WonderMix Kitchen Mixer - German Design Bread Dough Mixer Machine - Electric Stand Mixer with Bonus Heavy Duty Blender and Attachments High Capacity Bread Mixer

I have been baking bread for 50 years. In recent years, I have been making all our bread. Very recently, I had to switch to dark rye four, which makes a very heavy and sticky dough that overheats my Kitchen Aid Pro, leaving me to finish up the kneading (not that much fun with very sticky dough). And, I can only make 3 loaves worth at a time (4.5 pounds of dough). So, I did a bunch of on-line research and bought my new WonderMix. I made my first batch – 11.5 pounds of dough, and I did not fill it all the way to capacity (close, I think). It handled it just fine, and finished the job in half the time.My six large sandwich loaves and six burger buns came out great. Dark rye has a habit of cutting through the gluten I add, making for some ugly loaves. I think the fact that the kneading/mixing was done quickly (it has a unique double dough hook) helped keep those grains from cutting through the gluten strands. Whatever the reason, my loaves are pretty and the crumb is excellent and even throughout the slice (critical for sandwich bread).During the research, I was put off by all the plastic, but they have a good parts warranty. Doesn’t include the whips or dough divider, but I probably won’t be using those much. And, they provided an extra drive shaft, just in case. I still wish the bowl was stainless steel, but at about $200, I figure I got a good deal. Love the bowl top – allows you to use the capacity of the entire bowl.The motor is very loud. I noticed that in the videos I watched – and it is louder in person. I think I’ll need to grab some hearing protection for the kitchen. 900W and a lot of horsepower comes with a price in noise.This mixer is very light, especially compared to my Kitchen Aid. I appreciate the cord storage. Since I now can get all the weekly bread done in one batch, I can easily put it away. Yay!Bottom line: For bread, this mixer outperforms all the others I have used these last 50 years, and at this price, well, that is a “wonder”.

Let me preface this review by saying that I am the type of guy who researches the heck out of anything I am in the market to buy. I am also generally a fan of German engineering. When I set out to look for the best quality stand mixer without going into much more expensive large capacity models, it seemed a sure bet that the WonderMix was the top choice.I arrived at this conclusion based on reading any number of professional and consumer reviews, and had great hopes for the machine. First of all, the driveshaft operates whatever attachments you use from the bottom upwards, which seemed to be much more efficient physically. Second of all, the capacity is large and supposedly can handle quite a lot of dough should you wish to overproduce and freeze or gift breads or pastries, etc. Lastly, there is the option for additional attachments. In my case, I bought the shredder/slicer, which is the only thing I can use at this point.Which leads me to the reason for my very low rating. I have had my unit for about two months. After only a couple of uses kneading dough with it, I became victim of a known manufacturing flaw. Specifically, the drive shaft, which is made of a very cheap and not nearly rigid enough plastic, does not seat well with the dough hooks. What happens is that as you are kneading, the dough hook will unseat and ride up on the driveshaft, wobbling and causing the teeth, which should sit flush inside the depression in the dough hook, to strip as the dough hook (which is made of metal) spins loosely around them. In fact, of the two drive shafts included, one stripped to the point of being totally and unusable, and the other snapped clean in two (at the upper teeth).This in and of itself is enough to mark down the rating of this product. It is obviously a blatant design flaw that quality control should have nipped in the bud before issuing this junk for sale. Not only is there no secure seating of the joint between drive shaft and dough hooks, but the drive shaft itself is far too fragile for its function. But things only got worse from there.When I got in touch with the manufacturer, I was told I would have to pay the shipping for the replacement parts. I was also told repeatedly that "commercial use" was not covered, but that the company would basically do me a favor and send me "free" replacements for what they themselves admitted were defective drive shafts. Indeed, they were well aware of the issue and in terms of production had already replaced the drive shafts they ship out with what they said are stronger ones (now black instead of white). I kept trying to figure out why they were talking about commercial use, when time and again I explained to them that I am just your typical home baker. I figure it gives them some sort of legal loophole if they determine that I am subjecting their product to unwarrantied commercial use, but who knows?In any case, after trying to explain myself to them but still getting stonewalled, out of desperation I agreed to pay shipping on the replacement parts, but I NEVER RECEIVED them. It turns out the manufacturer decided not to pay insurance on the package either. At the time, they had presented this to me as a "discount" on my shipping charge, leading me to believe they would foot the insurance cost, but instead they did not insure at all and then told me this was on me. Over the next two weeks, I went back and forth with them until determining the package to be lost in transit.Finally, the manufacturer agreed to send out another set of replacement shafts. I have not received them yet, but in any case I noticed that the manufacturer charged my card for the second shipment as well! The fellow I spoke to at the manufacturer's, John, had offered to send me out more replacements as a gesture of good will. At no point was it even insinuated that I would be charged YET AGAIN. But indeed I was, and when I confronted them, they responded once more with this business of commercial use and how they are doing me a favor sending out the parts.I leave it to other potential consumers to decide if this sort of experience is what you are looking for when you spend close to $200 on kitchen equipment. Not only is the equipment faulty, so is the attitude of the customer service behind it. If you want to sell me something claiming it will last for life, and it dies within two weeks, at least stand up and take responsibility for making things right!To sum up, I paid what I feel is a pretty hefty price for a poorly designed and built piece of equipment that never served its function well due to defective engineering (German though it may be). Though it may have been equally frustrating in any case, I think I could have forgiven a design flaw had customer service taken full responsibility for shipping out defective merchandise, i.e. by shipping me the replacement parts at their expense entirely. Instead, they admitted to having provided consumers with defective merchandise but stopped short, insisting I pay shipping and treating the replacement parts as some sort of favor, a very odd attitude indeed. Moreover, I am baffled at their attempt to insist that I am not covered by warranty because of "commercial use," which, again, is not the use to which I am putting their product. I made a couple batches of dough for baking homemade bread, and that was the end of it. This light use rendered the shafts toast and the machine has since been collecting dust, unusable.PLEASE save yourself the time, money, and stress I have lost on this item. It is immensely disappointing to have such high hopes for a product and the name behind it, only to realize you got a lemon. But that's what it is, a lemon. And the customer service attitude is just as sour!