KitchenAid® Professional 600™ Series 6-Quart Bowl Lift Stand Mixer

Author's Rating:

Pros: One of the things that impressed me about the mixer was the all-metal construction.

Cons: The weight but dealing with the weight is worth the all-metal construction.

The Bottom Line: 
Will worth purchasing because of the ease of use comparing to using a hand mixer or kneading bread for fifteen minutes. Very useful as all-purpose tool with attachments.

Author's Review
One thing I had always wanted was a KitchenAid Mixer. My mother had a Sunbeam Hand/Stand meaning it could be used as a stand mixer or a hand mixer. I saw no use especially as the hand mixer was too heavy. As a stand mixer, the capacity was limited. Her second mixer was the KitchenAid Artisan Series Mixer. It was great but I preferred something bigger than a five-quart bowl size.

She is a culinary wizard in the kitchen. I am will I guess to the higher end of good. Using my mothers two mixers over the years gave me the ability to choose what I wanted.

My husband George and I were shopping for each others Christmas presents this previous Christmas. As it tuned out we both ended up buying each other one of those I always wanted gifts. I bought him a flat panel 19-inch monitor. He bought me just about every thing a person could want in the kitchen. The biggest surprise was the KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Bowl Lift Stand Mixer. The five to six quart bowl size difference was just enough for my personal needs. I love to make bread. I also like to double and triple recipes using some now and freezing for later. I don’t always have time to spend a great deal of time in the kitchen.

One of the things that impressed me about the mixer was the all-metal construction making for a very durable product. The negative factor of the all-metal construction is the weight. It weighs approximately 29.5 pounds and of course, the weight is not distributed evenly making it even harder to handle the solution to the weight problem was finding a place on the counter and leaving it right there.

The KitchenAid mixer came with a variety of attachments, a wire whip, flat beater, dough hook, and a pouring chute. The pouring chute minimizes ingredients from splashing all over and eases adding recipe components. The flat beater is for mashed potatoes, pie pastry, cookies, cakes, cream frostings, and other comparable consistencies. The wire whip is used to incorporate air in to the mixture such as egg whites, whipping cream, angel food cakes, and mayonnaise. I still prefer homemade mayonnaise to store bought as long as it is used promptly. The dough hook is used exactly as it is named for making yeast dough. I no longer need to knead for 10 to 15 minutes. My KitchenAid is 525 watts if I had waited just a short while I could have had 575 watts in the Professional 600 Series. That is full 14 cups of flour power. However, I can honestly say I have never needed more than the 525 watts.

In addition, several very useful attachments may be purchased, a few examples, food grinder, fruit/vegetable strainer, sausage stuffer, grain mill, can opener, pasta roller, pasta maker, citrus juicer and a rotor slicer and shredder. KitchenAid also offers a multi-functional attachment package including the slicer/shredder, food grinder, and fruit/vegetable strainer.

It pretty much eliminates many kitchen appliances using just the KitchenAid. In fact, the attachments seem to work better than actual full size appliances. For example, my pasta machine ended up a garage sale item because the Pasta Maker attachment works just as well if not better. The Pasta Maker was $84.00 far less expensive many models at least models that function properly. The pasta maker comes with five interchangeable pasta plates and includes the food grinder. Addition stainless bowls and be purchased for $59.00. Mixer covers for 29.99 in a variety of colors. All these additional pieces can be bought from KitchenAid.

It is actually necessary to read the instruction and recipe manual. Learning the best speeds for different ingredients is essential because you want your recipe to turn out correctly and you don't want to burn out the machine. It mixes faster and more thoroughly so use recommended speeds to avoid over beating. Out of ten speeds starting with a soft start go with stir and then increase to the recommended setting. For example egg whites, which is where I started, using the wire whip, gradually move up to speed eight. It is very easy to over whip egg whites. It takes just moments to get to stiff but not dry.

Adding the attachments are easy just be sure to turn off the machine. The attachments that came with the machine hook to a pin on a shaft. Raising and lowering the bowl is also simple. The bowl supports itself over locating pins. Press until the bowl snaps into position. To raise the bowl rotate the handle to the straight up position. To lower, the bowl rotate the handle back down. The up position is used for mixing. Remove the bowl with the handle in the down position; remove the attachment before removing the bowl. At first, it was a little confusing but after just one run through it was really quite simple.

We purchased the KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Bowl Lift Stand Mixer at Bed Bath and Beyond. It was at the upper end of prices shown on Epinions. It was an impulse buy but that is not an excuse to not check Epinions first. Price ranges shown on Epinions are $210-$370 George paid around $340. We were already at Best Buy and Bed Bath and Beyond is a few doors down. I had planned on stopping in for a new turkey platter since mine had been dropped over Thanksgiving.

The warranty is impressive though I have never had to use the full year warranty, from friends I know that KitchenAid stands behind their warranty. KitchenAid will deliver to your door free of charge a comparable replacement, meaning if they no longer carry the older model you own you will get the newer replacement. They will arrange to have the old one returned. The new mixer will be under another full year warranty.

The primary reason I wanted the KitchenAid was my spine problem it is very hard for me to stand more than a couple of minutes. I was no longer able to knead bread, make cookies, or any of the tasks that my KitchenAid will do for me. Thankfully, I can now enjoy my kitchen once again.