Hamilton Beach Classic Stand and Hand Mixer, 4 Quarts, 6 Speeds with QuickBurst, Bowl Rest, 290 Watts Peak Power, Black and Stainless

For several years I have had a VERY heavy and large Kitchenaid stand mixer that I've used many many times over the years that has been great yet at the same time, for me, a pain in the ass!I do bake, on occasion, and I do cook pretty much daily but the Kitchenaid unit wasn't worthy of taking up that much counter space. And that thing is soooo heavy that, when I put it away in one of my lower, taller cabinets... I found myself deciding not to use it because I don't need a hernia! and opted to use my lightweight hand mixer sometimes to get the job done. But sometimes you want a good mixer to do the job. UghSo I decided finally to do something about that and found this little beauty here on Amazon.I really love this mixer! It's much much lighter weight and smaller. And what I love even more is that you can take the top unit off and use it as a hand mixer if need be.I bought this in the blue color. It's perfect for me! And the price was fantastic! I think I paid like $50.It's actually small enough that I can leave it on the counter if I choose to but it's lightweight and I can easily put it away or retrieve it without hurting myself. Yeahhh!!I received this only just earlier today but washed all the components right away and put it straight to use on a cake mix. It works fantastic and has plenty of power for what I like to make. I did mess around with the settings and stuff. Runs great!I saw some reviews about some who didn't like that the beaters don't go to the bottom of the bowl. I understand that, but it's an easy fix to place a small plate underneath the bowl while your mixing if that's a problem for you. It does lift the bowl up just high enough. I checked it out, and that does work. The beaters are not that far up away from the bottom.Only slightly. Honestly I didn't need to do that I just used my spatula to scoop as always. I'm not a professional baker. I'm just a grandma who likes to bake sometimes.Now I will actually bake more because this mixer is so much more user-friendly!My husband has already gave me a list of things he wants me to make. And now, because of this wonderful mixer, I won't mind.I wish I had bought this a long time ago but I had felt obligated with that $400 Kitchenaid macine sitting there in my cabinet... kept me from buy something like this. Like I would be a traitor or something. I'm selling my Kitchenaid machine and keeping this one!We'll see as time goes by how well this machine stands up. From what I can tell now it should last me a long time. It's well made and has great attachments. The mixing bowl is big enough for regular sized stuff like cake mixes or the like. I hope my review helps you if your on the fence. I mean, what's not to like? It's a great little machine and sturdy.If you're baking huge batches of cookies for the whole neighborhood all the time or for a business I doubt this would ever come close to what you need. Because this is your average light use mixer. If you're like me and you just whip up a cake or some homemade goodies sometimes, definitely get this! Even for stuff like whipping egg whites, this will be great! Now I'm excited again about making things I haven't made for a long time. It's great!

The media could not be loaded. I use to have a kitchen aid and rarely used it. Only used it for pizza dough. Also, most of the mixers that are fancy and expensive also have a fancy non stick coatings. This one is almost 500 times less expensive and has no coatings. [Verified by mamavation.com ] But I couldn't figure out how to use it and could not find the manual. Looked it up on YouTube and lady uses a spoon to help the dough just a bit. I did that and my dough came out so good. Gluten structure was beautifully built. I would think that can be done in other items that seem are hard like pizza dough. I'm going to try making butter using heavy cream the next time. So far, i love it. It's different but it's not toxic. Also, my kitchen aid simply took up space for soooo many years and I rarely used it. This one i can take apart and it doesn't have to take up space on my counter, If i don't want it to. It's light. And as the video ad part of the item shows, the spinning of the bowl is normal. It's a genius idea if you ask me. Because that's how it gets to all the flour to make dough. If it can make great dough for pizza, then hey there, pain au chocolat, here we come!! Highly recommend!

I would actually have given this item 5 stars except for one thing: the name is misleading. It is not a stand mixer - the item is a hand mixer which you attach to a stand.As a hand mixer, it's fine. There are certain jobs that a hand mixer is best for: making French buttercream, meringues,and genoise cakes. You really don't need a super duper powerful 9 speed hand mixer for this, in fact, it's overkill. The vast majority of people who have expensive stand mixers use them infrequently. You don't need a stand mixer to whip egg whites. Back in the day, people whipped cream and egg whites with a whisk....imagine that.Genoise and buttercreams require at least 5 minutes of beating, which is very boring, and hard on the hands. That's what this item is good for. You have work with it, rotating the bowl, and scraping with the spatula - but you have to scrape down the bowl if you use an expensive stand mixer as well. There are many recipes that tell you to "scrape down the bowl" - using a KitchenAid. So I can't hold that against this item.You need to learn to work with this item. If you have a small recipe, put something underneath the bowl so that the beaters get to all the ingredients. This is no big deal.Re: bread. This item is not powerful enough to mix bread doughs. I used it once and it was really laboring hard. I figured out a way to mix the dough, putting the liquid ingredients into the bowl and adding 75% of the dry, then finishing off with hand kneading. I don't mind this, because I think that hand kneading is the only way to go but some might object. I have also read that many more expensive mixers have a problem with bread dough. If you are a dedicated bread baker, buy a more powerful genuine stand mixer.To conclude: this is a reasonably priced hand mixer, which performs more than adequately, and which can be used for hand mixer purposes that require prolonged beating.If you want an expensive stand mixer, buy one of those.Note: I only recently bought this item. If it breaks down, I'll revise my review.PS: The vast majority of electronic appliances are now made in China. If that's a problem, take it up with the management - of the United States, as well as the company. Otherwise, go back to using hand whisks.Update May 14, 2014: I note that many reviewers here criticize the bowl. This is not a valid criticism of the actual mixer. Use a different vessel depending on what you are baking, or cooking. Please see this classic Julia Child video on the subject:[...]Julia begins by pointing out that the bowl that came with her mixer isn't going to do the job - so she changes the bowl. You have to know what you are doing. YOU are in control, the mixer is just a tool.I repeat that for what it is: a hand mixer that you can attach to a stand, it's fine. If it should break within a year, I'll report that promptly.

Mixer works like a champ wish bowl was a bit bigger though.