Aha, gotcha!
After years of making do with a 40-year-old Kenwood Chef, I found it was incompatible with some new attachments I wanted to use and bought a new one.
In the process, I discovered quite a range of power outputs among similar-looking machines. The base Chef has 800W, the one I bought 1000W, and some go up to 1400W. All are significantly more powerful than my old one's 450W. All but the larger Major machines claim a dough capacity of 2.0kg, which I now know to be limited by bowl size, not motor power. (The old machine takes the same bowl but the motor won't move that much dough.)
The point that makes me curious is that the much more expensive (and apparently highly regarded) KitchenAid Artisan mixer has only 300W and yet is considered a direct competitor to the Chef. I've seen them used on telly by Bakeoff contestants and Nigel Slater, so I imagine they deliver the results, but that doesn't seem like enough power to me. This year the Baker-Offers had 500W Kenwood K-Mix machines, prettier than the chef but rated to only 1.3kg, which is less than my Panasonic bread machine.
So I'm pleased with my new Chef but frankly puzzled as to why anyone would pay significantly more (I paid £209) for less power and versatility. So who's got a KitchenAid and wants to speak up for it?
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