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From the episode: Pucker-Up Pies
Can you buy a solid mixer for under $200?
The $500 stand mixers in our test kitchen are powerful enough to work all day (see our related review). Can the home cook who needs less muscle buy a good standing mixer for less money? To find out, we rounded up eight models priced under $200.
We first decided where to compromise. Expensive mixers come with 5- or 6-quart bowls, big enough to knead a double batch of bread dough. Bowl size in the models we tested ranged from 3.5 to 4.6 quarts—large enough to mix and knead the dough for one large loaf of bread or three medium pizzas.
Where we did not compromise, however, was requiring the mixer have the power and efficiency to perform tough tasks. Successfully mixing pizza dough without struggling or bucking separated the winners from the losers. When we analyzed the victors, we discovered that they shared one feature in common: They all have one beater arm instead of two. So why is one beater better? One-beater mixers utilize "planetary action," meaning the beater rotates on its axis while spinning around the bowl, thus ensuring the mixing attachment interacts with the entire contents of the bowl. Dual stationary beaters, on the other hand, rely on a rotating bowl, and the attachments never touch the entire contents of the mixing bowl—they carve through a single trough. In the pizza dough tests, dual dough hooks bored
holes into the dough and never kneaded it into a cohesive mass.
Besides the strength test, we also required that our mixers be operator-friendly. Some of the losers required substantial strength to move the head or eject the beaters; operating our winners was intuitive and easy.
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