Dec 08
I really liked the packaging of the Kenwood kMix Hand Mixer. It was a nice colour which matched the product, and it was securely packaged with a lid I found unique as it opened in a triangular shape (which is standard for Kenwood kMix packaging – ed).
The appearance of this Kenwood Hand Mixer is its biggest selling point and you can see that the manufacturers have invested a lot of effort into how it looks. Its retro cream colour and chrome detail reminded me of an old classic car. With connotations of quality and sophistication, it's a million miles away from other boring white appliances. First impression, was 'My kind of thing, can't wait to use it!'.
The set up was very easy - push in the 'blades', plug in and go! I only had to check the instructions to confirm how the blades should slot in. There was an additional attachment (for kneading) which seemed different to what you would normally get with a hand mixer and also a novel way of winding up and securing the power cable when not in use.
The holder that comes with the Hand Mixer is a good idea, although I'm not sure if people have enough worktop space to store it in this way, I didn't!
The Hand Mixer has a lot of function settings (rather than speed settings) and a pulse action. There seemed to be no specific on/off button, it comes on when you move it to the first setting or onto 'pulse'. This meant that sometimes when you went to switch it off, you slid the control too far (and into pulse mode) rather than 'stop'. It wasn't overly noisy, but again, it was quite heavy - this is my main criticism. It wouldn't suit someone who had poor wrist strength.
Despite the weight I really liked the device. It's very stylish and fits with other kitchen gadgets such as the Dualit range (i.e. durable, quality, stylish, funky). Although the settings were minimal, it had everything you'd need for mixing, whisking and blending (whisking egg whites was SUPER fast and cake mixes a cinch).
Please note that it is not dishwasher safe however.
I would buy this product as it worked well and it has the 'look' I would go for. I would expect this product also has the durability to have a long life.
Price in the region of £40 . See here for the technical details.
Available from Amazon, and from other online and high street retailers