Question about Kitchen Aid stand mixers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you trying to put the bowl and beater on without lowering the support arms first? I've been using a bowl lift KA since the 80s and can't fathom what's remotely difficult about the design.

What do you mean by support arms? what seems wrong to me is that even with the bowl lowered you can't put the beaters on after the bowl and there's not much room to add ingredients once it's on.

Yes, even with the bowl lowered, you still need to drop the beaters into the bowl and then take the bowl off. It's a bit awkward.

There's enough room to add ingredients in, whether the bowl is up or down, but it is pretty tight. There are many people who prefer the Artisan series with the tilt head for those reasons. Maybe hint to DH for next Christmas.

[Anonymous]

Put the bowl cover on. It reduces mess and there is a chute to add ingredients if you find it difficult.

But seriously...I bake a ton and have zero issues. Am trying to envision the problem here.

[Anonymous]

I regularly use both the tilt-head model (at my parents' house) and the bowl-lift model (at my house). There are advantages to each.

To answer the OP directly: There should be a handle on the right side. Rotate it to move the bowl up or down. The head stays fixed in place.

I find the tilt-head model to be slightly easier to get the beater in and out. With the bowl-lift model, I lower the bowl, detach the beater, lower it slightly into the bowl, then remove it (reverse for attaching it). It's much easier to attach/remove the bowl when the beater is NOT attached - when I'm done mixing, I detach the beater, remove the bowl and beater together, then use a spatula to scrape the beater clean.

However, the bowl-lift model is definitely more sturdy. The tilt-head model does rattle around a bit, especially when mixing something stiff like cookie dough (it's fine for whisking egg whites or whipped cream).

[Anonymous]

I wonder if newer models have worse design. I've used a classic 80s KA and two early-2000s models, all bowl-lifts, and all had straight-sided bowls. The 80s one was 4.5qt, the newer ones were both 6qt. I noticed that some of the current bowl-lift models have a flared top to the bowl and a 7qt capacity - so I wonder if maybe the changes in shape and size were not well thought out in terms of inserting/removing the beater/whisk/hook.