My wife has had this appliance for about three years and up to now it
has performed adequately. Last night while mixing brown sugar with
butter for cookies the mixer failed.
After scanning the internet I determined it was a gear failure. I
called the KA help line and the nearest repair service was 100 miles
away.

At this point I dismantled the mixer which was not a simple operation
and hark I located the plastic cog which had been chewed up by the
metal cog. The housing was packed full of grease and is probably the
reason that some people have realized the leakage of grease around the
joints when the motor runs. They(KA company) are hopeful it will
dissipate the heat for a spell preventing the vinyl cog from
disentegrating).

After removing the part my wife says how many times are we going to
have to do this each time the cog gear overheats and we proceeded to
dump the appliance in the trash.

Why does not KA make the vinyl gear of something more durable like
metal? I guess they want people to dispose of their failed appliance
and buy a new one. The new one that we will buy will NOT be anything
made by KitchenAid and we will attempt to determine that no gear is
made of vinyl resin.

If this was a vehicle or baby crib these mixers would have been
recalled long ago with the multitude of complaints on the internet
about this common failure.

J.
Mayfield
Paris,
KY

"ToothFairy" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> My wife has had this appliance for about three years and up to now it
> has performed adequately. Last night while mixing brown sugar with
> butter for cookies the mixer failed.
> After scanning the internet I determined it was a gear failure. I
> called the KA help line and the nearest repair service was 100 miles
> away.
>
> At this point I dismantled the mixer which was not a simple operation
> and hark I located the plastic cog which had been chewed up by the
> metal cog. The housing was packed full of grease and is probably the
> reason that some people have realized the leakage of grease around the
> joints when the motor runs. They(KA company) are hopeful it will
> dissipate the heat for a spell preventing the vinyl cog from
> disentegrating).
>
> After removing the part my wife says how many times are we going to
> have to do this each time the cog gear overheats and we proceeded to
> dump the appliance in the trash.
>
> Why does not KA make the vinyl gear of something more durable like
> metal? I guess they want people to dispose of their failed appliance
> and buy a new one. The new one that we will buy will NOT be anything
> made by KitchenAid and we will attempt to determine that no gear is
> made of vinyl resin.
>
> If this was a vehicle or baby crib these mixers would have been
> recalled long ago with the multitude of complaints on the internet
> about this common failure.
>
> J.
> Mayfield
> Paris,
> KY
>
That must be why some models now claim " all metal construction"

But recalls are for safety reasons. How many injuries come from mixer
gears? :-)

I guess you can buy a hobart for 1500 bucks, or a viking that the beaters
fall off of. (see cooks illustrated test. )

del

ToothFairy wrote:
> My wife has had this appliance for about three years and up to now it
> has performed adequately. Last night while mixing brown sugar with
> butter for cookies the mixer failed.
> After scanning the internet I determined it was a gear failure. I
> called the KA help line and the nearest repair service was 100 miles
> away.
>
> At this point I dismantled the mixer which was not a simple operation
> and hark I located the plastic cog which had been chewed up by the
> metal cog. The housing was packed full of grease and is probably the
> reason that some people have realized the leakage of grease around the
> joints when the motor runs. They(KA company) are hopeful it will
> dissipate the heat for a spell preventing the vinyl cog from
> disentegrating).
>
> After removing the part my wife says how many times are we going to
> have to do this each time the cog gear overheats and we proceeded to
> dump the appliance in the trash.
>
> Why does not KA make the vinyl gear of something more durable like
> metal? I guess they want people to dispose of their failed appliance
> and buy a new one. The new one that we will buy will NOT be anything
> made by KitchenAid and we will attempt to determine that no gear is
> made of vinyl resin.
>
> If this was a vehicle or baby crib these mixers would have been
> recalled long ago with the multitude of complaints on the internet
> about this common failure.
>
> J.
> Mayfield
> Paris,
> KY
>

My understanding is that this is a design "feature". The thought is that
when the machine is overloaded, the gear will strip rather than burn out
the motor. After my early '80s vintage KA KSM90 was stolen a few years
ago, I bought a KA Professional 600. I think at the time I bought mine,
KA was using a nylon gear, but have since replaced it with a metal one.
In any case, a couple of years ago, I think I damaged the gear kneading
a couple of loaves of rye bread dough. I was actually glad when the gear
finally stripped, because I really didn't like the mixer nearly as well
as I had liked the older, smaller model.

Since I had a good excuse now to buy a different mixer, after doing a
lot of reading, I decided on the Electrolux Assistent DLX 2000. It's
overkill if you only perform lighter tasks, but for kneading bread dough
(and especially large quantities) it's exceptional. It got a poor review
in Cook's Illustrated's recent review of stand mixers. I think that's
largely due to the fact that it's different from stand mixers that most
American's are used to, so there's a bit of a learning curve to become
proficient.

Good luck.

Andy.................

"Andy Boze" > wrote in message
...
..
>
> Since I had a good excuse now to buy a different mixer, after doing a lot
> of reading, I decided on the Electrolux Assistent DLX 2000. It's overkill
> if you only perform lighter tasks, but for kneading bread dough (and
> especially large quantities) it's exceptional. It got a poor review in
> Cook's Illustrated's recent review of stand mixers. I think that's largely
> due to the fact that it's different from stand mixers that most American's
> are used to, so there's a bit of a learning curve to become proficient.

Cook's Illustrated will hand out bad reviews for rather capricious reasons.
For instance, they determine "ideal" specifications for a product that seem
rather artificial to me. If they decide that the ideal height of a mixer is
22 inches and the one you like is 18.4 inches, then it is "substandard." If
they decide that the ideal chicken fryer will hold 6 pounds of chicken
pieces and the one that meets your need holds 5 pounds of chicken, then the
one you like is "under sized."

"Vox Humana" > wrote in message
. ..
>
> "Andy Boze" > wrote in message
> ...
> .
>>
>> Since I had a good excuse now to buy a different mixer, after doing a lot
>> of reading, I decided on the Electrolux Assistent DLX 2000. It's overkill
>> if you only perform lighter tasks, but for kneading bread dough (and
>> especially large quantities) it's exceptional. It got a poor review in
>> Cook's Illustrated's recent review of stand mixers. I think that's
>> largely due to the fact that it's different from stand mixers that most
>> American's are used to, so there's a bit of a learning curve to become
>> proficient.
>
> Cook's Illustrated will hand out bad reviews for rather capricious
> reasons. For instance, they determine "ideal" specifications for a product
> that seem rather artificial to me. If they decide that the ideal height of
> a mixer is 22 inches and the one you like is 18.4 inches, then it is
> "substandard." If they decide that the ideal chicken fryer will hold 6
> pounds of chicken pieces and the one that meets your need holds 5 pounds
> of chicken, then the one you like is "under sized."
>
I agree. They gave a "rave review" to the MECO electric smoker several years
ago
and I rushed to buy one. It has been a hunk of junk. Both the heating
elements and control
self destructed. The replacement cost for both was one half the original
cost of the smoker.
It performed poorly. Basically you smoked at a single temp, in spite of the
"control". It
wasn't warm enough for brisket or ribs and it was also too warm for fish.
I think Christopher Kimball and his writers know far less than what they
present.
In spite of that I've been a subscriber since the inception of the magazine.
There isn't
any other non advertiser mag. about cooking and equipment out there except
CUs
occasional attempt at that.

Kent