Breville 5 quart stand mixer Model no. BEM800XL
Pros: Sleek, stylish, sturdy, and powerful.
Cons: Lacks lots of attachments, but not necessarily a con. Read.
I have owned, researched and tried out MANY different mixers looking for one I can be happy with for MY needs which may be what you need to help you assist you finding a mixer for your needs.
In this I will compare the Breville BEM800XL to a well known mixer the KitchenAid KSM75 Classic.
The Breville 5 quart stand mixer has a very powerful motor 550 watt motor, the KitchenAid has 325 watts. The KitchenAid has 10 speeds controlled with leaver the Breville has 12 speeds controlled with a dial with a led bar and a very nice back lit timer which can count up and if you want and set a count down time for automatic shutoff when kneading for a set time. The Breville has several hand hold spots allowing easy movement, the KitchenAid doesn't. The Breville is lighter, only 19lbs vs the 27lbs KitchenAid. The Breville also has a handy area to push the cord into the KitchenAid doesn't. The Breville wall plug is rather unique as well, with a hole in the center of the plug allowing easy plugging and unplugging. The Breville comes with a scraper beater which allows the bowl to be mixed and scraped at the same time. The Breville is much quieter than the KitchenAid. The main dislike I have with the KitchenAid is the mixers do not have the ability to lock the head in the up position, the Breville does lock it's head in the up position and is controlled with easy access button on top. Unless you have the pro KitchenAid model, it doesn't tilt, but it can be a PTIA to get the bowl out. Since the tilt lock mechanism absent on the KitchenAid it allows the head to slam back town if bumped and if your hand is in the wrong area it can really hurt when it does, believe me I know.
The before mentioned con is that KitchenAid does have the ability to use attachments, the Breville only has one that I know of, an ice cream making bowl and paddle.
Attachments can be handy for most, not for me though, attachments mean I cannot use my mixer for other things while using the attachment, such as making more pasta dough while using the pasta attachment. This is the deciding point for most customers and shouldn't be considered a pro or con. It really depends on how much you use your kitchen mixer. If you are like me and a home cook and/or food enthusiast and you've seen the bottom of a can of baking soda before it expires and never had to wipe dust from your mixer, you'll probably come to the same conclusion: Attachments can be more of a burden rather than the helpful gadgets they were intended. When that time comes you'll buy a dedicated device to do the job, which often handles more and does a better job than the said attachment ever could do, and you can use it while the mixer while doing other work. If however you buy baking soda by the 25lb box, you won't be reading this anyways.
