Mixers Reviews

We found the best reviews for stand and handheld mixers at Cook's Illustrated and Consumer Reports, because both publications perform extensive testing on the largest variety of mixers. Cook's Illustrated editors review stand mixers in two articles: One focuses on high-end stand mixers, and the other focuses on inexpensive stand mixers (under $200). Mixers are tested with a variety of tasks from whipping cream to kneading bread dough. In their test of eight handheld mixers, Cook's Illustrated editors focus on fundamental tasks such as whipping cream, mixing cake batter, beating egg whites and mixing thick peanut-butter cookie dough. Editors consider design, but performance is the focus.

Consumer Reports' latest mixer review covers 12 stand mixers and 11 hand mixers, evaluating models for their ability to whip cream, mix cookie dough, knead bread dough and mash potatoes. Along with ratings and a buyer's guide, editors list standout features. For hand mixers, Consumer Reports splits their recommendations between those good for bread dough, and those better suited to lighter-duty tasks. Noise is also factored into Consumer Reports' ratings chart -- helpful since noise complaints are frequent in owner-written reviews.

After these two, there's a drop-off in quality among the reviews we found. Good Housekeeping and Real Simple magazines make recommendations for stand and handheld mixers, but editors don't tell us much about how models were tested, and neither say anything about mixers that might not have made the cut.

KitchenAid has since revamped the Professional 600 stand mixer and the gear housing is now made of metal (we verified this with KitchenAid customer service). Representatives told us the change was made "sometime in the past year" and retailers with older stock may still be selling machines with plastic gear housings. Because of this issue as well as the fact that Cook's Illustrated's most recent testing put the Cuisinart 5-quart SM-55 (*est. $350) slightly ahead of the Professional 600 stand mixer, we've given the Cuisinart SM-55 our nod as the best heavy-duty mixer.

Most of the top-rated stand mixers use a single beater mounted on a rotating disc. Editors at Cook's Illustrated call this "planetary action," and in testing, this proved the most effective way of blending ingredients, since the beater reaches the sides as well as the center of the bowl, gathering ingredients quickly. As a result, there is little need to stop the machine and scrape the sides of the bowl.

Stand mixers with dual beaters tend to earn lower ratings in reviews. The Sunbeam 2349 Heritage Series mixer (*est. $130) uses dual beaters. Though less expensive than others, owner reviews for this Sunbeam mixer aren't as positive for this model as for the budget Hamilton Beach Eclectrics 63221 stand mixer (*est. $175) which uses a single beater. Owner complaints for the Sunbeam mixer include durability problems; some say the dual beaters began hitting each other, while others say the motor gave out after a few months. Several say the Sunbeam mixer looks great, but that it choked on heavier-duty chores like making stiff cookie dough.  ... Continued

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

The Cuisinart SM-55, with modern features and top performance in a recent, top-rated review, tops our list of recommended stand mixers; it's also achieved near-perfect user ratings so far. Although the KitchenAid Professional 600 was top-rated in previous reviews, new tests show it lags during heavy dough kneading, and numerous consumer complaints about failure cast some shadows on KitchenAid's previously sparkling reputation. The Hamilton Beach Eclectrics 63221 is a solid contender according to reviews, although experts say it's not ideal for heavy bread dough. Still, it costs about half as much as the Cuisinart stand mixer. The Wolfgang Puck mixer is a runner-up at Cook's Illustrated; it was good at the basics, but labored with heavy yeast-bread dough.

We found good reviews for several hand mixers, though some were discontinued. We chose the KitchenAid KHM7T for ConsumerSearch Fast Answers, although several other KitchenAid hand mixers also earned high rankings. The Braun MultiMix is a budget alternative that also gets the job done.