#MeToo .Originally Posted by Lex Luthier
I don't know if ours is plastic or metal, and at 21 years and counting if it gave up the ghost today, I'd still be happy with it, but knowing there's an "upgrade" out there makes the shadetree mechanic in me smile.
Chris
Not much to tell. Happened about 10 years ago. The mixer was a housewarming present and 9-10 years old. I was using it to make pizza dough every week or so, for a family of 5. Measure everything and dump it in, high protein bread flour, dough hook mixed and then kneaded 15 minutes or so. Torta getting made at the holidays. Merengues, cookies, creams. I had gone through baking school with this mixer (I think it is the Classic Pro) and did a lot of afterschool projects with it. Drop down bowl, not tilt head. Ground meat, veggie slicer.
One day it would't turn under load. Out of warranty by several years and it took a couple of days of Googling and calling to find an authorized repair center that would take it. Finally found one, who wanted $75 bucks to look at, determined the gears were stripped. Two weeks and $150, and it came back working. Replacement at the time would have been $325-425, depending on sales, or just around half the cost. Such a PITA I swore I would just replace it next time. Shop gave me the "they don't make 'em like they used to" and explained the plastic (I believe he specifically said brass) gears. I am pretty sure I have metal now. Don't know if it is brass or steel. It seems to be OK, but I tend to buy pizza dough at a local pizza joint now. My oven does not bake bread well, I think due to air currents and temp variations that I am tired of adjusting for. Pizza stones have been no help, and I have a huge pizza steel on the way to see if that helps.
What the last couple of sentences are there to say I am not using it to knead bread any more. I am a little afraid of pushing it too hard. I did use it with the plastic grinder attachment and pushed about 50 pounds of venison through it a couple of years ago. Most of it plain, some with bacon for burger meat, all of it double ground. Plastic grinders may not be ideal for sauasge making, a big interest of mine.
The Pro is heavy and lives on the countertop it would be a beast to actually store and take out for use. It has some small nooks and crannies that make cleaning a chore after the kids use it. When the kids use it the chute doesn't always get put on right and the ingredients go everywhere. Despite what I said above, finding a Hobart this size at a rate that won't be more that a new handgun would be a challenge.
Right now Kitchenaid would be the leader for convenience and cost, and I make use of the grinder and salad shooter type attachments. Other accessories are available, but expensive for what they are. I kinda want the vegetable noodle cutter gadget, and the pastamaker so I can play with making crackers. If I get back into breadmaking or weekly pizza nights again, and it is not unlikely if my pizza steel works as advertised, I would expect to have it rebuilt in 8-12 years.
pat
I was at one of my local restaurant supply shops today. I had to pick up a pizza peel for my new baking steel. They had one Kitchenaid Commercial mixer, display model with no box visible. Looked to be 6qt, like my Classic Pro. Superficially it looked like mine but was "rougher". The bowl drop lever didn't have a handle. The bowl looked cruder, maybe with smaller voids to have to clean. It was in white, which was not visually appealing in my subjective eye (mine is a really cool dark gray. I REALLY want to find an artist to airbrush hot rod flames on it, like Alton's in Good Eats. ). Other than that, I don't know the technical differences between the tiers.
The cost for the Commercial was $631.00. $2-300 more than my Classic Pro.
pat
I have a neighbor who uses the everloving snot out of her two + 30 year old Kitchenaids. One died, the other was going there.
I fixed both, they both needed a new gear. The gear is plastic and looks very much to me to be a part intended to be the shear point if the mixer is over-loaded. Gears were cheap. Mixers were obviously designed to be easy to work on. Disassembly/re-assembly was super easy and intuitive. I wish they'd make cars/computers/phones you name it like that.
I would say that the guy who fixed UNMs may have overcharged him some.
Could very well be. It was the only authorized repair center locally that did not have to ship the thing cross country for the repair. The place looked like a pawn shop, with DVDs,(bought one), antiques, a straight razor (bought it) and assorted bric-a-brac. I have/have had a bunch of Kitchenaid stuff that really speaks poorly of the brand. I kind of expected to be dicked on the repair...Self fullfilling prophecy?
pat
The repairs I did were six months ago, so pretty recent pricing. Gear, gasket & shipping was less than $24. Took me ~ 20 mins, never had had one apart before.
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