Electric hand mixers?

[Heather]

I love to cook and bake! I'm looking into investing in an electric mixer. My dream is a stand-up (my MIL has a kitchen aide mixer in red that I like to drool over) but I don't really have the counter space. Does anyone have any advice? I've been looking at them on eBay....some have "low medium high" speed indicators and others have 10 speeds with labels. What is the ideal? What should I look for?


P.S. Feel free to move this if I put it in the wrong section!

 

[Professor]

You could always get a Mixmaster, and use it as a handheld since it easily detaches from the base to do so.

 

[virgi]

I wouldn't bother with an egg beater, they don't do anything to really mix the batter. I raked up points from capital one credit card, and then applied the points to purchasing a macy's gift card, which I used to buy a kitchenaid mixer. If you don't want to do that, you can find a kitchenaid at a good price on craigslist

 

[Gregg Axley]

Kitchenaid would be my advice too.
No I never bought one, I never wanted to do cakes!
My sister has one, and it's the same one she's had since the mid 80's.
Believe me if you could wear one out, she'd have done it a long time ago with bread, cookies for both kids class activities (both are in their 20's now), etc.
Well worth the money.
Although this should be from the Golden Era as that's the heading.
Not sure if they had Kitchenaid back then or not.

 

[Heather]

I like the idea of that Mixmaster!

 

[dhermann1]

Several years ago I was thinking of buying a stand mixer (never did, however). What I found was the DeLonghi. DeLonghi bought out a revered British brand, Kenwood, and relabeled it. Kenwood users wax even more rhapsodic about their mixers than KitchenAid owners do, or at least equally so. User comments indicate there was service issues in the first couple of years following the buy out. I have no experience with either, but I just thought I'd put these 2 cents in.
As far as hand mixers are concerned, I'd start with Epinions. I wound up getting an inexpensive Cuisinart 5 speed. I think the main thing to look at is the wattage of the motor. As far as speeds is concerned, I think 3 speed is the most you'll need for most purposes. One nice thing to add is an attachment for milk shakes.

 

[1930artdeco]

My stand mixer is from the 40/50's and I use it to make cakes all of the time. The old ones are great for a couple of reason:
1) They look cool
2) They are built like battleships-and weigh as much
3) You can get them repaired instead of throwing them out.

Mike

p.s. I got mine from an antique store for something like $40 and it came complete.

 

[fortworthgal]

I have a Kitchenaid stand mixer (about 11 years old) as well as a Kitchenaid hand mixer (about 2 years old). They're both work horses! As far as the hand mixer goes, I believe mine has 7 speeds. Prior to that I had an Oster hand mixer that was the cheapest, bottom-of-the-line version available, and it ran for close to 15 years. It was still running just fine when I gave it away and got my Kitchenaid! Frankly I don't think more speeds equals a better mixer, I'd look more for construction and consumer reviews if you're buying new.