How Important is Wattage?

The Hobart 80-quart stand mixer revolutionized baking over 90 years ago. Little sister (KitchenAid) began with door-to-door sales during the war years. By the early '30s Sunbeam was selling 300,000 MixMasters a year. Today's market offers a large range of speeds and motors to choose from.

Some reviewers claim that wattage and number of speeds do not affect performance. They cite design, shape of the bowl, and the movement of the attachments as performance factors.

Other reviews credit hand mixers and low-watt stand mixers for their performance at light mixing jobs, but do not recommend them for bread-making, Without adequate wattage, dough hooks perform well on a stiff cookie dough, at best.

KitchenAid? K45SS-WHT Classic Series Stand Mixer

Truth and Consequences
Hamilton Beech and Sunbeam, two of the top small-appliance manufacturers, offer quality light-duty stand mixers. It is usually necessary to scrape sides of the bowl during mixing, and kneading for too long cuts the power of the motor to a slow churn and emits an odor of hot metal. Working stiffer batches on higher speeds causes the machine to wobble across the counter.

KitchenAid models receive some of the highest reviews from consumers, which is understandable since KitchenAid controls 50% of the sales market with a large selection of models. Stand mixers with 450- to 600-watt motors are their most popular.

Royal Performers
Stand mixers with 600- to 700-watt motors are commercial-grade mixers and work through bread dough with little effort. Viking and Cuisinart manufacture stand mixers with 800-watt motors. These high-performance machines with 5- to 7-quart mixing bowls hold batches of cookie dough large enough to feed the family reunion and can work up double batches of bread dough with ease.

Higher-end, high-performance stand mixers can be teamed with a variety of attachments available through the manufacturers. Instantly a mixer becomes a blender, meat grinder, pasta machine, juicer, food processor, and even a can opener. Although many attachments fit lower-watt machines, performance excels on more powerful stand mixers.