KitchenAid KP26M1XNP Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer, Nickel Pearl
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of KitchenAid KP26M1XNP Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer, Nickel Pearl
Customer Review: Excitement and Anticipation Gone Sour
Summary: 2 Stars
I have looked forward to owning a Kitchenaid Mixer for several years. On 11-25-10 I decided to purchase the KitchenAid KP26M1XNP Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer, Nickel Pearl. This product was purchased for general baking purposes and provide me with a means to begin making chicken and turkey specialty sausages.
This item arrived two days later than listed from the Amazon Prime shipping statement. I must also state that up to this point I have been EXTREMELY satisfied with Prime two-day shipping, as I have 7-12 items shipped monthly. I do not to believe this to be an issue.
Upon opening the box, my excitement level contiued to rise as everything arrived well packed and in as-described (NEW)condition - or so I thought. After configuring the item as descibed in the manual, I plugged it in and turned it on.
To my extreme dissappointment, the mixer was operating erratically - right out of the box! The item was mixing with an abrubt and jerky motion throught the 10 different speed settings. It was easliy determined the mixer has a defective electronic speed control (I have an electrical engineering background).
The following morning I contacted Kitchenaid customer support via the number listed in the manual. The representative confirmed my diagnosis as I operated the device over the phone so they could hear the erratic operation. The representative promptly recorded my information to send me a new device within 7-10 business days.
I requested to speak with a manager and inquiered about including an extended warranty or possibly reciveing a free accessory for my inconvenience after expressing my lack of confidence after spending several hundred dollars on a "top-tier" mixer that was defective right out of the box. My requests were met with an attitude of annoyance from Barbara - who was "extremely busy because of the holiday season." My call was never transferred to a supervisor.
The customer service could have definitely been better. I was planning on having a holiday cookie party the following day with friends and family that had to be postponed to the following weekend. It is unfortunate that Kitchenaid quality control measures have appeared to become compromised.
I will update this review to reflect the outcome of receiving the new mixer in the mail when it comes.
Coincidentally, my 5 year old Kitchenaid diswasher had the door support break the following morning, ha! "Tis the season" :)
Customer Review: The new design has been implemented...kind of???
Summary: 2 Stars
I've wanted to purchase this model for a while now, but have been waiting for the plastic gearbox issue to be resolved. I don't want to purchase an expensive item which will likely break. Yes, I would like to make bread.
I spoke with KA customer service this morning to inquire if this model is now being manufactured with the metal gear box, or if it's the same old "we're going to save a $1 per unit by using this plastic gear box". I received a verbal, pre-constructed, corporate answer about how it doesn't matter if the gearbox is plastic or metal because KA stands behind this product, bla bla bla. I told her it mattered to me and I couldn't feel good about doing business with KA without knowing what I'm getting.
She then proceeded to tell me that she doesn't know if they will ever go to a metal gearbox, but if they do there will be no way for me to know if I was buying one with a plastic or metal gearbox because some retailers have existing stock, bla bla bla. Then, I asked her a point blank question, "Ma'am (I live in TN), is KA currently producing this item with a plastic or metal gearbox? I'm not asking about anything or anyone else. I just want to know if the current production is with a plastic or metal gearbox." She said she had no idea and we then sat silently for a moment. STILL trying to pull the answer out of her, I asked her if there was anyone there she could ask who might be able to find out the answer to my question. She said she'd ask her supervisor. I was on hold for a few minutes, then she returned to tell me that the 600 is now being manufactured with the metal gearbox. I asked her what serial numbers are now being produced and she said there is no way to tell, and there is no way for me to know if I was buying a unit with the plastic or metal gearbox.
I give this model two starts because it (purportedly) is now being manufactured with the metal gearbox. I knock off three starts because KA gave me the runaround when I asked a straightforward question. Additionally, KA is not interested in helping me purchase one with the metal gearbox. Basically, I really can't be sure what I'm getting for almost $400. Sure, I could buy it and return it, etc...but why should I have to waste all that time and energy?
If anyone has a 600 with a metal gearbox I'd love to hear from them, know where they purchased it, when they purchased it, serial number, etc.
Customer Review: Hassle-FULL, not hassle-free
Summary: 1 Stars
I just really wanted to believe in a myth: that KitchenAid is all about sensible, durable, dependable appliances. Or that KitchenAid is serious about its "hassle-free" policy. Because "hassle-full" seems to describe my experience with the brand much more accurately.
I originally purchased a 300-Watt tilt-head mixer, but after about three minutes mixing a small batch of bread dough for the very first time, its dough hook snapped broken. Customer service wasn't very good, so a few months and several complaints later, I received this larger unit as a replacement.
Unfortunately, this supposedly sturdier unit hasn't held its own either. The dough hook is still in one piece, but the mixer itself (the motor) has broken down three times already, despite my best care. I never mix for more than five or six minutes at a time, and only use speed 1 to mix bread dough. Moreover, I never exceed the maximum load of approximately 14 cups; in fact, all the bread recipes I make total no more than about 8 cups of wet mixture -- less than 12 cups of ingredients, wet and dry. (My recipes come from either The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart, or Bread - A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes, by Jeffrey Hamelman, both well-known books with very carefully tested recipes.)
The first time I took the mixer to the repair centre, it took them a month to return it to me. The second time, it was returned after 10 days, but worked for all of 40 seconds before breaking down again. And the third time I only got it back after 41 days. Mind you, those repairs were all covered by the warranty, performed at an authorized repair centre. I got a six-month warranty extension, but imagine what it'll be like when the
warranty has expired...
So, just to recapitulate, in one year I was unable to use the mixer for more than two months, time during which I had to put up with a lot of hassle in what seemed to be a futile attempt to get it properly fixed -- to say nothing of my disappointment with the fact that a KitchenAid mixer has broken down three times already with small batches of bread dough during its first year of use.
Customer Review: Diappointed - dead after only 2 years!
Summary: 1 Stars
**Let me start off saying that I am NOT a bread maker. I am strictly cookies, cakes and brownies.**
Two years ago, for our first anniversary, my husband bought me a KA Pro 610 to upgrade my KA Classic which was 8 years old and I loved it. Then, on 1/1/11 as I began whipping egg whites my prized KA started making strange sounds! When I looked at it, I noticed the attachment shaft (or whatever you want to call it) was no longer nestled into the head and as I watched, the gap grew wider and the revolutions slowed to the point where it wouldn't even complete one full turn. Panicked, I turned it off and tried to shove the gap closed. It did close and I turned the machine on again on low and again watched as a gap grew. I literally called my husband crying when this happened. I was sick right before Christmas and I hadn't been able to bake so I had planned on going on a baking spree for Valentine's and Easter.
I called KA and they were no help since my machine was two years old even though Williams Sonoma (where we had purchased it from) thought KA might help because it was a new-ish machine. KA told me I would have to ship the machine back to the factory for $30 and have them diagnose it. I'm sorry but that is bull. First off, there is no way shipping that machine from Honolulu to the factory in Ohio will cost $30. Secondly, why should I have to pay for it when it is obviously the workmanship of the machine? I have never made anything thicker than oatmeal cookie dough in that machine and my KA Classic from Wal-Mart handled it just fine and is still going strong!
It is unbelievable to me that my supposed "Pro" model that cost double and came from a cooking store has been outlived and outperformed by the Wal-Mart KA. My husband is now looking to replace my KA with a Viking.
Oh, and I haven't seen this happen to anyone else, but for some reason, when I scraped batter/icing off of my flat paddle, it (the batter/icing) would have gray splotches on it. Yet another reason to move on from KA. Again, this never happened with the Classic model.
Customer Review: Dead after 2 years of weekly bread making
Summary: 1 Stars
I make a 2-loaf batch of bread once a week, and roll & cut pasta every so often. The mixer, it seemed to me, always strained when making bread (I make a hearth-type bread with a rather wet dough and only about 10% whole wheat). Now, here we are, approximately 2 years out and it's a goner. It failed during a batch of bread -- I smelled smoke, and it was losing it's ability to turn. My husband, having spent quality time in a machine shop earlier in his life (hurray!), was able to take it apart, diagnose a worn gear, order and install a replacement. He was very unhappy with what he saw in there, however -- "tolerances between the gears were very sloppy." He felt it was either poorly designed or poorly manufactured. It began to fail again after just one more use. At this point, after opening it up again, he felt there was no point in trying to replace more gears. What he saw in there led him to believe that it is simply not designed to handle the load I am asking from it. So I simply CANNOT RECOMMEND this machine for bread making. It is rated for 2 loaves of bread, but asking it to actually perform this task will cause it to not-so-slowly burn its little brains out!!
So, money that could have financed a fabulous vacation, or any number of other things, we have just invested in a Hobart N-50 5 quart. It looks almost exactly the same as the KA Pro 600, but I expect, by all that I have read, that its life span is longer than mine. Here's to a mixer they can bury me with! I also understand (oh I hope I'm not wrong on this), that my KA hub attachments will fit the Hobart (the ice cream maker is probably a no-go). PLUS, they say it is QUIET, and the KA was soooooo loud it was a real endurance event to be around it. I had been tempted to change to a manual pasta maker because the noise was so unpleasant. I am delighted to look forward to continued mechanized pasta rolling without the ear trauma.
So, while it may be fine for light duty use, do not purchase the KA if your purpose is to regularly make bread dough.