December 17, 2009 - 7:45pm
refurbished mixers???
at The Kitchen Collection store they have kitchen aid mixers new and refurbished. the refurbished mixer i looked at (i forget the model but i think it had a 5 quart bowl???) anyway it was the one were the bowl lifts up an down with a handle an was around $100 or more cheaper than the same one that was new. im familiar enough with kitchen aid to know that the price was great for that mixer but not so familiar with whether getting a refurbished one is worth the savings or is it? any advice?
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thats a good idea bout the warrenty. i mostly will be useing it to mix simpler things that will not be so stressful as dough but this past weekend i made some cinnamon rolls that called for 4 cups of ap flour and a box of yellow cake mix an it liked to have wore my arm out trying to mix that up by hand into a dough and then after i rolled it out alot of the cake mix was still in little pouches that didnt mix well. i didnt care tho. mhy theory is if i cook it i eat it. unless its totaly uneatable. so i would like to mix doughs since im starting this beginner bread bakeing hobby.
thank you for you advice
vince
Reading this might help:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/kitchenaid_mixers.html
Judging by number of complaints they are twice as reliable as Toyota engines. That's pretty good, right?
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/toyota_engine.html
FWIW, I have a refurbished KA bought about 4 years ago. It still works fine.
I've had it 14 years, and it's been used at least once each week, usually more frequently. It still works fine. I recall it had a one year warrantry.
David G
I too have a refurbished KA 6 qt. mixer I bought at least three years ago at the Kitchen Aid outlet on line. It came with a six month warranty. It has worked great for me using it for bread doughs, stiff cookie doughs, etc. Just make sure you're ordering from a reputable source.
I'm curious as to when the change to plastic gears took place. My K5 is old enough that I think that it predates the plastic gears, but it has never run as "smoothly" as the 4.5 qt on that my mom had (and my sister now has).
The Whirlpool Corporation purchased the KitchenAid line from Hobart in 1986 and the change took place sometime after that date.
Jeff
They did not really move from metal to plastic (it's really made of nylon). That is, it's not like one day they started putting plastic gears in all their mixers. In some models they did, in some models they tried and then, rather quickly, went back to metal. If you look at the compatibility list for the replacement nylon gear (which costs $10-15 and takes about an hour to replace) you'll see that it fits Classic and Artisan models, but not bowl-lift ones.
Parts are available online and they're quite cheap:
http://www.partselect.com/PartDetail.aspx?Inventory=774065&SourceCode=5&ModelNum=KP26M1XWH
They aren't very complicated machines.
What I've learned about the KA stand mixers (I've used one for two years and it's still going strong) is that they are fine if used within the limits of their design. They aren't heavy duty mixers and asking them to work at the peak of their capability or more over time will cause them to fail. Following the user manual instructions carefully, especially when kneading dough, and not overloading the machine with a heavier load than it's designed for will give you good results.
Refurbished machines are usually warranty returns that have been repaired in the factory and returned to the market. Most of the refurbished items I've seen are essentially new because they've been inspected and repaired with new factory parts. I haven't tried a refurbished KA stand mixer but I have purchased refurbished items (e.g. household emergency generator) without regret.
I'm not an experienced baker, but I thought I would chime in here and say that I bought a refurbished KA Artesian 5qt from their website and I used it constantly. I bought the mill and have used it to grind my wheat berries. I only grind what I'm going to use at the moment. I have read here that they overheat easily so I keep an eye on that. So far so good. I also bought the Ice Cream bowl and use that at least once a week. I love it. My mixer came with the metal hook/spiral/whisk not the plastic. I think for a home baker that bakes every week several times a week. It was a great buy. I saved a lot by ordering refurbished and I might add it came with a regular guarantee that the new ones came with. Good luck and happy baking! I hope this helped!
Virginia
There are a lot of needless fears about "plastic" (composition) gears in commercial products. Keep in mind that your car, assuming you drive something made after 1970, has a number of composite driving and driven gears in its mechanical systems. When used as intended by good engineering design, there's nothing wrong with composition parts. The gears used in modern mechanical devices aren't made by toy manufacturers like Hasbro or Lego, their specifically designed for the product into which they are installed.
thanks to everyone for your help all your advice was useful an helpful as always. nothing beeats personal experience testiomonies about products pro and cons. youve sold me on it. so when i can il go to the kitchen collection an ask about warrentys and purchase one. im not in a great need for one but like most tools its good to have it when you need it.