Hamilton Beach Classic Stand and Hand Mixer, 4 Quarts, 6 Speeds with QuickBurst, Bowl Rest, 290 Watts Peak Power, Red (64654)

Update 6-1-19: I've been using this mixer on a regular basis for four years now. Just wanted to let everyone know how extremely pleased I am with it. In fact I changed my star rating from 4 to 5. The more I've used it, the more reliable I realize it is. Have had NO problems and it's done everything I've asked of it. I'm in my 70s and always wanted a Kitchen Aide mixer with some of the attachments but could never bring myself to spend that much money. Hand mixing and mashing was getting too hard for me and I didn't want to give up making certain recipes so decided to try this one. I can't imagine being happier with any other mixer. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go take my 1 pt Chocolate Banana Pumpkin Muffins out of the oven. Yummy!! -------- ------------------------- ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ---------- This Hamilton Beach stand mixer is a pleasant surprise. It's sturdy and sits solidly on the counter when in use. I would like to see the slowest speed a wee bit slower but aside from that the 6 speeds are helpful. I made cornbread last night. Although the bowl doesn't automatically spin on it's own, it only took a spin of the wrist to set it in motion. Yes, as mentioned in other reviews, I did use a spatula to clean down the sides a few times while it was mixing. I don't consider that a big deal at all. If you're a casual baker like me who doesn't work with really heavy dough all the time, you might find this is all you need. The mixer head can be removed easily to use as a hand held mixer. The base has a lever so you can have the bowl sitting in one of two positions. One position has the beaters closer to the center of the bowl and the second position has the beaters closer to the side of the bowl. It's not a Kitchen Aide but it's definitely a very nice mixer for the money. It has all the power I need. It's got a nice compact design. It's doesn't take up a lot of room on my small kitchen counter so I can leave it out for quick last minute use. All in all, I consider this a good buy and I think it will hold up.

For several years I have had a VERY heavy and large Kitchenaid stand mixer that I've used many many times over the years that has been great yet at the same time, for me, a pain in the ass! I do bake, on occasion, and I do cook pretty much daily but the Kitchenaid unit wasn't worthy of taking up that much counter space. And that thing is soooo heavy that, when I put it away in one of my lower, taller cabinets... I found myself deciding not to use it because I don't need a hernia! and opted to use my lightweight hand mixer sometimes to get the job done. But sometimes you want a good mixer to do the job. Ugh So I decided finally to do something about that and found this little beauty here on Amazon. I really love this mixer! It's much much lighter weight and smaller. And what I love even more is that you can take the top unit off and use it as a hand mixer if need be. I bought this in the blue color. It's perfect for me! And the price was fantastic! I think I paid like $50. It's actually small enough that I can leave it on the counter if I choose to but it's lightweight and I can easily put it away or retrieve it without hurting myself. Yeahhh!! I received this only just earlier today but washed all the components right away and put it straight to use on a cake mix. It works fantastic and has plenty of power for what I like to make. I did mess around with the settings and stuff. Runs great! I saw some reviews about some who didn't like that the beaters don't go to the bottom of the bowl. I understand that, but it's an easy fix to place a small plate underneath the bowl while your mixing if that's a problem for you. It does lift the bowl up just high enough. I checked it out, and that does work. The beaters are not that far up away from the bottom. Only slightly. Honestly I didn't need to do that I just used my spatula to scoop as always. I'm not a professional baker. I'm just a grandma who likes to bake sometimes. Now I will actually bake more because this mixer is so much more user-friendly!My husband has already gave me a list of things he wants me to make. And now, because of this wonderful mixer, I won't mind. I wish I had bought this a long time ago but I had felt obligated with that $400 Kitchenaid macine sitting there in my cabinet... kept me from buy something like this. Like I would be a traitor or something. I'm selling my Kitchenaid machine and keeping this one! We'll see as time goes by how well this machine stands up. From what I can tell now it should last me a long time. It's well made and has great attachments. The mixing bowl is big enough for regular sized stuff like cake mixes or the like. I hope my review helps you if your on the fence. I mean, what's not to like? It's a great little machine and sturdy. If you're baking huge batches of cookies for the whole neighborhood all the time or for a business I doubt this would ever come close to what you need. Because this is your average light use mixer. If you're like me and you just whip up a cake or some homemade goodies sometimes, definitely get this! Even for stuff like whipping egg whites, this will be great! Now I'm excited again about making things I haven't made for a long time. It's great!

I would actually have given this item 5 stars except for one thing: the name is misleading. It is not a stand mixer - the item is a hand mixer which you attach to a stand. As a hand mixer, it's fine. There are certain jobs that a hand mixer is best for: making French buttercream, meringues,and genoise cakes. You really don't need a super duper powerful 9 speed hand mixer for this, in fact, it's overkill. The vast majority of people who have expensive stand mixers use them infrequently. You don't need a stand mixer to whip egg whites. Back in the day, people whipped cream and egg whites with a whisk....imagine that. Genoise and buttercreams require at least 5 minutes of beating, which is very boring, and hard on the hands. That's what this item is good for. You have work with it, rotating the bowl, and scraping with the spatula - but you have to scrape down the bowl if you use an expensive stand mixer as well. There are many recipes that tell you to "scrape down the bowl" - using a KitchenAid. So I can't hold that against this item. You need to learn to work with this item. If you have a small recipe, put something underneath the bowl so that the beaters get to all the ingredients. This is no big deal. Re: bread. This item is not powerful enough to mix bread doughs. I used it once and it was really laboring hard. I figured out a way to mix the dough, putting the liquid ingredients into the bowl and adding 75% of the dry, then finishing off with hand kneading. I don't mind this, because I think that hand kneading is the only way to go but some might object. I have also read that many more expensive mixers have a problem with bread dough. If you are a dedicated bread baker, buy a more powerful genuine stand mixer. To conclude: this is a reasonably priced hand mixer, which performs more than adequately, and which can be used for hand mixer purposes that require prolonged beating. If you want an expensive stand mixer, buy one of those. Note: I only recently bought this item. If it breaks down, I'll revise my review. PS: The vast majority of electronic appliances are now made in China. If that's a problem, take it up with the management - of the United States, as well as the company. Otherwise, go back to using hand whisks. Update May 14, 2014: I note that many reviewers here criticize the bowl. This is not a valid criticism of the actual mixer. Use a different vessel depending on what you are baking, or cooking. Please see this classic Julia Child video on the subject: [...] Julia begins by pointing out that the bowl that came with her mixer isn't going to do the job - so she changes the bowl. You have to know what you are doing. YOU are in control, the mixer is just a tool. I repeat that for what it is: a hand mixer that you can attach to a stand, it's fine. If it should break within a year, I'll report that promptly.

I used to have a regular corded Hamilton Beach mixer that lasted about fifteen years, until a family member got a wooden spoon caught between the spokes of one of the wands and blew the motor on it. I tried a different brand mixer, which was given to me as a gift, but it really paled in comparison to my old HB one. Since I'd kept all my old HB mixer wands (hoping to use them in a new mixer), I decided to try this mixer out--it was too good a deal to pass up. The old HB wands all fit this mixer, which is great, because I had the dough hooks, the whiskers, and the regular beating wands, so it's good to have extras for days I do a lot of baking. The pros of this unit: -It's well made. Looks nice, is sturdy, and performs well. -The bottom bowl rest is made to manually turn like a lazy susan. -Once the detachable mixer is fitted onto the stand unit, it's sturdy and easy to use. -The bowl is nicely sized and made to last. It fits perfectly onto the bowl rest and doesn't rock. -It's easy to clean -my old HB mixer wands fit in this one. - It doesn't take up too much space in my cabinet. I also own a 6-quart professional Kitchen-aid mixer and It's too large to fit into any of my cabinets, so I have to store it out on the counter. This one fits, fully operational, in an upper cabinet easily. The cons: -When using it without the stand (which I do often), it isn't as stable sitting on it's end on the counter. The bottom isn't perfectly flat, so it rocks a bit and if you don't put it down on the counter carefully, it will likely tip over. -There are large horizontal vents on the front of the mixer where the motor turns the wands and it's easy for flour and other dry ingredients to get into those struts when mixing stuff. (Since this isn't the first appliance I've had with such an issue, I've learned to keep a can of compressed air in my kitchen drawer to blow such areas out after using the appliance.) Hope this helps!

This one falls so short of my expectations. I’ve been using a mostly plastic Hamilton Beach Stand Mixer that’s over 25 years old. It’s had a lot of use over these years and although the mixer still works the beaters are done and beginning to rust. It has really served me and my household very well. Needing a replacement, I wanted this one to work out for us. I loved the idea that the mixer could be used alone or with the stand like my old model. It doesn’t. The stand was useless for my first try. It would NOT beat room temperature cream cheese in the cheap bowl within the stand. The bowl has an awkward ridge around the inner bottom. I’m sighing. What should have taken less than 20 minutes to assemble turned into a 2 hour process for homemade Keto No Bake Cheesecake, and that was with my husband (or sous chef) helping. This Hamilton Beach mixer isn’t worth getting, I’m sorry to say. The only thing good about it is that it’s lightweight.

initial set-up difficult. had a hard time attaching mixer to base. the realized that beaters did not reach bottom of bowl. mixer works well as a hand held. worthless as a stand mixer

I use to have a kitchen aid and rarely used it. Only used it for pizza dough. Also, most of the mixers that are fancy and expensive also have a fancy non stick coatings. This one is almost 500 times less expensive and has no coatings. [Verified by mamavation.com ] But I couldn't figure out how to use it and could not find the manual. Looked it up on YouTube and lady uses a spoon to help the dough just a bit. I did that and my dough came out so good. Gluten structure was beautifully built. I would think that can be done in other items that seem are hard like pizza dough. I'm going to try making butter using heavy cream the next time. So far, i love it. It's different but it's not toxic. Also, my kitchen aid simply took up space for soooo many years and I rarely used it. This one i can take apart and it doesn't have to take up space on my counter, If i don't want it to. It's light. And as the video ad part of the item shows, the spinning of the bowl is normal. It's a genius idea if you ask me. Because that's how it gets to all the flour to make dough. If it can make great dough for pizza, then hey there, pain au chocolat, here we come!! Highly recommend!

Outstanding in all regards. Thank you!