Best Stand Mixer reviews

Most people when buying a stand mixer are going to want something reliable and that can make their favorite recipes with ease. Basically something to take the stress and hassle out of baking. Some mixers have a long list of dazzling features, but there are 5 key ones to look out for.

1. Power
2. Mixing action
3. Mixing speeds
4. Ease of access
5. Bowl capacity

1. Power

The most important thing to remember is do not to confuse watts with power. The wattage of a mixer is simply a measurement of the amount of electricity the motor uses. Sure, a mixer that uses more electricity is more lightly to be powerful. But if its poorly designed it won’t deliver much power no matter what the wattage is. There are two other crucial factors to consider, and If you want a mixer that is both powerful and reliable it should have both of these.

• Direct drive transmission – explained simply this means that the drive shaft runs straight from the motor to the attachment arm. There is no gearing or pulley mechanism in between and so no loss of power. Any mixer with a direct drive will be far more powerful and have a lot more torque than those without. Mixers designed like this are also more reliable, as there is less moving parts that can break.
• Metal gears – Any mixer that has metal gears is going to last longer and be far more reliable than those without. Metal gears will be noisier than nylon or plastic gearing systems, but they won’t strip out or overheat if left running for a long period of time or if they have to tackle a tough job like kneading bread.

It’s often very hard to find out what gearing system and what type of transmission a particular mixer has. A lot of the time, these two crucial bits of information won’t be mentioned anywhere in the product description.

2. Mixing Action

Most mixers will do a pretty good job of mixing ingredients together, after all that’s what they’re designed for. But for the best and quickest results you should look for one with a planetary mixing action. This means that as the attachment arm spins one way, while the beater rotates in the opposite direction. This means that there will be less food clinging to the sides of the bowl and no pockets of unmixed ingredients. So you won’t have to stop to scrape around the bowl with a spatula too often.

A couple of years ago I had an old Kenwood mixer and the whisk attachment just spun around the outside of the mixing bowl, leaving a big pocket of unmixed ingredients in the center. Even if I was just whisking cream, I would have to stop the mixer every couple of minutes to help mix everything together, wasting lots of time.

3. Mixing Speed

Depending on what you intend to make in your stand mixer, you’re probably going to want one with a good array of speed options. Having a good range of speeds means you’ll have a versatile mixer capable of tackling any mixing operation. I like a mixer to have a really slow speed (for bread kneading) and to be able to go incredibly fast too (for meringues). The mid speeds can be used for cake batters, cookie dough or to mashed potatoes.

Make sure when you buy a mixer that it has the correct speed setting for whatever it is you want to bake. Any mixer that has 10 /12 speeds will have a setting to suit most bakers needs. I devote a complete section in each stand mixer review to mixing action and speed.

4. Ease of access

All ways look for a mixer that has a tilt head design. Being able to quickly and easily get access to the mixing bowl is a crucial feature of a stand mixer for me.

From experience I know that no matter what sort of mixing action or speeds a mixer has, or what manufactures like to tell us, you’re more than lightly going to have to get in there with a spatula at least once during mixing to help things along, or to scrape down the sides. The big question is, which mixer design is going to allow you to do this most easily?

Having a mixer with a tilt head design means you can easily lift the whole attachment out of the bowl, give a quick mix with a spatula, replace the attachment and continue mixing. The whole process takes about 5 seconds.

Mixers without a tilt head will normally have a bowl lift mechanism, and the bowl gets cranked up into position below the beater. This makes it much more difficult to get at your mix. Very often you will have to remove the attachment and splatter shield before you can give a mix with a spatula. Then you have to replace every thing before you can continue mixing….what a pain!

The mixer head should also lock into position, both the up and down positions, This will stop the attachment falling back down when you’re trying to scrape around the sides. It will also stop it from kicking up out of the bowl while the mixer is running.

All ways go for a mixer with a tilt head (fortunately most mixers these days have this feature), it make things so much easier. Read through the stand mixer reviews here on the site, I will always mention if a particular mixer has a tilt head design.

5. Bowl Capacity

When buying a mixer always bear in mind the size of the bowl. Mixing bowls come in lots of different shapes and sizes and there will be one to suit your needs. For most home bakers any size between 3.5 and 5 quarts should be big enough. Always check your favorite recipes to make sure the mixer can handle them. I also find that mixing bowls with handles makes it easier to scrape mixes into baking tins. Each stand mixer I review has a section on bowl capacity.

Optional Stand Mixer Features

These are the by far the 5 most important factors to consider before you buy a stand mixer. If you buy a mixer that has all these features, you won’t go far wrong. Some mixers though come with a whole host of other features you might like to consider too.

Slow Start

Even if you start your stand mixer off on its highest speed setting, the attachment spins around slowly for 2/3 revolutions of the mixing bowl. This stops any ingredients like flour or sugar flying out of the mixer and ending up on your counter top.

Splatter Shield And Ingredients Chute

A lot of stand mixers come with both of these features. The splatter shield is a piece of plastic that either totally or partially covers the top of the mixing bowl. This keeps ingredients in the mixer and stops splatter getting on the body of the mixer, so there is less to clean up. There will also be a small chute where you can add ingredients to the mixer while its running.

Thermal / Automatic Shut Off

Some mixers have a sensor inside the motor that will automatically shut it off incase it starts to overheat. Motors can overheat if the mixer is overloaded with ingredients or if it can’t handle a dough. This is a really cool feature and could save you hundreds of dollars in damage and a ruined motor.

Stand Mixer Timers

Timers are a great feature for a stand mixer to have but far from essential. On a stand mixer they work very simply, you set the time and the mixer stops when the times up. They can be useful if you’re worried about over mixing something. Or if you’re whipping cream and you don’t want it to turn to butter. Most of the time there are just too many variables and you never really know how long a recipe is going to take. Humidity, the type of flour and the age of the eggs can all affect mixing times. Even if your mixer does have a timer you’ll probably find you won’t use it that often.

Fold Button

Some manufactures have started to include what they call a “fold button” feature, and even if my stand mixer did have this feature I wouldn’t use it. It works like this, you press or hold in a button manually and the mixer gently rotates a couple of times much like it does for the slow start. A mixer though can’t replicate the same gentle folding action that you can do by hand, all the air will simply get knocked out before its mixed thoroughly.

Stand Mixer  Attachments

Most manufactures include 3 attachments as standard. A dough hook, flat beater and a whisk. Try to look for mixers that come with dishwasher safe attachments, the best type are the nylon coated steel ones that come with most kitchenaids. If your stand mixer happens to come with attachments that have a brushed steel finish the odds are they aren’t safe to put in the dishwasher (Check the owner’s manual and read the reviews here). Always wash and dry them by hand, if you do happen to put them in the dishwasher an oily type residue starts to come off them ruining everything you try to mix.