kenwood prospero

[Oomph]

I'm feeling dangerously tempted to spend over 200 quid on this stand mixer with a bunch of attachments. I bake bread weekly and cook daily. But is it worth it? It's the poor brother of the kenwood chef, and it's half the price. If any lovely mumsnetter has it and can comment, that would be much appreciated.

I had one that took me from home/hobby baker to about a year into my baking business, it lasted about 18 months of being absolutely flogged to death on a regular basis.

It does a great job for hobby/household use a couple of times a week, but it's noisy and the splash guard doesn't go round all the way so if you're using it at high speed for powdery things be prepared for a cloud (or put a tea towel over the machine first).

The food processor attachment is pretty good for small quantities.

I've had a K-Mix for the past couple of years now, I do prefer it to the Prospero but I suppose it depends whether the price difference is worth it for the amount of use it'll get.

I bought a kenwood prospero km283 from Amazon in 2014. Still have it, it works just fine. The bowl is a bit plastically and if you have a lot in there the whole thing gyrates a bit. I've never tried making dough, but use it for cakes etc. The food processor choppy thing is quite good but never gets cabbage as thing as I'd like, and carrots get stuck under the blades sometimes. It does all nicely go in the dishwasher.

For £200 I think it'd quite an ok entry model but if I was going to use it every day I think I might want something a bit more chunky.

If there's a kitchen aid model you have your eye on, I have a 20% off coupon that might work if you want to try?

I would wait and buy a kenwood chef tbh. Great workhorses, ours is 10 years old, DH uses it a couple of times a week usually for dough. One of the best kitchen appliances we have bought.

Many thanks for your posts, this is really really useful.

@Rainsdropskeepfalling, thank you for the offer of a voucher, you are incredibly kind. I have looked at the Kitchen Aid, but I must say that I don't love the fifties look. Is the functionality great? Maybe I'm being superficial!

I'm thinking that it may be better to save and splash out (for chrirstmas maybe) on the chef model, as the 'not sturdy' feel might really get on my wick.

@Roselilly36 You read my mind...

I have had one for 3 years it was on an offer and I only paid £150 for it.

I love it. I'm a hobby baker and a pretty competent home cook and I use it a lot.

@speluncean thank you. Do you bake bread? This is the main thing I do weekly

I do. It works fine for bread. But I don't ever do multiples of loaves in it (like, I wouldn't do the dough for 2 or 3 in it)

I bought mine from Amazon on a black Friday thing. They have one coming up in a few days time so maybe worth checking out prices (maybe you can get the next model up for the same price)

We had one for 10 years (chosen on space saving grounds vs Chef in a very small kitchen as well as cost). It did us very well but agree about the lid not being very good at containing icing sugar etc, struggling a little when making stiff doughs. But really it did very well for a lower cost mixer.

thank you all - I'm going to think about it, and of course, keep an eye for prices, specially if there is a black Friday event coming up! I'm also lusting after a cordless vacuum cleaner!

There was a big fuss on here a good few years back when Sainsbury’s had an offer on them and it felt like half of Mumsnetters had a Prospero and were raving about them. I missed out and bought a Kitchenaid.

Yes, I was one of them, I'd forgotten about that, the threads ran for quite a while. Ours was a good buy.

It may be worth checking eBay and buying a 2nd hand Kenwood Chef, they really do go on for years.

I love mine, got it when they first came out (2011?).
It gets used a few times a week.
I have always intended to upgrade to a Chef but never seemed to need to as it works fine and it’s only rarely the larger size of the Chef would be useful.
Brilliant product and if you can get it at a good price it’s a great bargain compared with the cost of the Chef.
It works well for bread though that’s not my main use as I have a bread machine.

It was 2009 so it’s been going strong for 14 years with no sign of fatigue. Definitely not flimsy, though it will have a long way to go to catch up with the early Chefs that have lasted decades.

I bought mine when they were a thing on mn. And I was easily influenced. It’s still going strong.

I’d go for a Kenwood Chef. I bought mine on Gumtree - barely used wedding present and the attachments like the blender and juicer were still in their boxes. I think I paid about 30% of the new price. Ten years on (at least) it’s still chugging along happily.

Thank you all. I will have a look second hand, it’s a good call.

Second hand Kenwood Chef is the way to go. I have one from the sixties and one from the seventies and all still run well. Spare parts are easy to find and there are loads of additional bits. They are proper workhorses.

You need a good heavy machine if you are making kneaded doughs otherwise it will jump around the counter not to mind burn out quickly.

Most stand mixers even the cheapest are fine for cakes/cream/meringue etc but dough is a different story. I have both a Kenwood and a Kitchenaid, the KA is very heavy and it's the one I would use with dough but I don't use it a lot for that purpose. Have a look at one of the pizza making FB pages, they are always recommending mixers on there suitable and strong enough for dough. Buying a light one could be false economy when it's bread you want to make!