I don't have the mixers you're looking at. But, as a 30+ year home bread baker, my absolute recommendation goes to the Magic Mill by Electrolux. The rollers do a MUCH better job of kneeding bread dough than a dough hook. If you're interested, I'll post more info on the Electrolux. When my Bosch died 3 years ago, I researched mixers extensively and "test-drove" the KA, Bosch, DeLonghi, and Electrolux at King Arthur Flour's test kitchen in Vermont. Electrolux won,, hands down.

The following was what I read on another thread about mixers on this forum. I assume your experience must be quite different with the Electrolux? Do you do all of your other mixing with it, as well as bread?

*************review from other thread*********************

Advanced degree needed

The 8-quart Swedish-made Electrolux Assistent DLX 2000 is popular in Europe but has been slow to catch on in the U.S. Like the Bosch, the power unit is the base and the bowl sits on top. It has a timer with a maximum setting of 12 minutes, and the speed dial lights up for visibility. It uses a scraper and roller or dough hook.

What we thought: A mixer shouldn't be this hard to use. A simple height adjustment required a screwdriver. The arm assembly was stiff, and the pin holding the attachments was hard to clean. Overall, it was too much work to assemble and disassemble. And though it passed the whipping and kneading tests, it failed miserably in the creaming test. The cubes of butter kept getting caught between the scrapper and roller. We added sugar, hoping that the friction would dislodge the butter. What we got, instead of creamed butter, were sugar-coated butter balls.

*********************End of quote************************

There is a learning curve with anything new and the Electrolux is no exception.

I was fortunate to have been at the King Arthur test kitchen and they showed me how to use the machine.

Let's take the above items one at a time...

1.) I don't know what they are talking about with the height adjustment. I've never adjusted anything to do with height. The bowl sits on top of the motor so there's no motor head above the bowl to get in your way...hence nothing to "adjust".

2.) The assembly arm can't be "stiff". There is a knob on the side of the arm with large groves to make it easy to grasp...you just simply turn it one way to loosen and the other way to tighten. I have arthritis in both hands and can easily grasp the knob. It's large and if it's hard to move it's because you tightened it too much...operator error not the machine.

3.) The pin holding the attachments is solid SS (about 3" long with a little knobby thing at the top). I can't figure out for the life of me what could be hard to clean. It's a solid piece of SS for goodness sake. I've never had to do anything but wipe it down for a little bit of flour dust. There are NO grooves, crannies, etc. to catch any food particles on or in. It looks sorta like a gigantic SS nail.

4.) Assemble and disassemble...too much work? Huh? Preparing the mixer for use consists of the following: a.) put scaper arm in hole (this is again a solid piece of SS and just drops into a hole...how hard can that be?) b.) push the pin into the roller (wow, that's hard!) and that it...assembly complete...time required...maybe, 2 seconds.

5.) Creaming butter/sugar requires knowing how to use the machine. The Owner's Manual is quite good but sometimes folks don't really pay that much attention to Owner's Manual instructions. The roller adjusts from tight against the bowl to completely loose and floating. If the butter was getting caught on the scraper then the roller was not adjusted property...too loose...the roller should have been tighter against the bowl.

If you go into using this machine expecting it to be a KA then you'll be frustrated. It works on a completely different design. It is, IMO, much superior for all mixing but it is extraordinarily superior for kneading bread dough. The roller acts like the palm of your hand in the kneading process. With each rotation of the bowl, the roller pushes the dough against the side of the bowl the same way in hand kneading you push the dough down against the table. You end up with a thoroughly kneaded dough that is silky smooth.

My machine came with a separate mixing bowl and wire whip for doing egg whites. I've never used it. The Owner's Manual tells you that the roller does a better job but since most American's are used to the whip attachment they included one. I find the roller does a beautiful job on anything from a single egg to a couple dozen for angel food cakes. I especially think it does a great job with meatloaves. The roller is more gently than a hook and so you end up with a more tender meatloaf, meatballs, etc. Cookies...the Electrolux is so much better here it's almost funny. The roller does not beat so much air into the cookie dough so your cookies will not have that awful commercial texture even doing a triple batch loaded with chocolate and nuts. The speed control is excellent...it using a sliding knob that gives infinite control of the speed rather than separate speed zones. I've never needed a timer with more than 12 minutes. Six to eight minutes will perfectly knead even the heaviest of rye doughs. Capacity is huge at 22 cups.

I'm not sure what else to address...if you have more questions, I'll try to answer...wish I could have you over for a slice of fresh, warm bread and show you how the machine works. I was so fortunate to live within driving distance of King Arthur.

If AnnT or Teresa don't see this thread you might want to repost on the Cooking Forum. I think both of them bake a lot of bread. Not sure what mixer they use.

I am pretty sure Ann T uses a Magic Mill. Pretty good endorsement.

AnnT does use an Elux for bread doughs I have a Bosch and love it. I've never tried an Electrolux but everyone seems to love them. I can see it taking awhile to get used to it because it took me awhile to get used to the Bosch but now I get perfect results everytime.
The Dimension was a Korean copy of the Bosch but apparently had internal faults with cheap gears and motors. I think they (whoever "they" were) discontinued it.

I use my Kitchen Aid mixer for bread dough mixing, cookie dough, cakes, meatballs, etc. Suits me just fine.

Teresa

Thank you, TriciaE, for putting in all that time and effort to tell me about the Electrolux!

My Dimension 2000 is very close to a Bosch, so that's what I thought I'd get when I need to replace it. That may be soon, since it has been sent in approx once a year for repair or replacement, but now 'they' ;-) seem to have disappeared, so sending it in will no longer be an option. The discussion on Viking and DeLonghi got me thinking that there were mixers out there, besides Bosch, that maybe I should investigate.

Teresa, I too have an old, faithful Kitchen Aid, but it just isn't big enough when baking for our family of 10. The 2 loaves of bread it will mix are devoured as soon as they hit the cooling rack!

I own a Viking 1000 watt, 7qt stand mixer and I LOVE IT!!!! I will never be without a Viking mixer. Another really nice thing with the mixer is that you can buy all kinds of attachments for the mixer. I am talking about an attachable blender, meat grinder, slicer & shredder. I could go on and on about my mixer but I think you get the point.

One of the past knocks against Kenwood pattern mixers which can be found under quite a varying assortment of brand names is shortage of replacement parts and slow turn around times out of warranty. The original units came from England and were fairly bulletproof but not so much in the recent past with those made elsewhere. I occasionally used to visit a local generic customer service outlet and they would build up quite a backlog waiting for the order to forward them to a repair service on receipt of parts.