KA Stand Mixer Question
I have a KitchenAid Pro 600 stand mixer. It's eight years old, has never had a problem and has never been serviced. I use it about once a month, on average, to mix and knead bread dough with a spiral bread hook. Recently I noticed that it makes a "clacking" sound when kneading. The beater shaft (to which the bread hook attaches) has a retaining clip that sits about a quarter of an inch below the bottom of the main unit. When kneading, the beater shaft/retaining clip bounces up against the bottom of the main unit, which is making the "clacking" sound. The dough hook has normal clearance and is not striking the mixing bowl.
Is this sound normal? I don't recall the unit making this noise in the past (but I could be wrong). If the sound isn't normal, is the problem something I might be able to fix myself? Also, I don't know if it's relevant, but there's a thin coating of grease on the part of the beater shaft between the retaining clip and the bottom of the main unit. The grease doesn't appear to leak into the mixing bowl. This clacking sound does not appear to affect the operation of the mixer. Since I noticed it, I've made several batches of bread dough with everything working as expected. Thanks in advance for any advice.
First, I am not a fan of KA mixers. They are not economically repaired, so treat the whole machine as expendable and don't worry about things that don't affect functional performance.
If the retainer clip is really 0.125" below the bushing, there might be a problem but not something you can do anything about. When it quits, you will know.
There should be a washer between the clip and the bushing where melted grease will collect if the gearbox gets hot. Just wipe off the grease occasionally, it is too viscous to drip into the bowl and the box is packed with enough to last the lifetime of the mixer. At your usage rate it will last 20 yrs (or perhaps 20 days since it was built by KA).
KA has (or had) an online forum and I think that would be a good place to post your question. I did a quick search and was unable to find that forum so possibly it is a thing of the past. The modern KA Mixer is adverse to heavy use of any kind. When put to heavy (or moderate) regular use, it shows it displeasure by breaking. Should you find yourself in need of a new mixer, I would look at another brand.
Jeff
KA dropped their forum a while ago in favor of a Facebook page. The Facebook presence is not as active as their forum was, but it is still the place to go with questions or comments.
brad
KA's are fairly easy to take apart, there are several very detailed tutorials on doing it, and spare parts are not at all expensive, so even if it is about to break you should easily be able to do the repairs in a few hours and under $50.
If you are not interested in or capable of repairing your KA, it is not all that difficult to find someone locally to do it for you. For example, there are lots of small appliance repair shops in our area. There probably is one near you, unless you're living rurally. If you're in the metro-NYC area, search for small kitchen appliance repair shops. No need to go to a place that only does KA.
I agree ... they're really fairly simple machines. That's what I like about KA machines; easy to work on. But if you don't feel confident in tackling the repairs yourself any local small appliance repair shop should be able to do it. About an hour's labor plus part at my shop.
Thanks for the replies. I started the KA today, running it with no attachments and nothing in the bowl. The motor doesn't sound right, so I think it needs repairs. I'm not the DIY type, so I'll try to find a local repair shop. Shouldn't be too hard since I live in a highly-populated area.