Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

BOTTOM LINE: This Braun HM5100 mixes like nobody's business and is easy to use, clean up & store. My wife is happy. Happy wife = happy life! :-D THOUGHTS: I purchased this Braun HM5100 to replace my wife's ancient hand mixer, (which was originally her mother's and had to be at least 40 years old), when it finally gave up the ghost earlier this year. After doing a LOT of research online for the best overall value (motor power/features/user rating) I kept coming back to this unit from Braun. They generally have a solid reputation for their line of various appliances. (Braun offers a half dozen attachments which are powered by the motor of this mixer but we didn't need them, so I bought just the mixer itself.) This Braun mixer is solidly built, (dare I say, brawny?) without feeling heavy as a brick. This was a big area of concern for my wife; we also have one of those Godzilla-sized KitchenAid tabletop tilt mixers. It works awesome and we bring it out for our annual Christmas cookie bakes and the like but other than that we rarely use it because it weighs a TON & hogs up waaay too much of our precious, limited countertop space. Balance for this HM5100 is slightly forward of the front of the grip, where your first finger rests, so it naturally tilts the business end right into the bowl. Top & Bottom sections of the handle area of the mixer have dimpled rubbery plastic inserts to provide better grip when mixing, which comes in handy, (especially if your hands are slick from cooking spray, vegetable oil, egg whites, etc.). Power cord is longer than her old mixer's (over 5ft.!) and the end where the cord fits into the mixer body is thickly sheathed, to resist cracking & internal wire breakage and/or separating from the mixer body. The cord also has a neat swivel feature; it free floats or can be 'snapped' into either a vertical or horizontal position. Clever. The light weight wire beaters with plastic inserts initially gave me pause but they work great compared to the wider 'blade' style beaters of her old mixer. Fit is snug with zero wobble while mixing, plus clean up is a breeze. They are designed to fit in the mixer only one way: insert end of one beater is hexagon-shaped, the other is round. These have corresponding hexagon/round holes molded into the mixer body, making correct beater insertion fairly idiot-proof. (Whether or not the plastic pieces of these beaters will hold up over the years obviously remains to be seen.) The large ON/OFF switch on the top of the mixer has a raised rib to make it easier to thumb it on and off... and it has an interesting safety feature: it will not stay in the 'ON' position unless the beaters are fully locked into the mixer. Speed control is a large rotary dial which adjusts easily with either the thumb of the hand holding the mixer or your 'free' hand. Slick & simple. The mixer is surprisingly quiet considering the powerful motor in it; hasn't bogged down even slightly at any of the speed settings, whether mixing cookies, thick brownie mix or even bread dough. (BTW, the dough hooks seem well designed & built and are equally easy to insert/remove & clean up). Mixer body cleaned up easily with just a warm damp dishrag. Unit comes with a black cloth canvas-type drawstring bag to hold the beaters & dough hooks. Overall, we really like this mixer and I’m glad I bought it, as I use it almost as often as my wife does. In fact my only real complaint is strictly cosmetic: the mixer only comes in black. (Wife would've preferred white or red.) But that's a VERY minor grump. So far my wife & I have been very pleased with this Braun HM5100 and would recommend it to anyone out there looking for their first hand mixer, or as a replacement or upgrade.