[Tigratrus]

And Now for something completely Different: A discussion of Mixers. They can be mixers used in an IKEA kitchen or even elsewhere!:shock:

Susan's been pushing our KitchenAid (post Hobart era alas) to it's limit kneading dough, and rather than seeing the poor thing die a pre-mature death (the heat from the motor is way too much), I thought buying a new mixer would be a good idea. I've read a bewildering array of opinions about the Delonghi 7 Qt, the Viking 7 qt and the Electrolux Assistant/ Magic Mill. Nobody has anything much bad to say about the Viking, other than it's more expensive than the Delonghi.
I *think * I like the different approach of the Electrolux, the rollers seem like they might do a substantially better job with dough than a hook, and I saw one mention of the reduced air bubbles in the dough making a qualitative difference in the baked goods, and honestly isn't the end product what we're after?
Given that any of these will likely be better than killing our poor KA, which is an admirable machine in most other respects, and will still be quite useful for other chores, does anyone have any of the above? Has anyone had a chance to compare them? I've seen a lot of hype, but little actual comparison.

Thanks in advance for any information/clarification anyone can provide...

James

[GardenOfDarwin]

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[DesignDiva]

Kitchenaid does produce bigger, more industrial quality mixers, so don't write them off quite yet. It has the advantage of being able to use all the attachments.

I don't know anything about the other mixers with the exception of the Hobart. The last one I used made 50 pounds of chocolate chip cookie dough like it was nothing.

Of course, you may not have room for that particular model!

Here's some fun things to peruse:
http://www.bigtray.com/productlist.asp!catid.11490.html

( BTW big hubby points noted!)

	BTW definintion BTW means By The Way

[vmole]

No personal knowledge, but for what it worth, I've heard good things about the Magic Mill for bread dough. For example, search on the appliance forum at THS came up with this:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load...438175896.html

There appears to be a dedicated Yahoo forum, linked from one of the replies on that thread.

[elka]

I burned out 3 KitchenAid mixers (two Classic,one 5 quart) kneading bread dough. I understand that they all have one plastic gear which can "go" to keep the motor itself intact. It cost $ 150.00 (in Canada ) to get the gear replaced on the 5 quart model.

After expressing my frustration to a KitchenAid rep., I was sent a Professional 6 model (which has all metal gears) and haven't had a mixer problem since.

Coincidentally, Cook's Illustrated rated mixers in its Nov/Dec 2005 magazine, including those you were considering. The only three which were recommended without reservationswere the KitchenAid Professional 600, the Delonghi 5 Quart and the Hobart N50. And of those 3, the Kitchenaid came in first.

Address:3200 Sweden Way Richmond, British Columbia V6V 2A5 Telephone: (604) 273-2051 Store hours:Monday to Friday: 10am - 9pm Saturday: 9am - 9pm Sunday: 10am - 6pm IKEA Store Directory Entry for IKEA Richmond Canada

[Tigratrus]

I like the "expressed my frustration" part... must have been effective!


How's the noise level on the Professional 6 KA? We like the basic machine and it and it's accessories have been great for us up until now. I read that a lot of people don't like the noise of the KA Pro, but I've never seen/used one. It would be nice to be able to share the accessories between the two units.


I haven't been able to get my hands on the article you mentioned yet, but I saw one from the LA times where they didn't like the Magic Mill because it was "hard to use". Turns out from somebody that has one (and compared them side by side with the Viking and Delonghi/Kenwood) that they didn't really know how to use it. I can certainly understand how that can happen, given that it uses a completely different method of mixing... Do you recall what they said about the Magic Mill?

James

[elka]

James, I don't find the KA Pro6 too noisy but am perhaps not the best person to judge sinceI have slight hearing loss. And definitely not because I stood too close to that KA.

Now to the Cook's tests/conclusions:

Of the 18 models tested, 6 failed the initial test (15 minutes of kneading a rustic bread dough) by either stalling out irreversibly or leaving portions of dough unincorporated. Among the 6 was the Bosch Solitaire.

The remaining 12 were put through various mixing tests, the final one to measure efficiency. This one was quite ingenious IMO and makes me want to rush to the kitchen and play with dough. They mixed 4 cups of pizza dough in each bowl, added 10 drops of yellow food colour to one side of the dough, 10 drops of blue on the other and mixed until the dough turned a uniform green, without any speckles of yellow or blue.

From fastest to slowest: KA Pro 6 (3:45 minutes), Bosch Universal (4:45), DeLonghi7(5:03) Hobart (5:30) Viking 5 (5:30) DeLonghi 5 (5:33)..........Electrolux DLX-2000 Assistent (11:15). Interestingly, the wattage of mixers was unrelated to their performance.

Specific criticism of the Electrolux: it "has a rotating bowl and all its inherent problems (its ingredients get clogged on the agitator while the bowl spins ineffectually)."

All the mixers were described as noisy, by the way, except for the Hobart.

I think I'll go make some pizza dough now. I have red and blue food colour. Purple pizza tonight?

Elke

	IMO definition IMO means In My Opinion

[Tigratrus]

Sounds like an interesting test! I like the food coloring idea... Based on recommendations from several sources, in particular two people on the THS forums that are SERIOUS bread makers, one of whom actually used the primary choices we've been considering side by side (except the Viking, as it wasn’t out then) Susan finally decided on the Electrolux.
Given that the CI article says "has a rotating bowl and all its inherent problems (its ingredients get clogged on the agitator while the bowl spins ineffectually)." It sounds like they too may have been using the machine the wrong way, hard as that is to believe. I think the main problem that the Electrolux is having in tests is that people THINK they know how to use it, but they don’t (LA Times article had the same problem). Electrolux also includes an ersatz acrylic Bundt cake pan looking bowl that you can use with a pair of whisks to beat eggs etc, though apparently the manual says not to use it, and it’s only included because Americans can’t seem to accept using something that’s not a whisk to beat eggs. They also apparently include a dough hook, though the whole POINT of the machine is that it uses a roller to simulate hand kneading much more effectively, yielding a better quality dough. :shock:
Given the mention of ingredients getting caught on the agitator, it sounds very much to me as if they used either the dough hook or one of the other attachments instead of using the roller/scraper properly? Another problem may be the focus on speed? It’s entirely possible that it DOES take longer, but as you can walk away and leave it unattended, if the final dough is of better elasticity/quality, I’m not sure that that’s really an issue unless you’re in a commercial baking situation. Obviously, we don’t know, though we REALLY appreciate your posting what CI found, it certainly gives us something to start looking for as soon as we get it.

The good thing is, we bought it from King Arthur Flour’s Bakers Catalogue(Susan got a nice deal on the price), so if we decide after getting it and learning how to use it properly, that it does in fact have a problem we should be able to return it without a problem. I really like the idea of that color test, I think we’ll do that and see what results we get? Yellow and Blue for St. Patrick’s day?

[PaigeCT]

Ohhh Susan, (or Tigratus really, since you're the one who reaps the benefits ) . . .

how do you like the Magic Mill aka Assistent? I just ordered one after doing lots of research and deciding that, at least from those who know how to use it, it really was the only model with no major drawbacks. Huge investment for me. Please tell me I did the right thing!


Paige

[GardenOfDarwin]

Paige -- I'll have to respond in more detail tomorrow as I'm practically falling asleep sitting up, but a quick question --assumedly you enjoy baking if you bought this mixer? If you do alot of heavy duty mixing (double batches of cookies, french/italian bread, large batches of bread dough [4x loaves]), you'll be happy with this mixer. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it's really cool!

I just came home from a weekend/party where I volunteered to bake bread/rolls for 70. Despite having the flu last week, it was no problem (aside from basic motivation!) and it does 90% of the work. Have you actually seen it in action? It's a bizarro thing, but it really does do what it's designed to do.

Here's a couple of links:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mixer-Owners/

Ok, that's just one, but I'll see if I can dig up another tomorrow -- a video of the mixer in action. Congrats!

Susan