Current thinking on stand mixers .....

[TMB]

I think my trusty 24 year old Kitchen Aid mixer may have given too much of itself in trying to produce a Brioche dough (2 pounds strong flour, 1 pound butter, 1 pound eggs - lots of dough) requested by daughter #2 .

It is a bowl lift mixer, 6 qt bowl. Honestly a great mixer.

Does the hive mind still think Kitchen Aid is the bee's knees or is there an alternative that is now thought to be a better unit ( I think I remember hearing that the KA's no longer use steel gears (?)).

[htwoopup]

I just bought another KA...the gears...you want to get the Professional line I think it was the Pro line Series 7...more expensive than the others but they are still made the way that got them the reputation. They did change to plastic gears in the non-professional models (and some of the lower numbered "pro line")...also, do not put any of the new accessories like paddle in the dishwasher even tho they say it is ok.

Hard to find in stock though.

[TMB]

Thank you, good to know. I would have gone to the Pro line anyway as I will want the bowl lift and the 7 qt bowl. But good to know.

The price actually doesn't surprise me greatly as the current one on the counter I paid about $350 for 24 years ago, so the current price seems pretty fair.

It was that familiar, "you shouldn't be doing this to me" smell that the mixer started giving off. I will give it a couple of days and cross my fingers that it will be OK. In the meantime I will start looking for suppliers.

[htwoopup]

It was that familiar, "you shouldn't be doing this to me" smell that the mixer started giving off. I will give it a couple of days and cross my fingers that it will be OK. In the meantime I will start looking for suppliers.

It may just need new lube or some kind of rebuild. My old mixer (I had gotten tired of carrying it back and forth between NY and Quebec for holiday meals which is why I bought the new one), was making noises. I called KA and they sent me a box to ship it to them (I think the box roundtrip charge was around 70 usd). There was a charge to inspect/ estimate it which was then applied to any repairs if I went forward. They gave me an estimate to repair/rebuild it and it was cheaper than buying a new one. The lady I talked to before I sent it in said that was likely to be the cost variable although occasionally on really old ones it came out to more than a new one which people did if it had "sentimental value like it was their grandmother's or some other emotional reason". They might also have an authorized repair center near you that would save/be cheaper on the shipping charge.

Just throwing that out there as another thing to think about.

[TMB]

It may just need new lube or some kind of rebuild. My old mixer (I had gotten tired of carrying it back and forth between NY and Quebec for holiday meals which is why I bought the new one), was making noises. I called KA and they sent me a box to ship it to them (I think the box roundtrip charge was around 70 usd). There was a charge to inspect/ estimate it which was then applied to any repairs if I went forward. They gave me an estimate to repair/rebuild it and it was cheaper than buying a new one. The lady I talked to before I sent it in said that was likely to be the cost variable although occasionally on really old ones it came out to more than a new one which people did if it had "sentimental value like it was their grandmother's or some other emotional reason". They might also have an authorized repair center near you that would save/be cheaper on the shipping charge.

Just throwing that out there as another thing to think about.

Thank you.

[11.4]

Parts for old Kitchenaids are always available and the build quality is much better than the new ones in anything below the Pro line (7-8 quart and larger). Newer gears have some delrin elements, added basically as sacrificial gears for when the mixers are abused. There are also cheap all-nylon gear trains in the lowest end ones. Yours should have the sacrificial gears added. Repairing them is not hard and you can revert to the original steel and brass gearing, even if you have to take the mixer apart and salvage some parts from some discarded one.

The 8 quart is a magnificent mixer and fully in the tradition of the originals. If you want to spend $700, it's absolutely worth it. If you really want to maximize the use of it, get a spare dough hook, beater, whisk, and an extra bowl. You can get a 5 quart bowl for the 8 quart Pro that uses the same utensils (it just has lower sides on it) and is useful for when you have smaller projects. (Logic would suggest that a lower wall would cause stuff to get thrown out more, but actually if you have too narrow bowl, the contents will climb the walls and blow out the top. The wide one is good, though I'd get a spare 8 quart before I added a 5 quart.)

[COVRTDESIGN]

Kitchen-Aid always. Their repair department is incredible!

[Tom]

You could be like the furniture maker that is slowly filling our house. We visited his shop and the first thing I noticed were three old Porter Cable drill presses lined up. I remarked on that and he said yeah, it took me eight to build those three.

[glepore]

I have a Kitchen Aid pro that's 10 yrs old and saw commercial use for a couple of years when I had a restaurant. For dough, I greatly prefer the Ankasarum (Magic Mill, Electrolux Assistent, DLX are other names). Its operation principle is different in that the bowl turns, so the motor is in the base. Its half as loud as the KA, has a built in timer, and best there's very little over the bowl so its really easy to add stuff while its running. It also will do much more dough than the KA.The kneading action is superior. The KA is probably better for whipping, but that's all. It will also run attachments (blender, pasta machine, meat grinder etc). Even 30 year old ones still run great...

[Too Tall]

K.A. here as well. Can I talk about their pasta attachments? Lovely invention.