The KitchenAid 4.5 Quart Classic Plus: No Frills, Big Performance

Are you looking for a nice mix of practicality and professionalism in a stand mixer?

If you don’t need all the bells and whistles but still want a machine that will deliver powerful and reliable performance, then the KitchenAid 4.5 Quart Classic Plus Stand Mixer should go on your review list.

With a smaller price tag than its bigger cousins in the KitchenAid line, its performance is by no means mediocre. And it still retains all of the craftsmanship and durability KA’s reputation is built on.

Let’s have a detailed look to determine what you can expect from Classic Plus style.

Overview

Located between the Classic and Artisan series, the Classic Plus is a tilt-head model that has a bit more power than the Classic, but not as much as the Artisan or its kissing cousin, the Ultra Power.

KitchenAid KSM75WH 4.5-Qt. Classic Plus Stand Mixer – White available at Amazon

As one of the more basic models at KA, its features are a bit bare-boned: there’s no handle on the bowl nor a splash guard, the bowl capacity is the smallest size at 4.5 quarts, and at 275 watts, the motor isn’t as robust as some.

However wattage is not the only criteria to consider for performance, as the Classic Plus direct drive motor is better at transferring energy to the bowl than many others with higher watts. And that also helps to keep power consumption down.

The locking tilt-head is convenient and easy to lift, giving clear access to the bowl, its contents and the attachment port to quickly switch out beaters.

Many find this feature to be more user friendly that bowl-lift models, but it also requires more vertical space – something to consider if operation will be under a cabinet.

The Nuts and Bolts

Being a more stripped-down model, the Classic Plus doesn’t come in the lovely rainbow of colors some of the other KA models are able to display – with white and silver the only options. However, its minimal palette means greater focus on mixing performance.

With a relatively small bowl and motor, this machine isn’t designed for continuous, heavy-duty use and leaves large, double batches of dense, heavy dough to other models.

It has plenty of power to mix up batters for cakes, cookies, pastries and muffins and does a good job of mixing and kneading small batches of pizza and bread dough. However, its abilities to mixing very thick dough on a continuous basis will be limited.

As a tilt-head model, the design allows the entire head to tilt up and away, giving clear and easy access to the bowl and beaters – which makes it simple to add ingredients at any time they’re called for in your recipe.

With a KitchenAid, being basic doesn’t mean lightweight. You still get the brawny, all-metal construction with mental gears, and made in the US workmanship they’re so well-known for.

And of course, you still get all of the standard attachments you’d expect from a KA, including the beater, dough hook and wire whisk.

The Numbers

The 4.5 quart stainless steel bowl has the capacity to mix batches of 6 dozen cookies, about 3 loaves of bread and 6 pounds of mashed potatoes. The bowl is also dishwasher-safe for quick and easy cleanup.

The Classic Plus comes with 3 standard attachments: a nylon-coated metal flat beater, a nylon-coated metal dough hook, and a 6 wire whip all of which are dishwasher safe.

The direct drive transmission and all-metal gears ensures that the motor drives through all 10 speeds with ease. Choosing the ideal setting for slow stirring, mixing, beating, creaming, whipping and kneading is easy with the slide of a switch.

It also has an orbiting attachment head with 59 touchpoints all around the bowl in its planetary mixing action. All ingredients are thoroughly mixed without having to scrap the bowl sides.

This model also has the standard 1 beater height adjustment screw to easily set the height of the beaters for the ideal beater-to-bowl clearance. A small turn is all that’s needed to ensure all ingredients get incorporated into the mix while the beaters still clear the bowl.

And the power hub is designed to use with 15 optional attachments giving you the capability to make ice cream, press pasta, grind ingredients and oodles more.

At the time of this writing, a large majority of the reviewer but KA’s color availability change from year to year.

The Classic Plus measures about 14 x 9 x 14” and weighs a relatively light 15 pounds for its 275 watts of power.

It has a well-written and very clear User’s Manual and Recipe book, and comes with KitchenAid’s 1 year, hassle-free warranty.

What Others Are Saying

The following points are a compilation of the most frequently commented on features and foibles from verified purchasers at Amazon.

• By far, a large majority of the reviewers are tickled pink about the performance of their KitchenAid stand mixer (at the time of writing).

• The most common remarks about the Classic Plus are that it’s great for moderate, or ‘average’ household use – it’s not meant for processing industrial sized batches of bread dough. But for general baking like mixing batters, creaming butter, batch cooking and small recipe kneading, it has plenty of power and proves to be a durable and reliable kitchen tool.

• Used within the limits of its design, it does all the grunt work of mixing, stirring and kneading and mixes far more consistently than by hand.

• Very user friendly to operate and clean, with all of its attachments being dishwasher safe – including the beaters.

• And naturally, the classic KitchenAid silhouette is also considered to be a chic accessory for the countertop in many, many kitchens.

• Its limitations come in the bread making department. It handles small, single recipe amounts of dough well enough, but labors under kneading large, heavy dough for extended periods of time. It’s not designed for that kind of workload, so it’s definitely not for the dedicated bread baker.

• There are also a few comments about the enamel coating coming off of the beaters, but this could be the result of allowing the beaters to touch the bowl – which the manual cautions against for exactly this reason.

• And, a couple of reviewers also commented on the bowl getting stuck in the stand – but this seems to be resolved by keeping the stand clean and giving it a drop of oil before using.

Conclusion

The KitchenAid Classic Plus stand mixer proves to be much more than its modest CV would have us believe.

Decidedly no frills, it nonetheless proves to be an excellent performer, with durability and versatility as well. And KitchenAid’s uncompromising commitment to customer satisfaction is always a selling point.

KitchenAid KSM75WH 4.5-Qt. Classic Plus Stand Mixer – White available at Amazon

No, you can’t mix a giga-batches of bread 24/7, and it’s missing some of the extras, but for the price it does very well indeed. Another reliable performer from KA that gives very good value for dollars spent.

Looking for more choices? You can check out all of our top rated and reviewed stand mixers or read our buying guide.