KitchenAid - KP26M1XER Professional 600 Series Stand Mixer - Empire Red

The Professional 600 series, with its high gloss finish and shiny bowl, is an attractive mixer that would complement any kitchen. I purchased this in Gloss Cinnamon, primarily because my first two choices were out of stock In December. I would have preferred if it were just a touch darker than Empire red, but this is a little darker than I prefer. However, it still looks great, is a dark red that is not brownish, and I don't regret my purchase. So far, I have made bread, pizza dough, cookies, cake and pasta dough using this mixer, among other things. I love that the 600 series has a 6-qt. capacity just in case I decide to bake for a group. It's also helpful when letting dough rise. The motor slows slightly on each rotation when kneading dough, but not in any unexpected way. I like that the head does not tilt on this model, but instead there is a level to raise and lower the bowl. It also has a 575-watt motor vs the 325-watt motor of the Artisan model. However, it is tall, so might not fit under some cabinets. The main downside is that extra attachments are overpriced, and don't all seem to be of high quality--not sure I will invest in them as originally hoped. Nonetheless, I'm excited and hopeful to get many good years of use out of my mixer. It's already making my life easier.

My husband had been telling me for a while to get a stand mixer. Quite frankly I didn't think I would use it much. Well, I was wrong, I have had this mixer for over a year now and I use it so much that it has a permanent place on my counter top. I ended up getting the Nickel Pearl color. It has 10 speeds, 575 watts and the Professional also comes with the 6 Qt mixing bowl. I have even purchased an extra bowl for when I am cooking and have to mix different items. The mixer came included with the wire whip, flat beater, and kneading hook, all are made of metal not plastic like other models. It also came with a pouring shield. Some of the things I use it for are Mashed Potatoes (I've done up to 10 pounds), Meatloaf, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, White Bread Dough, Doggie cookies, Cake Mix and Whipping Cream. We also have the pasta maker and ravioli maker attachment, they are a really cool feature, but just too much work for me. I highly recommend this stand mixer. We did post a video on YouTube demonstrating some of items above.

I have wanted this Kitchen Aid mixer for years and finally broke down and purchased one for myself for Christmas. It was one of the best investments I've made. For what it is worth, here is my two cents about the whole process. First, make sure you do your research and choose the right mixer for you. Also make sure you take advantage of Best Buy's price match guarantee. I researched and found the same mixer online at Target.com for much less than Best Buys price. I printed the ad and took it in and Best Buy matched the discounted price. Being the holidays, I received an addition 5% discount from Best Buy. Overall with the extended warranty I still paid less than the advertised price. The look and finish of this nickel mixer is truly outstanding. I've used it extensively in the month or so that I've had it and it is definitely a work-horse. I've made triple batches of cookies, cakes, pies, mashed potatoes, dips, and the list goes on... it was a life-saver for the holidays. Well worth the investment you make in this mixer. Be on the lookout for the attachments as well and again do your research for the best price.

This is my second Kitchen Aid stand mixer. It is exactly the same as the first one because I was amazed at how much I used it and how it helped me with almost every cooking project I undertook. The mixer is easy to use, easy to clean, powerful, and has extremely useful attachments available, which allows it to be virtually a one-stop shop. I waited a long time to buy a stand mixer because I thought my hand mixer could do almost everything. Not true. If you love to cook, you really should invest in a stand mixer and, in my opinion, this is the best. I prefer the model with the lift bowl to the tilt head because you can use it under the cabinet and it looks good sitting on the counter. The 6 qt is the size I have - it will handle the toughest mixes I undertake (bread, cookies, pasta) with ease. I can't imagine life in my kitchen without my Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

The description is misleading on the power of this mixer or the one I bought was bad. It made it to about 9 cups of flour and started to make a growling noise like it was struggling. At 11 cups it was struggling and started to smell hot. My recipe called for 13 cups of flour for my bread batch. Book said it is the amount you can safely use. I made it barely to 12 cups and it was over loading and getting a weird hot smell. We shut it down and didn't add all of the flour. Plus when I let the bread raise in the bowl, the dough on the sides had turned a weird dark gray color. I has washed the bowl well so no idea what it was doing. When I tried to remove the dough from the bowl the gray rubbed off onto my fingers besides. Only flour and yeast and basic bread making ingredients so no idea why it had that strange reaction with the metal. We packaged it back up and returned it. Huge tools miss all the stuff at the bottom of the bowl so nothing on the bottom got mixed.

I am an academically trained professional chef, and this is my work horse. Go into almost any professional kitchen, and you will find and army of these, for a reason. It is large enough to feed an army, strong enough to power through multiple portions of notoriously tough pizza dough effortlessly, and fast enough to give you a full bowl of whipped cream is minutes. I live alone, cook constantly during the week, but host large dinner events often at my home. With the small bowl add on it makes it great for quick mashed potatoes, and large enough to never leave me needing additions room (even when feeding a crowd of 20). This is an industry standard with load of standardized accessories; there is no fear of being unable to locate the wonderful pasta roller ten years from now. There are other great mixers that offer similar capacity, power, and add ons, but I doubt any will be able to match the longevity of the kitchen aid mixer line.

Bought this product for the KitchenAid name--have since learned my lesson. Product lasted two years being used barely to half capacity, then the gears just stopped working. When I contacted Kitchenaid, they surprised me by really not caring an ounce. They would not help me an iota because it was beyond warranty--unless I'd shell out more money to them to fix it. They even tried to make is sound like it was my fault. They claimed that the 14 cup maximum is INCLUDING all ingredients, when their manual clearly says you can use recipes that call for 14 cups of flour (ASIDE from all the other ingredients). When I told them that, they quickly changed tact. Said I was probably leaving it running too long...I have a Cuisinart that I use super-heavily, and have never had a problem with that in years. If you're looking for a product that isn't disposable--and if you'd like the company you're buying from to care about what happens to you even after the 1 year warranty--I'd recommend avoiding this product, and Kitchenaid.

I purchased the KitchenAid KP26M1XER Pro Series 600 Stand Mixer to replace my wife’s aging 15 year-old KitchenAid 4.5 quart mixer. This mixer is powerful, stylish and the 6 quart bowl volume is great for larger mixing tasks. On the down side, that extra capacity comes at the cost of much larger size and increased weight. It was so big (16.5 in x 11.3 in x 14.6 in) in fact, that it did not fit into our kitchen’s appliance garage and it’s 25 pound weight makes storing it elsewhere quite a chore. I’m sure this product would be a great fit for a serious cook who routinely tackles large recipes. But be sure you have a place to store it.....or the muscles to move it.