Cooking mixer recommendations

[laura&fam]

Does anyone have recommendations on brands or features to look for in a mixer? I want to just buy one to last a long time, I was thinking Boshe (sp?).

I was also hoping to get one big enough to do four loaves of bread, but if I do can I still use it to make smaller amounts? I'm really new to doughs.

 

[sherreis]

I love my Kitchen Aid. I don't know if they make one big enough for 4 loaves of bread though. I've had my Kitchen Aid for 20 yrs and it works great.

 

[greeneeyes]

Love my Kitchen Aid! You can make so many different things using the basic attachments and I'm looking forward to getting the pasta roller and grinder attachments.

 

[Stitch#1]

I'll give a third nod to the Kitchen Aid mixer brand. I love mine and will hopefully get the pasta attachment for Xmas this year.

 

[sherry7]

I vote for Kitchen Aid too. My MIL has one from the 1960's that's still going strong.

I bought mine as a "reconditioned" unit on Amazon, and saved over $200 on it. It looked brand new to me. I was told that many reconditioned units are actually brand new. If a person buys one and returns it, it has to go back to the factory if the box seal was broken. So, they inspect it, and call it reconditioned.

Amazon gets them from time to time. Just type in "reconditioned kitchenaid" in the search box.

 

[Telynn]

I also vote for Kitchen Aid. When my first one died I wrote the company letting them know that I had expected it to last more than 2 years making cakes and frostings--I hadn't even tried heavy doughs. Not only did the company replace mine, they paid for shipping the dead one back so they could find out what went wrong and included several attachments for the replacement! Talk about customer service!

My new one is now 18 years old and absolutely wonderful. I do make two loaves of heavy bread in mine and I have the smallest of the Kitchen Aids available. One thing to note, however, is that if you are used to other stand mixers you may have to adjust how you use the mixer (ie read the instruction book that comes with the machine) as it is VERY efficient and it's easy to over mix cakes/muffins when you first start out.

 

[sherry7]

Something to note....

Some of the KA mixers have the old-fashioned metal gears (good), and some have plastic gears (bad). Before you purchase, do some research on the net and find out which one you're buying.

 

[mel63]

Cook's Illustrated tested the new Cuisinart in March, and they liked it better than the Kitchen Aid Professional 600.

 

[laura&fam]

Thanks for all the input. I will especially pay attention so I don't get plastic parts, that just seems like they would break easily.

Do you need to buy a special model to add attachments to it or do they work on any model (i.e. a kitchen aid grinder would work on any kitchen aid mixer)?