Posted: 1/14/2010 4:16:55 PM EDT
| Didn't want to hijack the "what do you can?" thread, but wanted to comment on the tomato grinding comment in there. We've got one of the KitchenAid mixers that takes all the attachments, and have the Fruit/Vegetable Processor that hooks up to it. Best money we ever spent. Turned drudgery into a minor inconvenience. Also have the meat grinder, and ice cream maker attachments. Happy with all. This mixer is worth every penny of the 3,000 or so it took to buy it. |
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Wife's is about 25 years old and going strong. She saw the topic on the Active Topics list over my shoulder and said " Why are they talking about Kithenaid on here?" She HATES Arfcom.  Oh geez lemme fix that... http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af227/mid_mo/mixer.jpg |
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Midmo, what model?
I've been eyeballing the pro 600 refurbs lately(cheaper) but talk of plastic internals and recommendations for other plastic and crappy mixers has me thinking it's better to use hand power until i do more research or find a deal on a bigger mixer. I haven't seen the internals but from lite reading these use the motor and not gear reduction for speeds and have a hard time with some doughs. Some mention they were better when hobart owned them also and the same size hobart is around 2k$ now.  Would take alot to make up that price difference.
Do you make much pizza dough? Did it come with the spiral hook? Hows the meat grinder? What model and vintage? |
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Midmo, what model? I've been eyeballing the pro 600 refurbs lately(cheaper) but talk of plastic internals and recommendations for other plastic and crappy mixers has me thinking it's better to use hand power until i do more research or find a deal on a bigger mixer. I haven't seen the internals but from lite reading these use the motor and not gear reduction for speeds and have a hard time with some doughs. Some mention they were better when hobart owned them also and the same size hobart is around 2k$ now. Would take alot to make up that price difference.
Do you make much pizza dough? Did it come with the spiral hook? Hows the meat grinder? What model and vintage? Ours is the 'Artisan' model, two years old now. Not sure about plastic inside, but the thing is solid as a rock. Speed is indeed controlled by varying motor speed instead of gearing, but it seems to have enough ponies to pull it off. Haven't used it for pizza dough or other dough yet (we've also got a Zojirushi bread machine which handles those chores nicely), but have worked it pretty hard with the ice cream maker. It's easy to make ice cream that's better than any of the premium brands in the store (though I think the fresh eggs from the back yard have more to do with that than the mixer). It does come with the dough hook though. No complaints about the meat grinder, and have used it quite a bit. Nice to be able to custom blend meat for primo hamburgers (my favorite is brisket + sirloin), and make coarse-ground meat for chili. You just have to be sure to chill the meat well (just short of frozen) or things get gummy in short order. If you're going to grind a lot of your own meat I suspect you'd be better off with a dedicated grinder, but for casual use this one's fine. Have been considering getting the grain mill attachment, but I keep telling myself that it's almost a third of the price of the Country Living mill that I really want. So far the KitchenAid has been losing that argument. All in all I give it an "A" for home use. Personally I think it'd be hard to justify the $2k Hobart unless you're a pro in a commercial setting. For that matter, I've seen the KitchenAid a number of times on the "Iron Chef" TV show... good enough for them, good enough for me. |
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Midmo, what model? I've been eyeballing the pro 600 refurbs lately(cheaper) but talk of plastic internals and recommendations for other plastic and crappy mixers has me thinking it's better to use hand power until i do more research or find a deal on a bigger mixer. I haven't seen the internals but from lite reading these use the motor and not gear reduction for speeds and have a hard time with some doughs. Some mention they were better when hobart owned them also and the same size hobart is around 2k$ now. Would take alot to make up that price difference.
Do you make much pizza dough? Did it come with the spiral hook? Hows the meat grinder? What model and vintage? It does come with the dough hook though. I think he was talking about the spiral dough hook as opposed to the "C" dough hook. The artisan models come with the "C" hook. The Pro 600 comes with the spiral. I got a pro 600 because I do a lot of home baking. I really love it, these things are built like a tank. Regarding using the motor for the speed changes as opposed to gear reduction, being an engineer, I can comment on this. When you slow a motor down under load, the current increases. What often occurs when motors do this is the winding isn't built to handle constant high currents and that will actually overheat, and often burn the winding up. If the winding is designed to handle a high level of current, it won't be damaged by this. So as long as these motors are built for the low-speed, high-torque applications they're good to go, don't worry about them. However, they can still overheat, and multiple overheatings may cause problems, so read the direction manual. On the pro 600, you're supposed to knead dough at speed 2 only, and you're not supposed to go over a set time limit while kneading without a cool down. I think the time is 12 minutes, and I can't imagine why you would want to knead dough longer than that. Now, this mixer is rated for 14 cups of flour, so if I'm doing something small, that only has say 7 cups of flour, I can probably safely knead the dough at a higher speed or longer time, but be cautious. Btw, if you wait for Christmas season shopping you can get these things very cheap. My parents bought me mine for Christmas this year. She got it at Kohl's for $230 (yes, thats the Pro 600 model). Of course, she is an avid Kohl's shopper, and has the card so she gets promos in the mail, and she had a 30% of anything in the store, plus $50 in "Kohl's Cash" from other Christmas purchases the week before. |
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Wife's is about 25 years old and going strong. She saw the topic on the Active Topics list over my shoulder and said " Why are they talking about Kithenaid on here?" She HATES Arfcom. Oh geez lemme fix that... http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af227/mid_mo/mixer.jpg I see your picture and raise you a SF patch
Seriously though, love the kitchenaid. Ours is the Artisan, we use it all the time. I've got the meat grinder attachment and there is nothing like fresh ground beef when you know exactly what is in it! |