KitchenAid RKP26M1XPM Pearl Metallic 6-quart Pro 600 Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer (Refurbished)

I was so happy when I received my mixer I scheduled a night in with a friend to bake cupcakes. Unfortunately, the mixer would not even turn on. After 4 hours on the phone with kitchenaid customer service, and another 30 min chatting with Overstock we decided it was DEAD! Overstock emailed me a shipping label, I drove it to a shipping center, and now am waiting 60-90 days for my refund....waiting....When I talked to the Overstock.com representative she said "well....it's refurbished....that's one of the "things" when you buy refurbished." What things???? Grrrrrr....

I read mixed reviews on purchasing a 'refurbished' machine, both good and bad experiences. However, I have a brother who worked on refurbish machines at his company and he assured me that many times the refurbished machines are brand spanking new because customers changed their minds after making the purchase. This happens for many reasons, but sometimes it's buyer remorse, especially on higher price tag items. With his insight, I took the dive and made the purchase for my wife over Christmas. The mixer comes in a 'refurbished' packaging and the model number also reflects it's state. However, the actual product looks indistinguishable with the new. It does not come with the splash guard, but it does come with the whisk, dough hoke and the other third one (I forget the name) that looks like a skeleton of a spade. Some may like the open head model of the lower end KA Artisan series, but I find no problems with the lift method. The mixing attachment can be easily removed along with the bowl so that you can remove and clear any batter off the attachment before you proceed with your prep work. It's a heavy unit, so make sure you have a home for it. Right after I made this purchase, we learned from a family member that they bought a brand new machine at COSTCO for the same price I bought my refurbished model. At first this made me confused as to why a refurbished machine would cost the same as a brand new unit at Costco, but upon further investigation, I discovered that they are actually very different. The series I bought was an KA Mixer 600 Pro. The COSTCO units are model 6000HD. The two modes look almost indistinguishable on the outside, but they are completely different in the following ways. The 600 Pro has an AC motor; and the 6000HD is a DC motor. I don't have an electrical engineering degree to tell you the pros/cons of the two motor types, but I can judge from the pricing that a DC motor is cheaper to include in the units. Now, as for as it's life, I do not know how long a DC motor lasts 'vs a AC motor and which is better to handle load, but I can say that all reviews you hear about mixers that have a working life of many, many decades are almost always all AC motors. I wield Occam's Razor to then trust an AC motor solution since it's 'proven'. It's up to you to subscribe to my simplistic valuation, but that's how I went about it. I also see other differences in the bowl shape and well as the fact that the 6000HD does not have a splash guard solution. That is important if you were to need to mix things that are more viscous. My wife would have been fine if I had bought her a hand-held solution, but I believe a happy life is a happy life and I do not want her cooking pleasure to be met with injuries later on in life. She bakes because she loves the family and so I want to make the endeavor as easy on her joints and muscles as possible. I hope this mixer last us a life time and that we can pass it on to one of our kids. I would highly recommend you buy this item. The worst that could happen is that the item comes to you non-working, in which case, you can just return for another. I'm sure eventually you will get one that is in as pristine condition as ours. The best thing is that you will end up dishing out a smaller sum than a 'new' labeled machine.

It was a hassle receiving a broken product. I had to get the product reshipped directly from the manufacturer, which took and additional 10 days.

I love it! This is the second Kitchen Aid appliance that I bought refurbished at Overstock. Both are perfect. This mixer looks previously used, but it only has very few scratches inside the bowl, everything else is perfect. The product itself is amazing, very powerful and quite. I never had anything like this machine. I m so happy with my purchase. The price? Wow I believe it was at least 40% less than a new one!

I love it! It's great! I have an Artisan KitchenAid, which is also great, but this 6 qt is terrific! I can fit so much more into the bowl. The flat beater did start rubbing off black stuff after I washed it a couple times. Not sure what it was, but I just scrubbed it off until no more black stuff came off. Haven't had any issues with it since!