The main setup "” the steel bowl, roller, and scraper "” is unbeatable. Its kneading action is far superior to any dough hook I've ever used, especially for the fresh-milled whole-grain doughs I usually make. (Of course, its dough hook is also respectable.) The torque and power in this mixer is incredible, easily handling an extremely tough dough that killed my Kitchen Aid. I was extremely skeptical, but having tried it I'm amazed at how good the roller/scraper is at creaming butter and sugar for cookies; I don't understand how it does it, but it's some of the fluffiest creamed butter I've ever gotten. (Just use room-temp butter, don't tighten the tension knob so the roller rests against the side of the bowl, and mix on high speed.)

Because the motor is in the base, it's bottom heavy so it doesn't budge when mixing "” unlike the top-heavy Kitchen Aid that will walk off the counter unless I hold onto it throughout the mixing. And the timer is very handy to have, especially since it's no problem to leave it alone. I know a lot of people don't like the fact that the bowls don't have nice big handles "” due to the fact that the stainless bowl spins and the plastic one is designed to fit inside the stainless on "” but I haven't found it to be a problem. I don't really pour out of the stainless bowl, and the plastic bowl has a small handle at the top that works very well.

The plastic bowl and the beaters are also very good, but not as good as they could be. While the beaters do a really great job whipping egg whites and cream, they don't deal well with small quantities. (Though I have a hand blender that fills this niche very well.) The bowl is also a bit cramped. At 3.5L, it's just half the size of the steel bowl, or 70% the size of the KA Artisan. On the other hand, I don't often need to whip huge quantities, and can just use the steel bowl for most other types of mixes. But it's annoying that the beaters (and other plastic pieces) are not supposed to go in the dishwasher. Also, there are some applications in which it's handy to put a metal bowl over boiling water before rushing it back to the mixer to whip something up "” particularly Swiss meringue "” which is obviously not possible with plastic.

More broadly, there are unfortunate aspects about the Ankarsrum experience. There's not a great variety of attachments, and those that exist are about 3 times more expensive than the equivalents available for other brands. I don't understand why no one has made a converter that could screw onto the Ankarsrum and accept Kitchen Aid attachments. It would be such a simple piece of equipment, and so easy to make really sturdy, but so valuable. The KA does go up to somewhat higher RPM, but most attachments (other than pasta rollers) don't really need the highest speeds.

Still, all in all, I am happy with my purchase, and don't have any regrets about leaving the Kitchen Aid family.

I received a Mockmill grain mill from my husband. After learning what is lost in store purchased flour I and store bought breads I told my husband I wanted to try making my own bread from my own home made flour. What I learned really quickly was using homemade flour is drastically harder than store bought flour due to the different preservatives used in shelf stable flour. Kneading is an important process to home made flour bread making and a lot more required for successful loaves. My kitchen aide mixer couldn't do it and was only good for combining ingredients not heavy kneading of bread dough. I was barely able to make enough dough for two loaves. I made my first batch of bread dough yesterday and I'm completely amazed at the difference in the two. My kitchen aide is in no way comparable to my new Ankararum. The ankarsrum in one batch made 4 loaves and kneaded it beautifully without me having to do any of the kneading and it did it seamlessly without straining at all. It's considered a kitchen assistant not just a mixer and it shows. The old old kitchen aides might have been better than the newer ones but today's kitchen aide isn't any real help at all. My first batch of bread I used the included cook book included with the kitchen assistant it was a great recipe and I made it with 100% home milled flour and it worked I had my assistant ; ) knead it longer than the recipe called for knowing it's needed with homemade flour. It was the best recipe and the best loaves of bread I've ever ever made. I wish I would have purchased it sooner and bypassed the kitchen aide all together. Get yourself an assistant it will help more than you ever thought possible.

I haven't bought bread for years now, so my Ankarsrum is used primarily for that purpose.
I had been using a KitchenAid but started getting an oil seepage around the oscillating(?) mixer head. Not bad... but not good. Mixing denser dough also caused the mixer to get very warm too. I liked the KitchenAid, it was basically put the ingredients in and walk away... (Alexa... 10 minute timer). Voila! Let the dough rise. Form the loaves. 20 minutes later... Fresh baked bread. (Bring on the butter and I'm in hogs heaven!)
The Ankarsrum is a bit different. It isn't add ingredients and walk away... well... Kinda. It take a little monitoring, but the results are definitely worth it.
Just a bit of a learning curve.
As far as a denser dough? No problem. It's just the way it mixes. Actually I think you could mix cement in it and it would do just fine without damaging the machine. (No I haven't and won't.) It's just a very well made machine.
Would I recommend it? Yes, if you're going to use it often. No, if it's going to set on the shelf for months at a time. It is kind of pricey, but if you need or want a great mixer, it's probably the only one you'll ever need to buy.

This is a great, powerful machine , and if you want to make big batches of bread, or big batches of cookie dough, even, it is the machine you need - it makes fantastic breads, better than a stand mixer (there's just some kind of nice motion to the kneading) and it can make a lot of it.

However, if you want to make a cake, some scones, or a batch of cookies, no. That is a first rate pain in the butt.

I really dislike the plastic mixing bowl, horrible design the column up the center is a waste of space and makes everything harder, especially scraping out and washing, and the need to literally put the beaters together every time you want to use them, and then washing all the little cracks and crevices... no. It also leaves butter/sugar at the bottom of the bowl no matter what you do.

Why not just make a nice whisk/paddle that would work in the main stainless bowl??? That would have been perfect.

Another big issue is that even the large bread bowl/attachments will not incorporate butter well (you see this in other reviews, etc). It doesn't do it even if it's softened - you have to completely melt butter for the mixer to combine it with the dough, and even with bread, melted butter is not always desirable.

I have seen videos that say you can do everything in then main bowl, but you can't, or not easily -- the roller is a challenge to get it to cream butter/sugar, and small batches are difficult to get going as the bowl is so large, and the roller needs volume to to be able to "grab" the mixture and work well.

I thought I could keep it and learn to love it, but I just can't -- it's too much money for something that can't do everything -- not without making simple tasks harder, anyway. I had to really think about it, though, because I didn't realize that **most sellers not only not do free returns, and they also will deduct some percentage for use** (though they said sometimes they don't or it's not much, so here's hoping). I've found this out the hard way. Buyer beware.

This is apparently because Amazon tells sellers that they cannot resell something that has been used, so they have to resell it in their own stores (or that's the explanation I was given, anyway). So I will be charged something for this "trial." However, that's better than having spent $800 for something I can't use easily to do normal baking.

Weight is just perfect, not have and the mixer is very stable in any surface. Comes with enough attachments so you can make breads, cakes, merengues and more. I love the design color and size! Just look amazing on my countertop. Motor is great for heavy doughs and you can ajuste as you like. You can set the timer and leave the machine while you take care of other things around. I loved it.