Eric Jorgensen wrote:

>On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 17:39:56 -0600
>Mike Avery > wrote:
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>>I wonder how many people with KitchenAid problems just assume it can knead and knead and knead all day long.... until it fries. And then it's a piece of junk in the eye of the purchaser.
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>That and the nylon gears, and lack of an overload breaker on the motor.
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The nylon gear has been a part of the K45 series since, at least, the
late 1970's when I bought my mixer. It is, whether you like it or not,
a reasonable design feature. It allows repair by replacing an
inexpensive nylon gear, rather than requiring the mixer to be striped
down, degreased, and relubed to remove the metal fragments when a metal
gear fails.

There is ALWAYS a weakest spot in any design. With the nylon gear, it's
easily repairable. With all metal gears, there is no telling which gear
would fail.

I've used my mixer heavilly since I bought it in the late 70's. The
nylon gear hasn't failed. Despite heavy and frequent use.

If modern KA's are failing too often, something I can't judge, I don't
think its due to the nylon gear.

Mike