Sabichi 83906

It's hard to get enthusiastic about a hand mixer but I've raved about mine to workmates and family alike since buying it. When I decided to look around for a hand mixer it was to make life a little easier when baking. I didn’t want to splash out a great deal therefore when I saw the Sabichi priced at £7.99 in my local Wilkinson’s store I couldn’t say no. I’ve had this little gem around 2 months now and can honestly confess to loving it.

For a mere £7.99 you get what is pretty standard for most mixers of this specification;
5 speed settings and a turbo button which whizzes your ingredients around at an amazingly high speed, however don’t be tempted to start on a high speed or you’ll see your carefully weighed out ingredients splatter about the kitchen.
You also get 2 robust steel beaters and 2 dough hooks if you want to make bread dough, although I would suspect large amounts of dough and flour would take its toll on the small 200W motor. I make a double batch of banana bread and the beaters tended to struggle with too much goo at first, but if you keep the mixture to a smooth consistency then the mixer handles well.
The mixer also has an eject button with a safety device to prevent the beaters accidentally flying off whilst in use.

All in all the features are pretty much the same as other more expensive models I looked at. For example, the Dualit had exactly the same features, only the motor was 300W (for those bread makers out there) and was priced above £40, oh and the design was brushed chrome.
Yes, brushed chrome is nice but the Sabichi has the classic white plastic look that works well with my kitchen, plus the fact I always store my mixer in the cupboard and I never have an audience when baking so the colour or material is irrelevant to my needs.

To clean the mixer is straightforward, just eject the beaters, I tend to do this into the sink, then give the mixer a quick wipe down with a damp cloth to get rid of any mixture which may have splashed up. I didn't even need to read the manual to find out any of the information as it's so easy. A manual is provided if perhaps you're at a loss for something to read.

So far it’s all positive but a couple of minor niggles would be the fact that on the lowest, i.e. the slowest setting, it’s just not that slow, and I have to say the fast setting (not even the turbo one) is super fast, so when first adding flour to a mixture it tends to, for want of a technical term, ‘poof’ out the bowl until the mixture thickens. Also I think the mixer is pretty heavy, although I haven’t weighed it I would equate the weight to that of a bag of sugar, which if you’re holding for 5 minutes, can get pretty heavy. Although the beaters kind of dance around the bottom of the bowl (another technical term) so the weightiness is somewhat lessened, but it’s worth a mention if you have arthritis or RSI and are thinking of buying this appliance.

So in conclusion I would definitely recommend it to anyone starting out in their first home or anyone starting baking in general. The low price, ease of use and all round performance far outweighs the fact the motor isn't as powerful.