Thought I'd follow-up for anyone who stumbles across this. It appears that the two commercial units are identical except for the bowl that comes with them. The Pro-Line is nearly identical except it is not NSF (not an issue for most home users) and some of the gearbox is plastic rather than metal. Appears to be same motor & controller and all attachments/bowls are interchangeable between all 3 of these. The commercial are apparently just a tad quieter (better gearbox?) and have a longer and heavier power cord. The pouring shield will NOT fit on the 8qt bowl, but will on the 7qt bowl. The commercial 8qt bowl should fit on the pro-line.

I went through a KitchenAid Artisan in three years, which disappointed me. I did some research, found a local store carrying the DeLonghi (now with as much badge engineering as GM: Kenwood, DeLonghi, Cuisinart, Viking). I talked with them, bought it, brought it home and started a batch of Oatmeal Raisin cookies; it blew a circuit halfway through the batch, where the puny KA would just keep mixing. I called the store (their solution? "Let the mixer rest for 30 minutes and resume." My response, "Mix for five minutes, rest for 30? Really?"), and cleaned the mixer, returned it, and got a refund (after much wrangling). Instead, I bought the KitchenAid 600 Professional, which ran for three years before grinding gears off this morning on a batch of PeanutButter cookies.... My mixer gets used twice a week, usually on desserts, and never get close to bowl capacity, so they're not abused. All of which to say: you can spend $400 for three years of mixing with a KA, or the same for a DeLonghi that shuts down in ten minutes.... The earlier comment about wattage ratings is accurate: it's not about output, but usage. Based on experience, I'd buy the Hobart (KA is a spinoff of Hobart), but based on budget, I'll either repair the KA or replace it with another.

klseiverd, I have the meat grinder, which works great when making sausage. I also have the slicer, a gift from beachlily who never used it, but I use it when canning pickles or making large batches of scalloped potatoes for family dinners, etc. and the shredder when packing sauerkraut. I have the pasta extruder which I haven't been able to make work yet, the pasta comes out I strings and then all sticks back together in a lump, no matter what I do, so good luck with yours. I think the fruit/veggie strainer might be for making apple or tomato sauces, as CLBlakey mentioned. It is a very nice gift indeed. Have fun. Annie

I received my beaterblade yesterday from Amazon, just in time for today's cookies. After reading the thread from the N.Y. Times regarding butter ... this blade is the answer. It works wonderfully!!! I made 14 doz. cookies today using the blade. Made sure that butter was at the correct temperature. I'm in FL so I stuck my 6 qt. bowl in the freezer to "chill". Then turned down the air conditioning. I made chocolate crackle cookies, cranberry/walnut cookies from a thread here in the Cooking Forum, and spritz cookies. Made sure the butter/sugar was thoroughly creamed and proceeded. The beaterblade does cream butter/sugar in 1/2 the time and does a great job! I've always made good cookies, but this year's array are really, really good! Thanks for the headsup on this product. I'm amazed that it works so well!