Bosch MUM4405 Compact Tilt-Head Stand Mixer Review

A quality stand-mixer can make a dramatic impact on your kitchen adventures – from saving you the grunt work of mixing cookie dough, to whipping meringues into a perfect consistency. However, anyone who’s shopped for these mixers knows they cost an arm and a leg. Are the low-cost options actually effective? How can you tell?

To assist your hunt, today, we’re evaluating the Bosch MUM44502 Compact Tilt-Head Stand Mixer. Looking at all the good and the bad, we’ll help you decide if the product description is more flattering than truthful.

The Bosch MUM44502 boasts of four quarts in capacity, is easy to use, and simple to clean. However, it may be too small for your needs, and its mixing power isn’t heavy duty. Does that make it a perfect bite-sized addition to your home, or should you keep shopping? Let’s take a more in-depth look and find out.

Bosch MUM44502 Compact Tilt-Head Stand Mixer: The Details

In a Nutshell

• Weight: 8 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11 x 13 x 10.5 inches.
• Capacity: Up to four quarts.
• Speeds: Four speeds.
• Bowl type: Plastic BPA-free bowl.
• Motor: 400 watts.
• Warranty: One-year warranty.

Features

Capacity

The Bosch Compact Tilt-Head Stand Mixer has four quarts of capacity. This makes it easy to create multiple batches of cookies, cakes, muffins, brownies, and so much more. While this isn’t exceptionally large, it’s more than enough to handle average recipes without breaking down the portions. As a plus, the compact size ensures it’ll fit well in small kitchens.

It is rated to accommodate enough dough to make 3 loaves of bread at a time (that’s about six pounds of dough!), but it really functions best with two loaves’ worth of ingredients. The motor on the Bosch Compact does have protection against overheating – it just takes this mixer awhile to incorporate three loaves’ worth of ingredients versus two.

Tilt-Head Design

Since this Bosch Stand Mixer has a tilt-head design, instead of lowering and raising the bowl, you simply tilt the head of the mixer up and down when necessary. There’s no need to struggle while changing out the attachments, checking on your mixture, or removing the bowl. Just press the lock button at the top to engage or disengage it.

Four Speeds

You have the choice of four different speeds on this stand mixer. There’s a dial on the side of the hub, which can be easily adjusted to suit your preferences. The lower speeds work great for gently mixing large chocolate chunks into cookies or muffins, while the higher speeds are perfect for incorporating air into whipped cream or meringues.

Splash Guard

Included with this stand mixer is a pouring shield. This ensures you can add ingredients smoothly, and, once the mixing begins, keep flour or batter from splashing out of the bowl. Since the four-quart capacity may be tight for certain recipes, this added protection helps all ingredients stay put, and if you need to crank up the speed for lighter recipes, it keeps the mess limited.

There is a secondary positive use for the splash guard – it keeps all the moving parts of the mixer covered during operation. If you frequently cook with young children or are nervous about operating machines, using the splash guard will keep all hands and fingers away from the moving pieces while the mixer works.

Three Attachments Included

This Bosch stand mixer also includes three different attachments – namely, a wire beating whisk, a dough hook, and a wire stirring whisk. The beating whisk is best for making whipped cream or meringues, the dough hook is perfect for mixing and kneading bread dough, and the stirring whisk handles most other jobs. It can mix up cookie dough or cake batter simply and easily.

This mixer also features a port for extra attachments, should you choose to buy them separately. This is a great option for meat grinders, juicers, or blenders, so you can enjoy more features within buying extra machines. As a plus, it makes the uses for this product almost infinite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7T1lSVvLps

The bowl included in the box with the initial purchase is plastic, listed as BPA-free. The plastic bowl will make whipping up egg whites take a bit longer, but it’s still possible.

If you prefer a metal, stainless steel bowl, Bosch makes them available for purchase separately on their website. The stainless steel bowl does not come with an additional splatter shield.

Planetary Mixing Action

This stand mixer also boasts of a planetary mixing action. This means the attachments will rotate one way while they travel around the bowl in different direction. In practice, it ensures everything is mixed quickly and thoroughly, and you won’t have to scrape the sides of the bowl personally. Less stopping, less scraping, and more efficient results; who could complain?

Three Drive Modes

The Bosch Company Tilt-Head Stand Mixer has three separate drives for three separate uses and sets of attachments. The standard speed drive has a higher torque for whisks, dough hooks, meat grinders, and other high-torque attachments. The high speed drive can power a blender attachment, which is sold separately. The mid speed drive powers a shredder attachment, which is also sold separately.

Rubber Feet

This mixer comes with four rubberized suction cup feet that can help attach the mixer to your countertop. The rubber material also helps lower the vibrations and the sounds from the active mixer against hard kitchen surfaces. This is rated as a quiet mixer anyway in terms of the motor noise, and the rubber feet help even more to deaden the sound.

Bosch MUM44502 Compact Tilt-Head Stand Mixer Review

The Positives

Easy to Use

The Bosch Compact Tilt-Head Stand Mixer is very easy to use. Once it’s plugged in, simply press the “lock” button to tilt the head of the mixer up. Next, put your ingredients into the bowl, add the correct attachment for what you’re making, and press the “lock” button again to tilt the mixing head back down.

You can also attach the pouring shield if you’d like, which is recommended if you’re tackling flour or very liquid-heavy batter. Next, pick the speed of your choice and let the mixer run until everything is combined thoroughly. It’s that simple!

Easy to Clean

You don’t have to bother with hand washing any of the removable parts. The bowl, all three of the attachments, and the pouring shield can go in the dishwasher. If you splash anything on the base of the mixer, simply take a damp cloth and wipe away the mess. You won’t have to use much elbow grease to scrape clean dried-on batter or dough.

This mixer also keeps your kitchen clean. The splatter shield completely covers the mixing bowl and stays in place throughout the mixing process. If you have wet recipes or just a messy recipe, this shield will keep your ingredients in the bowl where they belong, not on the kitchen counters or on the floor.

Versatile

With four speed settings, a tilting head, three included attachments, and a splash guard, one thing’s certain: the Bosch MUM44502 is quite versatile. Whether you’re mixing up a batch of cookies, making a birthday cake, kneading bread dough, or whipping up cream for a pie, this mixer ensures the process is far easier.

Additionally, if you choose to buy the meat grinder, juicer, and/or blender attachments, this only adds to the number of tasks you can handle with this machine. You can grind your own meat for hamburgers, have fresh-squeezed orange juice, or blend your own smoothies. All contained in one small unit, your kitchen adventures are easily expanded.

The list of available attachments includes a blender, meat grinder, citrus juicer, food processor, and continuous slicer/shredder. The recipe list is nearly endless when you have one kitchen machine that can do all those tasks. Anything from sweet baked goods to savory sausages are possible.

Convenient

It’s versatile, yes – but also highly convenient. The base necessities are all included in the price, the speed settings allow you to customize the mixing process to your unique recipe, and the splash guard even limits messes.

Not only are you saved the trouble of hand-mixing ingredients, but you can easily store this machine away or leave it on your counter while sacrificing minimal space. Altogether, at only 8 lbs. in weight, this is a great effort-saving machine.

Because it is so lightweight at 8 lbs., it is easy to store. Gone are the days of struggling to remove a heavy mixer from a high cabinet or low shelf where it’s out of the way, but difficult to access. This mixer is so light that it can be moved with ease. The most convenient kitchen tool is the one that gets the most use, and having an 8lb mixer is definitely more convenient than a 20+ lb mixer.

The Negatives

Small Size Bowl

Before you purchase this mixer, be sure to evaluate the batch sizes you intend to create with it. If you’re using it for large dinners, holiday parties, or professional use, then it may not be up to the task. The four-quart capacity could demand multiple separate batches.

However, if you make smaller batches, don’t mind breaking recipes into portions for large dinners, or are prioritizing storage space over a big capacity, then this machine is a great fit.

Mixing Issues

Since the Bosch MUM44502 is designed as compact, it features a less powerful motor. While it’ll certainly handle cookie dough and most batters, you may find that it’s overwhelmed by bread dough or recipes that call for a great deal of flour. In these cases, you can finish up the job by hand, or allow its planetary mixing action to work for longer.

When given enough time, it can work through batches of flour and better incorporate other ingredients. However, if you want a fast job (or a heavy-duty job), then you may be disappointed.

Overall Verdict

After looking over all the positives and negatives, we do recommend the Bosch MUM44502 Compact Tilt-Head Stand Mixer. It’s perfect for those with a smaller kitchen or household, is very easy to use, and allows you to tackle countless recipes.

So long as you’re aware of its capacity, and exercise patience with its medium-power mixing, you should find it serving you well.

Where to Buy the Bosch MUM44502 Compact Tilt-Head Stand Mixer

This mixer is available from a few online retailers.

Walmart ($189.00)

Overstock ($189.00)

Everything Kitchens ($169.95)

And of course, it’s available on Amazon.

---

That’s our review of the Bosch Compact Tilt Head Stand Mixer. Are you going to add it to your kitchen?