Repaired my KitchenAid Mixer

     I own a KitchenAid KP26M16 stand mixer which I bought in the early spring of 2009. About a week and a half ago, it gave up its ghost. I bought my mixer mainly for bread dough. I use high gluten flour and I wouldn’t recommend anything over 6 cups maximum, but generally, I make it one loaf at a time, and use between 3 and four cups of flour. I use it several times per week. This mixer has always been pretty noisy. I was mixing dough with it that final day and it just stopped and made a grinding sort of noise while the dough hook sort of flinched. I was livid! I paid really good money for this thing, mainly because it’s American made and here it broke down no different than a Chinese machine which costs far less. I was going to be God damned if I was going to buy another one after that! I thought, $400 for 3-1/2 years just isn’t worth it. Well, I did a little investigating online and found out why KitchenAid is still worth the money and why “Made in America” still means something. These mixers have moving parts and those parts eventually wear out. Unlike the Chinese machines, the parts for these KitchenAids are readily available, and these mixers can be fixed relatively cheap and be back in service. The worst part is waiting for the parts. On my mixer, the worm follower gear chewed up. I found the website www.mendingshed.com and ordered parts from them. I ordered every gear that they had with the exception of the top gear for the accessories (mainly because I don’t use any accessories with mine) and made sure to order an extra worm follower gear (I’ll be ready next time). I got the can of grease which can be used many times. It contains enough grease that I should never have to buy more grease again, even if I replace the gears every 4 years or so. I tore mine apart, cleaned it up really good, and put it back together with the new worm follower gear and fresh grease. I even greased the planetary gears lightly. Once it was put back together, I ran it for a spell to work the grease in better. It runs much quieter and hopefully will give me many more years of service.

      In short, expecting your mixer to never die is a lot like expecting your car to run forever without ever needing repairs. I know there are a ton of stories out there about older mixers never needing repair. My dad owned a tractor built in the 1940’s that hardly, if ever, needed any repair. I’m not sure why that is, but the fact is, most of these modern pieces of machinery need occasional repair. I’m just glad that these mixers can be repaired, cheaply, and fairly easy.