So two days ago, I decide I want to make calzones. I come up with a recipe, which says to knead the dough my hand. But wait! I think… That mixer that my husband got me before Christmas, when my old cheap one crapped out trying to make royal icing… it came with DOUGH HOOKS! And instructions on how to use it to knead dough! So, I get out my mixer, knead the dough. Just about the time the bread starts looking like it’s supposed to… the mixer starts smoking. Yup, it’s shot. Kneading bread with it-- something it was ostensibly designed to do-- has killed it.
I now have a Black and Decker hand mixer, and as the SDMB is my witness, I will never buy another Hamilton Beach product again!
Was that the first time you had used the new mixer? Because if you’d read the instruction book, it would have mentioned that some smoke is normal with the first few uses. Something about burning off excess oil or something. I’ve had several appliances with this warning, especially mixers. Hope you didn’t throw it away. Give it another chance.
Nope. It was the first time I had used it for kneading bread, but I had used it many other times for cake batter, cookies and such. It was also clearly broken-- it no longer had six speeds-- only one. And every time it was turned on, even after letting it cool completely, it would start smoking again, and throwing off sparks. The super el cheapo $6 hand mixer I had previously lasted for three years under the same amount of use. This one was over $30 and lasted 9 months.
I got a Hamilton Beach milkshake mixer that had a problem with the mixing stick falling out. All I had to do was mail it back to HB and they sent me a new one. It might be too late for you, but you could give it a try.
Did you check the instruction book to see what the capacity for dough was? Clearly you were asking the machine to do more than it was capable of doing; if there were no guidelines as to its limitations, okay. If there were and you ignored them, then this isn’t HB product suckage, it’s just user error.
I fried the belt in both of them, trying to make frozen drinks.
A blender that is not capable of pulverizing ice in order to make frozen drinks isn’t much of a blender.
I now own a Waring blender, and have owned the same blender since I got out of college. It has made thousands of frozen drinks, has pulverized tons of ice, and is still using the same belt in its motor that it had when I got it.
I do not buy Hamilton Beach products any more. Or General Electric, for similar reasons. Perhaps I am old fashioned, but I do not regard appliances as “disposeable.”
Buy a KitchenAid. Yeah, they’re pricey, but they’re like all those kitchen infomercials put into one. Slice, dice, chop, grind (meat AND coffee!), grate, mix, blend, knead…
Uhhh, now that I think of it, I’m not sure they have a setting to mix iced drinks, but go with Mr. Wang Ka on that.