I really like this as a hands-free mixer. I did not expect it to be comparable to a KitchenAid. It does exactly what I expected it to - mixes by itself while I add ingredients. The bowl locks into the bottom of the stand unit which spins freely. The action of the beaters with a small rubber attachment on the head is what makes the bowl spin by itself. A few things to note: I do occasionally have to use a spoon to scrape the ingredients off the sides further inward toward the beaters if I am mixing something more solid like butter or cookie dough, but it works fine completely hand free with ingredients that re more liquid. There is also some limitation with the size of the mixing bowl. On several occasions I have realized that the ingredients are getting too high in the bowl for the beaters to mix properly. If you are working with a larger recipe, keep in mind that you may have to use a wide bowl and detach for hand-mixing instead of the tall mixing bowl that comes with the unit in hands-free mode. The lowest mixing setting is a little faster than what I would expect, but I have had no problems with this affecting any of my recipes.