After going through an intensive research process to narrow down our short list of top products in this space, we tested KitchenAid Artisan Series 5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer to be sure that it’s worthy of our recommendation. Guided by experts, we spend hours looking into the factors that matter and test to verify manufacturer claims.
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The KitchenAid mixer has been around for a hundred years. Over that time, it has evolved into a versatile appliance that can perform almost any task imaginable. It can mix, but it functions equally well as a juicer, meat grinder, spiralizer, and more. But which model is best for you?
Knowing what's right for you begins with knowing your needs. Mixing bowls range from 3.5-quart bowls to 8-quart bowls. Higher-end models have more durable accessories (flat beater, wire whip, dough hook), but it's the attachments that give this machine its incredible flexibility.
Whether you’re making ice cream or spaghetti, it's all possible—but only if you have the proper attachments. Our favorite is the durable and easy to use KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart.
Editors’ Favorite
Dimensions: 14.1” W x 13.9” D x 8.7” H | Weight: 22.8 lb | Capacity: 5 qt | Speed Settings: 10 | Power: 325 W
The KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Stand Mixer is a kitchen workhorse that delivers plenty of features that home bakers will love. Like all KitchenAid models, it’s made of highly durable metal, so it’s sure to last through years of baking and cooking. Its 325-watt motor supports 10 mixing speeds, so it can handle everything from whipping cream to kneading thick bread dough. The design also provides 59 touchpoints around the mixer to ensure even mixing every time.
The mixer’s 5-quart bowl is a suitable size for most homes because it can handle both small and large batches. It can accommodate enough dough for up to 9 dozen cookies in a single batch, making it ideal for marathon holiday baking sessions. The mixer’s tilt-head design also provides easier access to the bowl when adding ingredients. Best of all, the bowl is dishwasher-safe, making cleanup a breeze.
If you’re looking to make a statement in your kitchen, this mixer is available in over 20 colors, allowing you to choose a shade that suits your style. The basic black and white options can work with any decor, but we especially like the classic bright red shade, as well as the softer pink and lavender options.
Great Value
Dimensions: 7.8” W x 12.3” D x 12.3” H | Weight: 14.3 lb | Capacity: 3.5 qt | Speed Settings: 10 | Power: 250 W
For bakers who have a small kitchen, prefer smaller batches or want a more affordable option, the KitchenAid Artisan Mini 3.5-Quart Stand Mixer may be the perfect fit. At under 15 pounds, it’s one of the lightest models that the brand makes. During testing, we certainly appreciated how easy this mixer was to lift and move — we found we could lift it with just one hand. However, despite its smaller size, it features the same standard-size port as other KitchenAid models, making it compatible with accessories, such as the pasta maker or meat grinder.
Like many KitchenAid stand mixers, this Artisan Mini has 10 speeds for mixing all types of batters, doughs and other recipes. However, during testing, its Slow-Start feature stood out for its convenience. We could take the mixer from off to the highest speed, 10, without splattering a mess all over our kitchen because it gradually worked up to our chosen speed. We were also impressed with the mixer’s gliding switch. We only had to lift it slightly and slide it to the speed setting we wanted.
Due to its compact size, the mixer’s capacity is more limited. Its bowl holds 3.5 quarts, which we found was large enough to hold 3 pounds of cookie dough and 10 egg whites’ worth of meringue during testing. It includes the basic attachments that most stand mixers come with, including a wire whip and a coated dough hook. However, instead of a metal beater, it comes with a flex edge beater, which often works better for scraping the bowl and ensuring that all mixtures are evenly blended.
Best for Large Quantities
Dimensions: 11.31” W x 14.63” D x 16.5” H | Weight: 33.2 lb | Capacity: 7 qt | Speed Settings: 11 | Power: 500 W
With a bowl that can hold enough dough to make 13 dozen cookies or 8.5 pounds of bread, the KitchenAid 7-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer can handle nearly any project a home baker could throw at it. While its 500-watt motor provides enough power for all types of doughs and batters, its versatility is perhaps its best feature. Unlike most KitchenAid mixers that top out at 10 speeds, this mixer has 11, including an extra half speed. This gentle setting is ideal for incorporating delicate ingredients like egg whites or blueberries without overmixing.
In addition to a larger bowl, this mixer features a bowl-lift design rather than the traditional tilt-head. Its head remains stationary, while a lever lifts the bowl up for mixing and down to add ingredients. This feature is ideal for large-batch baking because it provides increased power and stability when mixing greater quantities or heavier doughs.
This model includes a coated flat beater, a coated dough hook and an 11-wire whip but also comes with a double-flex edge beater. This attachment can twist and flex to ensure that the edges of the bowl are scraped during mixing, allowing ingredients to be more evenly incorporated. We also love the included pouring shield that keeps ingredients from splattering all over the counter.
Upon first glance, KitchenAid stand mixers can all seem pretty similar, which can make selecting one a challenge. To identify the best models, we consulted customer reviews from several online retailers to see which ones most closely met user expectations. We considered which offered the most versatile capacity and attachments, the strongest mixing power, the most even mixing results and the most convenient features. We also tested the KitchenAid Artisan Mini 3.5-Quart to evaluate how these machines perform in the kitchen. In the end, we analyzed more than a dozen KitchenAid stand mixers and chose our favorites based on power, convenience, capacity and ease of cleaning.
KitchenAid offers four types of stand mixers to cover a wide swath of budgets and needs. Individual series are distinguished by the capacities of their mixing bowl, from 3.5 to 8 quarts.
The models differ in how the home cook accesses the mixing bowl. The priciest units — those generally used by pros in commercial kitchens — have a lever that lifts the bowl up and down for easy access.
Within each of these series, KitchenAid offers custom versions from time to time as well as units made for individual department stores, kitchen supply stores, and home shopping networks.
If you’re in the market for a new KitchenAid mixer, you’ll enjoy a dizzying array of choices, some of which come in as many as 22 colors. So, if your dream kitchen is outfitted in onyx, fear not: There is a KitchenAid mixer that will blend in with your décor.
One of the “small kitchen” options in the KitchenAid line, the Artisan, comes in two models, each of which allows a home cook to make five dozen cookies or one loaf of bread.
In this line, there are two Artisan models: the KSM150PS and KSM155GB.
Also in the 5-quart-line is the KSM152PS, a custom metallic model with a pouring shield and the same accessories as the KSM150PS.
In this category, the mixers bear a “Professional Series” label due to their bowl size and use of the bowl-lift design that raises the mixing bowl for easier access. These Pro Line models, the KP26M1X and pricier KSM6521X, vary in that the more expensive appliance has a glass bowl with a beater, whip, and hook made especially for glass bowls. The less-expensive mixer, with its stainless steel bowl, has a special “Powerknead” dough hook for efficient kneading.
With supersized mixing bowls, the KSM7586P includes a polished stainless steel bowl, nickel-coated flat beater, nickel-coated Powerknead dough hook, and 11-inch wire whip. The KSM7588P has a stainless steel flat beater and a stainless steel Powerknead dough hook. Both accessories are NSF-certified, which means they are approved for creating food for public consumption.
According to the manufacturer, the best way to clean your machine is to follow these steps:
Included in the price of each mixer are three accessories: a flat beater, wire whip, and dough hook. While the functions are essentially the same for each model, the material varies. For example, the less-expensive units have plastic-composite accessories while the pro models’ beater, whip, and hook are made of stainless steel or coated diamond—materials that perform better at higher speeds and tend to last longer.
Also called a paddle, this is a must-have for any home baker. The beater is used in a variety of recipes and excels at incorporating ingredients.
The dough hook is a workhorse when it comes to making pasta.
Also called a wire whip and viewed as a classic accessory, this is sufficient for everything from whisking egg whites for meringue to making flawless whipped cream.
All KitchenAid mixers share a common feature: a power hub. In fact, every KitchenAid stand mixer, whether you received it as a wedding gift last month or inherited it from your great grandmother years ago, has a small circular connector in the front of the appliance to which you can add a variety of attachments.
These attachments extend the versatility of the mixer to allow it to become a pasta maker, juicer, spiralizer, food processor, peeler, meat grinder, and more. With increased capabilities, the KitchenAid mixer enhances its utility footprint and allows cooks to use one multipurpose appliance and gain more countertop real estate.
We used the attachments in our test kitchen to try out all sorts of recipes. We made juice, strawberry ice cream, and pasta with meatballs, which utilized almost every attachment. Check out the process in the gallery below, and then read on to find out more of our thoughts about each attachment.
We tested some of the attachments available for KitchenAid stand mixers in our BestReviews lab. In general, we found them to be versatile and easy to use. In fact, some could even serve as replacements for separate appliances.
This juicer attachment only juices citrus fruits. On the plus side, it’s dishwasher safe, so cleanup is easy. This attachment takes up little space and doesn’t have a lot of parts.
If you don’t regularly juice, this attachment is a good pick. It’s neither the best nor the worst juicer we’ve seen. If you like to have juice every now and then, you may appreciate the low price.
We made a juice mix of lemons, grapefruits and oranges.
In our opinion, the KitchenAid grinder attachment is not ideal for big projects, and you must cut the meat into small pieces to fit it through the tube. We did like the fact that, unlike a lot of other meat grinders, this one was quite easy to clean.
Overall, this attachment worked very well for us. Our only complaint was that some meat got stuck in the tube.
This is a good attachment, even with its limited capacities. In its favor, the KitchenAid shredder/slicer offers a few different shred options. You can create results that are very fine or in slabs. We like the fact that it aerates the cheese so it’s soft and fluffy. Unfortunately, it can’t handle harder/wetter objects, including some fruits and veggies.
Overall, we really liked the shredder/slicer, and it served its purpose excellently. However, we cannot see much practical use for it unless you make a lot of bread crumbs and shred a lot of cheese.
This attachment is ideal for those who have fallen for the “spiralizing craze,” since typical manual spiralizers can hurt your wrist. We like the fact that this KitchenAid spiralizer attachment comes with two core attachments. If you want to spiralize an apple, you can core it. If you’re preparing zucchini, you can cut out a much smaller core.
We also like the fact that the spiralizer is easy to clean.
The KitchenAid food processor unit we tested was shaky as if it didn't fit well. And the end product, the processed food, was not consistent in size. In addition, the attachment has lots of sharp components which could pose a danger to users.
As our least-favorite attachment, it’s our opinion that if you want the KitchenAid food processor for small tasks only — and you don’t want to invest the counter space in a full-on food processor — it could be worth it.
This KitchenAid pasta maker attachment is great for first-time pasta makers; we found it very easy to use.
Granted, the pasta maker is not dishwasher safe. But our cleanup was simple, as the pasta did not get stuck and make a mess.
This KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment is easy to set up and use. We were able to make strawberry ice cream with no previous ice cream-making experience. On the downside, the process took longer than we anticipated. We have mixed feelings about this attachment, but most owners we surveyed like it.
A. As with other appliances, eBay or Craigslist is a good place to buy used KitchenAid appliances, but Amazon sells refurbished KitchenAid stand mixers at a discount. Walmart may be another website to check out for refurbished machines.
A. The machines are assembled in Greenville, Ohio.
A. The famous French chef used a model called the K5A.
