Stand mixers - tell me which one to buy

[Blastandbollocks]

Santa has agreed to bring me one! (FINALLY!)

Obviously, KitchenAid is an option, but it's so expensive.

I need it for basic baking - cakes, meringues etc. But I'd also like it to knead dough as my fingers are seizing up.

So, give me the best to buy!

We have a Kenwood, had it quite a few years, gets a lot of use, very high quality build. Would recommend Kenwood.

I have a Kenwood Major and it is fantastic! I've had it for about 10 years now, it gets very regular use and is still going strong. It's very easy to use, lots of attachments available and if I were to need any replacements they are easy to come by from Kenwood. Would definitely recommend 🎂

The Bosch mum48a1 I bought is really good value for money

The Kenwoods come out best in Which, the kitchen aids are just style over substance really

I've got a Kenwood Chef and I love it. I wanted a Kitchen Aid until I read lots of reviews of both and Which?

I have a Kenwood Chef. It's nearly 20y old and still works well. My mum's Chef was 42yo when she replaced it - with another Chef - purely because she could no longer get accessories for it. I did not expect mine to last this long as I didn't think the build quality was nearly as good as dm's. It is quite noisy, and I do have to scrape down cake mix, but the dough hook is superb. Makes perfect dough and the bowl does not need scraping.

I have the mincer and sausage-maker attachments, which are excellent. The ice-cream-maker attachment made lovely ice-cream, until the bowl developed a leak!
The blender has a 'plastic' (acrylic?) goblet, so it is not heavy, but I rarely use it. I prefer a hand-held stick blender.
The Chef came with a plastic bowl, but I bought a stainless steel bowl as well, as I prefer it. Steel is better IMO for whipping eggs and cream, and it is dishwasher-safe. The plastic bowls are also dishwasher safe, but started to show the wear after about 15y. But it is definitely useful to have two bowls.

My one real quibble with Kenwood is that they seem to build obsolescence into their machines. Mum was adding accessories to her 1960s Chef, and easily finding replacement parts on the rare occasions that something broke or wore out, well into the 90s. I bought mine - a new model - in the early 2000s, and within 10y accessories were no longer available. I haven't been able to replace the freezer bowl or the splashguard.

Mind you, I'd still get another Kenwood!

I have an Ankarsrum. Not as pretty looking as a kitchen aid or KMix, but is a proper workhorse.
I make bread mainly and one lot of dough out of this machine can yield about 8 loaves. Great for batch baking for the freezer.
It works differently than a conventional mixer but once you get your head around it,it's great.
Comes in different colours,too.

I have a KitchenAid. It looks beautiful and I use it a lot, mostly for cakes and pastry. My only criticism would be that it throws dry ingredients all over the work surface occasionally. Does no one else's do this?

Just bought a Kenwood kMix in red (£50-odd quid cheaper than other colours). Will be testing it later today when DS2 makes the buns for his 'ultimate burger'.

I have the Kenwood kmix, it came with the glass bowl which broke the ring within two months, customer service sent out a stainless steel bowl ( no charge ) and it's used most days, I just fling my bread ingredients in and let it nead when I'm doing other things, really happy with it now

We’re on our second Kenwood Chef. The first is 33 years old and still going and has been passed on to DD. DH wanted a new one - he doesn’t think this one is as good though.

NOT the K Mix. Mine lasted a little over 2 years then the lift arm broke.

If you just go for a Kenwood go for the proper old fashioned style one, the K Mix is very much style of substance. If you notice GBBO used kitchen aid for years then suddenly swapped to K Mix. Funnily enough the following season they were back to kitchen aid.

Yes, I did wonder that. KitchenAid it looks like then. I'm not fussed on colour, but I'm debating between the models.

Kitchenaid had mine for years and use it most days. Well worth the investment

bosch mum
powerful and compact(ish)
good attachment that keep well, I am using one extra bowl from my grandmother's machine.

I have a kitchenaid and I love it.

Which colour is the only debate I'd be having 😊

I have a Kmix but it's a free replacement for a kmix which stopped working after a couple of years. I wish I had bought the kitchen aid. That said, nothing beats my old Magimix, and I always managed cakes in it.

I love my kitchenaid. It makes me happy every time I use it - which is at least 4 times a week. I use it for everything from mashing potatoes, bread, brioche, pizza dough, cake, cookies, pastry, buttercream icing.

Mashing potatoes? You intrigue me as I've just spent 10 minutes wrestling with a recalcitrant ricer!

Kitchenaid is fine for sponges but not for bread, it can’t handle dough and bounces across your worktop. The last time I tried to make bread it threw itself off the worktop and smashed the glass mixing bowl. I also find it motor starts to overheat when I use it for a while eg. when making Swiss meringue buttercream.

I'm surprised at this @butterry, I have been making bread in mine every week for the past 10 years and my experience has been completely different

We have a kenwood kmix. It’s good and going strong. Check the weight of the options you are considering if you want to put it in a cupboard when not in use (we leave ours out)!

I have a Kenwood chef titanium (higher powered motor) which has been in daily or more use for almost 10 years - bread, cakes, pastry, pasta and pastry dough, mashed potatoes, whipping cream, meringues. Then there's the liquidiser for soups (or my mum's old trick when she had granulated sugar but no caster sugar - put it in the liquidiser and use in short bursts until you have caster sugar). It's an absolute beast.

I love my kitchen aid. Had it about 8 years at a guess. Makes great cakes a bread.