Kitchen aid mixer clicking...broken?

[Groves]

Just bought a refurbished 7qt kitchen aid mixer.

When making dough on speed 2 there is a cyclical clicking sound.

This sound was not happening when there was no load on the hook.

The hook is not touching the bowl, either.

The bowl moves some, but is not the source of the clicking/knocking.


Have I broken my new mixer on its maiden voyage? It was a 68% hydration dough.

[deejayoh]

Re: Kitchen aid mixer clicking...broken?

Do some searching on the web. I know that there is an issue with those mixers that a plastic gear breaks. It can be home repaired pretty easily but seems like a quality issue/design flaw. I'm aware of this because I have a friend who has bought a couple of broken ones off of craigslist and fixed & resold for a good profit.

[TropicalCoasting]

Re: Kitchen aid mixer clicking...broken?

Ive killed 3 mixers doing dough so far (first 2 very quickly)
Last one has a clutch and its lasted the longest so far.
Hope this helps

[TropicalCoasting]

Re: Kitchen aid mixer clicking...broken?

Ive killed 3 mixers doing dough so far (first 2 very quickly)
Last one has a clutch and its lasted the longest so far.
Hope this helps
http://c.searspartsdirect.com/lis_pn...2058-00002.png

[Groves]

Re: Kitchen aid mixer clicking...broken?

This is a brand new (refurbished, anyway) 7qt mixer, so it has all metal gears.

I also discovered that the speed switch is quite glitchy, and very often doesn't let me change speeds without shutting down.

I'll request an exchange.

[SevenAcre]

Re: Kitchen aid mixer clicking...broken?

Yeah, the plastic worm gear in a Kitchen Aide is designed to fail. It's an intentional fail-safe to prevent the motor from stripping the rest of the gearbox if the unit is overloaded. Under normal use, the worm gear should last ten years or more, but that's if you never overload the machine. For a while, they actually made the gear housing of plastic too. I'm not sure what the date range was, but a plastic housing could potentially crack right along with the worm-gear. That turns a 10 buck part and easy fix into a costly $175 repair. (It happened to mine after years of dough making). The good news is that the replacement housings are aluminum like they should be, and therefore more durable.

Anyhow, if you can get a swap on your refurb. I'd go ahead and do it now. That clicking is the first thing you hear before the whole gear strips out. Again, it's an intentional fail-safe designed to protect the rest of the machine. these kitchen Aides have powerful motors in them, and can really wreck themselves if loaded improperly.
-j

[Groves]

Re: Kitchen aid mixer clicking...broken?

Yes, I contacted them already.

They're going to exchange it, but only because it's under warranty.

I personally think it should have nothing to do with warranty, because I didn't even get to use it.

Even before I made the dough, there was an issue with the speed lever.

The machine would shut off when I changed speeds. Does this happen to anyone else?

Here's some videos of it happening. No implement attached. Nothing in the bowl.

IMG 2721 - YouTube
IMG 2722 - YouTube
IMG 2723 - YouTube

For a while I thought I might be "in between" speeds and that's what caused it, but my friends with kitchenaids don't think so.

Is this lever behavior common? When it stops, I have to go all the way back to zero before it will work again.