Kitchen Mixer Help

Have you ever burned out the motor of a mixer making too many batches of cookies? Do you like fresh baked bread but detest the square bread maker loaves: But you still need something easier then kneading and mixing by hand?

The Kitchen aid is one of the most useful kitchen tools to have.

Why it’s good:

It’s a heavy duty machine, you wont burn out motors here.

It’s easy to clean, no nooks and crannies for food to get in , it wipes down easily.,

Oh I have missed my Kenwood mixer from the time I lived in Italy for 3 1/2 years!! Thank God for Delonghi! Being a personal chef, I had been depending on my 1994 KitchenAid Professional mixer for quite a while now. But have never been fully satisfied with the power, size or ease of use of the machine. So when I started looking for a new mixer I compared all brands of the professional brands out there. Heard to many negative reviews on KitchenAid (motor, etc.) and from personal experience hated that it still had the lift bowl that is only 6 quarts. Turned to Viking and again was hit with negative reviews again (didn’t reach bottom of bowl, loud motor, overheating, etc.). Finally started looking for a Kenwood mixer, only to find that Delonghi had taken over the Kenwood name in America for a few years now.

The KitchenAid brand goes hand in hand with Hobart. Hobart makes those beefy industrial kitchen appliences. I have a five foot tall mixer at work. Built like a tank. We needed a smaller mixer for some R&D work in the laboratory (don’t ask). I bought one of these units because it had the big bowl. I bought several bowls and had them teflon coated inside-a nice blue color (don’t ask).

I have had four Kitchen-aid mixers over the last 15 years. The first one purchased in 1984 was made by Hobart and has been problem free. The other three have been in and out of the repair shop a total of at least 5 times with the general problem of stripped gears. The gears are nylon and are designed to fail in lieu of other more expensive parts. This may be fine for protecting the motor but at 45 bucks a pop or so to replace, the stripped gears are no picnic and the authorized repair shop is 100 miles away.

Like I said, for light batters and doughs, chances are you will have few problems with this mixer, if you get into making pasta or heavy whole wheat breads you probably will. I have also had the cap that covers the attachment port fall into the bowl and jam the beater, which stripped the gears. I have had two incidents where the dough became unbalanced and walked the mixer off the counter. So, make sure the cord is tied up short to pull out of the outlet before it reaches the edge of the counter.

Now I am going to reveal a second dirty little secret about Kitchen-aid that I discovered by talking to a Hobart dealer and also to an electrical engineer. Wattage means nothing on these mixers so if you have considering buying one of the bigger ones because of “more power” rather than the bigger bowl…don’t: You will be wasting your money and here is why. These mixers are way over powered to begin with, The gears will strip before you max the motor out (at least when you are using the beaters. I don’t know about when you are using attachments.) I have had both the smaller and the larger Kitchen-aids get VERY hot while using attachments for prolonged periods. If you go to the Hobart web site and look at the specs on commercial mixers you will find that a whopping 20 quart mixer that will mix 10 pounds of mashed potatoes or make several loaves of bread is only powered by a 1/3 horsepower motor. What is a horsepower you may ask? Well, it is about 745 watts, so a 1/3 horsepower motor uses approximately 250 watts. How can you mix up ten gallons of mashed potatoes or six or seven loaves of bread with only 250 watts? I have to assume it is because the motor is transferring that power efficiently to heavy duty commercial gears and beaters with more torque. The commerical mixer manufacturers are not engaged in marketing gimics like “high wattage” to fool the lay public into thinking wattage equals power.

I guess the moral of this story is that if you are a serious baker or pasta maker, consider getting a small commercial mixer. You will get sick of replacing the gears in a Kitchen-aid. If you only do cookies, pie crust or an occasional angel food cake, almost any Kitchen-aid will do just fine

Product

HL300-1STD

Key Features
Mixer Type
Stand
Speed Settings
3 Speeds

Other Features
Power Output
559.27 Watts
Bowl Size
30 quart (28.4 liter)

Dimensions
Height
45.25 in.
Width
21.5 in.
Depth
21 in.

Miscellaneous
53916234

The price : $7,737.00

I purchased my first Kitchen Aid Mixer about 7 years ago. I purchased the 5 qt. Artisan mixer. I LOVED it!!! So as my need grew I decided to go up the line to the next level the Professional 600 series. Right from the start I was disapointed with the choices of color, but if it worked better I would live with a pearlized color. It has similar features to other kitchen aid models. It comes with 3 attachments, a Whisk, Paddle and Dough hook. The first thing I noticed is that the parts are no longer dishwasher safe. Also instead of the head tilting back as it does in the smaller models, you have the bowl lift feature. This took a lot of getting use to, but again if I was able to get more work done in a shorter period of time I could live with it.

This past Christmas I was making my normal batch of Marshmallows( that I had made tons of times with my 5 qt model with no problem) when the machine just stopped revolving. When I called Kitchen Aid of course my warrenty had just expired. So when I called the recommended repair show I was shocked when I was told it would be a minimum of $200 to fix. It appears all though it is advertiesd as all metal, the casing that all of the gears are in are in is made of plastic. So if one goes everything goes. I was shocked. I had spent $400 on a machine to do more work and it worked less than my smaller one. At first I decided to go ahead and have the work done, but as I thought about it and investigated online I decided I had had enough. It turn out that the Hobart company has sold Kitchen Aid to Whirlpool and the quality has gone down. I am far from the only one that has suffered this problem and feel for the money I could get a much better reliable product. I am going to replace it with Cuisinart which is the same price but 1000 watts compared to 575.

If you want more specifics on the product I am sure many of the other reviewers can give that. I just want everyone to be warned how easily it blows gears.

I grew up using my mom’s KitchenAid, which dated from the “good old days” when they were manufactured by Hobart. Since then, the quality of construction has declined noticeably.

As I started to bake more bread, which was really a bit more than my mom’s model could handle, I decided to ship the old one off to my beach share and “upgrade” to the KSM90.

My KSM90 is still a good product and I like it a lot, but I’m find that after less than a year it makes noises that don’t sound healthy. Considering I use it only about once a week or so, that’s disturbing.

Key Features
Mixer Type
Stand
Speed Settings
2 Speeds

Other Features
Bowl Size
60 quart (56.8 liter)

Miscellaneous
37457267

A ‘bargain’ at US1600 - US1800? Try AUD3000+ (which is what I had to pay for the N-50 in Australia) and yes, I emphatically claim it is a True Bargain. The reason so many people mention the longevity of the Hobart mixers when compared to the competition, is because so many are still working perfectly after 10, 20, 40, or 50 years — long after some of the industrial-strength paint has chipped or worn, the immaculate gears and motor will power on and on, and just … work. And the N-50 will do so quietly and with self-assured strength and dignity.

Product

H600

Key Features
Mixer Type
Stand
Speed Settings
4 Speeds

Other Features
Power Output
1491.4 Watts
Bowl Size
60 quart (56.8 liter)

Warranty

1 Year

Dimensions
Height
55.88 in.
Width
27.50 in.
Depth
39.25 in.

Miscellaneous
21849080

Details

Mixer with stainless steel bowl, beater, whip, and dough hook. Hobart designed motor, heavy-duty to meet the most demanding operations. 15 minute electric timer. Supports recipe mixing times. Simplifies operation. Provides accurate results and eliminates