Customer Reviews

SideSwipe for KitchenAid 4.5 and 5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixers

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I received the Side Swipe blade as a gift. It worked great at first. After using it about 20 times, I made some cookies and while washing the blade I noticed two of the top fins were missing and two more were cracked and ready to fall off. I had to discard the entire batch of cookies since I did not know which cookie had the fins in them. After breaking several cookies I found one fin in the middle of a cookie. Very dangerous if someone was eating it. I tried to contact the company several times and received no response. They have no telephone and only an email, to which they never seem to reply. I definitely would not recommend this product!

This really does decrease the need to scrape the bowl when beating. Do you really NEED this option? Well, no. But it's handy. How many times have I been measuring out another ingredient when I should have been watching/scraping my bowl? Many. So, this just saves a little time and aggravation. You can NOT use this beater when making bread dough but it's great for cake & cookies as long as the dough isn't overly stiff. I've successfully used it with cake batters, chocolate chip cookies, muffins & biscotti cookie dough.

I have a KA Artisan. Make sure you are buying the correct beater for your version of KA. Check your beater-to-bowl clearance before using. You can ruin the beater & make your mixer work twice as hard if you don't. Someone has posted a good video of how to do this on YouTube. Just search on Beater-To-Bowl Adjustment.

I give it 4 stars because it is a bother to clean the batter out of all those fins. I don't think that anything could be done to change that; it's just a bother. Even though the fins are silicone, the batter does not just fall off. I mention it because I know someone who doesn't use their SideSwipe for this reason. I have posted a photo at the top of the page to show this.
Bright side: If you like to lick the beater, there's more to lick!

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Update 5/2010: Well, this beater is already falling apart. Some of the fins have developed cracks & will fall off the beater if I continue to use it. I have used this maybe 12 times at most (mostly for cake batter & I hand-stirred in the chocolate chips & nuts for cookies) so in my opinion, this is not a very good product. I checked bowl/beater clearance prior to using - followed instructions for using on the package. GRRRRRRRR I gave this to a bunch of people for X-mas presents. Luckily, they don't bake much.

After manually scraping down the sides of my Kitchen Aid mixer for several years while making cookie dough, I think this product is heaven sent! It installs just like any other Kitchen Aid mixing tool except that you may have to adjust the height of the tilt top to account for the extra silicone on the bottom of the tool. It's a simple procedure and the directions are on the back of the package for added convenience. Anyhow, the amazing thing is that the product works just as described...it scrapes the sides of the bowl as you mix your dough and it did a beautiful job blending all the ingredients together. If you're in to baking, this is a wonderful accessory to have in the kitchen! Go ahead and try it...you'll love it too!

I originally saw the sideswipe featured in Real Simple magazine, and ended up buying one from the company. of note, the blade is aluminum, not steel. The instructions on adjusting the bowl height were easy to follow. It does increase the vibration of the mixer, and the first time I used it, the metal "plug" that goes in the attachment cavity on the front of the mixer fell into the bowl. That was the end of that blade--it broke in three pieces! The company replaced the blade, and I removed the metal plug, so no accidents can happen again. I have used it many times since then, and no mishaps. The silicone seems to be holding up well after repeated trips to the dishwasher.It is very effective and eliminates the need to stop and use a spatula. I am purchasing some as gifts.

This is okay for maybe a cake batter but I wouldn't use it for anything heavier. I tried it on a cookie batter and it didn't mix the ingredients well at all. Good concept - just needs work.

First off, when I received the SideSwipe, I adjusted the height screw as the instructions stated so the blade worked at the right height in the bowl. I used the blade for about a year when I started to notice cracks in the upper top three fins. The cracks became more pronounced and I had to stop using it. FYI I never cleaned the blade in a dish washer, only hand washed. I located the company's web page and sent off three separate emails, none of which did I receive any response from. There even was a notice that their email address was intermittent, so I sent the same emails to the new address given in the notice. Again, no response. All I wanted to ask was if I had any options since this seemed to be a quality issue. I liked the product but if it fails like this and the company won't even reply to customer's messages, there is no way I will buy it again or recommend it.

If you own a KitchenAid you HAVE GOT to get a SideSwipe! It is just incredible how it cleans the sides of the bowl - no more scraping!!!

I became a hero not only with my wife, but also her sister and a few friends with this one. Every time she uses it she says "THANK YOU!"

I am a professional chef and I specialize in baking and pastry items. When I saw this beater I thought it would be a good labor-saving device since a lot of what I make starts or takes place in one of my two Kitchen Aid mixers. I have both a 4 1/2 and a 5 quart machine.

On the 4.5 machine this product works just as advertised. You can go through the entire mixing/beating process without having to stop and scrape down the product for even mixing. The problem is that once the product is mixed you may end up spending a lot of time cleaning the beater blade. With the old style beater once the product is mixed you remove the bowl, give the blade a couple of good whacks on the side of the bowl and most of the product flies off the blade into the bowl and you can go on with the recipe. With the silicone blade the stuff sticks like glue and I ended up spending a lot of time with a spatula scraping dough/mixtures off the blade and into the bowl. I suppose if you don't mind wasting a bit more of you rmix than usual this would be fine. Once mixed you can just sacrifice a bit of your product and move on.

On the 5 quart machine the blade does not scrape the sides of the bowl so it has no advantage over the standard blade and it does have the disadvantage of the product sticking to the blade. You end up having to scrape the bowl and spending time cleaning the excees product off the blade.

Most likely, I will use it sometimes in the 4.5 quart machine and never in the 5 quart.

This is a great mixing blade---when it wasn't broken. I bake often, and like other reviewers have said, after 4 months of uses, I noticed the fins were cracking. I used it a few more times, and broke off the fins that were especially likely to break off. For the price, it shouldn't be disposable, and it's really disappointing. I always washed it by hand and wiped it dry, too!