Yes, it is. I have had one for years. It was quite a splurge for me, but I started making our own whole wheat bread...I make 5 loaves at a time. ANd, to justify the price I decided to sell bread for a while. I had some regular customers and after a little while it kinda paid for itself and I quit and we moved. The blender is also great...I put ice etc in it and it is powerful.

Thank you for your response. PKguy on the Cooking forum was also saying how good it is. I always seem to go against the grain when purchasing big items so I'll probably get this one instead of the KitchenAid.

I sent one of my kitchenaid mixers to a friend (in canada, and the shipping about killed me!) and sold the other one locally on Craigslist. I used the money to partially pay for a Bosch mixer, and I am so glad I did. The things that bothered me about the KA are no longer a problem.

I can take the lid off and dump stuff in, and it just goes in. the lid keeps ingredients from flying all over the place. I don't worry that I am going to burn the motor up kneading bread dough.

I have not used the blender much. I had intended to sell my vita-mix on ebay, but after using the blender for smoothies a couple of times I decided to keep the vita-mix.

I bought the separate cookie dough paddles, and I use them a lot.