KitchenAid Artisan KSM150PSSM 325 Watts Stand Mixer

I got my Kitchenaid Artisan in Cobalt Blue as a graduation present when I finished culinary school. I carried that giant, ridiculously heavy box all the way to my home in the next state by plane, train and boat grinning the whole way. Because I knew what I had in my hands. I have one of the single most effective tools I could ever ask for. One that actually makes my life easier. 6 years later, I still love that thing like a child. And it is about as dirty as a 6 year old.... because I use it so much. On the downside, I did make it smoke once... making pizza dough. But I've made a 50 gallon Hobart smoke and lay down and die making pizza dough so I can't really count that against my kitchenaid. I make tough pizza dough. The planetary action really does get the stuff off the sides. I've had much less trouble with things sticking to the edges with this model than I've had with other Kitchenaid models. The endless (if ridiculously expensive) attachments provide immense versatility, the LIFETIME warranty is a huge testament to the fact that this really is the sort of thing you will end up passing on to your children one day. It is a quality piece of machinery and it will meet and exceed all your mixing needs. However, you should immediately throw away that stupid pouring guide thing. It is annoying, breaks easily, and more stuff (including easy stuff like flour) gets stuck to it than any other part of the mixer. I don't know what they were thinking but I cracked mine in a month having dropped it one million times and that was because I kept having to take it off to try to get things actually in the bowl. If you mix at an appropriate speed, you should not have a problem with splatter, just start off slow and speed up as you go.