Murenking Stand Mixer MK36 Review

When it comes to buying a stand mixer, it’s important to consider how many options you’d like for the price point.

Higher-end brands offer a wide range of accessories, but do you really need them? Other lesser-known brands offer a lower price but at the cost of durability.

If you’re looking to add a new appliance to your kitchen and are considering the Murenking Stand Mixer MK36, then look no further than this review to give you a solid idea if it’s the best buying decision you ever make, or if you should keep shopping.

Murenking is a brand of ShenZhen Muren Appliance Co, which was founded in 2004, and is one of the leading manufacturers for small household appliances.

They focus on low cost and high efficiency, as well as customer service. They are known for getting their products to their customers quickly, and they honor their warranties.

Let’s take a look at how the Murenking MK36 shapes up.

Murenking Stand Mixer MK36: The Details

In a Nutshell

• Weight: 13 lbs
• Capacity: Five quart mixing bowl
• Speeds: Six
• Bowl type: Stainless Steel
• Motor: 500W
• Warranty: One-year hassle-free

Features

Accessories and Six Speeds

The Murenking MK36 comes with three different whisks: a wire whip, a C-shape dough hook, and a Y-shape flat beater.

With six speeds, you can do anything from beating eggs and milk, to making your own whipped cream, to kneading bread dough with the hook.

Talk about a break from kneading on the counter and wearing out your wrists!

It also includes a pouring shield to give you the versatility your kitchen needs, as well as to keep your mixes from splashing all over your counter.

Large Enough to Make Two Cakes at Once!

If you’re worried about this mixer tackling larger recipes, don’t.

A five-quart stainless steel bowl can hold up to 3.3 lbs of ingredients, and our testers found it can comfortably hold the contents of two cake mix boxes, so it’s sure to be able to handle your bigger projects too.

This saves any time and money that could come with upgrading your mixer for bigger projects, and can definitely help influence bakers into trying bigger recipes.

Steady Suction Cups and a Tilting Head

There are also five suckers on the bottom to keep your mixer from rocking or jumping across the counter when you give it a heavy payload.

A tilting head allows you easy access to the bowl and a more comfortable angle for you to work.

Whew! That’s a good start, but do all these features amount to everything that will fit your needs?

Let’s break it down further.

Murenking Stand Mixer MK36 Review

The Positives

Aesthetics

The Murenking MK36 is an attractive little mixer. Although the machine itself has a plastic exterior (easy to clean!), it is sturdy and sleek.

The mixer comes in a variety of colors too, and the plastic is ETL and FDA certified, so you can be sure that it will be safe for your food, family and for the earth.

It creates a very low footprint on the counter, especially compared to other mixers, but still gives you the versatility of a large bowl.

The fact that its lightweight also makes it easy to move around when adjusting for more prep space, and it won’t be hard to find a space in cupboards or pantries for the MK36.

Power and Performance

The bowl itself has three buckles at the bottom to keep it secure even when mixing at high speeds, so you can be sure it won’t go flying across your counter.

Even though it has a strong 500W motor, it doesn’t make a lot of noise, true to the company’s boasting of less than 80 decibels at some mixing speeds.

Gone are the worries of you waking your loved ones when trying to catch up on some nighttime baking, and you can easily converse without any annoying whirring to throw you off.

The 500W motor does it justice, too—it is a powerful machine, though running for long times at high speeds or with heavy dough did produce heat and a smell with some of our testers.

Safety

Luckily, the machine comes with overheating protection; if it begins to overheat, it will stop automatically until it cools.

This helps to not only prevent the machine from shorting out, but stops your breakers from blowing.

Price

Those looking to start out in the world of baking, or those on a budget won’t need to reach into the depths of their savings for this one.

One of the main pros to this mixer is the price. For a fraction of the cost of other mixers in its category, the MK36 stands up to them in its performance.

This makes it easy to dabble in the world of baking – especially for beginners.

Ease of Use

This machine is pretty intuitive to set up, and at a nice price point it’s perfect for casual cooks and bakers. It’s more or less self-explanatory in its set-up.

This also makes it an easy machine to adjust to if moving from another brand, or an easy machine for beginners to get started on without having to deal with a complicated machine.

Warranty

A warranty included with an appliance will always be a positive in our eyes. This shows the company backs their products, and their customers, by promising to provide a solution should issues arise.

Included with the Murenking Stand Mixer MK36 is a one-year ‘hassle-free’ warranty that should cover any damages or problems that you find with your mixer.

Simply contact their customer service department and they will deal with it from there – hassle free.

The Negatives

Instruction Manual

It’s a good thing the machine is pretty intuitive, because the user manual leaves something to be desired.

The manual itself is confusing and seems to have been written by someone who has taken English as a second language, as the grammar and wording is odd.

If you’re one to follow all the instructions to a T, you’ll have to improvise with this mixer.

Versatility

Although it is a strong little machine, it does not have the lasting power or heavy-duty performance for frequent bakers, and our testers had a hard time finding additional bowls and accessories to purchase for suiting all of their needs.

The company does warn not to try any bowls or attachments that are not specifically designed for the machine, as they may cause performance issues or even hazards to the baker.

The attachments that come with it do not reach to the bottom of the bowl, so scraping was necessary during mixing.

While not a terrible thing, it can be an inconvenience.

Cleaning

The accessories were also not dishwasher safe, despite what the manual said. Those who ran them through the dishwasher found residue and chipping at the coating.

Though the manual says they are dishwasher safe, the product information warns not to run them through a dishwasher, or to use water that is too hot to clean them.

This conflicting information goes along with the user manual confusion.

Lesser Known Brand

We’re all about giving everyone a chance, especially if they’re producing quality products. Though being a lesser known brand does have its woes.

You won’t be able to dig up too much customer information on this stand mixer in comparison to brands that have been on the market for decades, and it might be hard to look up a solution to a problem you may encounter – but that’s what their customer service is for.

And for those who like to do things a little different (and more unique) than others, you won’t find this small note an issue.

Reliability

The machine also tended to wobble on high speeds, but the suction cups did keep it secure to the counter, so most of our testers were not bothered by it.

After all, it is challenging to find a mixer that does not move at all during high speeds. The biggest problem our testers encountered was that, for a very few of them,  the mixer simply would not turn on.

While some users were able to troubleshoot the issue, others found it hard to find a solution.

A one-year warranty covers this issue in terms of a refund or replacement, but it can be incredibly frustrating for those who face this issue.

The company is based out of China, so if you need to get in contact with customer service, be aware that their office hours are on Beijing time.

Overall Verdict

For those looking for a less expensive alternative for their home baking needs, the Murenking MK36 stand mixer is a solid and attractive little machine.

Infrequent or casual bakers will not only enjoy the price point, but its low profile on the counter, not to mention the suction cups keeping it securely there.

Outside of the chance of some functionality problems at the start, it is still a reliable and quiet addition to your kitchen.

However, if you’re a frequent baker, or use heavier doughs, this may not be the best machine for you.

A one-year hassle-free warranty makes it worth a shot—if you don’t love it, you have plenty of time to return it.

As long as you remember to wash the accessories by hand, and don’t mind scraping the bowl a bit as you mix, this stand mixer could be a perfect addition to help ease the burden of holiday baking, birthday celebrations, or school bake sales.

At more than a fifth of the price of some other mixers, what have you got to lose?

Where to Buy the Murenking Stand Mixer MK36

While we’ve concluded this the Murenking Stand Mixer MK36 does perform (and does it well), it also faces the task of standing up against better known brands on store shelves.

For a stand mixer that’s so affordable, it’s a shame that it will be hard to find the Murenking Stand Mixer in retail stores.

It doesn’t prove much easier to find online, but thankfully, it’s not hard to find on Amazon.

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That’s all for our review on the Murenking Stand Mixer MK36. Are you tempted to give it a spin?