I've noticed that the KitchenAid stand mixers (which are supposed to be one of the best, if not the best, brand out there) have significantly lower power rating than their counterparts from other brands. For example the popular KitchenAid Classic has a power rating of 250W and the KitchenAid Artisan has a power rating of 300W. Even the top-of-the-range KitchenAid Professional stand mixer has a power rating of 325W. Meanwhile, other entry-level stand mixers from Kenwood or other manufacturers have power up to 1000W or 1200W. Is this a true like-for-like comparison (i.e. a 1200W stand mixer from another brand is 4 times better at cutting through a thick mixture than a 300W KitchenAid stand mixer) or is it just one factor among several that could impact the true performance of the stand mixer? Simply put, I was rather surprised at the comparatively low power rating of the KitchenAid products, and thought I must be missing something.
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related : cooking.stackexchange.com/q/17497/67– JoeCommented Dec 12, 2018 at 1:28
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No they don't, there are more factors involved. I would have to look up and translate Dutch consumer reports that I know of and translate those, which I don't have the time for right now.– user34961Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 8:11
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This is power drawn from outlet, right? I don't know if any of these tools give you power that's actually transferred on the tool and used for mechanical work.– MołotCommented Dec 12, 2018 at 11:37
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@Molot yes, that number is power consumed, not really a promise of what power it delivers. I think torque delivered to the blades would be a far more revealing number than power consumed. That would be a number that likely is not as easy to track down, and that does not tell you if the gears are well enough made to handle the strain.– dlbCommented Dec 12, 2018 at 13:59
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@dlb or even output power, which is equal to torque times rate of rotation times number of rotors.– bdslCommented Dec 27, 2019 at 17:02
2 Answers
No, the power your mixer consumes is rather meaningless, and I would never use it in a buying decision. Maybe it is in principle possible to construct a bad mixer whose main problem is being underpowered, but since mixer wattage has long fallen victim to Goodheart's law, you can safely assume that everything on the market has sufficient wattage, and if a given model performs badly, it is not due to lack of wattage. Remember, high power consumption is no compensation for shoddy engineering.
I won't go deep into what you can use for your buying decision instead, since we have a special question for that (linked in the comments). But to hint at it, there is no number available to the customer which would allow for 1:1 comparisons. In fact, not even the numbers known to the producers would allow for such simple comparisons. So don't chase phantoms looking for a number - any kind of number - that tells you how "good" the mixer is.
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1If the mechanics are not sound, a high power rating can be a bad thing in fact. If can mean that the motor is inefficient, or could well be providing too much power and break down the gearing much faster. I actually would question a higher power rating unless I saw a good history from the brand. Well built, higher power might be good to a point, but honestly, how often do you need that from a mixer? A well engineered machine with a good warranty and reports of durability.– dlbCommented Dec 12, 2018 at 13:55
In my opinion, the best way to compare mixers is to compare their customer reviews on Amazon. Even allowing for the flaws in that approach, where there are many reviews for each brand the flaws average out, and it will reflect a wide range of use/abuse by a wide range of people.
Consumer Reports (paywall) reviewed mixers in the past (last update Sept 2016). FWIW, they liked the KitchenAid Pro 6500 (list $550) the best, but of course they can't review everything. https://www.consumerreports.org/products/stand-mixer/ratings-overview/
Again, FWIW, I have read that old-school KitchenAids (like mine from 1995) were made under contract by Hobart - which was the leading brand for restaurants. Apparently the KitchenAid brand was sold and it's now manufactured elsewhere. Some people feel the quality has declined significantly since the good old days, as with everything else ;)
