On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 08:35:12 -0600
Mike Avery > wrote:
> Eric Jorgensen wrote:
>
> >On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 17:39:56 -0600
> >Mike Avery > wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>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. >
> >>
> >
> >That and the nylon gears, and lack of an overload breaker on the motor.
> >
> 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.
It's a very smart design feature that allows them to make a cheap
machine that fails in a predictable way.
What i would prefer is an actual circuit breaker that trips when the
motor is drawing too much power and is thus straining too hard. Given an
appropriate circuit breaker, the metal gear would never have the
opportunity to strip out.
I think Whirlpool wouldn't consider that a feature, because people would
call their mixers 'weak' for refusing to turn when overloaded. Also, the
motors would last longer because it would be a real hassle to run them
overloaded, and that means fewer sales.
So they'd have to use a stronger motor, which would cost more money,
which doesn't make sense because most of the people who buy their mixers
treat it essentially like a fashion accessory, occasionally using it for a
single loaf of bread or a batch of cookies as a function of domestic bliss,
or occasionally to attempt a recipe they saw on tv.
I have a similar complaint about consumer grade ice cream mixers - why
does every single one of them tell you it's done mixing by stalling and
overheating? Needs a breaker that turns off the motor at the appropriate
level of resistance from the work load.
> 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.
I have to admit that the only one I've personally seen fail in recent
years, probably didn't break the gear. It was a 2 year old KA
"Professional" that, I'm told, when mixing a double batch of cookies, just
plain stopped.
Doesn't so much as hum when switched on now. Can't find anything
physically wrong with it. It just doesn't turn on.
So they bought a Bosch Universal instead. Which i found very odd
considering they'd just gone on the atkins diet.
They used it to make some atkins-friendly muffins. At least the recipe
says they're muffins. It turns out that when you mix "high protein" flour
on high for 5 minutes you get a substance not unlike rubber.
I don't see why we argue about this. A lot of people like the KA just
fine and they can keep using them. If people ask my opinion I'll tell 'em
what i think of them. For most people they're probably just fine.
If you bake heavily, like your life depends on it, it might let you
down, or you may have preconceptions that may turn out to be disastrous.
This is the way i was brought up - 5th of 8 kids, Bosch Universal
cranking out between 7 and 11 loaves of whole wheat bread per week, up to
six loaves per batch. My eldest sister still uses the Bosch we bought in
about 1978, mom bought a new one in '89 iirc. Every member of the family
without exception learned how to cook and bake at a very young age, and Dad
taught all of us how to make bread as soon as we were strong enough to
shape the loaves.
I could make spaghetti when i was 3, I could make it *well when i was 4.
Cookies, cakes, biscuits, etc, on my own by about 7. Bread at 10, iirc.
I'm not talking about hanging around Mom and fetching ingredients, I'm
talking about being the only person in the kitchen and occasionally having
to ask someone a question. Remarkably, nobody was badly injured. Cut my
finger once dicing some carrots, that's about it.
People worry about kids in the kitchen but honestly the only hard part
is proper knife handling. Aside from that the rules are "don't touch things
that are hot" and "don't stick tools in the mixer when it's running"
As for me, Whirlpool is on my list of vendors of last resort. Something
about loathing every appliance I've ever used with their mark on it. The
bane of my existence as a cook and baker is the Whirlpool range in this
apartment. I'll never buy anything from the washing machine company if i
can avoid it, and that's just the way it is.
So i have a clear and stated bias against the KA, but i also have
rational objections to their design.
You know what kills me? Every cook on FoodTV except Jacques Torres uses
a KA. Jacques has his Hobart N-50 prominently displayed, but what does he
use it for?! Nothing but meringue and ganache! And it's not even proper
meringue!
There used to be another pastry chef on another show, and she had an
N-50 as well, and also used it only for the light and fluffy . . . .
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