I gave away my 4.5 qt KA stand mixer in order to get the 6 qt. It is so large, that I now need a good, sturdy reliable hand held mixer. I can't decide what to get. KA is certainly not as good as they used to be (I can tell that with my new stand mixer), so I'm uncertain if I should go with the 9-speed KA hand held mixer. The Cuisinart also gets mixed reviews. I'm looking for recommendations from what you all use. Thanks in advance.

I use the KA hand held mixer. Although it is ten years old so I'm not sure if a new one would be made as well as this old one. It has been very reliable so far.

Thanks. I, too, am afraid the new KA products will not be the quality of the old ones. My old 4.5 qt KA stand mixer was a power house in perfect condition when I gave it to my brother a couple months ago - it was around 25 yrs old. My new 6 qt KA stand mixer is obviously not the quality of the old one - you should hear the difference in the sound of the motors between the two. So sad - I believe Whirlpool is the new owner of KA, and they obviously don't care about quality.

I have a 15 year old KA heavy duty and a new pro 6. My new one is just as good as my old one.

I have the new vesion of the KA hand mixer and it's not only awesome, but quiet too! I love so idk why it wouldn't be good?? Just letting you know.

I just brought a Sunbeam from Amazon ($24.99 if you go with black, red is more for some reason). It has a 250 motor and is strong enough to get through a Wilton class buttercream recipe without any problems (I brought it b/c I started teaching Wilton and didn't want to lug my KA Stand mixer to class). I can't speak for how long it lasts, but it seems sturdy enough and the price was right.

This month's Consumer Reports magazine coincidentally has an article rating hand mixers.

The Kitchenaid Architect Series comes in first. But it's $80. Next in line is Cooks 10 speed (JCPenny brand) for $30. Then Kitchenaid Ultra Power 5 for $50.

Unfortunately, they rate Sunbeam way down at #16.

I have the 9 speed KA and have had it for a couple of years now and have not had a problem with it. I've made many a batchs of stiff icing and royal icing with it.

I have an Oster hand mixer and I love it. It was recommended to me by another friend who bakes and it even has it's own little carrying case which helps keep all the beaters together. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0008F6LNC/?tag=cakecentral-20

I don't know how "heavy duty" it is but I make cake mix and small batches of BC with it (small being 2lbs of sugar or less). If I'm going to make larger batches of anything I use my KA stand mixer.

Thank you, everyone! I need to buy this in the next couple of weeks. Thanks again for the input.

I have a Hamilton Beach and it works great! http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/hand-mixers-softscrape-6-speed-hand-mixer-with-case.html

I hope this is related, but does anyone have any input on the stand mixers that are the same power, etc, as the hand mixers? I need a hand mixer but the stand mixers seem more suitable for me as I usually work alone. I have two kitchenaid stand mixers. There are some well rated mixers for $50 to $100. The Rival comes out the best in ratings while the Sunbeams have complaints about not enough power. Does anyone have experience with them? I am just reading amazon and consumer reports.