I asked for and recieved a KitchenAid Professional 5+ mixer for Christmas. I wanted it for larger batches of bread and it advertised 12 Cups of Flour Power. I mixed up a batch that between the pre-ferment and final mix contained 4 1/2 cups All-purpose flour and 4 1/2 cups Bread Flour - a double batch of French bread from The Bread Bakers Apprentice. In less than a minute the mixer shut down and failed within seconds with each attempt to restart the mixer. Nine cups overloaded it. That was far from the promised 12 cups.

A call to KitchenAid left me angry. I was told the mixer would handle 12 cups of all-purpose flour as used in the recipes included in the Use and Care Guide that came with the mixer and that it would handle only 6 cups of specialty flour. Specialty flour, I was told, was anything other than All-Purpose flour as used in the recipes in the Use and Care Guide.

KA's advertising claims 12 cup of flour for bread. The Use and Care Guide comes with the mixer and the only statement that there is a lower capacity for flour is buried on page 54 and says, "· NEVER use recipes calling for more than 12 cups all-purpose flour or 6 cups whole wheat flour when making dough with a 5 quart mixer."  Please notice it states WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR and not all other specialty flours as I was told on the phone. Please remember also that the book comes with the mixer so you have no knowledge of the one-half of promised capacity until after you have purchased and received the machine.

Has anyone else experienced this disappointment and fallen victim to KitchenAid's misleading advertising? I would love to hear from others who have. I am pursuing complaints through a number of agencies and hope to stop KA from continuing their false advertising and to make very clear the true capacity of their line of mixers. Please let me know if you have had a similar experience with KitchenAid.