Kenwood Titanium Chef XL Patissier 7L Stand Mixer, KWL90.004SI

I questioned my sanity when I dropped 14k for this machine as a wedding gift to my wife. She's a brilliant baker and this machine has all the bells and whistles to make her baking life even more groovy, but for one really annoying, pathetic, design flaw: the cover for the Slow speed outlet — that's the shiny silver plate on the very front of the stand with the Kenwood logo — falls off at high speeds. Yes. Falls off, because it's fixed in place with just a magnet, and not a very strong one. And when it falls off, it drops straight into the mixing bowl, which is not very safe because it will get damaged and also damage whichever mixing attachment is being used. The only solution is to remove it when mixing at high speed but then whatever is being mixed in the mixing bowl spatters/sprays up and gets into the outlet that should be covered by its plate because you had to remove it! What really amazes me is how could the brains trust in the Kenwood design department actually pass this machine? Do all the contemporary Kenwood stand mixers have the same issue or is it just this model? Not good enough! Read more

I would not recommend this product to a friend.

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(Would not advise my male friends to buy this for their wives — unless they really want a divorce. My wife is not allowed near this machine, lest she assault me with the K hook.)

Bought in store about a month ago. As always, no issues with Yuppiechef. However; it seems this device was designed by the sales department at Kenwood. Lots of features — it mixes, weighs, heats, lights up the bowl and has a little touch screen on the side!

OK, so you want a mixer. To mix things. And maybe it can take some extra attachments to mince, slice, dice, whatever. But this thing does so much more:
1. It actually has to boot up — like an old computer. You cannot just switch it on and start mixing — no, you have to wait for the boot-up sequence — adding an almost Zen-like experience to your baking.
2. Whatever processor is running the computer or screen, it's certainly not overpowered. Response to touch is laggy — and sometimes entirely absent. This is great for expanding your kitchen vocabulary.
3. It shows you ads. Seriously! Every few start-ups, it insists that you go to the Kenwood website before doing whatever you intended to do. It even shows a QR code to help you reach their website — the QR code doesn't work properly.
4. It often forgets what it's doing. If, after a few seconds of mixing you want to change the speed — you need to touch the screen again to tell the machine what you want to do before changing the speed. This great feature also allows you to transfer dough from the bowl to the screen. The screen is on the side, towards the back of the device — not great in a crowded kitchen. Try adding multifocal glasses for extra fun.
5. It needs constant reassurance that you are still there. If you forget to switch it off (on the back of the machine, or at the wall - yay, more dough on everything!) while proceeding with the next part of your recipe elsewhere — it starts nagging at you. Like a small child.
6. It can heat the bowl, but only in the vaguest possible sense. There are levels of heating to choose from — not a specific temperature set point. I have no idea how consistent the settings are in different environments.
7. It can weigh ingredients. This is nice — except that ingredients should ideally be weighed before adding, unless you want the excitement of accidentally adding too much of something.
8. The dough hook is nice and sturdy. Seems like it was forged from a single piece of steel — very impressive. Except, that it is really bad at mixing. More often than not there are residual dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl after mixing — even when adding liquids first. What makes this feature especially exciting is that you now have to dirty another utensil or two scraping the gunk from the bottom of the bowl, in order to help the machine perform its primary task — mixing stuff.
9. It can add ingredients automatically. Unfortunately said ingredient is the front attachment cover, which is held in place by a weak magnet. More opportunities for spreading dough all over the kitchen!

("The front fell off" - search for it on YouTube)

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I would not recommend this product to a friend.

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