5 Best Stand Mixers

Using an electric mixer is helpful when you are cooking and baking regularly. You won’t get as much of an arm workout but the production time is quicker, and your cakes and preparations will be lighter and fluffier. Hand mixers are great kitchen helpers, but stand mixers make the job hands free and do the necessary while you can organise the rest of the recipe. Many have optional attachments for spiralizing, grinding, pasta making, and much more.

Like most kitchen appliances, a good stand mixer is an investment and there are a few things to consider before buying. This overview will answer all your questions.

Overview of best stand mixers

• Best professional – KitchenAid KP26M1XIC Professional 600 Stand Mixers, 6 quart
• Best Compact – KitchenAid Artisan Mini 3.5-Quart Stand Mixer
• Best design: Smeg 1950’s Retro Style Aesthetic Stand Mixer
• Best value – Hamilton Beach Electric Stand Mixer
• Best budget – Dash Stand Mixer

Things to consider before buying a stand mixer

Design

Stand mixers are usually placed where everyone can see them. Did you hear already of a handy caddy slider tray ? It is helpful to move this heavy tool easily. The design and size should fit your kitchen. It all depends how much counter space you have, how often you will use the machine or how big your family is, but there are models with large mixing bowls and others are more compact. Smeg and KitchenAid are both a great design but there are other options. 

Attachments

Many stand mixers are sold with the basic tools but most have optional attachments and pieces which are sold separately. Extra bowls, spiralizers, grinders, pasta making tools, sifters are only a few of these options.

Price

You can find stand mixers for less than $100, but they might let you down if you are using regularly. Most cheaper models don’t have the power or the additional options to do all the hard work.  The already named popular brands that deliver power, extra tools and design are on the expensive side but you have everything combined.

Review of best available stand mixers

1. Best professional – KitchenAid KP26M1XIC Professional 600 Stand Mixers, 6 quart

KitchenAid comes at the top of culinary kitchen tools. This professional, powerful stand mixer comes with 10 speed settings and can knead without problems up to 3 kilograms of dough in the 6-quart bowl. The bowl-lift design provides support and stability while the mixing bowl has good beater-to-bowl contact. 

Although this series is on the expensive side and doesn’t include timers, automatic shut off buttons etc, it does include a power knead spiral dough hook, a flat beater, and a stainless-steel wire whip. The power hub fits over 10 extra attachments such as a pasta maker, food grinders, spiralizer, ice cream maker and more which are sold separately.

This model is available in 21 colours at the time of review which makes it an easy showpiece on your countertop while matching the colours and styling of your kitchen. This best rated mixer on Amazon is worth the investment for professionals as well as for busy hobby cooks and bakers. 

2. Best Compact – KitchenAid Artisan Mini 3.5-Quart Stand Mixer

This compact stand mixer has the same power as the full-size KitchenAid tilt-head models while being 25% lighter and 20% smaller. The 3.5qt stainless steel bowl can still mix up dough for a loaf of bread or five dozen cookies. Although it is a smaller size, this model has 10+ optional attachments separately available to turn it into a pasta maker, spiralizer or more. It is a great option if you are a small family and only cook or bake smaller batches at one time. There are 9 available colours of this artisan mini model.

3. Best design: Smeg 1950’s Retro Style Aesthetic Stand Mixer

Let’s catapult you back to the 1950’s with this retro style Smeg design. The machine is large but with the bright colours and beautiful design it is a real showpiece.

Besides its good looks, it also has great performance with 10 variable speeds from super gentle to turbo for controlled beating and mixing without splashing or making a mess. The power port connects with plenty of attachments similar to what KitchenAid offers.

A part of the price surely goes into the design but this machine is definitely worth the money as it is easy to use and has the added benefits of being non-stick and dishwasher safe, which is a dream for any home baker, reducing waste and clean-up time. Smeg have also thought about safety with anti-slip feet to keep the unit in place on any surface, an overload protection avoids damage to the motor to ensure a long life, and a safety lock for the head keeps the beaters from falling on you when putting ingredients into the bowl. 

4. Best value – Hamilton Beach Electric Stand Mixer

Thousands of Amazon members reviewed this stand mixer as great value. The 300-watt motor has a similar mixing action as KitchenAid stand mixers. This mixer performs better than 2-beater stand mixers, and features the popular tilt-up head design for adding ingredients and changing attachments quickly. The best part is that it’s sold at a much cheaper price.

There are seven different speeds, including a helpful mixing guide at the mixer’s top that lets you know which speed to use for various mixing methods.

The Hamilton Beach stand mixer has a special feature to keep it in place during use and it comes with a splash guard, dough hook, whisk, and flat beater, ideal for all your baking projects, and its four-quart stainless steel bowl is dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning. This device is available in 4 colours.

5. Best budget – Dash Stand Mixer

Talk about budget and there is no better value than this versatile, compact stand mixer. It’s perfect if you are not baking or cooking daily and it fits tiny kitchens or places with limited countertop space. There are 6 different speed options from low to high to whip, beat or knead but the motor is noisy. 

The machine is easy to operate with a fully tilting motor head that makes removing the mixing bowl and ejecting the beaters or dough hooks easy without making a mess! All non-electric parts are dishwasher safe. 

Included in this cheap price is a 1-year manufacturer warranty, a 3qt stainless steel mixing bowl, 2 dough hooks, 2 mixer beaters, a recipe book and recipe database access.