Best deal on Kitchen Aid mixers?

[Perd Hapley]

The missus has long admired the Kitchen Aid mixers, and I'd kinda like to get her one for Christmas. A store nearby has refurbs for $150.  Is that going to be about the best I can do, or is there a better deal out there?

[TechMan]

Depends upon what type of mixer.  Is it a bowl lift or a tilt-head?  How many quarts?

[SADShooter]

That sounds like a pretty fair deal on a KitchenAid. I recommend the tilt-body style. Bowl lift (which I have) is cumbersome.

[Perd Hapley]

Depends upon what type of mixer.  Is it a bowl lift or a tilt-head?  How many quarts?

There are different kinds? I don't know, I assume she wants the tilty-head kind, since that was the only type I was aware of. We were walking past the store, so I couldn't look too hard or go inside. Must be a surprise. 

From what I can see on the web, the tilters come in 4.5 and 5 quart. I guess either would be fine.

[TechMan]

A quick Google shows that that is a decent price.

http://www.shopkitchenaid.com/more-ways-to-shop-1/outlet-2/factory-refurbished-3/102020034/

[Perd Hapley]

Well, thanks all, but I've just mooted the point by purchasing at the aforementioned place of commerce.

Your new task: think of yummy things she'll have to make for me with the pricey Christmas gift.

[SADShooter]

Pizza/bread dough, cake batter and frosting, you name it. Add some motor accessories (Slicers/grinders/pasta rollers/etc.) and the sky's the limit.

[AmbulanceDriver]

Kinda funny - SWMBO and I just got our first KitchenAid mixer...  We went for the prosumer model - 6 qt, bowl lift, 575 watt motor.  Local store here had them for $250 after $100 off in store and $50 mail in rebate. Which actually beat the price Costco had the next one down for.

[MillCreek]

I have had an almond-colored K5SS 5 quart bowl lift KA mixer since the mid 1980's.  I use it at least once a week. If you like baking, like I do, it is one of the most useful things you can own. I fought to make sure that I got it in the first divorce.  She got the food processor, instead. 

[charby]

Well, thanks all, but I've just mooted the point by purchasing at the aforementioned place of commerce.

Your new task: think of yummy things she'll have to make for me with the pricey Christmas gift.

With ours wife makes cakes. I make cheesecakes, bread/pizza dough, meatloaf, pies, custard, cake, and whatever else needs to be mixed with it.

I also have a couple attachments and use the meat grinder to grind a few pounds of meat (beef, deer, pork, chicken, turkey or lamb) to make fresh sausage.

[Harold Tuttle]

Welcome to the fold

[Jim147]

Check here http://www.marbeck.com/ for accessories so you can make more goodness.

jim

[CNYCacher]

A friend of mine just got married and they received one as a wedding gift.  His mother-in-law then informed them that she had one in her attic that they could have instead.  She had received it as a wedding gift 30 years ago and never even opened it!

[K Frame]

Don't know if this applies to all of them or not, but mine came with a warning not to try to knead doughs on anything but power setting 2.

[AmbulanceDriver]

Don't know if this applies to all of them or not, but mine came with a warning not to try to knead doughs on anything but power setting 2.

Ditto - the dough hook is only to be used on 2....

[charby]

Don't know if this applies to all of them or not, but mine came with a warning not to try to knead doughs on anything but power setting 2.

Same with our mixer

[Harold Tuttle]

i know the "smaller" ones get plenty hot after an hour of grinding walnuts.

speeding up the motor doesn't increase the thru put of useful nut paste

we had an industrial Hobart in the pizza shop for dough,
now thats a mixer

[sanglant]

sorry if i missed any, but here's one vote for the bowl lift. less to mess up. ie, no flexing wires.


further, there are some that have plastic gears(the case at least, this phenol is doing a number on me), and some with metal, it's well worth paying the extra.

the grinder isn't really as handy as you'd think. but it does work well. if you get one with the extra little clips to hold the bowl in place don't lose them, for stiff pasta/bread dough you'll need them.

try to get the non-porcelain coated hook and blade, they chip. if you have light counters stick something under it the first time you use it, the feet on mine were marking for the first year or three.

and yes, you'll use it. just don't mix a shoo-fly pie in it, turns it into a cake.

oh, and NEVER lay it on it's side. makes a BIG mess.

edit: and get the plastic bowl guard, and the lids for the bowl.(pretty sure there's more then one kind of each) the first cuts down on the flour cloud, the later keeps the bowl clean between uses.

as for deals, sam's(ect[where i got mine]) and amazon lighting deals(where i'm getting my next[planing on getting one that won't stick out so much in the kitchen ])

[ssn vet]

We have the tilt head and it's indestructable....

Worth what they cost, imho...

If I live long enough, I expect my grand daughters will be making me baked goods with the same one I got my wife for Chrismas years ago.

I've eaten many a mashed potatoe from ours....

[Perd Hapley]

i know the "smaller" ones get plenty hot after an hour of grinding walnuts.

Walnuts are Satan's candy, and are not allowed in my kitchen. 

[lupinus]

We have the tilt head and it's indestructable....

Indeed.

My first kitchen aid (tilt head) literally kept on trucking after being dropped down a flight of stairs, falling out of a moving truck, and general use and abuse above the volume it was designed to handle. It did eventually die due to idiocy on my part.

It was replaced with a bowl lift model. I will say that I think the older model had more power as the new one has a tendency to bind up more easily when kneading dough. Between the two they both have pluses and minuses.

[Gowen]

KitchenAid Pro 500 Stand Mixer 5 colors - KSM500 - NEW!! for $189.99 after rebate plus a 1 year magazine subscription

KitchenAid Pro 500 Stand Mixer - KSM500 - NEW!!

5 colors to choose from:
White
Empire Red
Onyx Black
Buttercup
Blue Willow


$30 Cash Back by mail and a 1-year subscription to
Food & Wine or Travel + Leisure with purchase of select 5 qt. Stand Mixers
Offer Valid: 11/13/11 to 12/10/11

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1142527/

[Perd Hapley]

I did indeed learn that the pretty colors cost more. But the cheaper, whiter one was safest. In our last house, the kitchen theme was red, white and black. The current kitchen is white, pink and green. I think I made the right choice. 

Believe it or not, I think I could get one of those for free if I wanted to. If I remember correctly, I've seen a big mixer like that, that's been sitting around for years, in a certain location to which I have access.

Not that our kitchen is large enough for it. Or our house, for that matter.  

[Stetson]

I did indeed learn that the pretty colors cost more. But the cheaper, whiter one was safest. In our last house, the kitchen theme was red, white and black. The current kitchen is white, pink and green. I think I made the right choice. 

Believe it or not, I think I could get one of those for free if I wanted to. If I remember correctly, I've seen a big mixer like that, that's been sitting around for years, in a certain location to which I have access.

Not that our kitchen is large enough for it. Or our house, for that matter.  

Garage?

I remember growing up, we used to go to my grandparents restaurant in Pearland, TX.  They had a huge mixer like that.  When the restaurant was closed and the adults were talking, the kids* would turn it on to one and ride on the hook.  It was a blast.

*3, 3, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 11

[Grebnaws]

The commercial Hobart floor mixers are truly great. They are the only device I have never seen fail in aging and outdated food service kitchens. I have never even seen one serviced for an oil change, though the timer has gone bad on one of them. They will mix 80lbs of meat plus all other ingredients for meatloaf in one 35 gallon bowl. They will break aluminum paddles before slowing down. There was one old timer, retired and come back to work part time, who had his hand degloved decades earlier by the very same mixer I was using.

At home I use a Kitchenaid Professional 5 (350 watt) mixer with a bowl lift. The hinged model is more user friendly for the home cook but the bowl lift is just so much more.... industrial. They are a true kitchen classic and you just can't go wrong with them. The accessories are too expensive to bother with IMO. Most stand alone devices can be found for about the cost of an attachment and unlike Alton Brown I do believe in uni-taskers. How many of us have drawers full of useless multi-tools that don't do anything well?

I cannot imagine kids riding the dough hook of an industrial mixer Getting busted in the mouth with that would be worse than taking a hit from a heavyweight wearing brass knuckles. On high speed it would probably just crack your head wide open!