dough hook

my bread would climb up and over the top and get into the screw mechanism.  It was a pain and I would sit there with a spatula constantly pushing it down.    I was looking for something different and stumbled across the spiral dough hook which I will highly recommend if you can find it for your brand mixer.  It pushes the dough back down into the bowl and virtually eliminates the climbing.

Here's a link to the kitchenaid version so you can see the style.  

Also, for my mixer there "isn't a spiral dough hook" according to Kitchenaid customer support but it does fit perfectly.  I have a KSM5.  

Hope you can find similar for your own machine.

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I dealt with onesharpstore.com some time ago.  They were friendly, informative, and seemed to have what I needed.  Look at their website first, of course, and comparison shop.  They had the best prices I could find for what I needed and the advice was good and free.

The discussion was about Hobart mixers, but should still be relevant to Kitchenaid. 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39167/difference-between-dough-arms-hobart-n50

I bought a dough spiral for my A200 some time back. It works much better than the standard "J" style hook.

I used ebay

-Gordon

A spiral hook tends to push dough back down into the bowl; where as the "J" hook can have a problem with the dough trying to climb up into the planetary assembly. To compensate the J typically has a round guard incorporated into the design. 

I have a bowl lift Kitchenaid that has the spiral hook and a tilt head classic Kitchenaid that has the j hook. They both work, but the spiral helps prevent the aforementioned dough climbing. 

TL/DR Get the spiral "ED" style hook.

I use Hobart machines at work and the standard dough hooks are spot on