A couple of Kenwood Chef questions

Thistle-down

I would go for a good old reliable A701 or A901 - both models are very well built, better than most of the modern ones unless you plan on spending £500+ for a PM900, etc. Just remember that if you buy an A701, you need A701 attachments - the A901 attachments won't fit. If you want to buy the new attachments, most will fit the A901 range.

I have had both and prefer the A701 just because I think it looks nicer!

~Lynn

foreverskint

I must admit I prefer the A701, it's the one I got from freecycle and it's lovely and sturdy.
And yes my sponge cakes a fab now.:j

whistler-alison

Thistle-down wrote:

I did need to adjust the tools for use with a stainless steel bowl - but I can't remember if it was up or down. It wasn't much of a faff but would be if you were going to change bowls all the time. TBH I mostly use the kenlyte bowl as it is so much easier to wash up!!~Lynn;)

I want the second bowl because I often have two things on the go, like bread rising and I then want to make a cake and don't want to keep swapping and cleaning bowls. Oh I'm in a quandary now because I probably won't know for definate until I actually get the bowl. But I do really like the look of the stainless steel bowl - I've seen pictures of my orange one with the stainless steel bowl and they look fab. I wonder if it originally came with one. Maybe, as blairweech seems to be using hers OK interchangibly, there is an optimum height for the beaters which suits both - after all the difference between the bowls cannot be more than a few millimeters.

No answer about the clicking noise - I usually use my Major if I am doing tough dough mixing - I can't think of a time when my A701 has made any strange noises. ]

Does your 701 ever get hot? I find that it gets hot around the top of the beaters and around some of the body too. If this isn't normal, then I think it is probably evident that I am working it too hard.

Perhaps I need en excuse to buy a major now too!

Blairweech

I should add - ours is never used to make bread - it's used for things like cakes, meringues, whipping cream etc. Don't know whether it's that that would make the difference to the beater height...

whistler-alison

Actually, I think out of all the beaters , the dough hook would probably make the least difference to height because it doesn't need really need to scrape the bottom - it kind of picks up the dough as it goes round - it kind of sticks to it. With the whisl and K beater you need it to more or less scrape the bottom otherwise you end up with a lump of flour at the bottom.