i wonder why some of the chrome detailing was flaking off prior to my using it, and it was supposed to be a new item. no regrets though. overall this mixer is a great stand mixer, especially for its price. the artisian mixer saves me a lot of time, and saves my wrists a lot of pain, especially for kneading yeast breads. Plus really wet doughs like ciabata are made simple with this beauty.
if you're on the fence, trying to decide whether or not to buy a stand mixer at all, i highly recommend a kitchen aid stand mixer for your home (or business). These mixers are used by so many people, to the point that several baking cook book authors use these as their mixing units when testing recipes (apart from hobart, but those products are in an astronomically different price range; or, to a lesser degree, viking is used, but still, quite a bit more expensive, including accessories, replacement parts, service, etc.). repeatedly i read that people claim they have been using their kitchen aid for years (often 10 years). having some of the same equipment as so many baking book authors can only be a good thing for the end results of your baked goods. a lot of restaraunts use these models for their smaller batch products (like a couple of cakes, whereas they usually have a large hobart for giant batches of cookies and bread). plus there are so many wonderful attachments available (especially the pasta making attachments look wonderfully enticing), it really leaves a lot of other companies far behind.
aside from the flaking chrome, my only major gripes are that the tilt-head models, such as the artisian, are not presently equipped to use a water jacket (a jacket, or bowl, that the mixing bowl rests in, which can be filled with ice, ice water, hot water, etc., depending on what you are working on). If i had known this in advance, i probably would have ordered one of the bowl-raised type of models which do have a water jacket available to buy for them. i recommend that you look into this as a featurewhen weighing your options as to what model to order. I think the little extra money for the KitchenAid K5SSWH Heavy Duty 5-Quart Mixer, for instance, might be money well spent.
Also, the planetary motion of the beater head is much better than the conventional old spinning bowl style, but you still have to get in and scrape down the sides.Get more detail about KitchenAid KSM150PSER Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer, Empire Red.
