Which mixer is best for me?
I am a bit stuck.
I had the Bosch compact but it become defective with the accessories hitting the bowl. Some people seem to have this problem while most others don't. At least from the information I have gathered.
I went ahead and bought a Kitchenaid Proline 7Qt Stand Mixer to replace the Bosch. I got a pretty fair price on it. From the start the dough hook didn't fit on the mixer and the beater was missing nylon coating in certain areas like it was worn off. After two weeks of waiting for parts I finally got around to turning it on and mixing some dough. It was a light loaf of around 623g of APF and about 355g of water. This is a recipe my Bosch could handle without issue. The Kictehaid though, even for being a $600 mixer struggled under this load. It just sounded as if it was struggling and only on the second setting. The bosch shows no noticeable strain at all. I got done with my 5 or so minutes of kneading and it did an OK job. Still some dry areas in the dough which the bosch never have me but we could have just added a few more minutes or maybe a bit more water. I am finishing up. I get my dough ready to proof and of course I notice there are metal scrapings all at the base of the mixer. Seems as the metal bowl rubled around under strain it scraped a bunch of metal of the mixer and the bowl. Great. Then I notice that there is metal dust in the connector portion of the dough hook. Using a Q-Tip allowed me to get it out and there was a lot. That likely comes from the rubbing between the dough hook and the connector piece. These are both really unacceptable so this one is going back.
The Bosch Universal looks nice but it doesn't seem to handle small batches well and the special bowl with the hooks coming from the bottom center doesn't look very impressive. Plus that area is bound to leak grease over time. An experience I have had with similair products like bread machines from Cuisinart.
The Ankarsrum looks nice but is more expensive again. The plastic bowl is made of BPA and the accessories like the dough hook seem to be aluminum rather than stainless steel like everybody else use. The dough roller seems like a nice feature but the rubber ring at the top looks like something that will in time wear down and dry out and start to get into the food. I also can't seem to find any accounts of getting service done on these. Where do we have to send it when it breaks? Do they pay shipping, is the service fast?