What Kenmore's new mixer looks like

The Kenmore brand today introduced a new stand mixer design to help eliminate splattering while baking.

The Kenmore Elite Ovation 5-quart stand mixer features a patented and revolutionary "pour-in top" design that allows cooks to add ingredients directly into the mixing bowl without stopping the mixer. Combined with a 360-degree splash guard, Ovation ensures those ingredients stay in the glass mixing bowl, without splattering on kitchen countertops, officials from Hoffman Estates-based Sears said.

"Kenmore Elite Ovation could be the most innovative small kitchen appliance in the past 20 years," said Tom Park, president of Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard brands at Sears Holdings. "Our research shows that home chefs were frustrated with how difficult it is to add ingredients to traditional stand mixers. Ovation's sophisticated, elegant design and performance is nothing short of amazing - and could be displayed in a Museum of Contemporary Art."

Starting today, the Kenmore Elite Ovation stand mixers are available for pre-order at sears.com/ovation - priced at $449.99. Available in metallic gray and burgundy, products will be shipped to customers in July.

"We are excited to offer the latest in Kenmore innovation, the Ovation, at Sears to our members who have a passion for cooking and baking," said Leena Munjal, chief digital officer at Sears Holdings. "Kitchen enthusiasts and home chefs who tested the Kenmore Ovation thought it was not only an incredibly functional appliance, but also a beautiful addition to their kitchen."

For decades, adding ingredients to traditional stand mixers presented challenges for home chefs, requiring them to tilt the entire motor up to gain access to the bowl. Now, with Ovation's 'pour-in top' design, cooks can keep mixing without the mess. So baking with help from younger kids becomes more about the cooking and less about the cleanup.

The idea for Ovation came when a Kenmore product designer and his daughter were making waffles using a traditional stand mixer and she asked, 'dad, why can't we just pour the ingredients right in the middle?' The Kenmore industrial design team then ran with the idea, solving the engineering challenges to perfect the 'pour-in top' design.