Kenwood KMM770 Chef Major Premier Stand Mixer

I bought the KMM770 at the beginning of December 2012 and have been thrilled with it every day. At the time it cost £329.99. I am 31 and had spent a lot of time researching the best machine for me; one that I hope will do the first few decades of married life! I found reviews on Amazon to be really useful in my research so will write one myself in the hope it helps someone else.I decided against the Kitchenaid in favour of the Kenwood simply because of the range of attachments; the Kitchenaid seeming to be more use for those who make a lot of sweet foods, whereas the broad spectrum of attachments available for the Kenwood attracted me because I mainly use my machine for savoury foodstuff; bread dough (who has the energy and time to knead pizza dough by hand on a week night?!), crepe batter (savoury crepes a new favourite easy-meal simply because this machine makes the job so easy) etc. I also learned that the cute K-Mix doesn't have the same attachment outlets, meaning limitations I wasn't prepared to accept in exchange for 'style'. I was only considering Chef models until I saw this model at a very competitive price during the American Black Friday Sale in December, which allowed me to spend what I was expecting to, but get a much bigger and better (more powerful and with several included items) machine. I would not consider a plastic bodied machine after seeing one on display somewhere and feeling it was too flimsy and, well, plasticky. Not worth the perceived saving; better to spend a little more and go for metal body every time.Size-wise I am thrilled, I was dreading the arrival of a monster -more having to find space for one in my modest kitchen.. however I am thrilled to have both capacity and space! Now when I see a 'Chef' I can't understand how people cope. I have not found it distressingly noisy; the machine could be made quieter but I am sure that either its compact design or price would suffer for it as noise reduction is only achievable by using quieter components (£££) or building in noise dampening (bigger machine body). I am happy with my machine as it is and would never dream of trying to converse with somebody whilst blitzing fresh coffee. I have not so far regretted the fact the the KMM770's motor is 1200W rather than the 1500W on some other Major models.The stainless steel bowl is great and I love that it is without handles on this version. They would just get in the way when trying to wash it up, or take up space in the fridge. The thermo-glass jug is a brilliant inclusion for smoothies, for ice in cocktails and blitzing soups -would have cost £50 to buy separately and is a huge plus. The splash guard is brilliant, even if the fit is a little slack; it is held in place on the machine by two small notches which align onto two blobs on the machine head. The flap to pour stuff in is the perfect size and it's another surprisingly clever addition. It does threaten to fall off but usually because the notches are not quite aligned onto the blobs (that will make sense if you have a look at the machine).I immediately bought the spice mill attachment for the high-speed (top) outlet; something I consider essential -four little glass jars with lids and the mill attachment itself, I can whiz up two separate sauces for pasta in a moment (husband likes home-made pesto, I love lemon and olive oil with black pepper) and have a constant supply of freshly ground black pepper without having to crunch a pepper mill endlessly over a vat of bolognese sauce.My only problem when I opened the box was that Amazon appeared to list the new Flexi-beater as an included item. When the HUGE box arrived there was no sign of it, and no mention of it on the box itself despite having been mentioned in the comparison chart and the item listing. I called Amazon and they kindly sent me one, I find it very useful. I still have to scrape the bowl a little but think that is a case of requiring adjustment rather than a flaw in the design. I believe the Kitchenaid JUST has the edge on that one..! However, as I rarely use the machine for cake type batters it is not really a big problem, and a spatula is supplied after all.In summary I am certain I made the right choice for my stand mixer, and will continue to expand my assortment of attachments, all of which will improve my chances of bothering to try new recipes -home made sausages, pasta and ice-cream, anyone..?

Used this for the first time today to make two 8" & 6" sponge cakes worked real well nice slow speed to start off with so no ingredients flying everywhere nice opening on the splash guard for adding ingredients real pleased with this machine

Positive: good for large quantities of bread dough as long as you keep it wet enough as otherwise it will simply push a ball of dough around the bowlNegative: can be turned on while open (safety flaw!). Also it simply doesn't do anything I can't do quicker by hand. Take creaming butter and sugar as an example. If the butter is soft, I can do it easily by hand and don't need to get out the heavy Kenwood. If the butter is hard, the Kenwood doesn't cream it either. I tried and it was a disaster. And whatever you make you are constantly busy trying to push your mix of the side of the bowl and into the reach of the whisk or other attachment.Really, it takes me twice as long to make cake in this than it does by hand. Whisking eggs or cream? Do you need a massive Kenwood for that. I do it with a mechanical hand whisk in no time.

I used a Kenwood Chef Major Titanium KMM020 for 5 years daily and thought that was pretty loud but the KMM770 is even louder. The other point is that both of them sound very "mechanical" - as though they could do with a bit of oil. I was watching Raymond Blanc on TV using a KMM020 in his commercial kitchen and it sounded smooth and quiet - do Kenwood make sure he gets a special !?One other criticism is that the KMM770 needs a bowl with handles - it's 6.7 litres so it's quite large and not easy to handle when full of mixture. I took the bowl off the old KMM020 and used that instead.Not sure how long the silver paint is going to last. It appears to be the same as the KMM020 and that got pretty patchy quite quickly, even if it was in daily use.Both mixers do the job, so I wouldn't mark either of them too far down. However, Kenwood could do better!

For years I made loaves in large bread machines. I have worn out three, all from Prima and they each lasted over ten years in spite of my overloading with dough. I never baked in the machines, preferring oven loaves. I wanted a similar replacement but there are few if any large machines on the market just now. I researched this quite carefully. I like to make two large loaves or four small ones and freeze the surplus. That's 1.8 kg of dough. The machine specification allows up to 2.4 kg so this is safely inside the rated limit. After months of use, I now knead wet dough for ten minutes on the slowest speed, add the remaining flour and oil and knead for a further five minutes at a faster speed (1.5) After an hour of proving time, I turn out the dough, divide it into loaves and knead these by hand, to knock out all the gas which does not take long. This greatly improves the second rise. It's noisier than my old machines but not too bad. The dough climbs up the hook but this does not seem to matter. The anti-splash cover is flimsy and does not fit well but it's not needed for bread kneading. Rival models, as seen on "Bake Off" cost a lot more and have a lower dough capacity, too small for my needs. If this machine is reliable, I'll be well pleased. EDIT: 18 months later I'm still well pleased.

I like the attachments I've accumulated for the mixer, especially the mincer and spice grinder. I came across one PROBLEM when attempting to make marshmallows wih my grandson - the lack of an automatic cut-off mechanism. SO, when the mixture became gooey the machine just kept going and overheated resulting in grey grease dripping out and into the bowl. Fortunately the machine still seems to be working and there haven't been any more leaks. The machine seems to be on the noisy side comapred to its main rival but not enough to bother me.Come on Kenwood, fit the automatic cut-off!!