Kenmore Elite  6 Qt. Bowl Lift Stand Mixer, 600 watts

Received my mixer one week before Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and overall appearance. Easy cleanup, especially the attachments which are smooth white enamel. Have used it for everything from making cheese cakes, cookies, meatloaf and of course cakes and whipping egg whites. After my 5th or 6th time using it I was creaming butter eggs and sugar and it 'jerked' very hard during the process and then made a strange noise. I stopped it, turned it back on and continued on. Several times while mixing my cookie batter it made the strange noise but otherwise worked fine. I also noticed that there is now excessive play at the spindle. At first I thought I had not noticed it before but now know by the other review this is not just happening with my mixer. While doing cleanup I noticed my beater attachment now has a chip of the enamel paint missing which apparently happended when it jerked during the creaming process. There are no dents or scraps in the bowl so I cannot figure out what caused it. I have also gone to Sears.com and Kenmore.com looking for attachments for this mixer and have not found any information what so ever. Also, the online description is incomplete. I was pleasantly surprised to see the white enamel coated attachments and the second mixer bowl. This was not part of the description. Overall I definitely have and will recommend this mixer because of the warranty and the reputation I have experienced with Kenmore Elite products and how Sears has always stood behind their warranties.

As a once professional baker with over 5 years experience in 2 small shops and also for a university campus, I've used "real" mixers quite a lot.  Hobart has the market on those and they are solid, tanklike machines that last forever.  The ubiquitous K. Aid mixers sold by Sears as well seem to be the product of choice by many folks, but they simply haven't updated the design to reflect improvements in the mixer area.  The Kenmore elite bowl-lift fit and finish looks fabulous (mine is white), and I don't know, honestly, if it's innards are as well made as its outards.  I've used it four times now, with good results.  I made a pizza dough, enough for 4 pizzas, (8 C. flour) and it didn't struggle at all.  I used the hook from the beginning, but it didn't incorporate all the ingredients for some time.  It may be easier to use a paddle to incorporate, then use the hook for the kneading.  It did, however finally mix everything using only the hook, and rising the dough smoothed out everything nicely.  I also made banana bread, cookies, and banana bread again..... all without any issues.

There's a thing or two that give me some pause, though.  One, the spindle that you attach the 3 mixer attachment options has too much play.  You can hold it and move it freely about 1/8" back and forth in all directions.  It hasn't apparently affected the mixing ability; the paddle doesn't scrape, nor the dough hook (haven't yet used the whip).  The other thing is that strange noises can be heard that don't sound right from the drivetrain I suppose.  Again, no problem discerned when the unusual noises happen, but why??  To test the drivetrain I ran it for multiple periods of fifteen minutes with the bowl 2/3 full of water, using the whip, and then the paddle, to see if a light load used for a long time had any effects.  The weird noises occasionally could be heard, and after several minutes the overall sound became louder, but there was no real problems with it.  Overall I ran it for 45 minutes without a break.  The cover over the motor/drivetrain was never anything but "cool" to the touch running it for extended periods, which I think is good.

The good features are: 1- the instant on/off "pause" button, which maintains speed when restarted is nice.  Lets you scrape down then simply touch again to return to mixing at last set speed.  2-The pulse feature is also nice for very slow incorporating of ingredients.  3-The LED light shining into the bowl is also a nice touch.  4-There's a convenient digital timer you can set to let it run and walk away, and it stops automatically. 5-The silicone "feet" absorb vibration and prevent any walking during heavy mixing.  During the dough mix,  there was no walking at all.

One negative is the printed info online that attachments are available at Kenmore.com.....simply isn't so......there are no attachments available there at all.  I understand that K.Aid attachments may work with this unit.  It does seem to have the same drive port found in a K. Aid product.  But that's not the point, is it?

So, all in all, it seems to be nicely designed, with adequate power, but with excessive play at the spindle where attachments are made, but that doesn't seem to affect performance.  It worked well with bread dough and your average cookie & banana bread recipes.  Since it has a 5 year limited replacement warranty clearly expressed, I suppose there's some assurance that exists there as well.