Most helpful client reviews
195 of 196 humans found the following review helpful.
One-year Update: So far, so good!
By S. Depenning
I just purchased this mixer after reviewing Amazon remarks and other Web sites. Amazon users give the Cuisinart mixed reviews, but assorted other sites, such as Cooks.com give it very high marks — equivalent to or better than the KitchenAid. It came down to this mixer or a KitchenAid. I decisive to buy the Cuisinart, based on the 3-year warranty. One use tells me the mixer has the power I need. It feels and looks introductory rate, and the beaters do a outstanding job. I agree with everything the initial reviewer said in his magnificent review, except I don’t think the beater release is all that flimsy, unless you are attempting to jam attachements in that aren’t made for the unit. I’d be reluctant to use other brand dough hooks or affixations as he suggested. The ones I have from a former mixer are not only more spectacular on the tips (he filed those down) but are also a bit thicker on the shafts. I think you’re asking for trouble if you undertake to strength other units’ affixations into this mixer. I rate it four stars because Cuisinart doesn’t even make dough hooks for this model — then again, I’ve never found dough hooks to be very utile on a hand mixer. Oh yeah, I got this baby at “Bad Breath and Beyond” for $49 after I applied the 20% coupon. But mine is ALL CHROME top to bottom — it looks and feels altogether awesome! I’ll try to upate this review after I’ve employed the mixer a while longer.
ONE YEAR UPDATE:
The mixer proceeds to carry out as expected. I primarily use it for cookie dough, cake mixes, and mashed potatoes. It slugs through them precisely as I’d want. The “soft” commence is actually a nice feature as it keeps things from flying all over the kitchen when the beaters get started up. I think I saw the price had come down $10 at Bed Bath and Beyond, making the mixer an even better value.
239 of 248 people found the following review helpful.
Great power for a handheld mixer
By D. Dang
I was in the market for a new hand kept mixer after the KitchenAid that I got for Christmas a couple of years back passed from physical life an ignominious death while making a simple batch of chocolate chip cookies. I have a twenty year old, Heavy Duty, 325 watt KitchenAid stand mixer that has never let me down and I expected better from their hand kept mixer. I could go on, but that’s another story.
I had my search narrowed down to this seven speed Cuisinart and the Dualit (made in England) hand mixers and decisive to go with the Cuisinart partly because it was lower in cost and partly because I was affrighted that I wouldn’t be competent to get constituents or fix help for the Dualit in case it ever necessitated it. Cuisinart is a major provider of kitchen electrics in the USA and service centers are almost everywhere.
The Cuisinart boasts 7 speeds, and there is veritably 7 dissimilar speeds. The initial speed is rather slow, different from the low speed of the Dualit, while the most eminent speed is rather brisk. All of the dissimilar speeds is achieved electronically through an electronic control circuit contained within the handle of the appliance.
Initially, I was concerned regarding this. Old fashioned appliances, like my KitchenAid stand mixer, achieve dissimilar speeds by analog means in which a series of resistors (actually, a variable resistive coil) is used to control the voltage to the motor and, thereby, control the motors speed. This is a very simple and effective means of controlling no load speeds. However, the downside is that as the mixture that you are mixing becomes thicker, the machine will slow down as the amount of energy going to the motor stays continuous unless you turn up the speed control.
In an electronic control, the amount of energy going to the motor is changed not by altering the voltage to the motor but by altering the width of the energy pulse to the motor. As the load on the motor increments because of a thicker mixture, a feedback sensor detects the slowdown in the motor speed and adds more energy mechanically to the motor in an undertake to keep the speed constant.
(At this point in my try to describe how this thing works, my wife’s eyes have now totally glazed over and she has transitioned into a catatonic state. No worries. What this mumbo-jumbo means is that if you want medium speed and your mixture is thin whipping cream, you get medium speed. Likewise, if you want medium speed and you have a thick refrigerator cookie dough, you get medium speed.)
Another neat trick with electronic speed control is that you may control how fast the start out up of the beaters are. In an old fashioned mixer, as soon as you turn on the switch, full power for that speed is delivered to the motor. In this electronic Cuisinart, the power is increased tardily until you get to the chosen speed. This is the so-called “soft start” that the company advertises. And it in truth works, if imperfectly.
I say imperfectly because the power up in truth overshoots more or less the target speed before it slows down and stabilizes. This is not a big problem because the extra speed is only for a fraction of a second and, truth be told, most users won’t detect this. The fact that it starts up tardily is a real vantage for not blowing around your ingredients when you firstborn turn it on.
The controls themselves are rather clean and elegant. There is a tall, push button on/off switch that is without apparent effort pressed and two push button membrane switches to adjust the speed up and down. All the switches are without apparent effort activated with your thumb without loss of control of the mixer. A single digit LED display tells you what speed you are in. When you turn it on, it mechanically starts off in the slowest speed.
The beater release is an index finger operated trigger rather of the more typical button on the top or lever on the bottom. The beater release works exceedingly well. So well, in fact, that I’ve without intention ejected the beaters while attempting to get a more inviolable grip on the handle when beating a thick cookie dough. I’m a reasonably big guy with meaty hands and I have no disturb getting a good grip on the mixer. For those of littler stature, just be conscious that this is a beefy mixer and is unquestionably more spectacular than the GE mixer that I had handed down to me by my mom over thirty years ago.
The beater ejection trigger seems more or less soft as it has galore give on it before the beaters eject. However, I’ve given it a good pull with far more strength than is necessitated to eject the beaters and don’t believe that it will break without apparent abuse. The trigger itself bottoms out solidly in the opening of the mixer housing, so there is no reason to pull on it with more strength once it has bottomed out.
There are other nice touches on the mixer that shows that the architect of this appliance knew what he was doing. The cord is on a swivel so that it may be positioned out of the way for right or left handed users. The back is flat so that you may without apparent effort rest it on it is end with the beaters above the bowl. All exterior surfaces are rounded off so that the mixer is easy to wipe clean without any crevices for splash-off to gather and tardily harden over the years.
Even the beaters are designed so that there is no center post to complicate cleaning. The beaters work well as does the included whisk. I was in truth kind of leery of the usefulness of the whisk at firstborn because it seems so thin and flimsy equated to my hand held whisks. However, I whipped up two cups of heavy cream to stiff peaks in regarding two minutes. I started off at the lowest speed until the mixture thickened more or less and then gradually cranked up the speed until maximum. No muss, no fuss, and no drops of cream sprayed all over the table. The whisk looks flimsy but works well.
As far as power goes, the mixer is listed at 225 watts, the same as numerous low end KitchenAid stand mixers. I mixed up a batch of stone cookies, my stiffest cookie dough recipe, with the hand mixer in order to test it is power. (My thinking was that it was better to break it now and return it underneath warranty rather than find out later that it couldn’t handle the dough.) It did an admirable occupation of handling the double recipe. I don’t think I would use the hand mixer again, though, as it was too hard to hold the bowl steady with one hand and the mixer with the other. The dough was so stiff that I had a hard time controlling the mixer as it pushed it is way through the dough and cut it into little pieces. The motor slowed down from it is top speed (and full power) but it never bogged down completely. I had the mixer on at full power for regarding a minute and didn’t detect any burning smell from an overheated motor. The engineers did a good occupation on this one.
Now, I’m sure that if I had held on mixing the dough for with regards to ten minutes I would have burned out the motor from overheating it under heavy load. But I would consider this blatant abuse and to be an unrealistic expectation. Likewise, I wouldn’t consider mixing bread dough with a hand mixer when a heavy responsibility stand mixer is the more suitable solution. (Though I am sure that there are those out there that would use a pocket knife to undertake and cut down a tree.)
The only negative that I will give this mixer is that it is somewhat noisy. The cooling fan is mounted on the motor shaft in the front of the mixer housing and lets out a high pitched whine when in the higher speeds. It sounds more or less like a jet engine or a vacuum cleaner, but surely much quieter than either. The fan does a good occupation of keeping the motor cool and long lived. Covering the air opening at the front of the mixer makes it almost silent but would, undoubtedly, cause the motor to overheat and shorten it is life considerably.
Overall, I give this mixer a full five stars for meeting my expectations. Only time will tell if the electronics and motor will hold up over time. But for now, this mixer works very well for what it was intended for. I’m always wary of electronic items because, generally, when they go bad the device is in general a throw-a-way as it would cost too much to fix. Such is the nature of electronics.
59 of 60 people found the following review helpful.
Doesn’t Last more than 3 years
By L. Wellner
It’s a commodious mixer and does a good occupation whipping up eggs and light batters. I have gone through two of these. Even altho the warranty on both mixers were for 3 years, both of them stopped working after about, well, three years. The plastic parts inside don’t hold up, and constituents are not available for fixing it. Also be admonished that the product registration card is only for retail purposes. When I called, they did not have my product registered with client service. The only way to get a substitute mixer if yours breaks is to present a receipt, so keep your receipt: you will need it in in regards to three years.
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