"Maintenance" Posts

The subject of which grease to use when regreasing your mixer, and how much, can be confusing. There are a lot of arcane terms, and acronyms, and designations, and sometimes it gets to be a bit much. Hopefully the information in this post will help. Table of Contents Glossary of Terms The following technical terms are used in discussing greases and related matters: Consistency refers to how firm or soft the finished grease is. The National Lubricating Grease Institute (NLGI)…    more →Regarding Grease

The KitchenAid mixer parts market is chock full of imitations, knockoffs, and replicas; and sometimes it’s hard to know which ones are OK and which ones are not. The safest course of action is always to get the genuine factory part from a trusted supplier. Sometimes this may cost a little more, but it works out in the end because the part will last longer and quite often work better. Here’s an example: the “sacrificial” worm follower gear used in…    more →Always Use the Genuine Part

Here are some tips to help keep your tilt-head KitchenAid mixer in dependable working order. Check the Hub Thumbscrew Before each use, check the attachment hub thumbscrew, and make sure that it is firmly finger tight. It can loosen with time due to the vibration of the mixer, and a loose thumbscrew can allow the attachment hub cover to fall into the bowl, where it often jams the beater. This in turn will damage or destroy the “sacrificial” gear, and…    more →Care for Tilt-Head Models

This applies to all “Professional” and UK “Pro Line” bowl-lift mixers (“Professional 5 HD”, “Professional 5 Plus”, “Professional 6”, and “Professional 600” in the US, “Pro Line” and “Artisan” in the UK) and the Accolade 400. The series model numbers for these machines begin with KG25, KV25, KB26, KD26, KP26, KL26, and KN15. (This list is inclusive but not comprehensive. KitchenAid has a lot of different model numbers for what is essentially the same mixer inside.) If you are going to DIY this job,…    more →“Pro” Series Clean and Re-grease parts

This page contains resources useful for anyone who is preparing to do maintenance or overhaul on any full-sized tilt-head or bowl-lift model which has a round rear cover secured at the top with a screw. Models included: the original Model “K”, K4-B, K45, K45SS, “Classic”, “Classic Plus”, “Artisan”, “Ultra Power”, and all similar machines except the Accolade and Artisan Mini; as well as the older bowl-lift machines in the K5 series: K5A, K4SS, K5SS, KSM5, KPM5, KSM50, KSMC50S, KSM450, KSM500 and all similar. Note…    more →K45/K5 Clean and Re-grease Parts