Kitchen Aid Mixers - what's a good price?

[danielocha30]

I got the white Classic for $170 at Brandsmart a couple of years ago, but Macy's sometimes have them around $130 on the least popular colors

 

[afan]

If you shop Target always check the endcaps for clearance KitchenAid stuff. I've seen mixers there for up to half off, though it seems they generally go at 30%. It's not just the lower end one's either but one's that are originally over $400. Last night I saw two food processors at 70% off and they also had a nice ceramic bowl for the mixer on clearance. You you would need to know the minimum type of mixer you want but if you are going to wait until the fall for better sales I would keep an eye out because you may find one better than you planned for a good price. They are sometimes online order returns and not always in the kitchen area, especially if they don't have as many clearance endcaps. I've seen them in the office supply area and the homegoods area.

 

[MSLRAC]

I got my 5 qt professional from Target during their Christmas in a July sale a couple of years ago. It was regularly $259.99 and I got it for $179.99 with an extra 5% off for using my red card and free shipping.

 

[LovesTimone]

One of the nice things about KitchenAid is, the old machines will support the new attachments. I was watching a demo on their spiralizer on HSN/QVC the other day, and they said it would work if you had a mixer from 1912 or 1918, whenever they first started making them. So, even if you have Grandma's ancient mixer, you can still use the new, fancy-scmancy pasta maker, ice cream maker, spiralizer, and so forth.

I did not realize this, another thing to add to my list to research. Thanks for the tip. I am looking into the pasta maker, but the spiralizer might be fun too.

 

[Bell30012]

I got my Kitchen Aid mixer for $30 at a pawn shop. I don't think that it had been used more than once or twice.

 

[java]

My motor is fried on mine thanks to a very thick dough I was making. I heard the grinding but didn't get there in time to save it.
But now I get to find one I want. I got mine as a very generous gift 25 years ago but it wasn't my color choice.

I need obviously strong motor, bowl lift and cute color.
I saw one at Costco but don't think it's strong enough for my needs

 

[Zhoen]

I can't say much about modern pricing, as I've had mine for 10-ish years now, but I wanted to say that I have the "Artisan" model, bought it refurbished from the company for what was a good (not amazing, but good) price back in the day, and the bowl and motor on that have worked great for dough. I used to burn out at least one hand mixer each winter making my gingerbread houses, so I finally bought the kitchenaid and it is great for that. We're talking a serious amount of seriously thick cookie dough. (I also have the grinder attachment-- SO worth it. Buy lean roasts on sale and grind your own 93% lean hamburger/ make ground turkey in November when it's cheap and it will pay for itself in no time!)

 

[anita46]

Go with the Pro series...especially if using it for bread making.
In the smaller quart styles they use plastic gears but the Pro styles use primarily SS gears...makes huge difference in machine life.

I also like the Bosch for bread making...super strong motor...just a pain getting the dough out of the bowl.

Edited to change bearings to gears....

 

[crisi]

I use mine a lot (its now 30 years old), and I bake a lot of bread, but I don't use my kitchenaid to bake bread. Bread is something I want my hands in. So don't think you need a high end model to make bread - you can do that without a mixer at all. I agree you should decide what you want to do with it - mine gets used mostly for cakes/cookies/frosting or beating whipped cream or egg whites - none of which takes a heavy duty motor (though mine is). However, if you think you'll be baking in huge quantities or doing bread, buy a better model on day one.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I got the basic white one from Wal-Mart. I've had it about 15 years. I don't do a lot of breads and things that could tax the motor though.