How To Repair a KitchenAid Mixer Yourself

Do you want to hear how my KitchenAid story ended?  Sure you do. 

To catch you up if you’re new, my KitchenAid mixer broke while I was using the dough hook, and it made me very, um, mad.  Because those things are supposed to last forever.  I’m a reasonable person, but, last I checked, eight years is a few months shy of infinity. 

Well, KitchenAid got in touch with me after my post and said they were sorry but they couldn’t send me a new mixer.  I told them I didn’t expect them to send me a new mixer.  I wanted my mixer.  To work.  It’s not like I’ve been mixing small- batch cement in there for foundation repairs.  Just normal batters, frostings, and the occasional dough. 

As a courtesy, the KitchenAid people offered to send me a box and a shipping label to send the mixer back to them so they could give me an estimate for how much it would cost to fix it.  In other words, they weren’t going to fix it for free, but they would cut me a break on shipping.  And let’s not forget the complimentary cookbook they sent.  Which I placed lovingly next to my broken mixer to fully enjoy the irony.  Come on, Tammy, don’t be catty.

While I did appreciate the attempt at a gesture, this just didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.  I’d just as soon pay a local place to fix it and skip all of the ridiculous shipping of a 30-lb. appliance.  The hundreds of food miles I’d saved by eating locally would be undone in one fell swoop.  Plus, who knows how much their estimate would be?  And I’d probably be so fed up by that point that I’d pay anything just to get my precious mixer back.

So, I decided to take matters into my own hands, literally.  I’m not super-handy, but I can generally figure things out with an Internet connection and enough time.  After all, the motor was working fine.  What was broken was the rotating part into which you plugged the attachments.  How hard could it be? 

Luckily, two web sites I found have pretty good instructions on how to take apart your KitchenAid: one for standard kitchen mixers with the tilty heads, and one for the commercial kind that I have.  Between the two, I was able to cobble together something resembling a game plan.  I’ll only gloss over things here in my “scorned woman” version of the process.  If you want to attempt the dissection yourself, you should head over to the other sites now. 

I started unscrewing things, banging the hell out of other things, and prying still other things apart.  Why, yes, that is a white sweater I’m wearing for the occasion.  I will regret that. 

Once I got the whole thing open, there was a ton of grease inside there.  Moving parts require lubrication for maximum pleasure performance.  After much scooping off and wiping down, I could see the problem.

A plastic gear that got shredded.  This is actually the fail-safe gear that reader Margot had mentioned in a previous comment, which is built to fail in order to prevent the motor from self-destructing.   Cost to replace it: less than $20, shipping included. 

Here we are waiting impatiently for the part.

Apparently, I could have used this time to replace the old grease with new.  I’ll let you guess whether or not that actually happened.  Once I got the new worm gear, though, I lubed everything up really well before putting it all back together again.  And did it work? 

YES!!!  Here it is, good as new.  Okay, maybe not as good as new, but good enough (and just in the nick of time to make Husband’s birthday cake). 

All in all, I saved myself a lot of time, money, and aggravation.  Okay, maybe not time and aggravation, but there was also a certain amount of satisfaction involved, which balanced it out.  Why do I think this isn’t the last time I’ll be taking this thing apart? 

I hope this helps somebody else, too.

Comments

[Laura]

Love this post!! I've taken my 6qt professional in 2 times (cost over $200) for repairs & it is in need of another repair. I've now taken off the top & googled do it yourself kitchenaid repair ... came to your post. Ours is 6 yrs old & I am with you ... sad. This time the top is loose & I can see a stripped screw that I believe is the reason. I am fortunate enough to live 5 min from a repair place, but gosh darn it am tired of paying for my $500+ mixer to be repaired AGAIN! Thanks for the links & expressing my frustration so well. ... btw the repair guy told me if you want a Kitchen Aide that lasts "forever" find one at a garage sale that belonged to someone's grandma.

[ChristineMM]

Glad you got that fixed. I am having a different problem, it will not shut off, stuck on medium. I was creaming butter and sugar.

Other story: our first machine was a 5 quart. It broke and when we called KA they did a troubleshoot and said the part that was broken would cost $110 to fix. We said forget that as it was $199 as a refurbished model. We bought a new 6 quart.

My FIL was bothered by the whole thing and asked if he could have it. That meant the accessories, 2 bowls, splatter guard and more. We said okay, take it. He took the broken one to an unauthorized small appliance repair guy in a tiny shop in the nearby city. He fixed it for $11. I was steaming mad. We felt like fools for listening to KA and our 6 quart was already two months old and used and we would not return it. So my FIL kept the KA and enjoyed it.

I no longer trust KA staff to troubleshoot via phone.

While under warranty the machine #2 broke & we had to ship it to them to get fixed. They wound up just sending us a new one. (If it was not under warranty we would have used that elderly repair guy who was so great.)

I used a friend's Delonghi last week and it creamed butter so fast and was great for making 6 batches of cookie dough. I am tempted to dump the KA mixer altogether. I will need to research it more though since we make a lot of bread.

THanks for your post.

[Frank Bellini]

While my grease is toast --- a horrid design here, totally unengineered and designed for failure, the plastic gear looks fine. I suspect the motor. It will not run disassembled. Help.

[Roy McIntyre]

My Kitchen Aid mixer is fairly new, but recently while using it, the mixer moter just simply quit running and stopped completely and will not start again! Please help!

[may]

My husband bought me a Bowl-Life Stand Mixer . It just past it's warranty. the bitter hit the side of the bowl and even worse is I try to fix this part and found out the motor is not working any more.I only use this machine no more than 20 times.It is very frustrate.I call KitchenAid center and they don't really helps and even told me according to my model and serial number this machine was purchased on 2009 not 11/2011 ( I still keep the original receipt).

[Lisa]

I am SO happy I found this post, albeit four years later. Now I know that I'm not the only one to have had this happen.
My KitchenAid Artisan Mixer broke a couple weeks ago and it sounds like it's the same issue that you had. My mixer was given to me as a gift in 2009. It should last longer that FOUR years. I, too, got incredibly frustrated when I spoke to a customer service rep from KA. She tried to insinuate that I was incorrectly using my mixer and had it on the wrong speed, or, had the mixing bowl too full. I politely told her that I very well knew how to use the mixer and wasn't an ignorant baker. (I was in the process of mixing browned butter, white sugar and brown sugar and the paddle stopped turning and the motor made a weird whirring noise. ) I also asked what KA could do for me, as the mixer wasn't under the LAME one year warranty. She told me the same thing that you reported above. She also gave me a name of a local KA certified repair place. I informed KA that I thought as a reputable company they could offer more to the loyal customer base than free shipping on a broken machine. They should offer a lifetime guarantee. Seems as if their mixers are made to break. Well, at least in my opinion. So, I have to call the repair place to get an estimate. Though, I might try to fix it myself...but I don't think I'm that mechanically inclined. ;)

Thank you for posting your story. I'm glad I'm not alone. :)

[I want you.]

Gosh! She manhandles idiotic Service Reps, She isn't intimidated to open her kajillion dollar mixer herself, she's smart, she's funny, and she uses sexual innuendo in her humor....AND She Fixed It!! I think I'm in love. Why are all the good ones married?

[Ann]

I had the same thing happen a few months ago. I to think a $450 mixer should last more then 8 years (mine is a 2005 model). Called local repair place wanted $90 to $120 to repair it. Called KitchenAid, said I could pay $55 to ship it to them for evaluation for repair. Once I said no to that she said she would be happy to sell me a new one for $450 and oh by the way, it comes with a free ice cream maker attachment (which I already have). If I have one $450 mixer that doesn't work why would I want to buy another one?!??! Going to see if my uncle can fix it, and if not sell it for parts and never ever buy a KitchenAid product again.

[Joe]

A good friend of mine gave me an old mixer (avacodo green to date it). I took it apart, sandblasted the green and painted it white while also changing out the grease. That was over 15 years ago. The seals are leaking so it looks like I have to do it again.