Cuisinart Stand Mixer, 12 Speeds, 5.5-Quart Mixing Bowl, Chef’s Whisk, Flat Mixing Paddle, Dough Hook, and Splash Guard with

We Like ItThis replaced an old toaster oven we had had for years. Even the old oven had a fan and did a good job of “air frying”. This one works better because it comes with the basket that sits over the tray. The oil drains into the tray and makes much better reheats, etc. I don’t care for the timer feature, I’d rather use Alexa and do it manually. No option here, you must twist the timer knob to get it started. This detracts from pre-heating, so you have to consider that in your timing. One redeeming factor however is that you can twist the timer knob clockwise to stop the oven. I’m sure this is some safety feature to prevent someone from walking away with the oven on. Also, as soon as you open the door the heat stops. Again, I’d much rather handle this myself. This oven is considerably more powerful than our old one. Why does this matter? Well for one thing I’ve had to adjust my cooking times and temps. For example, frozen biscuits. If you follow the instructions and bake at 375 you will burn the outside and the inside will still be raw. After experimenting I’ve found that 300 for a few minutes longer works best. I’m okay with this, it just takes some getting used to. I also will say that even on BAKE the fan still runs though somewhat slower. I thought at first this was a defect, maybe not. Overall, it seems to be a good oven and we have a number of Cuisinart appliances though they are all made in China they seem to be good quality. As for cleaning, we baked some sweet potatoes with foil on the tray and they leaked a couple of spots on the pan. We could not get those spots off and the instructions say NOT to put the pan in the dishwasher. We consider this oven an upgrade and it certainly looks better than the old one which is the only reason we got rid of it.

Impossible to cleanThis oven is great for cooking about anything. But, everything you put in is close to the heat sources, so it’s better to turn the thermostat down about 25%… The tray, crumb tray and back of the oven are impossible to clean… I’ve tried using foil on the tray but it shields the food from the grill, holding back the heat, but still cooks the food… The tray stains easily and cannot be cleaned.. Food splatters on the tray are baked into the finish… I’ve even tried oven cleaner and it just turned the tray black.. The back of the oven has baked in splatters that won’t come off… My impression is that the oven will have to be replaced after a couple of years due to built up stains and splatters..

An engineer’s review: It’s mixed (pun intended). Decent mixer with poor ergonomics.This is my second mixer. Although decent, it’s slightly hindered by poor controls and layout.I bought this mixer on a pre-Christmas sale for $129. For that price, it’s great.But price aside, there are a few design issues that makes this mixer not as good as my 15 yr old Kitchenaid.Poor ergonomic head latch/release mechanism:——————————————————-See my first picture. Raising and lowering the mixing head requires two hands on the Cuisinart, whereas on the Kitchenaid, this can be done with just one hand. On the Cuisinart, the release latch is poorly located way at the back of the unit. It’s harder to reach. Furthermore, the latch is spring loaded which mandates two-handed operation. It requires one hand reaching way back and depressing the locking lever against a spring, and SIMULTANEOUSLY, requires a second hand at the front to raise or lower the head. This is really inconvenient because when I’m working with the mixer, my hands are often covered with flour, oil, sticky syrup, or dough. With the Kitchenaid, the latching mechanism is on the side. It’ much closer to the user, and it’s also not spring loaded. So with one hand, I can release the head on the Kitchenaid, and then with the same hand, tilt the head up (or down). It can be a 2-step process but it requires only one hand. Again, this is immensely useful when one hand is clean and the other hand has been in batter.There is a safety argument in favor of the Cuisinart however: it is not possible to accidentally have the head down and unlocked, and it’s not possible to have the head up and accidentally bump it such that it falls down. (both these scenarios are possible with the Kitchenaid, with the unlocked head in the down position being a rather common and benign occurrence with me.) However, the rear location of the locking mechanism is inconvenient and probably a deal breaker for ADA (wheelchair) usage.The speed control knob is poor:——————————From an ergonomics perspective, I generally recommend knobs over sliders for variable controls. For example, light dimmers, volume controls, fan speed, etc. In the case of these mixers, I have found that it’s the opposite: A lever is better than a knob. On the Kitchenaid, the speed control is a lever and it’s sensibly placed so that the slider is frontback, making it relatively easy to operate. I can effectively change the speed of the mixer on the Kitchenaid with my left PALM or WRIST when my hands are dirty. Also, because I’m right handed, I tend to get my left hand dirty more often while cooking so I do tend to operate the lever with whatever clean part of my hand I can find. For some people this is a non-issue. They don’t mind getting dough/grease/syrup etc on the mixer because they know they will clean it up afterwards, but it does cause contamination or unintended mixing of trace ingredients for people that don’t mind getting their mixer dirty while cooking.On the Cuisinart, the speed control is a knob. It requires 2-3 FINGERS to grip the knob to turn it. Again, the problem here is that sometimes both hands get a little messy when cooking, and having to wipe dry or wipe clean fingers before I can change the mixer speed is a hassle.BTW, controls at the front or top of the mixer would have been better placed. I would guess this should be trivial to do with today’s low cost electronics, but would require a design change.Other complaints:———————The head on the Cuisinart is longer and moves (deflects) more. i.e. in technical terms, we say it has a longer moment-arm. In lay terms, it means it sticks out further and thus has more movement when mixing. This would be expected if the mixing bowl was larger on the Cuisinart, but it is not. Both mixing bowls are the same diameter. So the Kitchenaid is better designed in this area.The Cuisinart is lighter overall so might vibrate a bit more. The heavier Kitchenaid is slightly more stable when mixing. (However, the motor on my new Cuisinart mixer is quieter than the motor on my 15 year old Kitchenaid.)The Good:————The front of the unit looks better on the Cuisinart. The Battlestar Galactica Centurion cyclops looking magnetic cover that sits in front of the attachment connection is cleaner on the Cuisinart than the Kitchenaid’s protruding cylinder. However, this magnetic cover, while it does look better to me, it’s very easy to bump and knock off, and have it fall into the batter. The holding mechanism (a magnet) is not very secure.My Cuisinart attachments work on the Kitchenaid and my Kitchenaid attachments work my Cuisinart. They seem interchangable in both directions as far as I can tell.The higher power 600W motor on the Cuisinart makes a difference. I have a grain mill mixer attachment. It uses quite a bit of power to grind grains into flour. On the Kitchenaid, 300W is not enough. The Cuisinart’s 600W motor is noticeably more powerful for this.The splash guard for the Cuisinart is better (more effective at preventing splash-out than the one that came with my Kitchenaid.So my feeling are mixed (pun intended) between these two mixers. If I were to just have one due to space constraints, I’d spend more money to get a higher powered Kitchenaid. It’s just nicer to use from day-to-day.But having two mixers is handy, especially when making pasta. I can put the dough sheeter attachment on one mixer and the pasta cutter on the other one. I can quickly sheet, then cut the dough into pasta. It greatly improves workflow.For people that have the space, for $130, getting a second mixer was well worth it.

Sturdy, works well, and perfectI bought this to replace the instant vortex we used to have. Its LCD touch screen failed.We specifically looked for a version without a touch screen, and this is perfect. it’s so far super quiet. It’s so quiet that my wife and I had to check it was working. We didn’t even know you could have one of these devices that were this quiet.It is very easy to use and comes with multiple racks and baskets, including a grill plate which has been a total win in our house.It even has a toaster setting that allowed us to get rid of our old toaster.We’ve been using it nonstop for a month, and discovered it’s big enough we don’t have to use our big oven for anything but larger baking runs now. That’s fantastic because our apartment oven is a hinky cheap oven with no temperature control.The only drawback is the inside is not non-stick and is harder to clean than our old vortex. The pull-out tray will help you get rid of toast crumbs, but the metal is aluminum which isn’t the easiest to clean. The drip pan is the same aluminum, so there are already drippings from sausage dogs on there that I can’t get off easily. That’s a drawback I am happy to live with though.

Love thiscapplianceI love this appliance. It is easy to use, pretty easy to clean, and much nicer looking than some comparable air fryers on the market. The toaster oven, air fryer, and bake functions are all easy to use and work great. I’m so glad I purchased this when it was on special deal.