My KA is the tilt back head.

A 1981 Kitchenaid K45. I bought an extra bowl and whisk beater. Don't use it often, but having double bowls/whisks is so handy for certain favorite recipes.

The new KAs have plastic gears (they are made by Whirlpool now, not Hobart). Still good for baking, but if you're doing very stiff doughs or bread-making, Breville and the Cuisinart rate better per Cooks Illustrated.

Tilt-back heads are very popular, but make sure the stand mixer will fit under your upper cabs if you plan to keep it on the counter. Some of them are quite tall.

It may be worth checking out the Bosch universal mixer. I have a good friend who switched to that after her KA quit and she is very happy.

I have a tilt head Kitchenaid, got it about 6 yrs ago when my Oster kitchen center died. I had a hard time adjusting to the flat beater.

I replaced my old Kitchen Aid with a new one a few years ago. They don't make them the way they use to! It's okay, but the old one was better.

I have a 33 year old KA with tilt back head. It still works fine!

I have a KitchenAid 6-quart with the bowl that lifts. It's one of the good ones, from 30+ years ago. Hubs bought it for me way back then, and I love it.

A Kitchen Aid Ultra power. Yes, I like it. I've had it .....20 years or so.....

Lost my KA in the flood a few years ago, just have a mixer, no stand, works fine.

I have a KA with the tilt back head. I think it must be 25+ yrs old. I love it. I use it quite often but not even weekly. But she’s there when I need her. A real work horse. I wouldn’t, have any other brand.

I have a tilt head Kitchen Aid over 30 years old.

My sister bought it when she was mad at her husband....and never used it so she gave it to me.

I use it a lot.

I have a sunbeam mix master. KA is a good mixer, but it is soooooo heavy. Years ago I had money in hand to buy a KA then I lifted it and said no way would I want to lift that heavy weight out of a cabinet every time I wanted to use it. I like very little on my counter tops. If your mixer is going to live on your counter top then I would get a KA.

My present KA also dates to 1993. It is a Proline lift.. Very powerful and a nice big bowl.. I once knew someone who had a huge professional Hobart and it was cherry red no less. I lusted after that machine. It is a pity but unfortunately true that past perfection has no bearing on what you will get today. No matter how good your past machine is that doesn't mean something with the same name today will be as good. I would want to know how people feel about something they have and use in the past couple three years.

We have a Kitchen-Aid that is from, probably the 1980s. We don’t use it much, mainly because there is absolutely no place to keep it in the kitchen, so it is in the basement pantry! And besides, it’s a lift-bowl which I never did like, I think I’d prefer a tilt-back. And room to keep and use it. But, anyway, when I do use it, it’s still going strong!

Kitchen Aid, bowl lift model from the mid 80's.

We're still using the KitchenAid mixer that we bought in 1976. It's the 5 quart lift bowl and we paid $157 - it was a real splurge for us back then. But we use it a couple of times a month.

Kitchen Aid 6 qt lift bowl. It's just about 7 yrs old and replaced another Kitchen Aid.

I got a Sunbeam mixer as a wedding gift In 1969. Made mostly mashed potatoes in it,

Now I use a hand gadget to smash my potatoes and other hand tools to whip up mixes if needed.

I have a tilt model KA and use it at least a couple of times a week. If something happened to it I think I’d buy someone’s old one with metal parts vs a new one. It’s anout 10 years old so judging from these posts it could potentially make it another 20 + in good working order

Marie, do you realize that your mixer would cost $726 today! Still 43 years. You got your moneys worth.

Well that explains a lot about plastic parts and longevity, doesn't it? ^^^^^^

1989 Kitchen aid. I have always disliked it. I had one where you could scrape the bowl easier and add things easier but this is what DH decided I should have.

I can't remember when DH gave me my KA but I'm pretty sure it was back in the 80's. It's the lift kind and extremely heavy. Works like a charm and is very strong, came with one stainless steel bowl and a dough hook, batter paddle and a whisk. My old GE stand mixer before that one with the two glass bowls was honey though - worked great and wasn't as heavy.

I have two Kitchen Aid stand mixers, one pretty old and is the tilt top, the other one is a bigger one and does not tilt. the older one I bought at a garage sale for $20. One of the things I like using them for is the noodle attachment. I put the roller on one and the cutter on the other. Makes it so nice to keep making noodles and not have to switch attachments. I do have a lot of the attachments.

Sue

Patriciae - I was tempted to give mine to DD and buy a new one when all the pretty colors came out but just couldn't justify it - especially since I put it in the pantry when not in use. DH mixes bread dough in it and that's a real test of the motor and gears.

The only attachment we really use is the meat grinder. We use our old Atlas for noodles.

KA, about 10 years old, tilt back head, still going strong!!

Another KA'er here. A cobalt blue tilt back model received as a birthday gift maybe 25 years ago. Before that I had only a hand mixer but the KA opened up a whole new world!! I use it probably at least once a week.....more frequently when a lot of baking going on, like during the holidays. Yeah, it's heavy as heck but lives close by in the pantry so easy to access. And is good exercise toting it around!

I have a 21 year old KA. Just a word of caution -- KA's are now just "assembled" in the US -- the motor is made in China (?) (or at least overseas) and contains plastic parts and they are not as good as the old ones. I would get a European mixer if my KA ever bites the dust or look for a refurbished one.

Now I'm a bit worried. I asked my dh for a stand mixer for Christmas. I didn't give him any guidelines but I'm hoping he didn't spend a lot of $$ for what might be junk.

I love KA threads! I have a KA Artisan tilt-head, which I bought used when I remodeled the kitchen. It's red--I wanted yellow, but this one was such a great price, and looked brand new. It was missing one of the beaters, but I found one on ebay, and it was still a great price. It stays on the counter in my baking area, under a shelf high enough to allow the head to tilt. My old KA (Classic-almond) from the 1980's was passed down to my younger DD, born in 1990, who was thrilled to get it.

After a few years of using the Artisan, I had to replace a pin which holds the planetary tower stable. I thought it might be a stripped worm gear, but when I took the cover off, the worm gear was fine. I had to take out all the grease and sift through it to find the broken pin, before repacking the grease.

I bought another used KA (Ultra-white, also looked unused) with a set of new attachments--grinder, juicer, slicer--and an extra bowl included. The suggested retail price of the attachments was more than I paid for everything. I was thinking about painting it, but I heard my niece say she'd like to have one if they weren't so expensive. I gave her the mixer, but kept the attachments and extra bowl.

When my mother passed away I took her KA mixer. A friend had given her
the mixer only, so for Mother's Day that year I bought her the three
beater attachments and a bowl. My sister-in-law didn't have a stand
mixer, so I later gave it to her, with instructions to return it if ever she
decides she no longer wants it.

For several years I watched for a good price on the ice cream bowl attachment, but never found one. Recently my sister gave me one as a gift, because she likes hers. I have to say that I haven't used it as much as I thought I would.

As far as I know, all the mixers are used often and are working well. ETA, even though KA is no longer assembled in the USA, and use plastic (nylon?) gears, they are not junk!

Even new Kitchen Aids are not junk. They continue to rate very highly. Just not up to the same high quality as older models.

I agree with gardengal. My new one works fine, but it's just not made like the old one. I probably would have gotten the KA pro but it's too high to fit into the cabinet I keep it in so I just got the basic one.

A 1990's era Kitchen Aid. We use it often enough that it deserves a place on the roll out shelf of pantry. We purchased one last week (Bird of Paradise), a Christmas gift for my daughter and her family.

Kitchenaid. Jody just surprised me with it a couple of weeks ago.

I had one then sold it. I didn't use it as often as I thought, and I'm still able to make my breads by hand which I love doing.

I had a Cuisinart which was a real workhorse. The Kitchenaid motors are burning out these days, not as well made as in the past. With the speed settings, it automatically starts out slow then speeds up on its own. It also has a timer, so if you want to whip something for 2 minutes, for example.

I had a buyer for mine right away, she said her son is a chef and when he saw my listing he told her to grab it.

A Kitchenaid. A pink one. I got it free through my employers wellness program,along with my pink cuisinart immersion blender and pink soft serve ice cream maker/dispenser. I walked a lot of steps to rack up enough points to get it. Now they just give gift cards,not stuff. I got it when I still lived with my parents and didn't need it. I was always getting nagged for acquiring all that pink kitchen stuff when I did not have a house to put it in, but I did anyway and I am glad. They don't make them in that shade of pink anymore. And when I bought my house,I did not need to buy anything for the kitchen. :) boo ya.

I had a Kitchen Aid but got rid of it when I moved. I did not use it much and was too heavy for me.

I have an old avocado green Kitchen Aid. I hope it lasts forever!

I have a kitchen aid and I would love to use it this Christmas if I ever get over this cough from bronchitis. So frustrated.

happy2b. I sure hope you feel better soon. It is frustrating to be sick and coughing so much.

Sunbeam inherited from my mother. It's had very little use 'cuz the dang thing is so stinking heavy. I refuse to leave it on the counter for the very little use it would get. It's in the pantry and I hate, hate, hate dragging it out into to the kitchen. I much prefer the Sunbeam hand mixer (also from my mother).

After researching and watching videos, I think the KitchenAid Classic Plus series 4.5 quart tilt head will be the one I will want to get IF I can find one. It should fit under my upper cabinets as well as my Hamilton Beach does and I am used to the tilt head type.

Thanks everyone for your replies to my post. I really appreciate all of your views and comments about your mixer.

i have a tilt KA too and love it. i’m sure u will love yours too!

I have a KitchenAid with tilting head that I had been wanting for quite a while. I got a red one and I'm very pleased with its operation. True, it's very heavy and I wanted it to be accessible on the kitchen counter and yet be out of the way. A corner counter was deep enough for the KA to be stored out of the way, and I set it on a thick pad so that I can easily slide it in and out of its spot when needed.

Mine is a heavy duty Kitchen Aid with 6qt bowl that lifts. The date on the receipt is March 29, 1979. Paid 149.86 for it It had a lot of use in at least 35 of it's 40 years with me.

I have a tilt head Kitchen Aid over 30 years old.

My sister bought it when she was mad at her husband....and never used it so she gave it to me.

LOL I have a Hobart KA from sometime in the late 70's-early 80's. I bought it new because I was mad when my husband bought yet another gun for hunting. He never was much of a hunter; the KA has seen a lot more use and put a whale of a lot more food on the table!

2008 KA 6 quart lift pro. Heavy, but works up breads with ease and the meat grinder attachment is very nice.

I don’t understand why some come with a glass bowl vs metal. Seems it cou,d break while washing if it gets hit on the sink, or dropped on my tile floor!

Glass has it's uses. Some stuff shouldn't really be made in a metal bowl. And glass can hold temps more evenly than SS, so can be better for if you use a lot of ice or warm baths during mixing. Clear ones you can see if everything is really mixed, or watch your dough rise.

Fine tuning stuff. I don't do much of that kind of mixing, so SS is great for me.