I researched this mixer versus other mixers for 100 lb cementacious Ardex self-leveling toppings. This mixer worked well enough. The company really needs to sell different types of mixing blades for mixing different items. The blade they provide is for high viscosity cement, not lower viscosity self-leveling toppings, or whatever viscosity other mixtures. Note 1: get to know all the controls before you use it. We did and it helped a lot with topping with 20 minutes working times. Note 2: you can add another type of mixing blade but you will have to hunt and peck for one that had the correctly-sized threaded connector, or to get proper-sized adapter connectors for McMaster-Carr.

Very Good

The mixer blade is not good and I can smell the motor windings over heating after mixing just one bag of cement. (Very liquid not dry cement).

Note: initially I didn't realize there was a speed control thumbwheel on the left handle -- I found no mention of this in the instructions (if its there, I certainly never found it). Anyway, once I found the speed control wheel on the left handle, I am really impressed with how well you can control the speed of this unit. I SURE wish I had found it weeks ago, would have prevented a mess here and there.

As a result of this find, I have improved my rating from 3 -> 5 stars.

I am an amateur DIY home tiler and I had a fairly large project to do this time, so I decided it was time to stop putting so much wear and tear on the Black&Decker drill and get one of these. Well, this thing is enormous compared to the drill and small spiral mixer. The problem with its being so large is you really cannot mix a small batch or mortar. It simply slings all the mortar to the side of the bucket up fairly high and then there's nothing left to mix. I you're not in good physical condition for spreading a sizeable amount of mortar and then laying all the tiles to cover it within the working time of the mortar, you may be a bit frustrated.

I decided to buck up and mix about 10 pounds of mortar at a time, which is probably the minimum you can do with this mixer. I just decided to work faster for each batch and take longer breaks in between batches.

BTW, the instructions that came with mine never mentioned the gear shifter. It never mentioned how to control the speed. Perhaps I am doing something wrong, but sometimes the unit runs nice and slow, and then spontaneously it will start running much faster.

This was purchased for mixing mortar and cement. I'm a 5'4" female weighing in at 110 pounds and found it super easy to use. My husband and I only wish the different speeds were truly different; the rpms seem very close. Otherwise, super happy with the purchase. I've burned out too many drills by mixing mortar. I hope this one lasts.