Stand Mixer Style: Bosch Compact Mixer
Our Reviewer Rating: 4.8 / 5.0
Brand: Bosch
Amazon Rating: 4.4 out of 5 Stars with 511 Reviews
Model Number: MUM4405
Best Used For: Consumer Mid Range Use
Summary
Do you, your significant other, or family member love to bake? Are you considering a new or replacement stand mixer that doesn’t take up so much room but still carries the load? Are you looking for the perfect Christmas gift for a baker who hates clunky big KitchenAids or their friends? You’ve come to the right place here at The Cook’s Measure. If getting the baker in your life a new compact yet high-powered stand mixer like this Bosch Compact Mixer isn’t quite what you’re after, be sure to see our other stand mixer reviews or check out our gift guide for women who bake for even more ideas.
As you’ll see in our review, the Bosch Stand Mixer is a small kitchen baker’s dream for a lightweight, powerful mid-range mixer. With a small kitchen, space is at a premium and this mixer easily stores away in a cabinet or pantry. You also have access to a wide range of Bosch mixer attachments for expanding the tasks you can accomplish with a single small kitchen appliance.
If you’re looking to replace or upgrade an older, finicky, or lower-powered stand mixer, this Bosch kitchen mixer has become a popular choice. KitchenAid users wanting to move to a stand mixer with equal or more power and a smaller countertop footprint love this little guy.
I suspect Bosch will keep converting fans with this re-release of this compact model as more KitchenAid enthusiasts get tired of repair bills and huge mixers. Of their current Amazon buyers, they have a very solid 4.4 Stars Amazon rating with 511 reviews, and several reviewers specifically mentioned shifting from KitchenAid to this smaller Bosch for regular-sized and smaller batches of bread, cookies, pies, and cakes.
| Power and Mixer Speeds: |  (4.5 / 5) |
| Capacity: | (4.5 / 5) |
| Quality and Durability: | (4.5 / 5) |
| Versatility of Add-Ons: |  (4.0 / 5) |
| Overall Value: | (4.5 / 5) |
| Busy Family Cooks: | (4.5 / 5) |
| Couples Who Entertain: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Cooks Working Outside Home: | (4.5 / 5) |
| Cooks Who Cook for One or Two: |  (5.0 / 5) |
| Cooking Enthusiasts or Pros: | (4.0 / 5) |
What Do You Get in this Compact Stand Mixer?
The Bosch model mum4405 comes with a plastic 4 Quart mixing bowl that locks into place, and the bowl can handle up to about 5 pounds of dough. You also get a full lid and splash cover, plus wire whips and a dough hook. This model is a planetary stand mixer, which means it has a planetary mixing action to improve performance. (Wikipedia: How does a planetary mixing action gear system help my mixer?)
The oscillating mixing action also has the side benefit of maintaining a better circuit around the bowl and keeps the sides free of dough so you don’t have to constantly scrape the sides of the bowl. This makes it perform well as a dough and pastry mixer.
While the powerful 400 Watt motor only comes with 4 main speeds, they are controlled electronically for a more even mixing process.
And like other quality stand mixers, Bosch offers a number of useful mixer accessories. In addition to the wire whips and dough hook the mixer comes with, you can purchase other Bosch stand mixer attachments like the Food Processor, the Blender, and the Continuous Shredder.
I really like the Bosch accessories because you can bypass your other kitchen machines for some common tasks. If you do a fair bit of blending in small quantities, you could nix your separate blender in many cases with the small blender add-on. However, if you want to use a full-size blender, I wouldn’t get the Bosch blender attachment because it only holds 4 cups.
But the best part of this is not just fewer devices. You’re saving space, too, by storing less items and only pulling out one compact stand mixer and attachments for multiple tasks. That’s efficient!
Pros and Cons of Bosch Stand Mixers
Pros:
- The compact head area means that this small stand mixer has a lower vertical footprint than other consumer mixers. And the overall mixer itself has a small footprint (13″x11″) and is lightweight (only 8 pounds!), so it’s easy to handle or store away. If you have limited strength or need to store this in a cabinet or a pantry, you’ll find the lighter weight a big relief over your old mixer.
- The 4 Quart mixing bowl is perfect for normal-sized batches of bread, cookies, brownies, or other sweets. And best of all, despite looking like a plastic Fisher Price toy on the outside, it has solid engineering inside and is both durable and powerful. Reviewers say the Bosch can easily go head-to-head with a comparable KitchenAid and even outperform some, especially with bread dough.
- Bosch has made this mixer easy to use and keep clean. The bowl doesn’t turn at all and clicks into the mixer so the beaters do the moving for you. And the splash guard has an opening in the front for adding things. The mixer also has a locking park position to keep the beaters out of your way. Less fuss, less muss, and easy-to-clean parts.
- A 400W motor for a mid-range consumer stand mixer provides plenty of power even without the planetary gearing. Bosch has also improved engineering to add safety features and prevent overheating, which we all know is a problem with certain other brands of similar power and capacity.
- High power like a larger capacity mixer combined with a smaller bowl means it’s easier to work with small and normal sized batches of even dense dough than for a larger stand mixer.
Cons:
- This stand mixer is targeted for baking smaller or regular sizes batches easily, with lots of power and a reasonably-large bowl. So working with difficult dough isn’t a problem, but you are in a middle-of-the-road position in terms of volume. Don’t expect to do triple batches or more than 4-5 lbs of dough because the bowl is most likely small for those.
- If you’re going to use the mixer’s lid with large amounts of dense dough, make sure the lid is tightly fastened or it’ll try to pop off as dough moves around. You can use it without the lid, though.
- Like many stand mixers with even medium volume mixing bowls, very small batches of egg whites, whipping cream, or creaming of ingredients give it some trouble due to the wide and deep bowl.
- The mixer is packaged somewhat loosely in the box, so it could shift around during delivery. Be sure to check it upon arrival for obvious damage and use it right away in case of internal problems. Bosch will treat you well if you need a replacement, even if it wasn’t Amazon handling returns for this, but you do want to discover problems quickly.
Versatility of Use
With the same kinds of stand mixer attachments that you can find with a KitchenAid stand mixer or the Bosch Universal Plus Kitchen Machine, as well as the included wire whips, dough hook, splash ring and lid, this slimmed-down mixer can handle a lot of tasks even beyond any heavy duty stand mixer tasks you plan to give it. As an “in-between” mixer, this Bosch is one of the best stand mixers in its class.
My favorite attachments are the food processor, blender, and continuous shredder with 3 different disks (and you can buy a grater add-on to it, which I also like).
There is also a cookie press, grain and meat grinder, and a berry press available. Some folks said they had issues finding accessories stocked in the U.S. but they found them on Amazon sites in other countries.
What Buyers Say About Bosch Compact Stand Mixers
Reviewers definitely like the extra power in this mixer over, for example, the 325W KitchenAid Artisan stand mixers. And as long as the batches are a reasonable size, it can even go head-to-head with the 575W KitchenAid Professional 600 Series.
Reviewers like the flexibility of being able to handle both small and even some regular batches in this mixer that the high-end mixers are just too big to manage. One buyer has both this machine and the Bosch Universal Plus stand mixer so she can do any size dough or bread job, small or large, in one or the other.
Buyers say that the compact machine is really nice for delicate batches of egg whites, making butter, meringue, or even Jello, and then you can turn around and do a few pounds of heavy bread dough.
And many purchasers are specifically moving over from KitchenAid mixers because they are tired of having to troubleshoot and repair or service their KitchenAid stand mixers every year or two in some cases. Buyers have commented that they don’t experience the same heating-up and overheating that they had with other brands. And — small drum roll — this is a quiet mixer. That’s one less B-52 taking off in your kitchen.
Who Should Buy This Bosch Mixer
I know that most home bakers — and most well-equipped kitchens — have stand mixers already, but we often grow to dislike certain features or lack thereof, have mechanical troubles with a model or brand, or want to downsize to a more reasonably-sized stand mixer.
This mixer is perfect for single people, a small family, somebody with a very small kitchen, or anyone who needs the flexibility of a solid and trouble-free mid-range stand mixer.
If you or a family member or friend doesn’t do a lot of big-batch baking and bread making, or if you want a compact yet high performance mixer that doesn’t hog your counter space, you just might be craving a new compact stand mixer.
Are you’re looking for a different or replacement stand mixer for a baker in your life? If so, the Bosch Compact Mixer is a wonderful choice to save your counter space, save your arms lugging it around, and save your sanity with an easy-to-use mixer.
Who Shouldn’t Buy This Small Footprint Mixer
Quite simply, if you need the extra capacity for your big batches, and need the additional power of a high-end consumer mixer, you don’t want the Bosch MUM4405. In this case, you need to definitely look closely at our review of its big brother the Bosch Universal Plus Kitchen Machine.
This Bosch is a bit expensive for a mid-range consumer mixer, certainly not the cheapest option, but it fits beautifully into a niche all its own between the low-end or simple mid-range mixers and the heavy-duty “do-everything” high-end all-purpose ones. If you need a powerful but compact versatile stand mixer, this little mixer is fabulous. If you’re looking for quality baker gifts, or if you’re trying to replace a mixer or downsize, this is still worth a close look.
Accessories and Related Items
Of all of the attachments for this mixer, I most recommend these.
- Bosch Food Processor For Compact Mixer (5 Cup capacity)
- Bosch MUZ 4 DS2 Continuous Shredder with 3 Disks
- Bosch MUZ 4 RS1 Coarse Grater Disk (add-on to shredder)
- Bosch MUZ 4 MX2 Plastic Blender (4 Cup capacity)
If you have trouble finding accessories, use our contact form to shoot me an email and I’ll see what I can find for you.
You can also access the product manual and user guides at the Bosch website here.
Our Recommendation and Why
If you need to replace or downsize a baker’s stand mixer, or are looking for a gift for a baker (especially bakers in small kitchens), what you’ll really like with the Bosch Compact Mixer is the reasonably-sized bowl, powerful motor, and compact size. You’ll get a flexible mid-range stand mixer that runs quietly and stores away easily and will make your baking and dough making more enjoyable for your everyday general baking needs.
Amazon consistently has the best prices over department stores for stand mixers and small kitchen appliances. And of course the qualifying Amazon Free Shipping is nice, too. You’ve got to check out this compact mixer.