We had a couple of lower-end Kitchen Aid mixers, worked good but not up to kneading bread dough, kept stripping the plastic gears.

Wouldn't object to another KA, IF they make an upscale unit with a metal gear train.

Budget around $300, maybe a shade more for a really rugged unit.

Suggestions?

If you have a Costco membership the 6 quart lift bowl with 590 watt motor and metal gears is $250.

I subscribe to Cook's Illustrated online - it's a great cooking magazine, and they have zero advertisements, so when they review something, you know it's not because they're scared of losing ad revenue.

They have a roundup of under-$250 stand mixers and like the "KitchenAid Classic Plus" stand mixer the best (the only one to make the "Highly Recommended" category). Runners up in the "Recommended" category were the "Bosch Compact Kitchen Machine" and the "Hamilton Beach Electrics Stand Mixer".

They also did an up-to-$500 review. The overall winner (and the only one in the "Highly Recommended" category) was the "KitchenAid Pro Line Series 7-Qt Bowl Lift Stand Mixer" (just under $500). In the "recommended" category, they have the "KitchenAid Classic Plus" as the "Best Buy," and they also have the "KitchenAid Professional 600 series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer."

There were some other very expensive units from other brands that didn't rate nearly as well.

Personally, I have one of the tilt-head KitchenAid mixers (like the Classic Plus). It works fine but I don't really like the tilt-head mechanism. If I had it to do over, I'd absolutely get a bowl-lift mixer.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
"KitchenAid Professional 600 series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer."

Go with this one. I've been using one for years and they work great, even with my double loaves of bread dough.

Stay away from the smaller Artisan models of KitchenAids with the tilt heads. The motors are just not strong enough.

My wife loves to bake and as such has a part time side business doing occasion cakes, cupcakes and cookies. Her stand mixer doesn't get used for cakes and cupcakes but it gets used a lot for frostings, fondant, and several hundred pounds of Christmas cookies.

She had the old Kitchenaid 5 quart but it was really too small so we got her the 600 Professional and when the gears went I bought her another thinking she'd always have one to use while I fixed the other.

A few months ago I was making a single loaf of bread and the KA was working pretty hard during the kneading. She told me you're not even supposed to knead more than 5 or 6 minutes before letting the machine rest and cool.

Sigforum is so good at spending our money that when I read here about a Bosch Universal Plus I started to research it and watched a ton of youtube videos.

If you can stretch the budget a bit you'll probably never have need for another mixer, it powers through everything and she's been able to easily do a quadruple batch of her cookie recipes.
If the mixer is used for cake batters, mashed potatoes, and light work a KA might last a while but if it will see more use the Bosch is far superior in every way. It's much lighter and the top is wide open to add ingredients.
Amazon reviews on KA mixers are generally very good but reading between the lines it seemed to me most people never really put them to too much of a task. You won't find a bad review on the Bosch anywhere that I turned up.

You can also get replacement metal gears to replace the plastic drive units.

My 5 quart unit has been cranking out bread dough like a champ for more than thirty years. But it's from when they were still made by Hobart.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zoom6zoom,

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
"KitchenAid Professional 600 series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer."

Go with this one. I've been using one for years and they work great, even with my double loaves of bread dough.

Stay away from the smaller Artisan models of KitchenAids with the tilt heads. The motors are just not strong enough.

This.

Bowl-lift good. Tilt head bad.

No problems w/ my Pro600 mixing large quantities of heavy dough.

-Rob

You need to get a Pro model of KitchenAid and not some consumer grade crap from Target.

Thanks all for the input.

KA Pro 600 looks like the answer.

We have both the Artisan tilt head and Pro 600. My wife has had the Artisan for well over 20 years with no problems but the gears stripped in the Pro after a couple of years, I bought it at William Sonoma so it was no questions asked and they sent me a brand new one at no cost and paid for me to ship the broken one back. I remember a rep at Kitchen Aid telling me that when kneading dough stay on 2nd speed or so that is what I think I remember.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
"KitchenAid Professional 600 series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer."

Go with this one. I've been using one for years and they work great, even with my double loaves of bread dough.

Stay away from the smaller Artisan models of KitchenAids with the tilt heads. The motors are just not strong enough.

I concur exactly.

I'm glad the Kitchenaid mixers work for many of you. As I've mentioned before, I was not at all impressed with my Kitchanaid Artisan 600 mixer. It broke internally in a few places. When I spoke with the repair facility, I was told it is common.

The repairs were more than I felt inclined to deal with, given I was told it will happen again. And again.

It's a nice mixer, but no where near heavy duty in my experience--metal gears and all.

Our Bosch Universal mixer has been rebuilt once in the 37 years we've owned it and has kneaded thousands of loaves of bread. The hook comes from the center of the bowl, not from above, hence the dough never climbs the hook.
Would strongly recommend looking at the Bosch.

Amazon link

Read the reviews at the link, especially from former Kitchenaid owners.

I agree with the Bosch. I wanted to like the Kitchenaid, I bought many accessories for it. I have another one new in the box I haven't used since the first one broke. I was 100% convinced until it broke and I took it apart. That was when I bought the Bosch.

quote:

Originally posted by Timdogg6:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
"KitchenAid Professional 600 series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer."

Go with this one. I've been using one for years and they work great, even with my double loaves of bread dough.

Stay away from the smaller Artisan models of KitchenAids with the tilt heads. The motors are just not strong enough.

I concur exactly.

Our Harvest Gold lift-bowl is at least 35 years old. We don’t use it a tremendous amount but it has made a bunch of bread and cakes.

Mike

Now is a really good time to be looking for one.

There is a sale right now at Kitchen Collection on the KitchenAid Refurbished Professional 600™ Series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer in RED.
Note it is refurbished, but seems to be a decent deal at $199.97 with free shipping.

KA 600

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Would strongly recommend looking at the Bosch.

Amazon link

I think anyone looking to purchase a mixer, should check out the video in the above link. The Bosch seems to be the real deal.

quote:

Originally posted by Rinehart:
Now is a really good time to be looking for one.

There is a sale right now at Kitchen Collection on the KitchenAid Refurbished Professional 600™ Series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer in RED.
Note it is refurbished, but seems to be a decent deal at $199.97 with free shipping.

KA 600

Note, if it's refurbished it has already most likely broken once.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

quote:

Originally posted by Rinehart:
Now is a really good time to be looking for one.

There is a sale right now at Kitchen Collection on the KitchenAid Refurbished Professional 600™ Series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer in RED.
Note it is refurbished, but seems to be a decent deal at $199.97 with free shipping.

KA 600

Note, if it's refurbished it has already most likely broken once.

I'm reading this w/ a refurbished 27" monitor and it was a heck of deal. I'm very happy w/ it.

I'm typing this w/ a refurbished Razor mechanical gaming keyboard. Another great deal and I love it.

The "refurbished" title could be a very minor manufacturing flaw that was fixed, yes?

That looks like a tempting deal to me.

I understand that for some a "refurbished" product can make them nervous.

I was told by a quality manager years ago-

Many things "new" are quality "sampled".
Which means that often they only fully check/test every 50th or 100th (or every higher) pieces in production.
Not every piece/product is fully tested in many cases. "New" often doesn't mean what it used to-

"Remanufactured" means they check 100%, and it still has a full warranty. I've bought a number of Apple and other products that were remanufactured that never gave a problem.
(One had a small scratch and Apple gave $200 bucks off-).

(As dsiets mentioned, sometimes a remanufactured tag can be a result of cosmetic or missing piece during production).