So, it turns out I did, in fact, break the KitchenAid mixer: I started it up today and the motor started but the paddle didn’t. I looked on the KitchenAid site for the nearest authorized repair place and called them. When I described the problem, the woman who answered the phone said, “Well, it could be anything from Such-and-such, which costs about sixty dollars, to This-and-so, which is about hundred. That’s what you’re looking at. And it’ll be about a week.”
A new mixer costs $250. And I have it tomorrow.
Now, it so happens that at the moment (hello there, first of the year) things are a little tighter and spending $60 on something is vastly preferable to spending $250 on it. But still: it’s something to consider, isn’t it? Get a wholly new mixer, fresh warranty and everything, for somewhere between two and four times what it would cost to fix the old one. And who fixes these things, anyhow? Just get a new one! Move on, move up! Consume! It’s not that much money! You can get something totally new!
Maybe if I had used the mixer day-in and day-out for the past few years and it had busted like this I’d say, Yeah, time for a new one. But it’s hardly ever been used, and I managed to blow it out doing something stupid. Hardly seems fair to reward myself with a new mixer, no?
The appliance repair place is over by the kids’ school, so I can drop off the mixer after I drop off the kids.
Try calling the KitchenAid hotline (should be somewhere in your instruction booklet, or I’m sure you can find it on the Web); they have an excellent warranty program and you might be able to get your mixer fixed or replaced for free.
It’s also possible that the replacement one you link to is less powerful than the one you are “replacing”.
325 watts isn’t all that powerful (especially for bread dough) and traditionally KitchenAids with the “tilt up head” have been less powerful than the “bowl goes up and down” models. Although I think they’ve goosed the power up on all models not too long ago.
Power aside, I still prefer the “bowl goes up and down” models because of the bad behavior I learned at school — which is to “bump” the bowl up while running in order to scrape the bottom. This is somewhat unsafe (the bowl can potentially pop off of the retaining lugs), bad for the bowl and mixing heads (scratches, general wear and tear), and if you do it constantly can also weaken the lift arm and/or springs.
But this hasn’t killed it yet — I was given my KitchenAid at the end of a major project over 12 years ago (one you may recall) and it’s still going strong in spite of my ill treatment of it.
Jan: I doubt the mixer is still in warranty; it’s older than Sophia! I don’t actually remember when Darin got it, although I’m fairly sure he got it after we were together. It’s possible it’s at least 10 years old.
Tom: 12…years…ago? Wow. Time do fly. I checked the model number on the KitchenAid site, and my machine is this one, a 300 watt machines. So I guess I don’t have all that powerful of one.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t get your mixer fixed. Not at all. But I played all the same arguments in my head a few years ago when my TV broke and I hauled it in to have it fixed. It cost about $50-60, if I recall, and when it came back to me it worked, but the picture was never as clear as it had been. Within a year we spent about $300 on a gorgeous flat-screen TV that was a lot bigger… I said never again.
But that was a TV. I don’t know nothin’ ’bout mixers… ;o)
If you have Kohls department stores near you, and decide to buy a new one, they have some good sales on these if you watch–I waited till they had a sale plus I had a 20% off my next purchase flyer for my Kohls card, and bought this mixer:
http://www.kohls.com/products/product_page_vanilla1.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=90160177&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=164539097&bmUID=1107964401305
…in grey for about $220. They go on sale to $299 all the time, once in awhile to $275.
“I doubt the mixer is still in warranty; it’s older than Sophia!”
Just wondering: is Sophia still under warranty? 🙂
Can you tell if warranaty is still valid by using model and serial numbers??Anne Weaver (Skone1@comcast.net)