I have the sunbeam from walmart (89.00) and yes, it makes about 8-10 fondant batches a week, and lord knows how much bc, plus it colors BC constantly. (about 30lbs last week alone)

BUT, I have stopped making my cake mixes in it. I am scared to overuse it. quite often, if I am doing fondant batches or more often than not, BC batches, one after the other, it will stop mid mix. unplugging it letting it cool and then waiting about an hour or two will allow it to start back up.

I dream of getting a KA, and then being able to use the SB for cakes and such. I know I will blow it up soon.

Y'all might be talking about a much more expensive version, but also I am noticing that most of your memories are of older ones. New stuff isnt made that well for the most part. its cheaper made, more disposable. so taht is something to keep in mind.

[quote="chellescountrycakes"]I have the sunbeam from walmart (89.00) and yes, it makes about 8-10 fondant batches a week, and lord knows how much bc, plus it colors BC constantly. (about 30lbs last week alone)

BUT, I have stopped making my cake mixes in it. I am scared to overuse it. quite often, if I am doing fondant batches or more often than not, BC batches, one after the other, it will stop mid mix. unplugging it letting it cool and then waiting about an hour or two will allow it to start back up.

I dream of getting a KA, and then being able to use the SB for cakes and such. I know I will blow it up soon.


My SB does the same thing but never when I'm making fondant only when I'm making BC. It ALWAYS stops before I'm finished beating it. I just turn it off and wait about 30 minutes and turn it back on for a few more minutes. I am going to get a KA as soon as I'm able to afford to buy one. But for now my SB has to work.

[quote="mamawrobin"]

Exactly! Lol mine has to bear with me- then I will retire it to mixes only! Lol. Mine mostly does oit on bc but has on fondant but I think it was already tired and hot

Well, after reading what robin and countrycakes had to say, I wonder if I got a bad mixer.

This was probably 2 years ago. I was in the middle of making cookies (at home) for a fundraiser for my son's school. At that time I only had a Bosch at home (now THAT is an awesome machine!!!!) If you haven't used one, they have a gear-like mechanism where the beaters go around the bowl. One of my cookie beaters chipped off a gear cog--much MUCH use.. so I didn't have a way to make cookie dough. I refuse to buy the new KA's, (I own an OLD one, Hobart brand that I dearly love that I bought after I got so mad at the Sunbeam in this story)

Anyway--I went to Wal-Mart just to find something that would get the cookies done and I bought a Red one--woohoo! I love red!! Got it home, unpacked it and got to making cookies. Put in sugar and butter--nothing. It sat there, would not spin so for the next half hour I manually spun that bowl and limped through a couple of batches to finish up what I needed.

I have NO idea how you ladies are making MMF in your Sunbeams!

I cleaned it up, packed it up and took it back the next day. I don't know if I was more upset because it didn't work or that I had to take back a red mixer!

I have 2 old Sunbeam models now I found at garage sales for back-up. And, just FYI, Salvation Army and GoodWill are great places to find extra bowl for those.

We LOVE our sunbeam, though it's the heritage series with 450 watts. We don't make MMF, but we do our buttercream, cake mixes and sugar cookies in it. We got new, off ebay, just over 2 years ago and never had even a hiccup with it. In fact, friends gave us a KA and it sits on the counter next to the sunbeam, covered. Once I get the other beater for the KA, that scapes the side of the bowl, I'm sure I'll use it more, but for now, I prefer my sunbeam. We don't use it nearly as much as the OP and most do, we're just hobby bakers, but we use it regularly. I think getting the 450 watts size has made a difference though, it's just a stronger machine.

Hello Everyone,

I am new to the group, but I am a very avid baker, but that is not all I do...

I also resell and repair old Sunbeam MixMaster Mixers from the 50's thru the mid 90's!

It all started a couple years ago when I got my first Chrome Sunbeam MixMaster Model 12C as a birthday present. I absolutely love it, and turn into a kid baking with my grandmother everytime I turn it on!

Before I knew it, other mixers were following me home... and since I can't keep them all, I have begun restoring and reselling them! This is just a hobby, and have only been doing this for less than a year, but I have already sold 4 and have orders for 2 more!

If you are interested in either getting yours repaired, getting more information or even getting a classic one just like Mom's, I maybe able to help! You can either reply back to this thread or email me at The_Mixer_Master(at)yahoo.com !

(PS) Email address has been acting up, so if it rejects, keep trying, it may take me a few hours.

Have a great day!

I have a SB and a KA i alwasy pull out my sb instead of the KA for some reason i just like my sb better. I havent had the problem of it stopping on me though and lord knows ill have mine running for hours at a time.

I'm a hobby baker, and last Christmas I had completed my second Wilton class. I have always used a hand mixer, and never had a stand up. I really wanted one for Christmas, but didn't want to pay the KA price for just hobby baking. I told my husband that I wanted a Sunbeam Mixmaster for Christmas, as it was only $89. Well, the first one I got blew up after about four uses. I was only using it for buttercream. I returned it for a new one, and the second one broke after about two uses. A part broke on it. On either one, the bowl would never spin correctly, and you had to stand there and "babysit" it. I could never walk away. The Sunbeams aren't even real metal on the outside.

I since found a KA at a friend's mom's estate sale. It's one of the old original KA. I'll never go back to a Sunbeam after using the KA.

Lovenintheoven,
If all you need is a mixer for small cakes and batches of buttercream, why not consider a hand held model? I used one for all of my baking needs for over 25 years. I have a KA now and use it almost daily, but I still pull out my little hand held when I want to make a dessert-sized cake, a small batch of RI, or some mashed potatoes.