Do Not Buy a New Stand Mixer Yet
Every home baker needs a mixer and often goes on sale in time for a holiday gift. If you intend to buy it for yourself or someone you love this year, don’t default to the cheapest Kitchenaid on Amazon. Depending on your needs, a vintage mixer might be the best choice.
Anyone lucky enough to own a 1960s or 1970s mixer will tell you how good it is. I am one of them. My mixer is a Kitchenaid K45, passed down from my great-grandmother to my mom and then to me. Over the past 50 years, he has produced countless batches of cakes, cookies, meringues and breads. I even used it to craft a bagel recipe – a notoriously difficult task even for commercial mixers – and it’s still abuzz.
However, let’s be clear: whatever the grumpy posters on baking forums say, the new Kitchenaids aren’t cheap plastic junk just because they’re no longer made in the US by legendary commercial equipment manufacturer Hobart. (We all know what this code is for.) These are fantastic devices that, when used correctly, will last for decades. Choosing a mixer that does everything you need is a daunting task.
The downside of the new generation of stand mixers is not their design, but how many heck there are to choose from . Each Kitchenaid line is designed to meet different needs and, more importantly, different batch sizes. This is far from a universal situation and you get what you pay for. The entry-level 5-liter Kitchenaid (which costs $ 200 on sale but closer to $ 400 at full price) handles light tasks like a champion. Ask him to mix a lot of cake dough or knead bread dough and you’ll feel bad. Powerful, larger capacity mixers are designed to handle heavier loads, but at $ 500 to $ 700 they are much more expensive.
In contrast, you can find a vintage Kitchenaid made in Hobart on eBay for $ 150-200 including shipping. If you can manage to get one on Craigslist or a real estate sale, they cost even less. Aside from price, the biggest advantage of vintage mixers is that they are literally scaled down to the size of commercial equipment to fit on the counter, because that’s what Hobart makes. You don’t have to worry too much about what they can and cannot handle; if everything stays in the bowl with the engine running, you’re done.
Finally, remember that there is no such thing as a “good” stand mixer or “bad” – only one that is right for the job. If your baked goods are mostly cakes, frostings, and other fluffy pastries, you may prefer the convenience of a new mixer. But as for the aspiring bread and pizza wizards, trust me: they don’t make them the way they used to. Finding a vintage mixer in good condition can take a while, but it’s definitely worth it.