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… more →“Pro” Series Clean and Re-grease parts
This applies to all tilt-head machines (original K45, “Classic”, “Artisan”, “Ultra Power”) 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 similar). Any full-sized mixer with a round rear cover secured with a small screw at the top center is applicable… more →K45/K5 Clean and Re-grease Parts
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… more →“Which Mixer Should I Get?”
You may have seen this mixer on TV, or in a video on the Internet.
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…. more →The Unusual Ones Get Names
The story begins the usual way: eBay listing of a mixer being sold “for parts or not working”, cheap. Had a bit of conversation with the seller, “it’s running a little rough”. No problem. I provide my usual packing advice (because the seller had never done this before), Buy It Now, shipped, done. Then the… more →Pro Series Disaster Recovery
Every so often I encounter someone with a really old machine that needs repair, or even just long-overdue maintenance. The owner is very reluctant to let the machine out of their sight, because it was a treasured gift, or handed down from a loved relative. I totally get it — you never know what can… more →Family Heirloom
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… more →“I’ve always wanted a blue mixer…”
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… more →The Cake Machine
There’s a popular claim that modern KitchenAid mixers are specifically inferior to vintage ones because their “gears are made of plastic” (or a similarly phrased complaint). This is a category error, in two ways. First: all of the gears in full-sized tilt-head KitchenAid mixers, from a 60s-era K45, the 90s KSM90 “Ultra Power” or the… more →Plastic Mythology