Truffle
WishlistsDiscover
Log inSign up

Stand mixers

Mixers and kitchen machines for people who bake or cook often, chosen on lab tests, what owners say after years and whether parts and repairs can be had.

TKTruffle KitchenTruffle’s own
Follow list

Prices from shops in Czechia.

What tells them apart

Two different machines are sold as a kitchen robot. One has an arm that swings over a fixed bowl; the other is a food processor without one. Germany’s Stiftung Warentest compared nine in 2021 and found the arm machines better at mixing and kneading, the processors better at chopping and slicing. If you bake, you want the arm.

Three things set the arm machines apart:

  • Planetary mixing: the tool spins while it circles the bowl, so it reaches everywhere. The catch is a minimum batch: Kenwood’s manual asks for at least 350 g of flour, and a smaller dough just gets pushed around.
  • Tilt-head or bowl-lift: America’s Test Kitchen says tilt-head machines are lighter, smaller and less powerful, and need room above them. Bowl-lift ones are bigger and heavier and take larger batches.
  • Watts say little: a 300 W KitchenAid and a 1,000 W Bosch can’t be compared on the label. Stiff dough shows the difference: a light machine bounces or walks across the counter.

For baking

With attachments

The Bosch MUM is the hybrid. It’s a mixer, but its drive also takes a blender, shredder, mincer and citrus press, so it covers part of a food processor’s job. If you only bake, a Kenwood or KitchenAid mixes better.

Gears and repairs

What wears out first are the gears, and the makers differ:

  • KitchenAid: owners describe a plastic worm gear meant to fail before the motor does, and some say newer machines use a drive assembly sold as one part. Older and commercial models are the ones owners trust most.
  • Kenwood: shops list metal gears, and Czechia has authorised service points and parts shops.
  • Bosch: shops list plastic gears in some sets, yet Czech owners report ten to twelve years of use, and parts shops sell drivers, gears and bowls.

For bread every week we’d look at a Kenwood, for cakes and meringues now and then a KitchenAid, and for one machine that also grates and mixes a Bosch. Before you buy, ask whether a gear can be replaced on its own.

Lab grades belong to a model family, not always to the exact code sold here. Bosch and Kenwood sell near-identical codes, so check the code in a test against the one in the shop.

Save the ones you like

Everything you want in one place. We show you where each is cheapest and tell you when the price drops.

Sign upLog in

More by Truffle Kitchen

All lists

  • Keeping knives sharp

    Stones, a ceramic rod, pull-through and electric sharpeners for a kitchen's knives, chosen from edges examined under a microscope, test-kitchen comparisons and the advice of people who sharpen their own knives.

    5 items

  • For the cook

    Kitchen gifts for someone who cooks a lot: things to use for decades, chosen on tests and on what owners say years later.

    10 items

  • A first kitchen

    What cooking in a first flat needs, bought once: chosen on what test kitchens and consumer tests found and on what owners say after years of use.

    9 items

  • Pans that last

    Cast iron, carbon steel and stainless frying pans you keep for good, chosen on what test kitchens found and what owners say after years.

    8 items

  • Non-stick without worry

    Teflon and ceramic non-stick pans for everyday cooking, chosen on independent tests and on what the food-safety bodies actually say, with how to use them so they last.

    7 items

  • Cast iron and enamel

    Cast iron for slow cooking and searing, enamelled or bare, chosen on cooking tests, on what owners say after years and on what each one asks of you in care and weight. Pots and pans to keep for decades.

    9 items
Truffle© 2026