Artisan Tilt-Head Stand Mixer

After four years of bread, the bowl and base plate on their Artisan have worn so the bowl wobbles and they have to hold it down.

Their Artisan's motor would get stuck even mixing loose dough, and the bowl wouldn't lock in place right.

Bought an Artisan in December 2021, used it about 10 times, and it died mixing butter for frosting; KitchenAid said out of warranty.

Wouldn't recommend their Artisan tilt: it is noisy, gets very hot, bounces and the plastic coating on the dough hook peels off.

Got a refurbished Artisan for $229 total and loves it, with only one little scratch.

Says the Artisan is not built for life if used for bread: under load it overheats, drips grease into dough and strips the plastic drive gear.

Says their Artisan does everything they ask of it.

Loves their Artisan but wishes they had bought the bowl lift because they bake a lot of bread.

Has a tilt Artisan and wishes they had bought a lift model.

Their 5 qt Artisan walked and wobbled, so they sold it and bought a refurbished lift model.

Bought an Artisan on clearance at Walmart and returned it right away: the motor sounded weaker and the tilt lock didn't open fully.

Has a 2003-vintage Artisan whose internals and grease were in great shape after repacking.

Their 25-year-old Artisan is still going strong.

Bought the 5 qt tilt Artisan and outgrew it when asked to bake 20 dozen cookies at a time, wishing they'd bought the 7 qt.

Loves their Artisan, which handles big quantities of dough and mixtures easily, is easy to clean and has excellent customer support.

Says the Artisan is great for everything except low-hydration breads; high-hydration and enriched doughs give no trouble.

Loves their refurbished eBay Artisan from 2018, a workhorse that has handled bread, cookies and mashed potatoes.

Used both types and found the Artisan tilt head scrambled, shimmied, was noisier and seemed to struggle with doubles or bread.

Has had a 5 qt Artisan about 10 years, baking 3-4 times a week including bread, and says it works fine for a regular household.

Had to hold the tilt head of their Artisan down for the whole 10 minutes of kneading a double batch of bread.

Makes pizza dough up to twice a week in a tilt-head KSM150 but finds the included C-shaped dough hook frustrating and bad.

Has had an Artisan for 10 years and finds it sufficient for cookies, cake, whipped cream and even bread.

Used and abused their Artisan for 15 years including yearly parties of 24+ pizza doughs, only needing the tilt pin set screw tightened.

After adjusting head end play and bowl height, their Artisan is a workhorse and by far their favorite of three KitchenAid mixers.

Says the Artisan is not a good mixer for bread dough or anything thick.

Their struggling Artisan sparked, popped and smoked when plugged back in after being reassembled.

Their Artisan started giving electric shocks to the touch while they were trying to bake bread.

A never-used 17-year-old Artisan they were gifted is bleeding oil.

Their Artisan is leaking oil and they considered sending it back to Ohio for service.

Their Artisan, bought as a gift two years ago, has gotten stuck and not spun since it was used twice.

Their Artisan recently broke, not spinning and making a sound.

Says the Artisan is perfect for their two-person home baking and they never needed more than the included attachments.

Their 5 qt Artisan is loud and grinds and groans making buttercream, unlike their quieter Professional 5 Plus.

Their wife's Artisan works great for the 2-3 times a month they use it for cookies, pies, cakes and bread.

Their Artisan tilt head has lived happily on the counter for many years and gets used a lot.

After owning an Artisan, says it is great for cookies and meringues but can't handle real dough mixing.

Returned a big bowl-lift and bought an Artisan, which they are much happier with for the size they need.

Their Artisan makes an odd noise but after a year of weekly use it has had no issues.

Has owned a yellow Artisan for 8 years without any issues.

Found their used Artisan lighter built than their old mixer, with a smaller power cord and a looser head, but still a fine little mixer.

Their Artisan comfortably handles only about 4 cups of flour for bread dough despite the claimed 2 loaves, but they are otherwise happy with it.

Their Artisan is fine for cakes and meringues but they would not use it often for doughs that need a lot of work.

Got an Artisan as a Christmas gift a few years ago, loves it and has had no problems.

Their Artisan head bounced and no longer locked into place when mixing dough, so they switched to an Ankarsrum.

Their brand new Artisan head bounces mixing 2.5 lbs of hamburger, and KitchenAid support said this is normal.

Their Artisan beater head sits too low and at its lowest clearance won't lock in place.

Their 17-year-old Artisan broke making icing, running at half speed with a loud grinding sound.

Has had an Artisan for over a decade and found it great for everything they needed.

Has used their 5 qt Artisan almost every second day for over a year, making bread and pasta plus meat grinder and pasta roller attachments without issue.

Their Artisan kneads a 5 cup pizza dough consistently without a sweat.

Their KSM150 Artisan is 15 years old and going strong, needing only one worm gear replacement after years of bread making.

Used their Artisan for 10 years but says tilt heads thump and tire on large dough batches and they would not buy it again.

Has done everything on their Artisan though they think the Pro series lasts longer and handles harder jobs.

Has used their Artisan for bread twice a week for over 30 years and it is still going strong.

Makes 1 kg flour bread mixes twice a week on their Artisan for about 6 years with no issues.

Makes pasta dough in their tilt-head Artisan without problems as long as they stay under the maximum quantity.

Says their Artisan handles pizza dough just fine.

Has had their Artisan for 9 years trouble-free; these days its main job is grinding meat with the grinder attachment.

Has used their 5-qt Artisan regularly for about ten years and it works great.

Has had their Artisan 15 years and made bread, ground meat, pasta, shredded veggies and ice cream countless times without issue.

Has had the Artisan for about 7.5 years for cookies, frosting and cake batter, though heavy bread dough they knead by hand.

Uses their Artisan every week for bread, pasta dough, cakes and cookies.

Their Artisan doesn't handle any dough well, with the bowl popping out and a weak motor, so they bought a Bosch for bread and pasta.

Makes all kinds of bread and pasta in their 5-year-old Artisan about once a week; the hook only slows slightly on dense dough.

Their Artisan always bounces around like that with the bread hook, which they find normal but needs watching.

Wishes they had known before buying: all they make is bread and their Artisan has a bad time with it every time.

Made lots of bread in their Artisan until it gave out one day making Christmas cookies; it was repaired but never quite the same.

Has an Artisan that has never done them wrong.

Baking 56 Christmas cookies in one batch was a stretch for their Artisan.

Their candy apple Artisan has been a powerhouse for over a decade, only needing the brushes cleaned two or three times.

Their refurbished Artisan moves around a lot when making bread compared with their other Artisan.

Has had their KitchenAid Artisan for more than 10 years without ever giving it a tune-up.

Their brand new Artisan keeps dropping black grease into dough five or six batches in, so they're sending it back.

Their wife's refurbished KSM150 Artisan, about three years old, won't turn on at all after sitting unused.

Their brand new Artisan made two very good pizza doughs, then started making a worrying noise while running.

Their newly arrived Artisan runs reasonably at low speed but makes a clicking noise at higher speeds.

Their newly bought Artisan started making a lot of noise kneading a stiff bread dough, so they stopped it mid-knead.

Has made bread in their Artisan weekly for 14 years, two loaves at a time, without any problems.

Uses their Artisan weekly for double batches of bread dough with no issues beyond the head getting warm.

Their new Artisan kneading dough on the lowest speed sounded loud and was warm to hot to the touch after 15 minutes.

Even dough for half a dozen sourdough bagels was killing their Artisan tilt-head, so they upgraded to an 8-qt Professional.

Their month-old 5-qt Artisan clicks with the dough hook or thick mixtures, moves around and sometimes changes speed on its own.

Their silver Artisan was flawless for 8-9 years, but the new pink Artisan bought five months ago feels cheaper and its paddle keeps falling off mid-mix.

Has used their newer Artisan for about three years and the paddle has never fallen off, though their old one felt more like a tank.

Their roughly 25-year-old Artisan tilt-head suddenly won't power on at all after a basic cookie dough.

Still uses their Artisan of 10+ years alongside a newer 7 qt and feels it was built better than today's mixers.

Their Artisan KSM150PSOB has become extremely loud on stir and speed 2, even after a full regrease.

Their roughly 10-year-old Artisan tilt-head had issues most of the year before giving up, so they replaced it with a Kenwood KMix rather than pay for repair.

Returned a bowl-lift they disliked and got the Artisan tilt-head instead, and has been very happy with it.

Their 5KSM150's paddle stops spinning under a normal load while the motor runs, likely the sacrificial gear.

Their Artisan was a true workhorse for 11-12 years, despite a grinding noise since new, until a bun dough made it smoke and overheat repeatedly.

Their KSM150 Artisan, a 2024 wedding gift, spins for about 10 seconds and then blows the fuse in both homes they've tried.

Their brand new Artisan Series mixer arrived with mild cosmetic damage and a dented metal bowl, disappointing for a $500 machine.

Their KSM150PS from about 2005 got them into cooking, but it isn't great at bread, struggles with lower-hydration or large doughs, and now leaks lubricant and rattles.

The front attachment hub on their Artisan 5KSM185 stopped turning, though the mixer arm still works.

Just bought a refurbished 5 qt tilt-head and is super satisfied with it.

Used the onyx black Artisan they got for Christmas 2007 until about 2024, then swapped it for a discounted Pro bowl-lift and now regrets giving the Artisan away.

Bought a 5 qt tilt-head Artisan a month ago, calls it their baby and kicks themselves for waiting 30 years; recommends a double-sided scraper beater.

Their 25-year-old Artisan is still going, though it needs a tune-up; reading about new ones failing, they'll keep maintaining the old one.

Their new Artisan, three or four weeks old, gave in on fairly tough wholemeal dough with the dough hook, likely stripping the sacrificial gear.

The Artisan tilt-head 5KSM125 bought for their wife in 2020 now runs at one low speed on every setting and won't turn off.

Wanted one for years but their tilt-head Artisan from last Christmas has been nothing but problems: the head lock doesn't work and it bounces all over the counter, and KitchenAid wanted $65 shipping to look at it.

Their new Artisan makes the same odd noise as a friend's; it's improving with use, and the friend who took one apart blamed poorly distributed grease and lower build quality on current Artisans.

Their wife's Artisan handled about three years of semi-professional production after nine years of use before the speed control acted up; KitchenAid serviced it and it runs like new.

Their KitchenAid Artisan 5 qt died while making a particularly dense dough.

Bakes every week and loves the 5 qt Artisan their grandmother gave them; recommends adding the spring and washer to keep attachments secure.

Has kneaded dough in their 2009 Artisan for 17 years, briefly tilting the head to free dough from the hook, with no problems or failures; they keep batches under about 5 cups of flour and use a Pro series for larger ones.

“As far as durability or premature failure, I bought my Artisan in 2009, have been using this method for 17 years, and the machine is going strong with no issues or failure of any kind.”

Their Artisan, a wedding present in 1997, still works great and they love it, though they rarely use it for bread; they considered a 7 qt only for the odd bigger batch.

Has had both a Pro 600 bowl-lift and an Artisan tilt-head for about ten years; the Artisan handles cake batters just fine, while triple or quadruple cookie batches go in the Pro 600.

Their favourite is the Artisan, which has been going strong for their bread baking for over 20 years.

Their pink Artisan, a birthday present two years ago, disappointed from day one: the motor sounded like it would die on basic cookie dough and the bowl kept unlatching, breaking two glass bowls, and a replacement base plate from customer service didn't help.

“The engine sounded like it was going to croak even mixing basic cookie dough, and the bowl would unlatch from the stand, almost breaking my fingers as I tried to hold it still.”

Loves their Artisan and finds their mum's bowl-lift model harder to work with.

Runs a small macaron business with more than ten KitchenAid mixers of many models and finds them nearly indestructible; the Artisan is their favourite model.

Their Artisan's head bounces when making pizza dough, so they keep the speed low to avoid overheating it and wearing the worm gear.