What Kind of Stand Mixer is in Your Kitchen?

[MrCoffee]

I almost nabbed me a KitchenAid 4-C, but it got to such a high price that I figured something else can be found for considerably less. I guess I'll just have to keep looking. Looking into a Hobart N-50, though, I think I'm in LUST for one of them. Brand new, berry blue, and hot off the presses of course!

MrCoffee

(Gosh, I should go make me some blueberry pancakes)

 

[choclatechef]

Well, go on with your bad self Mr.C!

I would love to get a new Hobart N-50, but that is not gonna happen! Let me know asap when you get yours though!

 

[luvs]

as i posted on my one thread, i'm getting my mixer in a couple of days.

it'll be my very 1st mixer, but i'm only 24.
there she is, pretty in pink!
her name is susie g. k., cause she's a susan g. komen breast cancer awareness mixer.

 

[SpiceUmUp]

Ok, it's official, I have gone nuts. I just bought a Hobart Kitchenaid K3b, a Hamilton Beach Model G and I am trying to get a 1938 Sunbeam Mixmaster. Sigh insanity in one so young

 

[choclatechef]

Spice, are you a member of WACEM?

If not, you should be!

 

[SpiceUmUp]

ummmm what is WACEM??

 

[choclatechef]

It is an internet site -- "We Actually Collect Electric Mixers".

It is on Yahoo groups.

 

[SpiceUmUp]

ChoclateChef, I found WACEM and jonied THANKS. Got a KA 3B today. Now I need to find a bowl for it. It came with a grinder and it is in good shape. Runs well. But I gotta find a bowl

 

[choclatechef]

Great! I am on there also. You will know me when you see me!!!!!

 

[Corey123]

I own the KitchenAid K45SS Classic.

I've owned it for almost 20 years. And there's a reason for that.

You see, my mixer is one of the original Hobart-made ones. It has the Hobart logo on the side. And this mixer has stood up to every task that I've assigned it to. I've used all three beaters, and now, I'm getting into buying some accessorires for it, such as the food grinder, pasta maker and other things.

I've already bought the 3-qt. stainless steel bowl and the mixer cover for it.
I'm NOT letting this mixer go as long as it works, and it is still working very well.

If it were to break down, I certainly wouldn't buy another KitchenAid mixer again. The ones made today have a design flaw where the transmission is housed in a plastic casing that twists & breaks, causing the gears to stop working. Trust me, when Hobart owned the KitchenAid division, the mixers were the cream of the crop. Now that Whirlpool owns it, the mixers break down too much because of that serious design flaw. Or the motors burn out.

I'm not out to scare any of you, but if your KitchenAid stand mixer is not one of the original Hobart-made units, please keep an eye out for any strange popping noises coming from your machine. The now plastic casing heats up, distorts and cracks, letting the gears get out of whack and renders the mixer useless.

Anyone wishing to get proof of this can go to http://groups.msn.com/Kitchenaid/ . You'll see small pics there of one of the mixers with the outside cover removed to expose the inner workings. Just click on those pics to enlarge them and get a close-up view of the motor and the cracked plastic cover on the gears and the plastic cover removed to show the gears.

It may scare you, but I want everyone to know the REAL quality of Whirlpool-made KitchenAid stand mixers. Thank you.

~Corey123.

 

[Corey123]

I have a few different mixers myself, and have given away or loaned out quite a few also!

I have :
Hobart N-50
Hobart Kitchenaid chrome Model G
Hobart Kitchenaid K-5A
Kitchenaid Commercial 5qt
Hobart Kitchenaid K-4B
Hobart Kitchenaid K-3C
A missing in action Hobart Kitchenaid K-4C

I gave away to my cousins, my mother's Oster Kitchen Center, and my grandfather's Oster Kitchen Center.

I still have mom's 1940's Sunbeam.

I once had the Oster kitchen Center. But the problem was that it was housed in an all-plastic housing. It began to crack in some places.

Then I bought the Kenwood Chef, which had a metel base, but also had a plastic upper housing for the mixer arm & motor. That, also, began to crack!

That's when I went to the Hobart-made KitchenAid K45SS, and the mixer body was scratched, but it NEVER cracked or broke at all. Plastic-housing mixers do not last very long at all. For all of you who love to cook & bake, an all-metal-case mixer is the way to go.


~Corey123.

 

[Mixerman47]

KitchenAid Pro 600 Gear Quality

Corey123,

I have it on very good authority (I should know, I work at KitchenAid) that in early 2006, the Pro 600 mixer will be made with an improved metal transmission cover. For 98 percent of our customers, this will have no effect whatsoever. But, for those few that are really heavy duty users, this will improve the durability of the mixer both in bread kneading and heavy attachment use. By END of 2006, ALL bowl lift models will exhibit this metal transmission cover. Let me also say that this is a fairly small cost increase, but is an improvement we made once a newer "metal injection molding" technology became more feasible for us.

 

[Corey123]

Well, that's greast news to hear!

This should certainly eventually help to restore the trust, quality and integrity back into the Pro 600 mixer line. It would truly be worth the small cost increase to see this milestone change and thanks so much for the heads-up!

I imagine that they were flooded with e-mails & calls from dissatisfied customers who mixers broke down. I hope that it pans out well.


~Corey123.

 

[Mixerman47]

Corey123,

Actually, we HAVEN'T been flooded with calls from customers who have broken their tranmissions. There just aren't that many people out there who exceed the design limits of out current design. For those few that do, this improvement will help them quite a bit, up to twice the transmission life of even our classic mixer.

 

[Ishbel]

I use a Kenwood mixer. It's the second one I've owned in over 30 years - the original was a wedding present and only gave up the ghost about a year ago - and I used it probably 6 or 7 times a week (at least!)

 

[Corey123]

Corey123,

Actually, we HAVEN'T been flooded with calls from customers who have broken their tranmissions. There just aren't that many people out there who exceed the design limits of out current design. For those few that do, this improvement will help them quite a bit, up to twice the transmission life of even our classic mixer.

Yeah, since the word "professional" appears right on the machine's motorhead, you'd think that this means that the mixer was designed for use slightly beyond the demands of normal household use to the point where a professional chef could use it comfortably enough to say that it meets or exceeds his / her demands for a truly rugged powerful machine.

But there is always room for improvement, and I'm so glad that your company has decided to take the intiative to make this machine better than before.

Think of it as The Six Million Dollar Man ( "Gentlemen; We can rebuild it. We can make it better than it was before. Better, stronger & faster!").

I may buy this machine after all, but I'll wait until either next winter or spring to make sure that the newer improved bowl-lift models are well into curculation before I do. Do you think they'll have on the boxes the words "New & Improved", "Redesigned", or something like that as an indication that the new stronger metal gearcase covers are in use?

Ishbel, like yourself, I, also, had a Kenwood machine, but in addition to the motorhead cracking, the motor kept on overheating and shutting off, forcing me to wait at least 30 to 45 minutes to finish a mixing job, and I wasn't even making anything that put an undue strain on the machine. I got tired of this being a constant interruption. It was becoming a thorn in my side, p***ing me off to no end!

This kept on happening until finally, I decided that I had enough and decided to buy the KitchenAid Mixer.


~Corey123.

 

[Mixerman47]

Ishbel, that's great you have gotten such good use out of your Kenwood. They make a fine machine. There are hundreds of thousands of KitchenAid owners who ALSO use theirs every day, for decades, with no problems. But this is what makes it so difficult to determine the performance "requirements". Use every day, fine. What recipes? How many times in one day? How much rest in between recipes (for cool down)? What size recipe? What type of flour? What order of ingredients (some mix more dry in before wet)? I guess you get the picture. It is a challenge for us, but we are continually listening and learning.

 

[jennyema]

I have a big Kitchenaid Pro which I love!! The only slight problem is that it is just a tiny bit off-leval so that it rocks a bit when it is really cranking.

I haven't had any motor/transmission problems. Yet at least. I have fried a food processor that way.

The Pro is too big for really small jobs, so I have a cheapo hand mixer for those.

I have the pasta attachment, too

Kitchenaid makes great products.

 

[Alix]

I currently own a Sunbeam/Oster food processor/mixer that I have LOVED for years. It is about to die though. It has odd spurts of speed and then will slow down to almost nothing. Fortunately for me though, my MIL has given me money to put toward a new machine. I am going to purchase a KA and hopefully get it cheap enough to get all the attachments I want as well. I don't need anything professional sized, but I am wondering about the difference between the 300 and 400 watt guys. Is there a significant difference?

 

[luvs]

i have a pink kitchenaid, tee-hee, & i dreamt about a pink miixer last night- more fuscia, i'd say.