I don't own a stand mixer, and until just recently, I relied mostly on my housemate'shand mixer . However, due to the fast approaching holiday baking season, I decided to get a hand mixer of my own. I like the Hamilton Beach line of hand mixers since they are cheap, and, from my experience with my housemate's hand mixer, they can stand up well to light/medium mixing jobs (about 3 years so far). I especially like the snap-on case in which to store all the attachments. I had the opportunity to get one of the name brand Kitchen Aid / Cuisinart hand mixers earlier this year, but I had gotten so used to the practicality of the attached storage case that I passed on buying the name brand ones. I prefer my housemate'shand mixer for the cord storage, since I can wrap the power cord around the hidden compartment at one end, whereas with this one, the cord is just stuffed into the snap-on storage case, along with all the beaters. I also dislike the "traditional beater" with the center post that this mixer comes with, but my housemate's comes with the "twisted wire" beater than doesn't have the center post down through the middle. Also, the snap-on storage case is harder to remove for this mixer compared to my housemate's. However, the case is gradually getting easier to put on and take off, so hopefully it will eventually reach a state where the case is easy on, easy off. So far, my housemate and I have used eitherthis mixer , or theHamilton Beach 62676 Performance Plus mixer for: whipped cream, whipped egg whites, banana bread, muffins and other quick breads, cupcakes, boxed cake mixes, cakes from scratch, frosting, brownies, soft cookie doughs, etc. This mixer is definitely not for mixing bread doughs or stiffer cookie doughs. For many cookie doughs, you just need to fold in by hand ingredients like chocolate chips or nuts after mixing the base dough, so this hasn't really been a problem yet for me. The main drawback with this hand mixer is that the front ventilation slashes on the mixer body can get lightly dusted or splashed with whatever you are mixing, but I've yet to see/use a hand mixer that doesn't suffer from this problem. I recommend this mixer as a practical solution for light to medium mixing jobs, although I'd rate theHamilton Beach 62676 Performance Plus mixer as slightly better, due to the wrap-around hidden cord compartment, and the fact that its main beaters do not have the center post down through the middle. For tougher jobs, though, more expensive hand mixers may be necessary, but so far, theHamilton Beach 62650 6-Speed Classic Hand Mixer, Silver has done a good job of every mixing task I've thrown at it.
