I used the Kitchaid strainer for years. It was a big improvement over what I was using before. With constant use the motor heats up. After about thirty minutes of use mine started dripping motor oil into the sauce. I think the screen is a bit too close to the screw. I run the tomatoes through several times and only end up with seeds. The skins also get pushed through the mesh after a few passes. However the final passes are the most work for the machine. I upgraded to a dedicated tomato squeezer. It is much faster than the Kitchenaid and the machine does not struggle. The first pass leaves a wetter waste product than the Kitchenaid. However after several passes the final waste is just about as dry as the Kitchenaid waste after several passes thhrough the Kitchenaid. I have a 1/2 HP model which is a bit big and heavy. I should have opted for one of the 1/4 HP models which run about $300. A google search for tomato squeezer seems to work better than tomato strainer if one is looking for a dedicated machine. I canned a little under thirty quarts (about fifty quarts before boiling down) in my first canning session this year. I'll probably do about eighty by the time the season is over. I have to can more because my son has taken a liking to the sauce. And now I make my own ketchup. I dedicate an entire day to making sauce. Speed in the squeezing process is a big help. Zeuspaul

That deal you missed isn't a very good one anyway.. It looks like a very old version of a Victorio food strainer and they were very messy, and leaked out the shaft. The latest version is from Villaware and has a wrap around plastic shield to keep spatter down to a minimum. Also, the berry screen, as an option will get all the seeds out of raspberries and so you have a perfect seedless jam. I use it for my tomatoes and the skins and seeds pass out the end, which, on the newer Villaware, is another 4 inches of clear plastic cone to push out the waste even further from the metal conical strainers. The Villaware also has a rubber seal on the cranking shaft that stops any leakage from flowing out where the handle is attached. Cutting big tomatoes in halves and smaller ones are left whole. I can 'crank out' a bushel in less than 10 minutes. Very little effort compared to a Foley and works great even for small bits like for salsa, and even pumpkin. I sold my old Victorio for $5.00 a few years ago, but still have a similar Back To Basics model, that has the older wing nut screen design of the Victorio., but that shaft still leaks when I do watery stuff like tomatoes and even raspberries.

Kristin S, I agree, the Ankarsrum (aka DLX/Electrolux) isn't something one buys on a whim! It will last, and most cooks pass theirs down to daughters and sons... I've a friend who dearly loves her KA and wouldn't trade it for anything... Re: the issues you mentioned with your KA, here's a photo I found after my first unboxing of the Ankarsrum... kinda shows you the inside and the most commonly used attachments (2) I use for mixing breads, brownies, and cookie dough's. This shows the 'roller' and 'scraper' attachment: You can move the roller away from the bowl side and fix it to any distance from the bowl side and tighten that setting easily, but the roller will still move outward into the bowl's middle freely on it's own helping to mix/incorporate. Sometimes, if there's a little something (and it's always precious little) in the middle that's not mixing, I just manually move the roller (holding the chrome arm on top) over to the middle, then let it go, so it moves back. It's a bit odd initially, using something called a 'roller' to mix ingredients... but it does an amazing job incorporating unbeaten eggs, sugar, flour, extracts, raisins and choc chips (without crushing - no more hand mixing chips and raisin!), anything, really. The bowl rotates constantly at the speed setting of your choice, it never stops unless you turn it off. I add ingredients as it's moving, and flours never puff out, or get on anything... easy cleanup, too! You've lots of open room to add ingredients even from large bowls. I always make sure my butter or cream cheese is super soft (for the roller and especially the whisks and cake whisk attachments. There is no lifting of anything... not until your batter/dough is mixed. You un-tighten the roller arm, it moves out of the way on it's own, and you lift the bowl out. You can see the scraper is naturally sitting against the side of the bowl. The scraper gets "everything" and I rarely move it unless there's a bit of unmixed floor or ingredient on the scraper, at which point I just move it gently out toward the middle of the bowl, then let it naturally go back to the bowl side. Now, if you need to whip egg whites first, you'd instead use the clear bowl and use the whipping attachment instead. If you are making a thin batch of cookie dough or a cake that's thinner, again, you'd use the clear bowl but with the cake whisks. The clear bowl does not turn on it's own, it stays stationary while the whisks move. Here's a photo of the dials.. One changes speed (variable so any speed, plus the high speed is well, very high! It's not got labels, so you basically just go by how it feels and looks to you. The other turns it on, and if you turn it past the 'on' it acts as a timer as well... you can walk away if you need to and it will shut itself off. Another nice thing is the scraper, a simple plastic spatula that fits into the grooves of the 'roller', making batter scraping so easy! Weight: it's no lightweight at 19 lbs, but I think the KA weighs in at 25-29 lbs. Height: I've got 18" between counter top and cabinets... easy fit. Noise: You can hear it, but it runs on a belt drive... it's much quieter than any mixer I've used. I ordered mine from Pleasant Hill Grain, and after it arrived they sent me an email with a .pdf to print out explaining attachments to use, speed control conversions, etc. So, yes, a learning curve, but it's not a huge learning curve : ) There are a multitude of attachments also, but you turn the Ankarsrum on it's side to use most of them. I think the KA is great for many people, but has drawbacks. The primary drawback of the Ankarsrum is the price, IMO.

So far I love it. But how can you really tell after just a couple of months? I don't even knead bread, anymore; just let the machine take care of that little chore. And I love the bowl-lift mechanism. We used to have an Oster Kitchen Center, and, as a result, I developed a healthy dislike for tilt-head mixers. The only sort-of negative is that the bowl is too large when making single-recipe breads, and the full-force of the dough hook doesn't come into play. Same thing with beating egg whites. Just guessing, but I would think the same thing applies with whipping cream, etc. But I can easily live with that. For the nounce (y'all know what a nounce is? It's a trice with one of its wings clipped) it's stored on top of the fridge. So I also get some exercize, lifting it up and down from there. BTW, I wrote KA about the strainer, and they do not recommend using it with blackberries. The seeds, they say, are just the perfect size to get stuck in the screen. Alas! >:(