Kitchenaid quality?

Years ago, I had a kitchenaid stand mixer, but it did not live up to its reputation and had several problems. I have been reading about the new Artisan mixers and am now considering getting one, but trying to decide between it and a Bosch.

The Kitchenaid motor is 325 watts, the Bosch is 1400 watts. First off, does this make any real difference in its true mixing power? Which do you think is the more solid piece of equipment?

Thanks.
Randy

I have also wandered about motor speeds, that is a great question Randy.

I actually found a review on AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN. Apparently the motor speed thing is a bunch of marketing hooey! It has nothing to do with the power of the motor, just the amount of current that goes INTO the machine from the power outlet! HP is the only thing that matters, and practically nobody tells you that!

According to their review, the best stand mixer is the Kitchenaid Professional 600 model with the 575 watt rating. ALL the parts and gears are metal (as opposed to plastic) and it did the best job.

Right now, my problem is the only Kitchenaid I seem to be able to find in Europe is the Artisan, which didn't do as well on the tests. I've written to Kitchenaid to find out if it will perform well with a transformer. If so, it would make sense to buy one in the States, although the shipping might wind up killing me...

Randy

If you are going to buy a new stand mixer, I would definitely not buy an Artisan. It's a model that is designed to be attractive to a consumer who wants a lower price point, but it doesn't stand up to the beating that the better models do.

I did see that America's Test Kitchen episode that tested stand mixers, and the KA 600 one and a..Hobart? were the best two.

Ahhh thank you!! I have always looked at the watt rating and judged from there, wont do that anymore!

Have you looked on Ebay for a mixer? Might find something there with reasonable shipping cost. Sometime the sellers have free shipping if you use the "Buy It Now" feature.

There was a gal that bought vintage Hobart mixers and swore by them. Will see if I can find the older threads.

The Bosch is basically a bread making machine, you have to take it all apart to put ingredients into it. It was basically designed for recipes that you put all the ingredients in at once and mix.

I would go with the biggest KA you can afford, Costco and Sam's Club have a exclusive KA that is 475 watts and does to totally awesome job at mixing up 6 lbs of bread dough.

I bought it and love it, and it was cheaper than the Professional 600. I paid $400 (Canadian) for my mixer and the Professional 600 was $700. The 600 has about 50 more watts of power, but the only thing is it has a bigger, wider bowl.

That would be ME!

The Hobart mixers can't be beat. What do you want to know?

I also post on the KA site as Leoladysw. I am the "in house expert" on everything but repair of vintage Hobart and Hobart Kitchenaid mixers on the KA forum.

There you are! Thank you for stopping by, knew you would be of great help!

I always check this site regularly to see if there is anything that I can help somebody with, or if I can give helpful advice on a product.

I especially lurk on the small appliance threads, since they are my "specialty". If it looks like everybody else has given great advice.......I don't interfere.

But it is great to know you remember me...

I have looked for Hobart mixers on Ebay and there arent many listed. You gave me the idea for vintage mixers!

That horsepower mention is correct. It is the only numbers that mean anything when it comes to power. The ONLY manufacturer that uses output HP on their mixers rather than input watts is Hobart.


The reason why the Hobart mixer was not given number one top ratings in the test by America's Test Kitchen is because of the high price of a new Hobart N-50.

But if amoritized over 20 years, your $1300 [low price found on the internet] purchase makes a lot of sense. Especially if you think of the cost of replacing and/or repairing your KA every 5 years or so.

And you would be surprised that after 20 years, your well maintained Hobart mixer will still be worth between $400 and $700 on the secondary market.

The Hobart is designed for use in restaurant and other commercial kitchen heavy duty applications. It is also frequently used in laboratories to mix things such as cement samples and other tough mixing jobs. Such a mixer in a household setting should last several generations of use. It will not stall or stop on heavy bread or pizza doughs.

I bought a Hobart N-50 with all of the all metal vintage meat grinder, rotary slicer, pelican disk slicer, citrus juicer, bowl sieve, 2 bowls, pastry knife, bowl shield, coffee mill, grain mill, pouring chute, knife sharpner, pea sheller, oil dropper, silverware polisher, one gallon ice cream maker, and I can't remember what all --about 10 years ago on Ebay for $900. Production date: October 1947, one of the first ones produced! Still going strong and the motor makes barely a hum.


Good used Hobart N-50 mixers have sold on Ebay for as little as $150 to $600.



The vintage Hobart Kitchenaid home mixers were engineered and produced to similiar standards as their Commercial line of mixers. That is why they are so sought after and praised on the internet.

The models I always recommend if folks are not willing to invest in a new or used Hobart N-50 are:

The predecessor to the Hobart N-50, the Hobart Kitchenaid model G. I have 2 of them in chrome. Chrome or painted, they run from $200 to up to $700 the chrome being more sought after.



Hobart KA model 4-B The best 4 qt mixer they ever made IMHO. I own 2 of them. You can often find these on Ebay for under $100 shipping inside the US included.


Hobart KA model K-5A. You can often find these on Ebay for under $150 shipping inside the US included. Often less!


And the Hobart KA model K-5SS solid state. You can often find these on Ebay for under $150 shipping inside the US included. Often less!


Now as for the transformer question for Europe, I would not use one since KA states that the mixer would not work well on a transformer. I am sure there must be European Ebay auctions where you can find one of these great mixers which were made for your market.

I hope I have answered everyone's questions about which mixers I recommend for the most dependability, power, and have the highest re-sale value.

If not, ask away..........

I always run 4 separate searches with the box checked for the intensive search.

Hobart Kitchenaid
Hobart Kitchen aid

Vintage Kitchenaid
Vintage Kitchen aid

That always gets me all of the available mixers! You will find more than you think!

I think my husband got my Professional 600 for about $400, maybe a little less. Watch for those sales. That's USD.

My DB got mine this year for around $275 then we got a $50 rebate, it was from amazon.com

One thing I did learn while looking into KitchenAid mixers was that the Professional 600 line seemed to be the only ones that had metal gears and a metal gearbox, the others were plastic.