Check this out if your KA mixer broke
The following was on amazon. the issue is not so much the metal gears, but the fact that the metal gears where held in the housing with plastic pins that eventually failed. See the following from KitchenAid and their willingness to stand by an out of warranty item that fails:
311 of 318 people found the following review helpful:
Product Info regarding gear housing upgrade from KitchenAid, October 7, 2006
| By | Living it up |
This review is from: KitchenAid KP26M1XPM Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer, Pearl Metallic (Kitchen)
Due to the very high number of complaints about the problems people were having with heavy duty tasks (which is what the mixer should have been made for!) due to cheap plastic housing holding the heavy duty metal gears, I contact KitchenAid to find out if this design flaw has been fixed. It has been and here is their response (note that they are saying that if you receive one of the models with the plastic housing they will replace it under warranty with the new metal housing. It is also important to note that the people who've had the problem have almost all stated that KitchenAid had great customer service and replaced their mixers with no ones with no problems.
RESPONSE FROM KITCHENAID: Thank you for visiting the KitchenAid website!
I would like to reassure you that our engineering and product teams have addressed the gear box issue. In fact, we have already implemented a change in the manufacturing of the Pro 600 Stand Mixers to a metal gear box. Although these will be changed out on additional 5 qt bowl-lift models that include all metal gearing, the time line on that is not known at this time. Although a transparent change, this will insure the long-term durability we expect.
I would like to emphasize to you that should you purchase a Stand Mixer (with all metal gearing) which has not been assembled with the upgraded metal gear box, and you should have a problem with your mixer (as a result of the plastic gear box (failure), we will most certainly extend your warranty to resolve the issue properly and effectively.
If you have additional questions, feel free to reply back to me. Or, you may contact either our KitchenAid Customer Satisfaction Center at 1-800-541-6390, or you may visit our secure KitchenAid Live Chat.
Nick
Just got off the phone with KA customer rep, Nicole, and they are not replacing the mixers with new ones.
I also have a KA 6qt that has a broken plastic gear box. It will cost $32.00 for them to send packaging and labels for round trip shipping and repair.
Rick
Unfortunately, that review from Amazon was from 2006. KitchenAid will not extend the warranty to repair any KitchenAid manufactured with a plastic gearbox cover that fails. There are a number of negative customer reviews on Amazon where KitchenAid has indicated customers will need to pay shipping to repair facility plus the repair cost. I should know as my KitchenAid Professional failed after 18 months of light use due to the plastic gearbox cover cracking and allowing the gear to stop meshing (I still don't understand how a company can lable a product "Professional" when it is manufactured from plastic but that's a discussion for another day). I ended up buying a metal gearbox cover from Mendingshed.
KitchenAid is now owned by Whirlpool and the KitchenAid mixers of today, are not the ones your mother or grandmother were still using 20 years after purchasing them. I for one will never again buy a KitchenAid product. I believe that KitchenAid's are ok for the casual cake baker but can't stand up to mixing or kneading bread dough. Bread bakers need a more robust mixer.
Rick,
Check out the following link: Mending shed is the cheapest for parts. They show a metal gear housing for $19.95 that will replaced the plastic one. And I would replace any plastic gears with metal although I believe yours are all metal. It is not hard to take these apart and do the fix yourself. If you are not handy or do not have access to a handy person, then if you do send it back to KA, make sure they are replacing with all metal.
http://www.mendingshed.com/k6map.html
I have an all metal K5SS from 1989 that gets regular use for bread even at only 325 watts and 5 quarts. Any newer/larger machine (with a metal part fix on gear housing and gears) should prove workable. If $32 is all they want to do a round trip repair and it is done right, than go for it given you already laid out the cash for the original machine. They clearly changed their policy from the Amazon post I saw above.
Good luck!!
QA Runner, thanks for your input: I would have thought that replacing the plastic gearbox with a metal one would have solved the issue. But it is clear from your post even after that fix their product is still lacking. Thanks for the first hand update...
Not to belabor the point but replacing the plastic gearbox cover with the metal cover has fixed the problem on my mixer up to a point. The gears on my mixer do not mesh very tightly anymore and so the mixer is noisy and tends to struggle under load. However, it works. Mendingshed has proven a great source for reasonably priced spare parts and I will keep my KA as long as I can keep repairing it at a reasonable price.
People are passionate about their KitchenAid mixers mainly because i think we all have images of our mom or grand mothers baking with one year after year. I am upset because I had an image of the brand and the brand did not live up to my image when it came time to purchase my own mixer. I wish KA had stood behind their product better when mine broke due to a design defect by owning up to the problem and replacing the mixer or at least repairing it without charge. But that is another story.
My next mixer will most likely be one designed to handle bread dough!
Some good information in this thread. I do have a question to ask though. I had been using an Artisan 5 qt. for bread when I first started baking last August. I found that it did a good job for what I was doing at that time but eventually was baking bigger and heavier recipes that made the little Artisan struggle. Several times it got down right hot and ended up having to finish the dough by hand. I bought a 6 qt Pro from Amazon about 3 months ago and geez is it noisy! (hope that's normal!)Would it be safe to assume that one this new would have the metal housing from the factory? I do still use the Artisan for some of the smaller recipes as it seems to mix the dough better than the 6 qt.
Aloha,
Royall
The only way to know for certain is to call Kitchenaid and have them check your serial number.
OR
Take your mixer apart and visually inspect.
I remember reading a post on amazon.com. The poster received information from a KA support agent regarding which mixer serial numbers had it, and which ones didn't.
Call 1-800-541-6390 and ask a service agent from KA.