At first I was disappointed to find the body was made of plastic, but after reading the manufacturer's replies to some of the critical reviews it appears this is the best construction method that is practical. Also the lifetime warranty is reassuring(and would account for what I initially thought was an inflated price.) My blade will primarily be used for mixing the ingredients for buttermints- it held up fine for the first batch; time will tell if it will last.

New Metro Design Beater Blade for 5-Quart KitchenAid Bowl Lift Mixers, KA-5L, White

I regularly use my kitchenaid stand mixer for baking purposes. This beater blade has saved LOTS of time mixing various batters and dough. I will say that it does struggle with heavy dough, might be better to stick with the all-metal flat blade included with the mixer. It performs two functions, one, it seems to be a lot quicker mixing than the standard flat beater, perhaps due to the scraping blades, two, it saves a lot of time scraping the sides of the bowl so you don't have to constantly do it yourself. Although it does scrape the bowl for you, it does not ALWAYS get everything, depending on how sticky the batter or dough is, you may still need to hand-scrape yourself, but a LOT less than you would have to with the standard beater.

Several reviews on here say that the product is flimsy. While it is a plastic construction, I have not noticed it to be sub-par in quality, it does the job.

I love this mixer attachment. It works great, much better than the standard one that came with the mixer. It does a better job of getting everything mixed and not leaving dry ingredients stuck to the side of the bowl. The frame of this attachment is very hard plastic vs the original attachments being die cast metal. At first it felt cheap, but now I like how light it is and the fact it makes less noise (rattling around when stored in the bowl).

FYI...few things to know

1) Make sure you do your research to know the exact model of your mixer. You can't eyeball it. Apparently there were many more Kitchen Aid models than I thought (many look the same, but they have different bowl dimensions). It's important to know your model to ensure you get the correct size attachment. I had to return the first one I bought.

2) I didn't know this, but your mixer is really easy to adjust/fine tune the height of the mount where you attach this. It's recommended to adjust it when first using this attachment because this attachment rubs on the bottom of the bowl....so you want an exact fit. If the mount is too high, then the blade doesn't wipe the bottom of the bowl and leaves dry ingredients unmixed. If the mount is too low, then this might not fit at all or rubs too hard on the bottom of the bowl, literally wearing down the plastic spatula type blades over time.

I've had this for a year now and it's my go-to attachment. I use it 90% of the time vs the others. This really should come standard with it.

I was so excited to try my first beater blade that scraped the sides of the bowl while mixing, and was pretty disappointed with this one. I've used it on several occasions since purchasing it, and have found that I'm not able to fill my mixing bowls as much as normal because this beater causes the batters to fly out of the bowl when the volume is at a normal amount compared to when I use my regular beater blades. I tried this blade using a recipe that normally had plenty of room at the top of the bowl, and didn't come close to spilling out, but part way through using this blade, I had to stop altogether and mix the rest by hand because I was loosing too much flour as it was flying out. I've also found that when mixing things that have wet and dry ingredients such as cake batter, dry clumps form along the rubber 'scraping' portion of the blade. Also beware, the middle portion of the blade that attaches to the mixer is OPEN at the bottom with a large hollow center, so your mixes will get stuck in there, creating uneven recipes and it's also difficult to clean. I'm not sure if the middle break in the rubber at the bottom of the blade is necessary so it doesn't get suctioned to the bowl, but batter also gets left in this crevice as well. This may just be a lower end / less expensive version of the real thing, which is probably why this model has so many issues, but I would not recommend this blade unless you're using it for very light use such as whipping room temperature butter or something similar.

I first thought this was a pleasant but rather unnecessary indulgence, but it's turned out to be far more useful than imagined.

You can add the ingredients, turn on the mixer, go do other things in the kitchen, and everything is completely mixed. You don't have to turn the mixer off to scrape down the sides, and that little bump at the bottom of the bowl.

Unless I have a stiff dough, I never use the metal beater blade that came with my mixer any more. With buttercream frostings, granulated sugar dissolves into the butter more quickly and completely with this beater blade. It also makes it possible to mix small amounts that would otherwise just stick to the bowl and not get mixed. For example, whipped butter, using 1 cup of butter and 1/4 cup of water, is quickly and perfectly blended in the time it takes to empty the dishwasher. It would also work well for cream cheese spreads.

To keep the rubber blades from deteriorating from the heat of a dishwasher, I hand wash it. Compared to washing the metal beater blade, it needs to be washed more meticulously, particularly along the edges of the rubber blades, where food tends to accumulate. Once you know the drill, it's easy.

I've used this very successfully for cakes, frostings, quick breads, whipped butter, and even peanut butter cookies. It shortens the mixing time, too.

Because it's light, cheap plastic, I would not use this for a big batch of stiff, heavy dough; it might break. But I love it, and if it holds up for a decent length of time, I'll replace it with another if it breaks. It's too useful not to have one!

NOTE: Beater Blade wrote a comment here, and they say if it breaks, they'll replace it: lifetime guarantee! So get yourself one!