Kitchen

[wagirl]

I am still using my basic KA mixer I bought about 30 years ago for $169 at Target!! It's still doing fine and aside from being a boring white color, I have no plans of updating.

[WORKING GAL]

@cutiepiereading - On ITKWD today, the 6 qt. model of KA bowl lift model was presented for $399 in 4 colors.  I have had the t 5 qt. tilt head model in almond since the mid eighties and it still works great.  I added the flex edge beater and upgraded my bowl to the one with the handled for convenience. 

[SharkE]

My color of the yr is still doing good. 'Hibiscus'.

First KA mixer I got that turned out better then the ones I had before.

SMEG, is still King though.

Love that new beater too. Stainless steel think it is, wash by hand. No big deal. 

[SouthernBee]

@cutiepiereading : The Sam's club special . Dh  purchased for me two years ago and love it.

[SouthernBee]

@mizree : Totally agree.

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@mizree wrote:

@cutiepiereading welcome to the forum.  i don't know about TSV.  Sams Club has 5.5 quart with bowl lift price $290 through 8 Oct.

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[gardenman]

People get too hung up on the power. My older Kitchenaid mixer only had a 375 watt (I think) motor and was fine. It handled the toughest bread dough I could throw at it without a hiccup.

Keep an eye on the Black Friday and Prime Day-related sales. I got my latest one at Best Buy for $199 on a pre-Black Friday sale a few years ago. They currently have one (the 5.5 quart bowl lift) listed at $279.99. 

[faeriemoon]

The lift bowl model has never interested me.

About 5 years ago I upgraded from a basic tilt head (that I had for a loooong time) to an Artisan (the Misty Blue 100th Anniversary model).  I felt the basic was a little underpowered, but the Artisan is fine for me.  I don't need anything more powerful than that.

[gardenman]

A lot of people get hung up on how hard the bowl is to put on the bowl lift models. It's not that bad. Just line up the two holes on the sides with the bowl tilted forward, then when it's sitting on the two little knob things simply push down on the back of the bowl. It simply snaps right into place. Easy-peasy once you know how.

Getting the bowl off of the non-bowl life models (the twist-on bowls) can be more challenging than getting the bowl onto the bowl lift models. If you're kneading a heavy bread dough in the twist-on bowl types, the bowl can get seriously wedged into place. I've had to give mine a pretty solid whack a lot of the time to get the bowl free. Those twist-on models can get very tightly wedged into place.