I don't think appliance lifts are useful for what. They are not cost nor space effective for those kinds of small appliances. My parent's kitchen has one in an island for a bowl lift Kitchen Aid mixer which is heavy and it makes sense for that, although it will wobble a bit when mixing.

Unless you take the appliance off the lift before using it, the door of the cabinet it was in remains open during operation which may interrupt workspace flow. The lift usually requires a 12" to 18" wide cabinet and takes up almost the full height. You may be able to fit a shallow slide out drawer in the bottom of the cabinet.

For small appliances you don't use very often, you're better going with the deep drawers but then you're limited to maximum appliance height in a drawer.

For my kitchen, I planned to install an appliance lift for my mixer but haven't put it in yet. Instead the KA mixer has a prominent spot in a corner of my counters.

All the small appliances fit into the corner cabinet with just a plain shelf. I set the shelf to about 2/3 so I can fit both tall and short items. Tall items on the bottom shelf include tall pots (i.e. pasta/steamer/multi-pot), juicer, and bread machine. Small items on the top shelf include toaster, rice cooker, crock pot, cast iron pot, and salad spinner. Less used items are stored further back but all the items are big enough so they don't get lost and are still easy to reach.

Drawers inside doors of a large island cabinet would make accessibility easier but you may lose a bit of height clearance with the drawers and these drawers once fixed aren't easily height adjusted.

There was an appliance lift in our kitchen when we bought this house. We have removed it and placed a rollout drawer in the space and use it as our trash rollout.

For me, the cabinet was waaaaay too valuable of desperately needed space to have an appliance lift. I just couldn't sacrifice that much real estate for it (it took up an entire cabinet for one appliance).

Now I haul out my appliances as needed and it's really no big deal, whether it's my Bosch Universal mixer, or the Cuisenart, or whatever.

Hope this helps!

Sandy

I am planning on using one cabinet in my island for a lift for my KA mixer. I use it quite a bit and anticipate I will use it more when access is easier. It is too heavy for me to carry from one place to another (I will be storing other small appliances in my pantry and this is the only one too heavy to transport).

And, if I end up not using it, I can always order shelves or come up with another use for the cabinet!

We haven't moved back into the kitchen yet but my cabinets are in and I've been trying things out a little. I did go for a lift for my Kitchen Aid but I'm regretting the decision(although it's premature and hopefully I'll change my mind when I'm actually cooking). It seems like a waste of space and you still have to lift something which is fairly heavy to bring the appliance to the level where it will lock into place. So, it's really not that much easier than simply lifting the kitchen aid up to the counter from a shelf. Also, another person made the good point that it blocks the aisle a bit when it's in place. If I had to do over, I would skip it.

blakey--I have been using the lift for my Viking stand mixer now for almost three years and have to tell you that I love it. It is a heavy mixer yet the lift shelf is easy to maneuver. I love being able to easily haul the thing in and out of sight without any trouble. I keep my bowl on the mixer at all times and it is always ready to go.

My mixer does not wobble at all and I can leave it unattended without any problem. My SIL says that this is not the case with her KA--so maybe the brand makes a difference--as far as weight.

I don't think you will regret your decision to put in a lift.

what is the brand of the appliance lift that doesn't wobble? maybe that makes a difference too?

Hi again,
Just wanted to say that I have totally changed my mind about the appliance lift. We make a lot of cookies in our house and it is fantastic. It easily lifts into place and it's great to have a special spot for it, out of the way. I'm so happy I have it.
My cabinets are Wood-Mode and it doesn't wobble, or if it does, I barely notice it.

My cabinets are Wood-mode as well and my lift came with my cabinets.

Here's a picture of my lift with the mixer on it.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I think one mixer lift for your gargantuan mixer makes sense. A mixer lift for every tom, dick, and harry appliance in the joint does not. My mixer lift (came with the Schuler cabinet, seems to be the same as redlover's above) takes up a whole cabinet, with less than 5 inches of usable space beneath. You can be much more efficient with that space.

If you have an appliance garage, you could stick a whole herd of small appliances in there, and because it's on the counter level, it's very convenient. But figure out which are the A list celebrity appliances and give them the best space. A corner appliance garage would be dreamy, but a 12" deep appliance garage is also good, but won't fit the wider toaster ovens, panini grills, etc.

Use slide out shelves in base cabinets for the small appliances and you'll be better off -- or better yet, use deep drawers, like for pots. You can put the doohickeys in with the motors and stuff in the same drawer, and you can fit a lot more. Keep things in easy to move baskets, and it'll be easier to lift to counter height.

I separated my food processor motor and the plastic bowl and put them on the lazy susan (motor and blades are in a plastic handled basket for ease of moving). Likewise, I broke my blender down into motor and blender jar (the assembled height was too much), and stored that there too, along with the panini grill. I find having the associated bits and parts in a plastic basket with handles helps with setup -- I've seen prof. chefs put the food processor, blades and accessories all on the same half-sheet pan, stored on a sheet pan rack.

So that's a long winded way of saying mixer lifts are great for that one ginormous mixer, not so worthwhile for anything else bc of the space utilization issues.

So do you put an electrical socket in the cabinet and keep the mixer plugged in or do you just plug it into the closest electrical socket once it it out and ready to use?

I don't have it up and running yet, but I think either way would work fine. I have plugmold in the space above the mixer lift. Because the mixer lift comes up to counter height, I think it'd be pretty simple to plug it in to a bs outlet. I wouldn't go to the extra expense of putting in an in-cabinet outlet.

I need to get the in-cabinet outlet in the bathroom for the hairdryer. Priorities!

evilbunnie -- So noted - good point. I think I am going to nix the outlet in the cabinet. Thanks.

Where do you put all your cooking supplies when you mix? I'm used to having everything on either side of the mixer on the counter. It looks awkward but I do like that it is slightly lower than counter height. And as mentioned there is the use of one cabinet just for the mixer, that's okay if you have the space.

Mine is plugged in all the time. The outlet is inside the cabinet (on the sidewall). I have an outlet on the end of my island (on the outside) and the outlet on the inside of the cabinet is close to that outlet. I would definitely have an outlet on the inside of the cabinet if it can be done easily enough and without too much expense.

I have one in my kitchen for my kitchenaid but find that it is impractical for actually using it during mixing. Some of the things I make get mixed for a long period of time and the shelf just gets in the way when I am doing other things and seems to wobble a bit at higher speeds. I did have an outlet installed in the cabinet but don't really ever use it.