[Hardlyrob]

Our ancient Cuisinart from the 1980's finally died last year (a little plastic piece in the bowl lock mechanism finally broke - it is made of unobtanium) - so we were on the hunt for a new one. I don't use it all that often, but it is nice to have one now and then.

I bought a Kitchenaid with all the slicing discs etc. - the bowl warped the first time it was run through the dishwasher. Followed that up with a Hamilton Beach - it works fine, it's kind of ugly, really loud, bounces around on the counter and you cannot get a dough blade for it. It has a free sign on it right now.

For Christmas I bought my wife (and me) a 14 cup basic Cuisinart (best value from America's Test Kitchen DFP14-BCNY). It weighs a ton, it's quiet, and I got a dough blade for it. So some experimenting and wasted money to figure out what I suspected all along - the basic Cuisinart is da bomb.