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.

I have both a 6 qt KA Pro and the Electrolux DX. The Electrolux can whip one egg white or knead 20 cups of dough BUT there is quite a learning curve. I use it to make bread all the time and also for very dense cookie doughs. But to whip up eggs or cream, make muffins, mash potatoes and most of the general baking I do, I still use the KA Pro. Mine is about 6 yrs old now so I probably have the plastic problematic gear box but so far it's only overheated once making a heavy bread dough. It worked fine after it had cooled down and I now use the Electolux for those jobs. You can find the KA Pro at great prices (20% off at BBB - sometimes even better at Amazon if you don't care about the color). Another thing to consider would be the tilt head. The Cuisinart and that great looking Bosch have tilt heads as do the 5 qt KA models. It makes it SOOOOOO much easier to add ingredients, scrape down the bowl and even just get the beaters into the bowl. That is one feature I miss on the 6 qt KA Pro - just thought I'd put it out there. BTW, when I was looking and before buying the Electrolux, I did look at The Bosch Universal and it was my second choice - can't go wrong with that one either (www.pleasanthillgrain.com) Finally the Cuisinart 5.5 qt earned top rating when Cooks Illustrated tested these in March 2008, the KA Pro 6 qt came in second. The Viking models and the Bosch Universal were recommended with reservations as were the KA 5 qt models and the Elecrolux - well that one was "Not Recommended".

Wow, that is a good sale. I had an eye on the Viking mixers for years but could never afford it. I finally settled for the Cuisinart 7 qt.. I'm pretty happy with it and it does a good job kneading dough. But I sure prefer the Viking. I'm sure there are plenty out there that are taking advantage of this sale.

Speaking of Kitchen AId my stand mixer broke the other day. The handle the makes the bowl go up and down inside piece broke. Does anyone have a site for parts? DH said he'd call Kitchen Aid this week...great time of the year for this to happen...typical!