Holy crud I love my new beater! It's a beater and spatula in one! I totally made a batch of icing and cake batter without needing to stop and scrape my bowl. I got mine at a local kitchen store for about $30, but you can also go to www.beaterblade.com and get one for yourself. I LOVE IT!!!

I have one of these too! They are the best. I got mine from kitchenkrafts.com. If you bake alot you can't live without this beater!

Hi, May I ask, is this a metal beater? I can not tell if it is metal or a real hard plastic? Also, will it fit ANY mixer? Thank you.Kathy

it's plastic and there are a few different ones for kitchenaid and viking mixers. You do have to get the right one for your mixer.

This blade worked beautifully on my 5 qt kitchenaid mixer. Once I upgraded to 6 qt mixer and got the new blade for it.......I was very disappointed. The blade makes noises and just doesn't feel right. Anybod else with the same issues????

I have the 6 qt and it works great. I assume you adjusted your bowl height...

i'm interested in this but how do you adjust the bowl height??

I have this and I LOVE IT! I recommend this to everyone

I have the side swipe blade and it has a metal center. I dearly love it but you do have to get the right one for your mixer. Just google "sideswipe blade".

On my 6qt Kitchenaid, there is a screw behind the bowl that adjusts the bowl height. I'm sure every mixer is different though.

Thank you for your info on this. I actually just have a sunbeam mixmaster. I would guess it probably wont work on it then.
Have a wonderful day and thank you again. Kathy

I was just looking at both brands of blades, Beater Blade and SideSwipe, online at their respective sites and at Amazon. There were only a few user reviews of SideSwipe, but quite a few on the Beater Blade. A few folks had experienced breakage with the Beater Blade, and some claimed damage to their machines and voided warranties.

I am also a member of Cooks Illustrated. They tested both and recommend both, but have a slight preference for the SideSwipe.

Anyone have any issues with their machines as a result of using one of these blades?

I've had no issues with the side swipe blade on my mixer. They also make them for brands other then kitchen aid.

And I should have asked in prior post:

Do you use the blade for everything? Including fondant, bread dough and heavy cookie dough? The breakage reported on Amazon was mostly with heavy doughs.

So far I've only used mine on buttercream and cake batter, but I don't think I would trust it on anything too heavy. It's plastic, not metal.

I bought one of these a few weeks ago and I love it. My icing came out so much smoother and nicer using it. I don't use it for fondant or anything heavy I use my dough hook for that. I wouldn't use my metal blade for fondant or bread dough, so certainly wouldn't use a plastic one.