Get me out of this scrape

Like my blog friend Serena, I have a special relationship with my mixer.  She is reliable, hardworking, and very, very utilitarian chic.  But lately, I've been having some problems with the attachments: maybe I washed them one too many times in the dishwasher, but a rusty residue has been issuing forth from the top of the paddle and whisk attachments.  This hasn't affected my ability to use the attachments, but it just seems a bit . . . yucky, you know?

Rather than ordering new Kitchenaid attachments, I decided to try out the new blades that promise to scrape down your bowl while you're mixing -- no spatula necessary.  I compared the Beater Blade with the SideSwipe, and I decided in favor of the latter, since it got a better review from America's Test Kitchen and because the silicon fins just seemed like they would do a better job of scraping down the bowl.

SideSwipe

Last week, I made a few batches of compost cookies for my husband's medical interns and med students, and I thought I'd share my initial review of the SideSwipe.

Pros: The SideSwipe easily attached to the mixer -- you simply attach it to the beater shaft the same way you'd attach the Kitchenaid attachments.  Additionally, the SideSwipe did exactly what it promised to do: it scrapes down the bowl fairly effectively, and there's no need to turn the mixer off and use a spatula.

Cons: The SideSwipe scraped almost a little bit too hard: the silicon blades pushing against the side of the bowl caused the bowl to screw into the base so tightly that it was almost impossible to get the bowl out of the mixer again.  It also caused the mixer to vibrate so much that a screw came off!  Nothing that a general tightening of screws wouldn't fix, but it was still a little disconcerting that bits of my mixer came flying off.  Finally, it's hard to clean batter off the fins.  We have a great dishwasher, and I usually never have to rinse anything off.  Not so for the SideSwipe.

Despite the few negatives, I'm still liking the SideSwipe.  It seems to do a much better job of mixing than my old paddle attachment, and it does save time not to have to manually scrape down the bowl each time I add an ingredient.  Plus it's not leaking rusty residue (yet).

And those compost cookies?  I made them with cheddar Goldfish, kettle chips, and chocolate chunks.  And they were awesome.

Have you tried the SideSwipe or the Beater Blade?