Kitchenaid Pro 600 woes

[adletson]

I have now stripped the 4th (and consequently 5th) gears in my Kitchenaid mixer.  I've had it 2008.  Is this the same experience as others here have had?

Thankfully the gears are pretty easily replaced but my goodness you'd think I was mixing concrete. I was kneading a 780 gram batch of Lehmann New York pizza dough last night and two gears stripped simultaneously. 

[deb415611]

Mine is about the same age and I have replaced the gears twice.  The last time I replaced far more than I thought needed to be done figuring if they stripped again I was replacing it.  I went under the assumption that there could be damage that I couldn't see.  I even replaced the shaft.  Not sure if this was overkill but I knew that it wouldn't hurt anything.  So far so good but it's only been 3 months

here's my helper, Sage

[adletson]

It's good to hear this is normal.  Fine helper you got there. 

My helper is my 7 year old son.  While I'm mad the mixer is broken, he's excited because we get to tear into it and he loves getting greasy.

Where do you get your replacement parts?

Eventually, I would love to be able to afford a mixer where this wasn't a problem.  But this was a gift and really has worked well for 5 years, despite the service hiccups.

[TXCraig1]

It's good to hear this is normal. 

That's one way to look at it I guess... 

[shuboyje]

I'll ask the silly question.  Why were you kneading dough in 4th and 5th gear?

[deb415611]

I bought parts from
http://www.mendingshed.com



service manual
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/mendingshed/kitchenaid6qtservicemanual.pdf

good video

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsbgUHAGWX4" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsbgUHAGWX4</a>

[waltertore]

I have stripped a dozen kitchen aid pros in my classroom bakery.  The school bought them so I used em. For heavy dough mixing-bagels especially- they stink.   I found the bosh to be much more dependable but harder to clean up.  I now use Berkel, and hobart mixers, since our bakery has gone commercial.  They are workhorses.   Walter

[adletson]

shuboyje,
What I meant when I said I stripped the 4th and 5th gears is that I broke the internal gears, and these will be the 4th and 5th gear parts I've had to order. Sorry for the poor wording.

TXCraig1,
While I'm not excited that the mixer has broken at this rate, it is nice to know that I'm not the only one having problems.  I thought at first that I must be pushing the mixer to do something it wasn't designed to do, and got Kitchenaid to replace it once. 

[shuboyje]

got ya, lack of thinking on my part, KA mixers aren't geared for each speed, lol.