I saw a new mixer today at Costco: A KA lift Bowl "professional" 6000 HD for $349. It is apparently a brand new machine made exclusively for costco that is in quality between the 600 series and the 7 qt Williams Sonoma. I talked to the service person and got the scoop on what the difference between the 600, the 6000HD and the 7 qt WS, and the what makes a machine NFS rated.

Horse Power: the 600 is just under 1 horse power while the 6000HD is at 1 horse power and the WS 7qt is 1.3 horse power. The 6000HD and the 7 qt have their brand new DC motor witch is more energy efficient, quieter and runs cooler.

Bowl: the 600 accessories do not completely submerge in the bowl (according to the rep?) but the 6000HD go 1/4" below the top of the bowl. The 6000HD had a new tulip shaped bowl (it's gorgeous!) but does not have a pouring shield or covers at this time. The rep said that the bowl is similar to the commercial 7 qt shape (?)

600 and 6000hd have a 1 year warranty, while the WS7qt has a 2 year 'hassle free' warranty (i guess a little hassle come with the other two?)

NSF: any machine that is not NSF rated will have no warranty if used in a commercial environment. The NSF machines have a guard near the speed that prevents it from accidentally turning on, and all the accessories are stainless steal so that they can be washed in a dishwasher (the others have aluminum whisks and enamel coated or aluminum paddles and hooks). The power cord on the NSF is also heavy duty. there is a 2 year warranty on the NSF.

So with all this information, i think that i really want to try the costco 6000hd. it is a step down from the WS 7 qt, but for the $210 difference i think it will meet my needs. I would LOVE to get the NSF 7 qt, but the $589 price tag on that is just too much for me. (and its not like my 6 cakes a month constitute a need for heavy duty commercial use)

I also asked about service for my KA 5 qt Artisan. It drops out speeds 6-10 when i'm mixing for a period of time (like on the final stretch of a sugarshack buttercream or on a SMBC. It was funny because the service woman said that *she* made cakes and she had no problem with the quality of her buttercream beating for 2-3 minutes on speed 4. "I get lots of air in it and it is so nice and fluffy". Yeah... i had to explain to her the concept of doing a full bowl and not letting any air in for a perfectly smooth ABC.

She basically said that the KAs were not designed to beat for such a long period of time! That because of how the beater hits in the bowl, it should take half as long to make anything. (i told her that most of my recipes assumed the use of a KA stand, so that's not the case). She said that the paddle is not designed to go over speed 6 and doing so will over work the motor (thus causing my top speeds to drop out). Only the whisk is designed for speeds 7-10.

I concluded that i really was overworking my 5qt artisan by doing a full bowl buttercream and it really doesn't need service (or at least that i didn't need to spend 32.50 on the shipping kit and then another $25 for them to say that it works fine when not doing 12 minutes worth of buttercream!

FWIW, they were very helpful in answering my questions on the mixers. I talked to two different people for about 30 minutes total.