watch TV while the mixer does it for you? Extremely powerful and easy to use.

About adding ingredients, Alton Brown has it down perfectly on Good Eats, buy yourself some flexible cutting boards and just form them in a tube and send the ingredients down in.

As for tilt vs. lift, I don't say it really matters, but in my experiences if you work with REALLY tough dough, the tilt model can rock a little bit while kneading because the motor and dough hook won't get stuck and just keep on chugging, even if that means pushing the top of the mixer up. This is hardly a problem, just slighly annoying for a few seconds. I do not know if the lift models have the same problem, but from my observations, I doubt it. Just try to get a bowl with a handle, it's one of those things that you think "Oh, I won't ever really need it" but if you ever use one you realize the ease of use it has.

As for the ice cream attachment, I haven't had any experience with the KitchenAid attachment, but from the pictures I see online it looks like it has all the correct pieces to make good ice cream, a 2 quart capacity, and being it's from KitchenAid, I'd say go for it as long as you're willing to spend about $80. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...50543?v=glance

If $80 is a little too much, or you don't have need/space for 2 quarts, this model seems to get pretty good reviews pretty much everywhere, and was the one Alton Brown used on Good Eats if memory serves me right. http://www.epinions.com/Krups_La_Gla...Makers_R358_70

If you live near a Williams Sonoma, they are closing out their own design KitchenAid stand mixers that have 400 watts of power instead of the standard 325 watts of the Artisan model. Currently, in Houston at least, they have marked these down to $195.00 and this is the 5 quart model. I have an old 300 watt Ultra that broke down recently and I am sending back to KitchenAid for a quote on repair. But I have also bought a Williams Sonoma Accolade brand.

However, be warned. It is VERY noisy, and I feel that ear plugs should be worn when using it.

Also, the meat grinder attachment is okay for small jobs, but you can't use it for big meat grinding jobs.

yeah, Im still poor... bah lucky mom.. Im stealing her mixer, she can buy a the one from williams sonoma

I bought the Professional 600 series and this thing is an absolute BEAST when it comes to mixing quickrete! :D It's fabulous and makes very quick work of virtually any dough...I highly recommed it!


The Professional 600 Series is our most powerful Stand Mixer, able to churn through double batches of bread dough.

Flour Power: 14 cups
8 loaves - white bread
13 dozen cookies
8 lbs. mashed potatoes

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

kjroh, that's the model I bought an ex. Before she became an ex I was rewarded more for that mixer than for jewelry. Food before, other stuff after. Quite the worthwhile investment. :thumbsup: Very nice mixers.

We have the standard white tilt model one. It's about 5 years old and still going strong. I have been wanting to sand it down and give it a cool flame job with my air brush for a while now. Kinda like AB's but cooler.

I have the 400 watt in white. I love it and use it offten in fact last night I ground a pound of beef with it.

Wow, I'm gettin' me one of those. I've been deprived too long! :(

This thread has been dead for a bit, but I wanted to revive it to ask a question. I am seriously considering getting the Artisan mixer from Amazon , and thanks to a special have the choice to get a free slicer/shredder, food grinder, or juicer and I was wondering which one people think would come in more handy. Obviously that is a personal decision, but maybe people could point out a thing or two I would miss. I usually slice/shread my self by hand and usually enjoy doing it and I haven't ever wanted a grinder (but maybe if I had one I would use it). That leaves the juicer by default as there have been a couple instances where I have wished I had one. Any thoughts? Is the artisan a decent model to go with? Thanks for any insights!

The grinder is probably what I would go with... for no other reason than, there's no way I would drag out that machine to slic/shred some stuff, same goes for a citrus juicer... If it was a vegetable/fruit juicer, I might be swayed, but citus fruit can be juiced with a fork...

The grinder could be used for grinding meats, (I like meatballs), and perhaps for making sausage... soemthing that might be fun to try...

Good points maleficent. I think you might have convinced me.

I have a tilt model that I got at a warehouse club for a decent price. I don't make enough use of it, but it has never dissapointed. You do have to be careful not to overmix. It will turn whipped cream to butter if you don't watch it. It is also a little too powerfull for good mashed potatos (although I do make whipped potatos once in a while).

The one advantage of a lift model is that you can put a bowl of ice under the mixing bowl when a rare recipe requires it. I saw that on the Food Network once, but I can not remember what it was for.

I have read that many of the attachments are not worth the money. Many are almost as expensive as a free standing appliance that you are more likely to use. The one exception is the meat grinder because you really do want the power you can only get with the Kitchenaid mixer.

I received a bright red Ultra (300watt? 325 watt?) with a pouring shield for Valentines day.

I love it. it is quiet and heavey. I would like to get a meat grinder attachment for it ... hmmm hope hubby reads this.

just to chime in, the kitchenaide mixer is great. extremely great. you *may* be able to find it for less than $300, depending on the accessories, but even not onsale, it is an amazing kitchen accessory that has lasted for years in my kitchen..