Kenwood Chefette HM680 Hand Mixer with Stainless steel Bowl, 5 speeds and pulse function,Stainless steel beaters and kneaders, 350W- White

I am so pleased with this mixer. It replaced a basic hand-held mixer that gave up the ghost recently. I was eyeing up something of the KitchenAid class, as I was getting fed up with the amount of icing sugar and flour dust on my work top every time I was making a cake. I thought the Kenwood combined mixer was too much of a good deal to not give it a go, and also I have been extremely impressed with their mini mixer which is a permanent feature on my kitchen worktop for a few years now.The mixer is very well designed and good quality. The hand-held part of the mixer clicks easily into the main body. The positioning of the mixing attachments into the bowl is offset nearer the side of the bowl. This is really clever as it allows for even mixing of the ingredients and minimal requirement for scraping off mixture off the sides of the bowl. The bowl comes with a removable clear hard plastic cover which instantly sorted out my previous issues with dust caused by icing sugar or flour. There are 2 sets of mixing attachments depending of the type of baking, a spatula and an instruction booklet.The mixer has 5 speeds and a pulsating option and feels very powerful indeed. There is a lever at the back of the arm of the main body which allows for the mixer to be lifted when you need to remove the bowl from its position. The bowl is made of stainless steel and feels and looks really good quality. An added bonus is the whole mixer is compact and easy to store on a worktop or in a cupboard with the el. cable neatly tucked away around the back of the hand held part of the mixer.Overall very pleased with this product. I was toying with the idea of spending more but pleased to have found such a reasonably priced appliance which delivers on all levels. The cakes I have made so far with it have turned out fantastic. Easy to clean too.

This is a really excellent hand mixer and does a superb job.I was looking at kitchen aids and Kenwood chefs but to be honest I really needed something a little more compact for the size of our kitchen.The Chefette is a perfect size and takes up little room when sitting on its stand but the bowl is really quite large and can cope with anything I throw at it.I was pleased to find also that it has the facility to auto rotate and it's certainly a useful option as the mixer can sit whirring away whilst you are adding ingredients.So far I've done cakes, bread and meringues in my chefette and have been exceptionally happy with the results.I'd consider myself an advanced bread baker and this unit is a lifesaver when doing wetter mixes. I'd counsel people not to go over a 600g flour mix though as it tends to struggle a bit.The unit is very sturdy and well made. It has the feel of an expensive, strong mixer and fits snugly into its stand. The bowl cover is really useful for stopping flour flying all over the kitchen too!The only thing I am unsure about are the nylon gears on the beaters. These are part of the bowl turning mechanism and if you get too ambitious by filling the bowl too full with a heavy mix they tend to slip. I'm not convinced they won't need replacing at some point but take the view that pretty much any mixer you buy will include parts that are going to wear eventually.That having been said it is designed so that you can fit the beaters in the opposite holes and the gears don't engage. This means the bowl doesn't turn automatically but the unit will still work well.Overall I'm really happy with my purchase and glad to get rid of the cheapie mixer I had before.

Only just got this Chefette, but thought I would write this review to help others who may be puzzling over it. I've had my eye on one of these for some time now, and was very pleased with the Amazon price. It's £20 more in some high street shops, so it's well worth trawling the web to find the best price. Initially I was frustrated with it, and almost sent it back. For a start, as usual these day, the instructions are not good. I really struggled to find out how to tip the mixer upwards in order to remove the bowl. The leaflet shows a release button on the back, but says nothing about how to use it. Eventually, with the help of some of the questions on Amazon, I discovered what to do. However, mine is very stiff. (One person indicated in the Amazon questions that it could be stiff at first, so that was reassuring.) But I'm left handed, and found it really difficult, if not impossible to use this button with my right hand. Doing it the left handed way is somewhat awkward, but hey, we lefthanders get used to this in a right handed world.When I say the button is stiff, it does make a rather alarming 'crack' when it lifts up, but I watched a YouTube video, and lo and behold, I heard exactly the same noise! So I'll not worry about that too much yet, but just make sure I send of the warrenty papers a.s.a.p.! Next problem was, I couldn't see how to put the bowl on the stand. There are various holes and protrusions on the base which I thought must have to match up with similar marks on the bowl. Apparently not. You just put it down. At first I though this couldn't be right and I could not turn the bowl around by hand without it seeming to catch on the stand. As it was doing this I thought there was no way it was going to rotate when in action. I was careful to put the beaters in the correct holes. There is a right and wrong way to do this, but this is not clear from the instruction paper. (Also, there is one YouTube video which shows them being put in the wrong holes, so be careful! If in doubt, study the answers to the questions on Amazon.)Amazingly, once I switched the machine on, the bowl spun round beautifully. I don't understand how, but it works! So, so far, I am very pleased with it. It looks very smart in my kitchen, and the cake was a success. For those who have asked whether you can get a cover for it, I got my see through cover from Ebay. I bought this in advance when I was seriously considering getting this mixer. There are lots of different ones there, and I do recommend the cover I've got. Ask me if you want further details. I may, as time goes on, upgrade this to 5 stars. I've given it 4 in light of my frustrating afternoon getting the thing going.