"General" Posts

Have Box, Will Travel

KitchenAid stand mixers are both heavy and fragile; this challenging combination of attributes makes it critically important that they be packed carefully for transit, whether in a moving truck or when being shipped. By far the best way to ship a mixer is in the original factory packaging. The packing was carefully designed and engineered to protect the mixer and associated items (bowl, accessories, etc) from damage resulting from ordinary handling during common-carrier transit. (Pro tip: it doesn’t matter how…    more →Have Box, Will Travel

Compatible Bowls and Accessories

Here are lists of compatible bowls and accessories (beater/dough hook/whip), grouped by model type. Model number designations refer to the label underneath the base of the mixer. These lists are formatted as tables; the left column is the item number, which you can use for a web search. Where to buy: most items with retail part numbers (beginning with “K” or a number) can be found by searching on KitchenAid’s web site. Another good place to look is Seneca River…    more →Compatible Bowls and Accessories

“Which Mixer Should I Get?”

I get that question pretty often. The short answer is… well, there is no short answer. Mostly, the question that’s really being asked is: Tilt-Head or Bowl-Lift? The tilt-head KitchenAid mixers are excellent all-around machines. For most folks buying their first KitchenAid mixer to do general baking and food prep (with attachments), this would be my recommendation. They can also knead bread, but you’ll find that with heavier dough and larger batches, the head torques around the hinge pin. (This…    more →“Which Mixer Should I Get?”

The Movie Star

You may have seen this mixer on TV, or in a video on the Internet.

The Unusual Ones Get Names

This is Flossie (she’s pink like candy floss), but nobody calls her that more than once. To all the folks at the diner she’s “Flo”. Flossie is an example of an extremely rare specimen: the Accolade 400. This is a tilt-head that KitchenAid made for a little while in the early 2000s, and then discontinued. (Do you have friends at KitchenAid? I have Many Questions about the production history of this machine.) The motor and drivetrain are the same as…    more →The Unusual Ones Get Names

“I’ve always wanted a blue mixer…”

It’s easy enough to buy a cobalt-blue KitchenAid mixer these days, but the color is really hard to find in older models. The KSM90 “Ultra Power” tilt-head was the first of the cobalt-blue machines; it was made as an “exclusive” for Williams-Sonoma. They’re findable on eBay, but frequently command a premium, even when sold “for parts or repair”. Even harder to find is the cobalt-blue bowl-lift model (K5SS). Seller-refurbished ones are selling on eBay for close to $500 (roughly the…    more →“I’ve always wanted a blue mixer…”

The Cake Machine

This machine (1997 K45SS) was in excellent overall condition, requiring only routine maintenance. Unfortunately, the head lock lever was bent in transit (the mixer tipped over and landed on it), but that was easily resolved with a replacement latch mechanism while the lower gear case cover was off. The owner had retrofitted the mixer with the 5-quart glass bowl. They were less than completely happy, though, because the bowl would only fit on the machine in one orientation, with the…    more →The Cake Machine

Hello World

KitchenAid KSM90, Cobalt Blue

Hello. I’m a KitchenAid stand mixer repair enthusiast. That means that I think KitchenAid stand mixers are pretty awesome. I’ve been doing maintenance and repairs for friends and family for a while now, and I’ve bought a few mixers from Goodwill and eBay to help develop my skills and build a collection. (I might have a problem.) Anything that goes wrong with a KitchenAid stand mixer, short of outright destruction, is fixable. Vintage KitchenAids (with some exceptions, there’s always an…    more →Hello World