There's no doubt that this unit is the very top-of-the-line, the Cadillac of mixers. I own the colbalt blue model, which was a birthday gift from my wife. (Actually, I would have selected a different color but I wasn't about to complain!)
Before you buy one, do you have a place to put it? Mine resides on top of the refrigerator in my small galley-type kitchen. If you have limited counter space, it eats up quite a bit of room if you plan to keep it there. It won't set on top of your microwave oven unless you have a big commercial unit -- it's simply too heavy and might cause problems with the microwave. If it's stored in any spot not protected from dust, then you'll need to buy a cover for it right away. These are available as an accessory but my mother-in-law made one for me and it works great.
I cook from scratch mostly about five out of seven days, I'm retired and my wife still works full-time. She likes to cook (and bake) on weekends. I use the KitchenAid about once every two weeks and my wife uses it with about the same frequency. If she's just doing a little job, she grabs her older hand-held electric blender with the pop-off beaters and that way she doesn't have to get the small stepladder and wield the HEAVY KitchenAid from the top of the fridge. We pretty much reserve it for bigger jobs.
If there's going to be several batches of cookies made or bread dough whipped up, then it's for certain a KitchenAid job. I also make bulk amounts of Italian salad dressing with the Kitchenaid which has to emulsify over a 20-30 minute period -- with the KitchenAid, this is a hands-off process, easy.
I also use a meat grinder attachment for making up four-pound batches of ham salad spread. This attachment is an extra 50 bucks but well-worth it. My brother uses this same attachment plus one other unit to make home-made Italian link sausage and it's well up to that job too.
The KitchenAid is a breeze to clean, with no difficult hideaway places to have to dig dough out of. The dough hook, blender, and whip are just dropped into the dish water and they clean right up, very easy.
This unit will do a great deal more than I'm using it for. Any KitchenAid Mixer will last for years and years, a lifetime I'd say.
So, to finalize, I give the KitchenAid Mixer my highest recommendation:
1. ...so long as you can afford it along with any additional necessary attachments, and,
2. ...so long as you have a convenient place to store it.Get more detail about
KitchenAid KSM150PSER Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer, Empire Red.
