Who has a Kitchen Aid Mixer?

[momofdrew]

I got the Classic Plus on sale from Khol's last year at Christmas time LOVE IT

also got the slicer attachment this summer great for making pickles ....

 

[Mac in Wisco]

We have the Professional 600 plus a number of attachments. I bought it for the wife last Christmas at Kohl's. If I recall correctly it was overpriced at Kohl's, but they were pretty much the only store in town that had them. It eased my mind when they gave me something like a $100 gift certificate for making $500 in purchases.

We mostly use it for dough. Bread dough, pizza dough, biscuits, cinnamon rolls , etc. We also use an ice cream maker attachment quite often.

 

[Stumpy]

I have a 5-quart 350-watt, a lesser-wattage 5-quart picked up at a flea market, and a smaller very, very old tilt-head from the 40's, I believe.

What do you want to do with your mixer? If you've never used a planetary mixer before, the greatest advantage is it takes less time to mix anything as compared to one of the Sunbeam types, so you can actually overmix things if you're not careful. I can't imagine trying to make a good decorator icing in a less powerful mixer.

Kitchenaids used to be made by Hobart, but the company was taken over by Whirlpool several years ago. They went through a period when there were some lemons because of the changes -- they just broke down. Some of the Artisans have a bad reputation.

I prefer the bowl-lift models. If I could do anything different, I'd like more room, a larger bowl.

I received a meat grinder attachment for Christmas and it's been a disappointment. I was grinding venison, and several times I had to take it apart and pull and scrape the fat which had wound around the "knife." The only other attachment I have is the vegetable slicer and I mainly use it for grating cheese. The older all-metal attachments, which are going for high prices on Ebay these days, supposedly had better knives.

I was just reading reviews on this Swiss mixer last night, and I'd consider it if I was starting from scratch. An 8-quart mixer would be great.

http://www.amazon.com/Electrolux-DX...DWAD/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1230511961&sr=8-3

The Kitchenaid forum here has a wealth of information:

http://forum.kitchenaid.com/forums/default.asp

There is an actual Hobart mixer available which has the same hub size (where the attachments fit) as the Kitchenaid. If you want a tank of a mixer, for which you might have to take out a small loan, but will never have to replace:

http://www4.shopping.com/xPO-Hobart-N50

 

[EweSheep]

I've got mine from Xmas, Mom bought it from Kohl's and its the tilt head one with screw on metal bowl. Its a real work horse for cake mixes and cookies and will be trying out my new noodle makers.

I would love to get the meat grinder thingys!

 

[what was i thinking]

yes i have one. i love it. got the grinder attachment a couple yrs ago and can grind my venison burger. i love it..o i mentioned that already. lol

 

[briteday]

I had the 325 watt, 4.5 or 5 quart (?) bowl model for over 20 years. I use it at least weekly, sometimes daily, depending on what I am making for meals that day or what I might be baking. I did eventually wear down the gear when I overloaded it one day. The gear was plastic but my DH bought one from the appliance repair guy in town (not expensive) and replaced it.

When I bought the first mixer I also bought the attachment package and have used all of the accessories regularly.

In the meanwhile I had purchased the larger 475 watt model. It was just fine while I was doing a lot of baking over the holidays. And I was able to sell the smaller one on craiglist.

Both models work great. And both of mine had the lift-up bowl vs the tilt back head. I haven't looked in the guts of the new one to see if the gears are all metal, but if the plastic ones lasted with continual use for over 20 years...

Cheapest place I found the mixers was at Costco.

 

[lizardz]

I have the Epicurian and have had it for about 7 years. I think it's a step down from the Professional. I don't have any attachments for it, but would love to get the pasta attachment. I do a lot of baking, double or triple batches of cookies, and find it works really well for that. My one complaint is that I find it virtually impossible to whip cream or egg whites unless I'm doing a very large quantity. It can be done, but takes forever. I just use a hand mixer when I do those. Because of that, I'm not sure I'll buy another one when it dies.
Liz

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Oh yes - I LOVE IT!!! I wouldn't have anything less. Without looking, not sure what the model is but it's the basic one. DBF just bought the more commercial one and we use it for making pasta. We only have the meat grinder attachments and they work wonderfully. Buy roasts when they are on sale and grind your own ground beef. Can't beat it. No pun intended LOL.

 

[nailjack]

My wife just loves hers, used it alot over the holidays. We just did up 50 lbs. of venison today with it.

 

[MissPrissy]

I have 2.

One is ca. the 1960's and was a hand-me down.

My new one my in-laws gave me for Christmas this year. It is the red one. Love it!