No other mixer with planetary action manufactured today, April 5, 2011 is as solid as Kitchenaid.  The best of all is the original Classic while the Ultra is okay.  The Artisan has a larger bowl, a few more watts and beaters with the same planetary system as the Classic.  The extra volume is above the beaters and of little merit.  The pro series is far and away the most powerful motor of any of the planetary machines.  Sadly most of the users have no clue how to use them so it like sending a little old lady up in the hills with HumVee while her Neon is parked at the curb.  The failure is almost always asking the machine to perform a task beyond it's limits and it strips the worm or cracks the gear case.  Don't even start on the attachments where wet grain, frozen or bone filled meat, slack pasta dough are passed through the attachments wiping out the worm follower.  The motor on the Pro Series out torques the strength of the gears and the brains and intellect of the user.  God help you if you need service on a Kenwood, DeLonghi, Cuisinart or Viking in the US.  Kitchenaid is better about repairing and standing behind their machines.  I purposely limited my review to plantentary and left out Bosch and Electrolux becuase we're not comparing apples and apples with those machine.  As a chef, culinary intructor, manufacturers representative for General Mills/Gold Medal and food technologist I have literally mixed tons of dough in all the machines and I have never had a Kitchenaid fail me.

I don't think there is an electric mixer that does a better job with yeasted dough than Bosch.  Their stylized design separates them from comparison across the board with a planetary machine.

Close, Ralph but not entirely correct.  Kitchenaid has made a sacrificial gear since their inception.  It has been replaced with a"metal" gear but not necessarily hardened steel.  An errant user can still mess up the planetary or worm follower if they are savvy enough to listen and smell the operation of a machine under heavy load.  The Classic, Ultra and Artisan are still orginal in design and as a result of less metal on metal they are quieter.  When you have one of the Pro 600 series running you seriously need earplugs between the whine of the motor and the rattle of the gears.  I prefer the earlier models with Fiber gear case cover and sacrificial drive.  The larger wattage motors and the thermal overload is designed to shut the mixer down if an owner is lugging with doughs too heavy, tacky or attachment that are binding. Once cooled it will restart.  The earlier Pro Series had a thermal link that burned through and required a trip to the service center.  The function is still the same but less annoying to customers with a dead mixer after an overloaded experience.

Electrolux and to a lesser degree Bosch are niche machines designed to be good at bread first and foremost.  America holds the distinction of making butter based, creamed cakes and cookies which use double acting baking powder and baking soda less familiar outside of the US.  Kenwood, while being a planetary mixer is a belt drive so the belt becomes the sacrificial part protecting the gear drive.  Early Kenwoods had a red reset button for the thermal over load, visible when the mixer head was raised.  Still users wouldn't read the manual or retain the info making them easy marks at yard sales, sold as non working.  I was specific in my input to that end with all these mixers because they are not comparable across the board.  Kenwood is a wonderful machine.  The bowls are deeper making overflow and blow off more controlled but requiring more effort to scrape the bowl, add ingredients and see the mass at the bottom of the deeper mixing vessel.  Still the issue of available, friendly and affordable service remains for machines sharing these genes in the US.  The larger Kitchenaid's have motors made in Sweden, gears are made and assembled in Greeneville for all Kitchenaid stand mixers.  A perfect kitchen has mixers of several brands so each one can be used for only that which it does best.  If I could only have one new or current  mixer it would be a Kitchenaid Classic because of their versatility, dependability, noise factor and availability of parts and service in America.  Since buying the English dough hooks to use on the Sunbeam 10, 11 and 12 my small Sunbeam does EVERYTHING I want and offers the adaptablity of moving to a bathtub full of ingredients if i need to mix a volume of batter. I respect everyone's right to own, enjoy and enthuse over each and every appliance they buy.  My choices are based on the way I cook and what I like to eat best and insider info for having worked for both Sunbeam and Kitchenaid.  With a card board box full of parts I can keep any of the Sunbeam fleet operational until my demise.

Pete has one of the largest and most varied collections of small appliances I have seen.  Cooler yet is his willingness to video, narrate and share the operations of Kenwood and Bosch as well as some of the lesser brands.  I look forward to all posts from Canada as well as Pete's friend Dave who is one of the most enigmatic charactors in the group with his junking treks, collections of vacuums, small appliances and musical instruments.  Paul's restoration videos, his love of all things turquoise and his warm and generous spirit make him a real go to guy.  Some members of the group seem a bit stand offish or perhaps elite choosing to visit among themselves and it is the ones who open to the group and share with us all that I look forward to. Mind you, there are so many on every continent who are truly special to me its mean to pick just these three, but the timing was right to pass a few kudos.  Trust me that takes a lot of fiber! You all give me a lot of pleasure and entertainment and I wish I were closer..

Mike, used Bosch machines turn up with regularity as the earth muffin phase wears off and some casual buyers quit the hassle of going to the health store that sold them the Bosch to buy the grain, yeast, enrichments etc to make holy bread.  Where's the Little Red Hen when you need her.  In our area the local fair does a bang up job of demonstrating and selling Bosch units and then through out the year you can find them on craigslist as low as $100.00.  If you want one I'd be glad to keep my ear to the ground.

Several years ago I did a series of head to head mixing challenges with the new all metal (roar and grate) Kitchenaid Pro600 and the venerable Kenwood Chef. 

The Kitchenaid incorporated all the flour sooner and with no assitance in the bread dough kneading.  The bread from the Kitchenaid was a touch smoother, more Wonderbread like.

The Pro 600 has a wider, flatter 6 quart bowl which is ideal for adding ingredients without babtizing the mixer head, less splattering and this design requires NO MANUAL ASSIST i.e. bowl scraping.  The very first Kitchenaid I ever embraced because it didn't leave behind the unmixed dab at the bottom of the bowl.  Huge difference in cake mixing and cake texture with the Kitchenaid a clear winner.  A bowl scraping mixer operator would have leveled the playing field but this entire test was a no manual assist, period.  The Kenwood left flour around the outer edge of the bowl.

A double batch of chocolate chip cookies with 6 cups of flour and 4 cups of chips.  This surprised me.  Although moth machines mixed well the Kenwood shook, stopped a few times and tossed batter and chips out the bowl when it would start up again.  The wider bowl wins every test by a land slide.  The same results would not result using a 4.5 or 5 quart bowl.  The flatter bowl is clearly cutting edge technology but the motor was so shrill I seldom turned it above number 4.  Kenwood dough tuned out on the counter shows treaks of unmixed creamed mixture which resulted in some cookies too flat and unusable.

And so goes the urban legend of how the mixer was named.  Prior to the Pro6 and wider bowl I was an avowed Kitchenaid hater because at some point you always had to  stop the mixer and bring the bottom of the bowl to the top and then remix.  The 6 quart made a convert out of me.

After a few weeks of the "all metal" Kitchenaid gravel crusher, I sold it on craigs and bought the Copper Williams Sonoma Pro620 with a fiber gear case and drive, loving it's quieter voice to say nothing of the counter top wow factor.

Kenwood bread on the left and Kitchenaid on the right.

Cake is far and away my favorite dessert, tender, moist and buttery but not too sweet.  I also compared glass, shiny aluminum and anondized or darkened pans for the nuance of each product's performance.

1st, the Kenwood.....

Of all the pans the shiny aluminum from Magic Pan worked best.  Both recipes were baked in the same pans and oven by themselves for 22 minutes for mixing comparisons.

2nd the Kitchenaid.........

In the bake off of the cookies from the Kenwood there was more oven spread and inconsistencies.  Without bowl scraping I would have expected a similar result from a K-5 because of the inherent bowl design.

Cookies from the 6 quart bowl fared better and produce a consistent and usable batch of cookies from beginning to end.

Lest anyone think I had a horse in the race it wasn't the case.  For years I would spec Kenwood Major mixers in the kitchen equipment inventory because I felt they held more and mixed better than a K-5 Kitchenaid.  I bought a Pro because it was different and I wanted to see what Kitchenaid was up to.  The first was an Epecurion, then a Pro6, then the "all metal" Pro 600 and finally the Pro620.  All performed flawlessly, without any scraping or assist if the speeds were slowly increased preventing plastering the goods to the side of the bowl which is why I insisted there be no bowl assist what so ever in the test..  They all are loud with the Epecurion and the Pro600 "all metal" the worst.  The Copper Pro620 was far and away the quietest and I don't know if it was a fluke or if they make sure $900.00 mixers are put together right.  I have over 30 mixers.  I have used a Sunbeam exclusively since moving back to Ellensburg this past summer because it's quiet, mixes better and faster, makes finer textured cakes and bread and is versatile enough to mix 1 cup or 10 pounds.  Kitchenaid tainted my relationship with them which means nothing to the rest of the world but I didn't care for the reminder of how much time, money and I labor I gave them to be thrown under the bus at the end.  I like the Kenwood but I cannot find enough words to tell you how much I hate the service provided for Viking, Cuisinart, DeLonghi and Kenwood in the US.  I have a new, all plastic, sleek Kenwood Chef that needs a new speed controller dial installed and I haven't found a source yet to do it.  For a year it sits in the closet while a coffin sized box of attachments are in the garage.  No mixer is any good if it doesn't work.  At the end of the day its hard to hurt a Kitchenaid Classic because if you overload it it groans and slows down but doesn't strip gears.  If you have any Kitchenaid mixer without the brush caps showing on the motor sides it is a Swedish motor and will be louder.  They all feature soft start which sounds like the death rattle until it gets going.  Kitchenaid mixers prior to the 70's are quieter before solid state but the ones made after aren't objectionable.  The name Hobart was still on the strip for a few years after Whirlpool bought the company.  The dumbest thing anyone can say is "Whirlpool cheapened or ruined the Kitchenaid mixer" because it is exactly the same machine with the exception of fused connectors instead of wire nuts.  It is hot air rhetoric not supported with any fact to say it changed.  The larger machines cannot be compared because they do not share the same design.  The Classic is exactly that, still Classicly the same.  The real tragedy is that most of the competition for the home mixer market is not worthy of consideration so Kitchenaid continues to dominate the market.

There is no external reset on Kitchaid mixers made recently as they stop and then automatically restart after cooling.  If the mixer was an Epicurian or Pro6 it has a thermal overload which burns in two and requires disassembly to be replaced.  Gears can strip before the thermal link activates if the rpms are high enough and an obstruction or heavy load is dropped on the machine.  Gradual abuse of mixing loads too stiff or using the attachments, especially the grain mill and pasta extruder will cause gear failure regardless of a thermal overload.  You may have picked the quieter of two all metal mixers but they are still  louder than a Classic, Ultra or Artisan built on the original Kitchenaid design.  The all metal design has a throatier sound as well as the metal gearcase cover which amplifies the sound.  In a catastrophic obstruction of the planetary the sacrificial gear, metal or fiber is designed to give, minimizing the damage and subsequent repair.  Even your all metal Kitchenaid with a thermal overload can fail.  Simply repeating incorrect information does make it so.

The flame decals seem to be popular on ebay sales.  There is usually a ton of Pro mixers on craigslist because they are wedding or Christmas gifts and too big and intimidating for a casual cook.  I can keep my eyes out if you know what color want.  Thanks for your support.

Kitchenaid manufactures mixers specific to Costco, QVC and a few others.  The bulk of the attachments fit these mixers but just a little research will reveal the units are slightly different than the ones you find in a department store.  It can confuse owners trying to find parts, service and attachments for their mixer when the model and serial number don't pop up at parts sites and sometimes even Kitchenaid.  In the early 90's, the commercial arm of Kitchenaid mixers, Hobart, had a version of the K5 available with a visible reset button, heavier grounded cord, aluminum paddle and hook and these mixers received NFS certification for application in health care and food service.  If burdened for a long enough period, the mixer might stop and after it cooled sufficiently the reset could be pushed allowing the mixer to operate again.  These models cost an average of $250.00 more than home units offered at department stores. At that time there was an exodus from using the expensive NFS machine when an over the counter model could do the same.  On those machines, the motor was still a typical Greeneville issue.  When the Epicurian was launched it was the first model with a flatter bowl and wider paddle and all are equipped with an imported motor.  All Swedish motors have had thermal protection from day one and none of them had an external reset at that time.  If it burned through it required disassembly to repair.  The service issues with these mixers seldom come from the food service industry because most bakers and trained staff are aware of how to use them and what the limitations are.  If one did their do diligence there is documentation of angry owners with a "dead" 40 pound boat anchor they had spent several hundred dollars to buy.  From 2006 to 2008 internet sites including the Kitchanid forum were flooded with complaints of gear case cover failures, mixers that stopped mid recipe and leaking oil.  Stories of "plastic" gears began to abound and the din of frustrated customers finally reached Kitchenaid's ears.  In commercial Hobart mixers a corkscrew doughhook was always available as an upgrade to the more typical "C" hook.  It rolls the dough and does a slightly beter job of pulling dough away from the edges of the bowl.  Kitchenaid began to offer the spiral dough hook on the Pro series in 2008.  In an effort to sell more units Kitchenaid specifically advised owners not to use the spiral hook on models not designed for it.  A retaining clip was added to the beater drive to prevent upward pressure and more stress on the gearing in the planetary drive by using a spiral hook.  I used a spiral hook on the earlier models without an issue and again, I was not one who ever had a complaint about fuses, gear covers, plastic gears or mixer failure.  The composite gear cover and the worm gear were both replaced with metal parts which did and does make the mixer louder.  All metal began to appear on the boxes and in marketing.  Regardless, machines still fail and customers still complain.  In October of 2010 Kitchenaid officially closed their forum and open discussion with Kitchenaid representatives ended.  The forum now directs you to a group on facebook.  Costco does not show a wide bowl or 6 quart platform mixer and again the 5 quart models sold there are specific to Costco.  Several years ago the original Greeneville machines were replaced at Costco with the Swedish motor.  If there are no visible black brush covers on the side of a Kitchenaid mixer it has the newer designed motor.  The mixer made with imported motors is far less expensive for Kitchenaid to manufacture and rolls off the assembly line faster that the original design.  As evidenced in the picture I posted the Pro series is a total plug and play with just 4 screws giving you access to the motor and gear box.

In some cases it felt like Kitchenaid was less than forthcoming and the customer got shafted.  I worked the forum long enough to know there were shills and plants for other brands as well as hard heaeded owners who insisted what they thought or heard about the mixer should simply become fact because they had so stated.  Kitchenaid changed the gear box grease to an oderless and tasteless food safe material in the 2000s.  Some say this causes the leaking down the beater shaft and others conjecture the cork and composite seals are of lesser quality which allows the oil to leak.  If you run the mixer long enough to warm the contents it becomes more evenly viscous and less apt to drip.  Kitchenaid's answer is to run the mixer once a week for 5 to 10 minutes.  If you own a dripping mixer it is easy enough to wipe up the grease and use the mixer regardless.  If you follow the directions for replacing the gear box lubricant and use Kitchenaid branded gear grease you have solved nothing because the grease will separate once warmed and then allowed to sit for long periods of time.  Feelings and perceptions are all valid as they have basis in one's own experience.  However, facts is facts and they are harder to shout down.

C Hook on the white Pro6 and spiral hook on the black Pro6

C Hook

Spiral Hook

You are absolutely right Thomas.  Each appliance has it's own voice even with in the same brand and model.  Hear a different pitch, noise or smell something acrid is the moment to stop the machine and find out what the person behind the controls needs to change.  I would make a wild guess most of here can tell you how many pairs of jeans are in the washer or how full the bag is in the vacuum by simply listening. 

Pete, you have touched on a whole new issue with Kitchenaid being manufactured in the US for the Canadian market, again with different features and model numbers.  Canadian service on the units isn't as well covered as the US with fewer repair outlets and no Canadian mixer can be serviced at an authorized repair outlet in the states.  Conversely if you buy an American Kitchenaid product and cross the border it voids the warrantee.  Owners sit screwed on all sides without being able to get the product working in a way that feels acceptable to them.  The major Kitchenaid appliances are the same but magnified by 10 because of cost, installation and having no working fridge or range can be a real drag after the second month.   It is whole other kettle of fish to flame the forum and internet sites with unhappy Canadian owners. The Accolade which had a short manufacturing run was finished out on the Canadian market but for the most part appliances are the same machines except they cost 50% more in Canada than in the US.

There was a segment on QVC showing the new Kitchenaid toaster.  Meagan has bread in one side of a 4 slicer which is in the process of toasting and the indicator showing how long it will be until the bread is toasted.  Then she puts bagels on the other side.  The lever will not remain down and half the toaster is not working.  After several attempts she says, "this one is unplugged so lets move over to the red one."

I am sure you're right Rich.  I don't have a Costco membership but it sticks somewhere in the recessess of my dementia there is a 5.5 bowl.  You are so absolutely right in stating the happy kitchen is one filled with food, friends and laughter.  The whole of us are so much tuned to the nuance of every appliance we touch it stands to reason our opinions and defense of what we like and believe in would be vigorous.  I purposely choose recipes and cooking styles that use more appliances, tools, pans and steps because cooking is to me what 18 holes of golf would be to an avid sportsman.  I do a lot of baking for service events and used to cater and own a small bakery.  To that end it is nice to have a stand mixer and walk off and let it cream for 10 or 15 minutes.  I love to own and try every appliance brand there is old and new.  As Pete has shown us if you can afford and have the space to store several mixers each one can be put to it's best and highest use.  My pathology requires that the appliances I own all be from one manufacturer, the glass and cups in the cupboard be a matching set and the pans be of one brand.  I currently have a Frigidaire range with a GE fridge and dishwasher that niggles the back of my mind.  I won't sit still until I find a GM fridge.  I converted from total Sunbeam to Kitchenaid in 2002 and filled the blanks with a few Cuisinart products.  After feeling like a fool for all I did for Kitchenaid I purged the house of everything but a few vintage machines and now I am back to all Sunbeam.  I cut my teeth on a Sunbeam, spent two days in a hospital bed with a Sunbeam to play with as a little kid, learned how to repair them and I love the old familiar sounds of the mixer,  how coffee smells perking, the high pitched whirl of the can opener, the quiet rush of the blender, the way the lights gleam on the chrome waffle iron and watching the toast silently disappear and then magically reappear in the T-35.  I am comforted like being surround with old friends.

Kelly, what a beautiful display!!!

I bought these pans pictured in the last post and worked until I fleshed out the set.  Then Sandy McLendon joined the group and wanted to sell his Farberware Advantage.  I sold these pans and sent him $600.00 and waited about 2 months and they finally arrived.  I still have most of those giving one of each pan to a friend in Oregon who likes to shine cookware.  I bought a Sur la Table pan from ebay and loved it.  Now I have 4 pieces and keep telling myself its alright not to purge and match.  Terry, I could be retired living in

the house next to you in Florida if I would have saved all I earned and not worried so much about matching.  But oh, how I love to scrub, polish and harvest the gleam.

Sur La Table

I bought in the early 1990s because I wanted something larger than a 6 quart bowl.  It has performed pretty flawlessly over the years.

Interestingly enough, my motor DOES have the  reset switch, but it is green!  I wonder if this motor is made in Japan, though, as there's a pictorial representation of the mixer, with its 'arms crossed' frowning, saying 'no!' I have often seen such pictures on goods from Japan. (Though this could have been for the Japanese market, who knows?)

It does leak oil a bit every now and then, but it doesn't seem to have hurt it.

While in UK I saw  the Kenwood that would cook was cool (it had an induction heater in it) and the video on youtube showed someone making stew in it.  Definitely a niche market.

The majority of tilting head Kitchenaids have the original motor design still assembled in Greeneville. The Accolade, a 5 quart tilt head mixer which is now discontinued used the Swedish motor. The easiest way to know which motor is inside your mixer is to look for the black plastic slotted caps on each side of the mixer.  These unscrew giving access to the carbon brushes.  A word of caution:  If you remove the brushes from a Kitchenaid you'll note they have three squared edges and one cut at an angle.  Unless you replace the brush in the same exact position as it was removed the mixer will not function.

For the most part the design of tilt head models has changed little in the production run of nearly 50+ years In the early 70's solid state controls were added along with crimped connectors replacing wire nuts.  It wasn't until the brouhaus of plastic gears in the past 5 years that Whirlpool replaced the sacrificial gear with one of metal construction.  The discernable change to a highly trained ear is that mixers of solid state technology and all metal gearing are slightly more noisy having a deeper or slightly more growling voice.  To make the Artisan a 5 quart machine and upsell it's larger bowl capacity Kitchenaid added another inch or two to bowl height.  Whether it is useable added capacity is in the eye of the operator.  In my experience it made the addition of ingredients a touch more difficult because it reduced clearance between the mixer head and top of the bowl. A bowl filled to the top leaves the top 3 inches of batter above the level of the paddle less engaged than at the bottom of the bowl.  Regardless in the majority of US kitchens few users mix bowls full, run a mixer long enough to care about the nuanced voice of the machine or find anything to be critical of.  It is the rainbow of colors and everything in between that drives the sale of the Artisan series.  Some models of Artisan come with a glass bowl and it is available through most parts outlets to fit tilting models from the 60s  forward regardless of model.  The glass bowl is quite heavy and flares more at the top giving more room for user interplay with the ingredients. All bowls from the tilt model including the glass bowl of the 4C are interchangable.  There is a 3 quart bowl which can be purchased as well.

Models names have changed recently and the Ultra is now called the Classic Pro, the retired Epicurien has come back to badge a 5.5 narrow bowl machine and in Canada the monikers are different still.  In actual operation it is hard to find a discernable difference in power or peformance between the Classic and more expensive models.  The Classic remains the quietest model Kitchenaid sells.

There have been myriad little issues with the bowl staying put on bowl lift models in the past few years.  My guess is that subtle changes in the specs for metals used for the bowl and bowl retainer clip have changed the fit and finish.  If you are having these issues check the screws in the bowl retainer clip to be sure they're tight and also check the bowl to be sure it is not out of round.  In a few isolated cases the bowl arm itself is out of shape.  Heavier dough and especially pasta dough seems to be the culprit in unseating the bowl while mixing with a dough hook.  Kitchenaid sells bowl clips that secure the bowl over the forward hooks on the bowl arm assembly.  It should be noted that using the clips can etch or scratch the paint on the arm over time.

The Swedish motor provides more torque than the original and is more capable of doing damage to the gearing in a catastrophic obstruction such as an errant spoon or bone fragments in meat that is being ground.  Most gearing failure is due to stress and strain over a longer period of time with yeasted doughs, using the pasta extruder or grain mill. There are better choices for grinding grain in machines that are specifically designed for that purpose.

For those members living in Canada and abroad service is harder to source and taking a Kitchenaid appliance with a US designation out of the country voids the warrantee.  If you have a Canadian machine it cannot be serviced by an authorized Kitchenaid repair outlet in the US.  Service in Canada is provided by contracted technicians and it makes the broad blanket of service harder to find.  It should also be noted that Canadian appliances cost an average of 50% more than their US cousins and the cost of Kitchenaid overseas is exponentially higher.  Kitchenaid mixers sold in Europe, Asia and Australia have an extra retainer ring that fits over the top of the beater.  In order to use the ice cream maker attachment this must first be removed from these models.

All in all Kitchenaid has been pretty good about seeking a resolution with disgruntled customers and are far and away ahead of the competition in this area.  It has been my experience that buying Kitchenaid mixers from ebay, yard sales and classifieds expose the buyer to risk of buying a machine that may have an issue the owner couldn't resolve.  Kitchenaid sells "remanufactured" items that may have been a salemans sample, store display or exchanging  a larger and sometimes noisier bowl lift model for a tilting head. In my days of working at Sunbeam I encouraged buyers to considered a factory serviced resell becuase it gave Sunbeam a second chance at getting it right.

I'm anxious for you to try the wider bowl design, Rich.  It was the first time I used a Kitchenaid and loved the quick and thorough mixing action.  I  wouldn't be surprised in the narrow bowl tilt head design goes away in the next year or two.

The ice cream attachment works well and I have a new 38 inch belt to prove it.  The outer bowl is filled with liquid and must be frozen 24 hours before using. It has been my experience freezing the bowl in a stand apart deep freeze chills the bowl better giving more useful time for mixing and freezing the ice cream.  I am sure you know this already but adding 2 tablespoons vodka prevents the formation of ice crystal in the finished product and the flavor is undettecactble.

The older motors built in place with the field circiling the interior of the motor head cavity have been dependable but have less power and and are more expensive to build and maintain. The import motor is clearly more powerful, less expensive and has its famous plug and play design. 

It was buried my long response.  I am taking steriods and using a nebulizer 4 times a day so my fingers are on speed coupled with my inherant verbosity.  I continue to work on editing and appreciate your help, Rich.

The majority of tilting head Kitchenaids have the original motor design still assembled in Greeneville. The Accolade, a 5 quart tilt head mixer which is now discontinued used the Swedish motor. The easiest way to know which motor is inside your mixer is to look for the black plastic slotted caps on each side of the mixer. These unscrew giving access to the carbon brushes. A word of caution: If you remove the brushes from a Kitchenaid you'll note they have three squared edges and one cut at an angle. Unless you replace the brush in the same exact position as it was removed the mixer will not function.

Thank you Rich for clarifying.  I am the world's worst proof reader and simply read what I want to see regardless.  In reading some of what its apparent I use too many words and modifiers and having referred to several mixers or subjects I may later refer to "it" and "they" leaving the reader in the dust trying to decide which "it" is being referred to.  Add to that old age, a month long course of oral and inhaled steroids and my fingers have experiencedall nighter keyboard frenzy as you have all been party to.

The N-50 formerly called model G was sold door to door. When the divide between Hobart commercial and Kitchenaid for the homemaker began to widen, in addition to the Model G/N-50, governor controlled mixers that control beater speed by adjusting motor speed were sold door to door for home use though the late 40's. The larger N-50 or its predecessor the model G was based on the commercial mixer which uses a transmission to change beater rpms while the motor runs at a constant speed. You MUST stop the N-50 mixer and allow the beater to come to a complete stop before shifting gears to prevent severe damage to the gear box. Like riding a 3 speed bike, the heavier the pull or load the lower the gear you shift to. The N-50, under a heavy load on speed 3 can stall. I have both a model G and an N-50 which has a 1/8 horsepower motor like you would find in a washing machine. It can run all day without producing great heat or stress to the motor. Later models of the N-50 have a 1/6 hp motor. I find the wider mixer head which  accommodates the larger motor of the N-50 makes it harder to add ingredients to the bowl and regardless of cost or motor at the end of the day all you have is a 5 quart bowl for your investment. The N-50 has 3 speeds which require stopping the motor before changing; it weighs 44 pounds and costs nearly $2,700.00. In my own experience I prefer a tilt head model for ease of adding ingredients and having infinite speeds makes a mixer more user friendly. An N-50 might be a wise investment for someone needing to use the power hub commercially. Every attachment designed to fit the attachment hub in the whole history of Kitchenaid is interchangeable, old on new and new on old. The ice cream attachment can only be used on selected models because it is attached to the planetary.

I did not mean to denigrate the original K-45 and K-5 by saying the power of the motor didn't strip the gears. There is a difference between power and torque and the Swedish motor can torque the gearing of the Kitchenaid mixer beyond its tolerances given the right circumstances. I am not a great fan of appliance attachments regardless of any brand. If you're blending and you wish to grind or grate and have only one motor to use it is laborious to keep assembling another part and stop the mixing process while doing so. I have only, ever had one Kitchenaid mixer performance issue and it was while grating yams. Should the Artisan be able to shred a yam?  Was I pressing too hard and was the yam larger and more firm than most?  Yes to both answers so I would have to be fair and say the gear failure was due to operator error.  Kitchenaid replaced the mixer under warrantee and in 3 days from phone to box at the door I was back in business. I have Kitchenaid in the collection but most often choose a Sunbeam because it performs better with the style of cooking and baking I do. I have a blender, processor, White Mountain Ice cream maker, and electric can opener, prefer flour milled before it comes home and roll pasta by hand because it's faster. That said I have also used all those attachment, taught their use commercially and tested them in my home with residential mixers. For that reason I would have a hard time justifying the expense of an N-50 and it would frustrate me that I cannot take the mixer to a larger vessel and mix larger volumes of batter or dough. It only stands to reason if you do a lot of cooking and run every attachment from one power source the mixer get more wear and is subject to failure sooner.

Each person who buys and uses a mixer should have what ever pleases them and meets their expectation. It isn't as if there will ever be a right or wrong. I cook because I was fascinated with appliances before I could even speak. I am all about using each machine to its absolute fullest for convenience and fun. Its like having a garage full of performance cars and getting to take them on the track each day and see how they perform. When I was younger I bought one of everything I ever heard of and for a spell would use it and extol it's virtue. As I get older I find I am returning to those machines that work intuitively.  I can become one with them, not even looking to find the switch that activates it or reach for release and wonder which way the lid twists on to activate the processor. In professional capacities with Sunbeam, General Mills, Centennial Mills, Riches, Sara Lee, LBA, Lang Ovens, Whirlpool, Stouffer Hotels, 3 teaching colleges, 5 major distributers, 53 food manufactures, working with restaurants, health care, schools, military, chain accounts and wholesale food manufacturing I had the rare privilege of seeing first hand how every appliance, attachment and tool performed. It was my job to test each one and choose which maximized the presentation of the products I represented. Conversely I had to be ready to adapt and test the tolerances of the products I represented if the site I was at did not the correct machine specified in the directions attached. I would say" there is a perfect world and then one we live in"  and some times we have s##t what we need.

Cooking flows from within the depths of my soul. Its wonderful to take a full day pouring my soul into a dinner for people I love and expressing love without making guests self conscious.  There are times like last night when guests were coming at 6:00 and I didn’t get home until 4:00.  I had already planned the menu and had only a couple hours to prepare. Those opportunities allow me to return to the trenches and pull up efficiencies, time management and multi tasking, and using all the short cuts I know.  My mom began years ago trying to make every task easier, lighter, less steps, less work and today she’s a bowl of  jell-O.  I was tempted to change the menu or augment homemade with something off the shelf but her words ring in my ears and always propel me to do it the way it should be done. The Sunbeam mixer made a genoise, kneaded dough, mixed salad dressing, and whipped cream.  The processor mixed pasta and sliced strawberries.   The electric frying pan browned the multi layered ingredients of Beef Bourguignonnne  then braised it, holding perfect temperature.

Its never my intent to sound smug, put any one down and especially not to be critical of something another person owns or has just purchased regardless of my own convictions. Pride of ownership is wonderful feeling and should be exalted.  Food, appliances and cooking are how I made my living and have been the one and only thing I know how to do well.  After 50 years I should be good in the kitchen or give up so I hope my words regarding food doesn’t come off as bragging.  As I said earlier, if everything I owned were destroyed today and I was choosing a replacement from the shelf of a department store, I would buy a Kitchenaid Classic because it is dependable, backed by the best customer service in the states, affordable, will do everything I need, is intuitive to use and is relatively quiet.  That said, any mixer is better than no mixer at all. 

Let me introduce the line up beginning on the left.  The denuded mixer is a K-4 that survived a house fire, has a 4 quart bowl with paddle, whip and dough hook, appearing in the late 40's and selling until the late 50's.  The K-4 is very quiet.  Next is the model 3 introed in 1937 with a three speed motor and a cool whip/paddle that looked like it had a cocktail strainer in the middle of a paddle.  This mixer would soon have a 10 speed motor and all purpose beater that resembles a pastry cutter.  The 3 and 3B was produced until its replacement by the 3C in 1951.  The 4C followed the the 3C in 1959 and was discontinued in 1974, having a bowl that not only held more but it's rounder shape meant less slpashing.  (I have a friend that says Kitchenaid mixers have two speeds, 2 feet and 6 feet depending on how far they throw food)  All models of the 3 and 4 had only 1 all purpose beater. Next the ubiquitos Classic with a 4.5 quart bowl hence model K45, that sports a dough hook, whip and paddle.  This model was introduced in 1959 and is still available.  The dazzling copper Pro620 proprietary to Williams Sonoma, has a 6 quart bowl that is wider and flatter than any Kitchenaid before.  Its mixing dynamic is phenominal requiring no manual assist and mixing thoroughly and evenly top to bottom.  The flatter desing allows more room for adding ingredients and it splashes and poofs flour less than narrower profiles. The Pro series all have the Swedish motor we have spoken to that has a higher pitch and whine to it's voice.  This model has a fiber gear case cover and internal thermal fude that will stop the machine if it senses it is overloaded.  The mixer will begin again in 2 - 10 minutes depending on how long it had been running. Of the four Pro series I have owned the copper Pro620 is the quietest, but still persisitent in mixing for long periods or at higher speeds.  The silver behemouth is a chrome Model G made in the mid 30's and purchased at an estate sale in the midwest.  It has a 5 quart bowl and the three standard beaters.  Any bowl or beater that fits a K5 is interchangeable with an N-50.

Thank you Jared for initiating a discussion that has been fun and interesting for me.  You haven't told us which model of Kitchenaid you have or your experiences related to it which would be nice to hear.

Rich, you have a delicious mastry of lexicon and it serves you well here.  I yam so glad I didn't use sweet potatoes.  Thanks for keeping me legit, on point and ever challenging me to be on guard. 

Its time to tweak my ear and let the thread fade away with this parting shot.  The K4 had bubbled paint and I was surprised when the paint pulled off easily in long strips.  The internals looked good and these mixers are designed to withstand some pretty high temperatures.  The cord needs to be replaced as the outer covering is cracked.  I don't use it so the replacement hasn't been a priority.  I did paint it using the same paint as this K45 but I also painted the exterior of the mixing bowl to match. I'll be wondering what you might think. when you see it in it's glory.

The profile picture is explained in As the Tub Turns thread 34147

For those who find collecting cool machines without actually using them to be negative or depressing, I suggest you try to mind your own life.

I have strong opinions and have tried to reference the words I use with appliances, "it has been my experience" which can be neither right or wrong, it simply is.  Given the fact we can't see each other, pick up on inflection and facial expressions it is difficult to know your intent  Rich,  when you sometimes feel like the school ground bully or press so hard when there's room for each of us to have our own experience without making someone else uncomfortable.