Cuisinart vs. Kitchenaid stand mixers

[Anneke]

I know there's been some discussion about this, but nothing conclusive. If you've had experience with both, I'd love to hear from you.

I'm looking at a Kitchenaid, 425 w or more, 5 qt, budget is a consideration, preferably an all-metal construct.

Would like to know how it compares to the Cuisinart 5 qt, 800w (is the power difference as dramatic as it sounds?).

This is for a household, some breadmaking, may like to get attachments eventually.

Thanks for your input!

[robeezee3]

I own the pre-cursor to the Cuisinart (the DeLonghi 7 Qt), as well as a few KitchenAids and a genuine Hobart 5 Qt N-50. Hobart originally made the 4.5 and 5 quart mixers, but sold its KitchenAid division to Whirlpool about 20 years ago, and Whirlpool has been making modifications ever since - some good and some not so good.

You also may want to keep in mind that the current Cuisinart line started out life as the Kenwood brand mixer (originally sold in UK), was then sold in the US under the Rival brand for a while, then under the Delonghi brand, and now, with a very modest redesign (more plastic) the Cuisinart brand. DeLonghi was responsible for ramping up the wattage of the mixer to 800 watts for the 5 qt. and a Frankensteinian 1000 watts for the 7 quart model - all as an advertising gimmic. While the lights do temporararily dim when I turn on my 1000 watt mixer (as in a vintage prison movie), this is because of its wasteful draw of electricity, and not because it is delivering more power at the beater, as you will see in my explanation below. Reviews have not been stellar for the Cuisinart - for either sized model. Depending upon how well this unit sells for Cuisinart, you may find it popping up under yet another brand name, with or without slight modifications, or it may just go away, leaving you scrounging for accessories (those that are available now are few and far between) and repair parts as well. So, this is not a mixer for the person to whom it is important for the brand to persist for years to come.

KitchenAid began putting plastic gearbox covers (the housing that holds the gears together and keeps them properly meshed as they turn) in their mixers some years ago, which has lead to durability problems and millions of complaints about them. KitchenAid has promised to revert to a metal gearbox cover in future, but I find it very difficult to trust a company that has cheapened an appliance advertised and sold as being of "heirloom" quality and durability. KitchenAid has "retaliated" by flooding the consumer market with a confusing array of mixers (in 1985, they had two models, the 4.5 qt head lift up and the 5 qt crank up). From making a few simple models well, they now have opted to make many models poorly, or so it seems.

Either brand should be fine for the non-breadmaker who does light chores like whipping cream (high speed but low torque requirements). However, if one makes bread, one will find the Cuisinart skipping all over the counter (it is light), versus finding the KitchenAid's gears stripped after comparatively few uses. Its not a pretty mixing landscape for home bakers unless one is willing to shell out the money for the Hobart N-50, which is the granddaddy of them all, and has only 3 speeds. (The Viking mixer has also fallen into disrepute due to reliability problems, and so fails to offer any relief on the reliability front).

My suggestion would be to phone KitchenAid and inquire if they have gotten around to correcting the gearbox cover problem of the past few years. The rep will invariably tell you that their mixers are made with all steel gears, but this is not the issue - if the gearbox cover cracks from the heat, those steel gears misalign and basically self-destruct, leaving you with pieces of steel gears inside your machine after you've heard some terribly expensive-sounding gnashing. The question is "what is the gearbox cover made of - plastic, or metal"? If KitchenAid can assure you that it has returned to the use of a metal gearbox cover, I would go for the KitchenAid. Also, with KitchenAid, you'll always be assured of an adequate variety of accessories because the brand is unlikely to go away.

Regarding your inquiry about wattage, wattage has NO correlation with power. Wattage is the measurement of how much power the mixer motor consumes. And the notion that the more watttage one feeds into a motor, the more power it will put out out is completely false. A poor quality motor that is inefficient will consume lots of electricity (wattage), but not give it back to the user in the form of task power. For example, my industrial Hobart N-5 purrs along with a tremendous amount of task power, all the time using only 300 watts of power. My Delonghi (1000 watts) generates more heat and noise, but is the less powerful of the two, though each is adequate for light chores. Much of my pleasure in cooking comes from using appliances and implements that are finely and adequately engineered, as opposed to being on the ragged edge of their engineering, ready, in this case, at the sight of heavy cookie dough, to require a trip to the repair shop, requisite with all the awfully annoying and time consuming phone conversations with reps to get the thing fixed.....Which is why I bought the Hobart N-50 and abide by its 3 speed limitation and high (~$1000) price tag.

Hope this helps.
Bob

[Anneke]

Thank you Bob for being so thorough and insightful. Unfortunately, the Cuisinart was purchased. Haven 't heard any reviews yet from the giftee but so far they 'love the look of it'. I don't think they'll be using it that often and we got an extremely good deal on it. I wasn't thrilled about forking out big money for a 'cheap' Kitchenaid with plastic parts, but I did have my suspicions about the wattage on the Cuisinart, which you confirmed. I guess time will tell. Thanks again for the great review.

[robeezee3]

Well, the Cuisinart IS a very good-looking mixer, and happily, Cuisinart has wisely refrained from modifying the excellent tool design of the original Kenwood (the wire whip is the best design out there).

Good luck and keep us posted on how your friends fare with it. I would be delighted to hear that its performance has pleased its recipient.
Bob

[foodpump]

Hold on there, as many have said, do not get fooled by the "wattage", this is no indication of the "guts" of the machine, only how much power it draws, not puts out. There are many kinds of "Kitchenaids". The one I use, and have been using for many years is the 5 qt "professional series", mdl # k5ss. Used on daily in a commercial kitchen for almost 8 years without problems until it "dissapeared" one day (coincidenatlly when one of my employees left too), so I replaced it with the same model (k5ss) which I bought at Costco: Lift-up bowl and a choice of only 3 colours, I think. 4 yrs old and still going strong on a daily basis in a professional kitchen.

Keep in mind that bread dough is hard on many mixers. Even the 20 qt commercial Hobarts are sold with the explicit warning that if used for pizza or bagel dough Hobart will refuse any warranty work.

[RouxTheDay]

Bob, I think you may have gotten some of your brands muddled. FWIW, the Cuisinart brand started out as just that. The company was acquired by Conair about 20 years ago, and is still a division of that company.

Kenwood, a UK manufacturer, joined the deLonghi group a few years back. DeLonghi still makes and sells stand mixers and other appliances under the deLonghi name. I just purchased the deLonghi 5-qt stand mixer.

All the points about wattage are correct. Torque is what counts, and good luck finding that information. The best you can usually do is evaluate each model based on the pounds of flour it's rated to handle without overworking the motor.

My main reasons for choosing deLonghi were (1) it has a 10-yr motor warranty (2) it's made of metal (3) numerous user complaints about the plastic gearbox in the KitchenAid and (4) my own expensive and ongoing performance and reliability experiences with the five, nearly-new KitchenAid appliances in my kitchen.

I know you've already made the purchase, Anneke, but if you'll find it at all reassuring, Cuisinart has worked to significantly improve its products over the past few years, and they are almost always well-rated overall. The biggest risk probably lies in the fact that the machine is fairly lightweight, and that Cuisinart has only been in the stand mixer business for about a year, so the product is not yet proven.

[robeezee3]

Dear Roux,

I don't believe I've gotten my information confused. While DeLonghi may still be selling its mixers, the identical mixers appeared in the marketplace a few years back sporting the Rival logo. Identical in key features that are telling.

I am not claiming to know whether the changes in product monikers through time was the result of mergers, a line buyout, etc, but the acquisition of Cuisinart by Conair is an irrelevant aside. While Rival sold the Kenwood mixer, the typical "K" was obvious on the flat beater. When the brand was passed on to Delonghi, the first models sold bore the "K" on the flat beater, and was later revised so that it would not be so obvious that this was a former Kenwood product.

Now that Cuisinart has made a few changes to the same product handled by Delonghi (witness the SAME 7 qt bowl that twists on to the base in the same manner, the identical gearbox, with outlets on the same parts of the machine body - these outlets accept the same accessories as did the Kenwood, Rival and Delonghi), the same whip with plastic bib, and the identical way that the machines fasten their tools to the hub - not similar, mind you, but the same). Minor changes have taken place. For example, when Kenwood and Rival owned the brand, there was a manually resettable overload/overheat fuse that could be accessed on the body of the machine when the head was in the far back position. Once Delonghi put its imprimateur on the mixer, the accessible, resettable fuse disappeared inside the mixer (in which case, if the mixer overheats, one needs to wait for the thermal overload to reset itself). Cuisinart appears not to have done much fiddling, and has left the overload switch inside the mixer, an unfortunate choice.

Of course, I agree with you on wattage, and its being a red herring as far as providing information on how much power the machine has - in fact, all the issues you raised about reliability drove me to purchase the original Hobart machine, which, I thought, was the equivalent of purchasing a 20 year old KitchenAid.
Bob