KitchenAid Heavy Duty clicking under load?
KitchenAid Heavy Duty 5KSM7591
I have a problem with my Heavy Duty stand mixer which I use mainly for dough mixing. It is making a loud clicking noise when working at Speed 2 which I believe is the correct speed to use with the dough hook and I would like to know what part I am likely to need to replace.
The mixer is not under warranty as it was purchased in April 2015.
The sound is regular and appears to come from the area of the planetary head or front of the machine. It is not from the dough hook touching the bowl. When the dough hook is just going round in dry ingredients it makes the usual quiet motor noise. When the wet ingredients are added and the dough comes together, it begins to click. This is not an intermittent problem as it does it every time the machine is used.
I have recorded a short video of the problem and uploaded it. The clip is 5 seconds in duration and 10Mb in file size :
http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/cooking/5KSM7591.mov
Please could you advise what you think the problem might be if it is possible to deduce from this clip. I am happy to take pictures or record additional video if required. I have opened up and re-greased older KitchenAids in the past so I am happy to dive inside if I know what I am likely to need to replace.
Many thanks,
Daniel
It sounds like a gear issue and since you're comfortable with opening the mixer I would just take a peek.
This issue is the biggest reason that I switched to a Bosch universal back in 2011.
I was concerned that it might be a bearing on the planetary shaft getting worn out but I'll strip down the gearbox and see what has any play in it once the old grease is off.
I am fortunate in that I still have my older KitchenAid Heavy Duty - the ones where you had to turn them upside down and pack the whole top with grease - so I have a spare machine.
To load but the clicking is normal with bread dough. I had read about it before I got mine, a proline 7 quart, so I wasn’t surprised when mine did it too. Just stick to speed 2 for bread dough and you should be fine.
It is rather loud. I would certainly appreciate a second opinion of the noise if you are able to open it.
A .mov should be fairly easy to play on Windows but I can always try to convert it to something else if necessary.
It sounds just like mine. Like I said, stick to speed 1 or 2. That’s what KitchenAid recommends anyhow.
Danni3ll3: of the 6, 7, and 8 qt KA models, is it the 7 and 8 which are the same machine but with different size bowls?
Is the model just below there commercial model. It has a stronger motor than those below it from what I understand. I am not familiar with the 8 quart. Is that the commercial model?
Quarts were the same model. Don’t quote me though. Have to check the specs.
Is their commercial model. I have the 7 and unfortunately cannot put a bigger or smaller bowl on it.
5 and 6 quart are different machines, not just bowl size.
I bought a friend a new 6 quart and received her older 5 qt as a hand-me-down. So now she can do her baking in one batch instead of two.
Where you could swap the bowls?
I can't find the swappable bowl model on Amazon any more. Must be discontinued. I saw the KA 8 qt commercial mixer.
DId you once say your 7 qt mixer mixes and kneads dough for 4 loaves? What's the weight of that dough? Do you do initial mix with the dough hook too?
My dough is usually under 2500 grams, more between 2300 and 2400 grams. And I stick to about 75% hydration with the flour I use. I do everything with the dough hook.
I've read somewhere that since the spring & retainer are no longer there on the drive shaft where the beaters go, that the clicking noise could be coming from that point. That you hear it more when your're making dough.
You might want to check it there to see if that is where you hear it.
You gave me the correct search terms ("kitchenaid spring retainer drive shaft noise") to find out what the issue is supposed to be, thank you. It has been talked about extensively back in 2017 on this forum and seems to be a built-in fault that may or may not be present in any one machine.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/50550/does-your-kitchenaid-proline-7-qt-mixer-click-under-heavy-loads
Why did Whirlpool undo that anyway? Did they think that it was something that was not needed? See, they are always doing something stupid!! Just like the time when they put the metal gears into plastic cases!! How stupid!!
I took the plunge and opened up my 5KSM7591 Heavy Duty mixer and the first thing I noticed is that it is a completely different internal design than earlier models.
Rather than take the power from the motor via a worm screw to a few reduction gears in a housing totally packed with grease before going on to the accessory and planetary ring, the new gearbox seems much more efficiently made and does away with the dreaded worm screw.
This time the power comes from the motor to a tiny metal gear (12T) sitting in the middle of thee larger ones (29T) floating in a toothed housing. A three-armed bracket transfers the rotation to another small fixed gear (12T) which in turn sits inside three more larger gears (29T). A three-pronged arm picks up the rotation again and passes it to the accessory shaft. There is the usual "sacrificial" pair of brittle metal gears at 90 degrees that is the intended point of failure if the accessory or planetary are fouled and lock. Grease in this gearbox is sparse and limited to contact or bearing surfaces only. There is no large grease "reservoir".
The planetary is easy to get at with the removal of a single punch pin and can be cleaned and lightly greased from below if necessary.
I am waiting on circlip removal pliers to get the last circlip off so that I can get the last 90-degree planetary gear out for cleaning and then I will regrease as usual. I would estimate that one small 1H Food Grade Grease tub as are sold for the usual nylon gear models would do ten times over for this new gearbox. It is much more efficiently put together.
As for my clicking noise under load, that seems to be because there is vertical play in both the planetary hub itself and the 90 degree descending shaft which provides power to the planetary. I will make sure it is well greased but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do to remove this play without experimenting with shims. There is a shiny patch on the planetary shaft indicating wear within its brass bushing but nothing that registers to a fingernail. I suspect that a light grease there (it was fairly dry from the factory) would help with that.
Once I have worked through the photos I will put up a detailed photo guide to disassembly and cleaning of the 5KSM7591 and 5KSM7990 gearboxes as I believe they are shared.
Rather cunningly, KitchenAid only sell a complete "motor plus gearbox" assembly and do not split it into the two parts. I think this is because once you remove the motor, the floating gears are free to fall out so a detailed assembly guide would be needed. Tough luck if one part fails and the other is fine!