Ok so I've convinced my hubby this is a necessity, and plan to go sometime in the next few days to get a Kitchen Aid Mixer. Right now I'm leaning towards the less expensive Artisan, but wonder if I'll wish I just spent a little more for a bigger one. Does anyone have any advice for me? I sure love this site!!!

Amie

I bought the 6 quart pro
only so I would not be sorry later

I am very happy that I did get the bigger one
remember this will last you many many years so if you are able
can get the bigger one

I just happened to be walking through Williams Sonoma one day and they had a beautiful 6 qt pro blue mixer for only $249. I thought, there has to be something wrong with it! No! The color was being discontinued and they had marked it down. My advice...shop around because you never know what you might find! I bought it and now I have 2 KA's, even though I only use one at a time. Maybe I will someday need two!

One of the things that I have found, is that bigger is better. WHen I mean bigger, Im basically talking about the capicity of the bowl. The majority of the cakes I sale are sheet cakes and my Artisan bowl is in way, too small. Plus, I personally prefer the burnised beater and things, so I would go for the Professional Mixer.

I love my Artisan and I dont think I would ever want to replace it unless I had to, but I would recommend getting an extra bowl or 2. It's going to really come in handy.

I love my Artisan, but am buying the 600 the SECOND I get the chance. It will be nice to have both. I cannot mix everything I need in a sheetcake or large cake at once in my 3 1/2 qt bowl. I can't wait to have a 6 qt!! There are times when the smaller one is perfect, but when you're trying to mix 4-6 batches of BC at once, or need 4-5 cake recipes/batter, you just can't do it efficiently with the smaller mixer. A smaller KA is essential, and works perfectly well, so if your hubby will fall over from sticker shock, I would stay with the smaller one "for now".

Buy an extra bowl, paddle, and wisk. They are totally worth it!

I've never used the Artisan. I have the 5 qt pro and my mom has a 6 qt. I can't imagine using anything smaller than the 5 qt and I like borrowing the 6 qt from mom sometimes because things don't fly out the top as much. I'm too lazy to dig out the guard sometimes

We just invested in a 20 Qt mixer for our business though. It is very nice and shiny! It's mostly for mom's bread and my tortillas. I'll be doing cookies in it though and maybe big batches of buttercream love the new toy

Have fun! new toys are always fun Just remember, it'll pay itself off in no time!

i agree with rstml. Shop around. You never know the kind of deals you will find. definitely get the biggest you can afford. as a minimum I would get a 5qt. extra bowls a must

I have been looking myself at the KA Pro 600. Hopefully I am not hijacking the thread by asking - is there anything you can't do with this one? i.e. small batches of cookies, whip cream etc.

I don't know if you'd be interested, but I've been checking out refurbished mixers--you can get them from the KA website, with a 6-month warranty, and you don't get nearly the sticker-shock as with a new mixer. I don't do this professionally, so I think refurbished would be just fine for me, but I guess that's something you'd have to weigh the pros and cons of for yourself. Just something to think about. Here's a link for you:
http://www.shopkitchenaid.com/category.asp?cat=outlet

Has anyone here bought a refurbished KA?

I got my with the 20% off coupon from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Buy an extra bowl!

Naty

I love my 5 qt artisan but I agre get extra bowls and utensils. I am going to get the 600 pro though cause I'm doing alot more than when I got my artisan. so go big if you can and definely check different plzaces on prices I've seen 100$ diff in 600.

I bought my 6qt first, and I'm really glad. There are so many things i can do in it that I can't do in my 5qt. I got the bigger motor, an extra bowl and paddle. I use them so much I'm surprised they haven't died, but they just keep going! I got mine at bed, bath & beyond becuase they always give out those 20% off coupons and I saved $70.

hi y'all. i'm new here. saw this topic and couldn't resist putting my two cents in. i had an Artisan for years. then a special caught my attention in Chef's Catalog for a 620 Pro, so i sold my old faithful and bought this one. it came with two bowls plus the dough hook and whisk and flat paddle. yes, it's a 6 qt and yes it comes in very handy for large jobs. BUT it's extremely loud and doesn't work well with small batches of anything. Given the chance again, I'd look very hard at a Viking 7 qt.

I just bought a 5qt/475 at Costco. I love it. I agree with getting extra bowls if you can. I'm going to go get a 6qt bowl. The price was the best around.

I just ordered one from Amazon, I got an Almond Cream color artisan 5 quart for 249.00 and if I read right I'll get a 20.00 mail in rebate on top of that. Plus it was free shipping. I'm soooo EXCITED!

Hi If you are going to buy it today or tomorrow, Kohls has a great sale going. You can get the 5 quart heavy duty mixer, regular $389.99 for $229.99, and then take 30% off of that with the code SPRING30 if you put it on your Kohls card for a total of $197.61 (including shipping)!!!!

http://www.kohls.com/products/product_page_vanilla0.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=369493437&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=4698081&bmUID=1173735855703

AND, you get a $15 kohls gift card with purchase!!

I also suggest an extra bowl and paddle, they will come in very handy!!

Don't forget, the sale ends today at Kohls!!

I have the 6 qt heavy duty mixer and purchased an extra bowl also.

My son-in-law is a professional chef and purchased the 6 qt heavy duty KA
for his home.

IMO the larger bowl is much easier to mix in. KA are great appliances I still have my Mom's older model and it works great.

If you can find a sale at Williams-Sonoma, (discontinued colors) you will get a great buy, Kohl's has them on sale but I don't know if that includes the 6 qt mixer.