Sunbeam Planetary Mixmaster The Master One MXM5000WH (White)

Great value – So I ummed and ahhed about whether to get a stand mixer, or whether to keep using my handmixers. I have to say, I'm REALLY GLAD I bought a stand mixer! So much less vibration going through my hands and arms now! It was going great guns, and I really enjoyed using it for a year - for batters, doughs, meringues etc. It worked pretty well! Not perfect: I still had to use a spatula to make sure everything got mixed in, but I thought: "It's only a fairly cheap stand mixer. No wonder I still have to do this. And what if I'd bought an $800 stand mixer - and I still had to use a spatula?!" Plus I didn't have vibrations or get sore muscles in my arms anymore from holding the hand beaters, so I was happy. The bowl gets washed in the dishwasher, as do the beaters, and there's only a quick wipe of the outside of the stand mixer required after each use. It's really easy to use. ...THEN we moved house and it turns out we got TERRIBLE removalists. This machine was packed very well, and cushioned by thick towels, but the jarring those boxes suffered, well, it's just not been the same since. There's this 'hum' to it, now, a slight 'grind' when it works, and it has developed a slight wobble to it as it rotates the beaters. I have to hold it sometimes to make it stop wobbling - and of course I get some vibrations through my arms again! But no other appliance in my kitchen suffered from these terrible removalists, Just the stand mixer. So I guess it doesn't cope being beaten up!! But it has still been very useful, so I thought about getting another stand mixer for some time. Given other stand mixers can be upwards of $800, it's certainly a lot to pay for something that might not be much better And for what you pay, the Sunbeam Planetary Mixmaster is definitely worth it. I finally gave in and bought another one - in May 2024, when it was on sale at Myer - and this new one: WOW! So much better than I even remember my old one being, and that's BEFORE it got beaten up by those terrible removalists! This new one has a pretty smooth rotating mechanism, it seems to scrape things better from the sides of the bowl and the pitch of the engine runs at a higher level leading to such deliciousness as delicate orange almond cake and perfect lemon meringue! I am a happy camper. But I do wonder why my old one wasn't as good as this to begin with? Perhaps a few bumps along the way (eg delivery) might have been an issue. Perhaps this type of machine does NOT do well with large bumps? However, my old machine still works well enough. Now I can make double batches of things - my oldest child (11yrs) uses one machine, and I use the other! It's very easy for her to use. Made loads of gingerbread together, recently! The dough hooks work fine. I don't overly like the noise from this machine, though. At lower speeds, it's OK, but the kids have to turn the volume up in the next room if they're watching a movie and I've got the stand mixer on a higher speed! So it's not great from a noise perspective. BUT that was for the old machine. The new one is a LOT better!! The old machine mixes my batters - but it doesn't scrape the very edges. I have to push the bowl a bit to the right, or left, or away/towards me a little, so the scraper can scrape all the sides of the bowl. I figured that a stand mixer SHOULD do all that, but this one does not. And it didn't do that to begin with, either, before the terrible removalists attacked it! I also have to use a spatula to scrape off the beater when mixing things in, as foods get stuck on it. The whisk attachment doesn't go quite down to the bottom of the bowl now, but this is only evident when whisking 1 or 2 egg whites, not 4 or 5. Larger amounts seem to work better with this machine. It's not very good for only small amounts. Use a hand mixer if you've only got a small mixture. This machine works better with bigger recipes - which suits me fine because we're a family of 5 so I almost never make small batches of things these days! The new machine scrapes a lot more from the sides of the bowl, and far less gets caught in the mixing attachments. So perhaps my first one was a bit of a dud? This appliance DOES make batters nice and fluffy, meringues perfect (I use about 3/4 mixing power, not full speed; it gives a much better result) and the dough hooks are very useful when making gingerbread! Much less work on my arms. It's not perfect, but it really helps, and I can definitely notice the positive difference using this machine vs handbeaters. I still use handbeaters for beating coconut cream (to make whipped coconut cream), for instance, as it requires a bit more finesse. This machine is good where you just want everything mixed in and you're not really fussed about how it does it. You can control the speed dial and do short bursts or longer beating times, and it does the job. It'd be nice if the machine came with a second bowl, like some stand mixers do. It's a shame you can't fit other bowls to stand mixers. It would make things a lot easier! Because I do a lot of cooking, I find that this machine DOES reduce my workload. Sure, the old one makes a lot of noise (so I'm using the new one now!) and I don't think it will last for many more years (again, using the new one!) - but my arms don't get sore now! And sometimes that's all you need. It's not *quite* like a second pair of hands in the kitchen, but sometimes it comes close.

Overall A Great Mixmaster – I don't use this mixmaster very often and when I do it is just for the basics, however my wife and daughter use it regularly and reckon it's great. It's quiet whilst also being powerful and is easy to use and all of the attachments / bowls etc. are dishwasher safe. The one thing that worries me about this item is that it seems far too over-priced, I just don't get why a $300 mixmaster is better than a cheap hand held thing which will beat eggs, mix flour etc. just the same. I've been informed by the girls that it definitely is better, but I'll be damned if I can see a difference. I get it if, you're using it daily it makes sense, but for occasional use I'm not so sure.

Overall, it does a great job and nobody questions that.