November 8, 2013 - 3:31pm
New KA mixer. Dough hook doesn't fit.
After issues with my Bosch compact I went ahead and purchased the KA Pro Line 7 QT stand mixer. After almost an hour trying to gather up all the loose Styrofoam I got the mixer ready and was ready to test it out. The whisk and the beater fit on fine. The dough hook though simply doesn't fit. It gets about 75% down into the dough hook but that's it. It will not go any further. Very disappointed.
How a company could mess up something so simple on a $600 mixer is beyond me.
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Wild-Yeast
I did. Have to wait 2 weeks for the new hook which may or may not fit.
I've had a fit issue with the 6 Qt. mixer. One problem is the keying peg working its way out creating an interference fit making installation of the hook impossible. This was on a unit that was sent back due to overheating problems - prior to the new motor and controller change. The second problem is that the hole in the hook is not finished properly or a piece of hard dough interferes with the fit making installation problematic.
What is bothersome is that it does not fit on a brand new out of the box machine. This indicates that KA is having quality assurance problems as every machine has to pass gauging tests designed to catch such problems prior to becoming a customer issue.
I can only guess how this problem entered the work-in-progress flow but suspect it has to do with an outsourced foundry jobber failing their quality assurance specifications - which KA should have caught on incoming inspection. 2 weeks sounds as if they've already changed jobbers. Manufacturing is such fun...,
I'll have to take a closer look at the parent companies SEC filings - problems like this are emblematic of production forcing for profitability reasons vs. long term quality and customer satisfaction...,
Wild-Yeast
Thanks. Yes the inside finish of the dough hook is very rough. It was drilled and that's it. It wasn't sanded clean or anything like that. MY beater also came with chips in the nylon coating.
Overall it looks like a nice mixer but if they are messing up things like this I can only imagine the loose tolerances in the motor and so on. I haven't even got to use it and the CS representative at KA didn't seem to care. Didn't think much of it at all.
I'd return it but the mess from the Styrofoam was a lot of work to deal with.
I am somewhat surprised that their customer service representative was uncaring. Another negative point.
KA has experienced quality problems previously and their sales suffered - it took several years to regain a modicum of consumer confidence back. They have recently launched a nationwide advertising campaign for the holiday season. Wondering now if they've overwhelmed their production capabilities...,
On a sidebar - during the time they were having the motor smoking problems I became very accustomed to unpacking the new replacement unit (sent by KA under warranty) and repacking the burnout one for reshipment back to the factory. Required less than 10 minutes...,
Wild-Yeast
Depends on how worried you are about the Styrofoam pieces. I'd rather not have many of them floating around the house.
FreshGoose, were you unable to get the scraping of the dough hook sorted out by Bosch? I am a big fan of the Compact, and I hope you can get it working correctly.
Never was. It would cost me $50+ to get it looked at at fixed depending on the issue. I decided to cut my losses.
Got the new dough hook. Though it's much thinner than the one that came with the mixer. It does fit this time but is a bit loose.
My youngest son makes his living being a distributor of printed in China art books. He gets angry whenever I use the term, "cheap Chinese shit." This term first came into use by me after I replaced three (that's THREE) Chinese made defective fuel pumps on my Chevy. I finally gave up, paid the extra hundred bucks for the Bosch, and was able to drive my car again.
Anyway, the world we live in is as it is, and Chinese made Kitchen Aid mixers are part of that world. It's too bad, since the KA mixers are such elegant designs. My own KA mixer has performed pretty well during the six or seven years I've owned it. It was the cheapest model available at the time, purchased at Walmart for under $300.00. I've not taxed it with heavy use, using it, perhaps, once a week or so since I've owned it, less perhaps, since I discovered no knead bread. .I don't know where my mixer was manufactured. A close examination of the mixer has revealed no clues, no "made in . . ." labels. The box is long gone.
I do regularly examine the various mixers available. If my KA gave out I'd likely replace it with one of the Bosch machines. I know that I've strayed from the original topic of this post, but I am still old fashioned enough to believe that for $600.00 one should expect excellence in a mixer.
I came from the Bosch compact which became broken. The Bosch universal is too big for the batch size I make. I only make one loaf at a time, maybe 2 at the absolute most.
The KA quality really does suck. But it seems everything in the mixer world has negatives. There's not that one product that does everything well.
You're right bout the $600 thing but what can you do. The cheaper ones have plastic gears. Other brands don't really mix as well. The Ankarsrum looks nice but it's more expensive and also doesn't seem to do a great job with small batches.
I really liked the Bosch compact just wish it lasted.
"The Ankarsrum looks nice but it's more expensive and also doesn't seem to do a great job with small batches."
Odd you would say that. My experience is that the DLX has no problems with small quantities; from mixing and kneading less than 1# of dough (~300g/2 cups of flour) to whipping 1 or 2 egg whites. Can you be more specific regarding just what causes your Ankarsrum to fail?
cheers,
gary
Just something I am pretty sure I read on a comment on this forum. I'm glad to hear you have had some good luck with it.
Kitchen Aid stand mixers were never outsourced to China - they're manufactured in Greenville, Ohio.
I agree that for $600 one has more than a reasonable expectation for quality in form, fit and function.
Wild-Yeast