A good light-duty stand mixer.
Pros:
Reasonably constructed, good power, easy to use and carry, affordable. Very attractive.
Cons:
The design of the bowl and rotating mechanism may seem flimsy to some users.
The Bottom Line:
This is a good machine for light-duty use (cakes, batters, whipped topping, meringues, cookies). If you are going to be making bread or heavy doughs, get a KitchenAid.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
The Sunbeam Heritage is an inexpensive metal stand mixer that uses dual beaters, similar to those on a hand mixer. The unit has two motors: One to rotate the beaters, and the other for rotating the bowl. The bowl rotates the opposite direction of the outer beater. According to Sunbeam's literature, this makes for a more effective and even mixture. My Heritage came with three sets of beaters. One set for bread, one for whipping and meringues, and another for cakes and cookies.
I have tested the mixer with a single loaf bread recipe, and a pound cake recipe. Although a higher wattage is claimed for the Sunbeam then the KitchenAid Artisan, the Sunbeam labors and shakes excessively when doing a bread recipe. I had to transfer the dough to my Berkel mixer to finish it. When making bread with this unit, it is best to start with the minimum amount of flour and make a light dough. I recommend a recipe that calls for no more then 2 1/2 cups of flour in a 60% dough for this mixer if you must make bread with it. That is, 60% is the weight of the liquids in the recipe, and 40% is the weight of flour.
The Sunbeam Heritage is well suited for cakes, however. I was very pleased with the result when I made the pound cake. I creamed a stick of butter, along with 1 cup of sugar using the small bowl and it turned out a very nice and fluffy product. The design of the rotating turntable the bowl sits on allowed me to scrape the sides of the bowl while the mixer was running. If you scrape the bowl this way, be careful not to get the rubber spatula too close to the beaters (fortunately, I did not make that mistake, as my Sunbeam would be in the shop otherwise). Adding the eggs and flour was very easy and convenient while the mixer was running. The final result was a moist, dense pound cake that turned out very well.
Some users may consider the latch on the mixer head as being somewhat inconvenient to use. It is actually easy when you grab the neck of the mixer like you were going to hold a coffee mug. Then, take your thumb and push on the button while lifting the handle on top of the mixer to lift the beaters. It's not quite as ergonomic as a KitchenAid Artisan mixer, but it at least gets the job done.
The handle on top of the mixer is very handy for carrying the unit. Make sure you support the bottom of the mixer while transporting. It's not a heavy unit, but its weight and bulk requires two hands instead of one.
The beaters take some effort to insert in their sockets, and they are very nice and tight when they go in. The beater latch button feels hard to push with the thumb, but I feel that this is a plus and adds to the durability of the mixer. You don't have to worry about a beater falling out in the middle of a chocolate fudge cake frosting recipe. An added benefit is that each beater is color coded for the socket they go into. A red grommet on the stem means the beater goes in the socket with the red dot, and a white grommet means the beater goes into socket with the white dot.
Overall, I am well pleased with this unit considering its price. A lower wattage Sunbeam Heritage that is similar to mine but with fewer attachments can be purchased at Target for $99.00, in fact. It is well suited for home use, where there is no real need to make breads or use it on a continuous basis for large batches of baked goods. It looks very attractive on the counter as well.
