KitchenAid grease replacement
- Thread starter Macduf
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RPH
Well-known member
How old is your unit? You may have a main shaft seal going bad and then it drips into simple planetary for the mixer shaft. I believ3 I still have the original service manuals on that unit. This was when Hobart owned the division. They spun it off later.
oldtractors
Well-known member
On the big mixers, there is an oil seal in the bottom of the case. I have replaced the grease in a lot of them, mostly because I had to replace the worm gear in the 4 and 5 quart model. I use John Deere full synthetic grease. It is food grade, waterproof and won't separate like the old grease.
stingry
Well-known member
Old grease breaks down and the liquid leaks out. Pretty easy to do, plenty of utube videos telling how to do it. Ordered the grease online. Was a fairly easy process.
rlitman
Well-known member
If the gear case is plastic, do yourself a favor and replace it with a metal one ASAP.
engineer2
Well-known member
Go to Amazon ad look up:
Food Grade Grease KitchenAid Stand Mixer
and
KitchenAid grease seal
Food Grade Grease KitchenAid Stand Mixer
and
KitchenAid grease seal
Indexmill
Well-known member
jsaw
Well-known member
I replaced the grease in the wifes kitchen aid. There are Youtube videos that show you how
And it is NGLI 2 rated, like for vehicle wheel bearings, and Snapon uses it in their ratchet heads. It really is SUPERLUBE.
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RPH
Well-known member
If I ever get home from the Cummins engine plant. Not sure I can post the whole manual as it gets quite large. But there are other ways to move it. Let me know what model your looking for.
Replace the gear box with the aluminum one that's available.... I had one that gave up... I would recommend using the grease that KA recommends... I have a pint, if you would like me to mail you a couple TBLS. I would do that.. Where I got my parts... https://www.ereplacementparts.com/search_result.php?q=kitchen+aid+mixer
Attachments
This is what I used when I recently rebuilt ours after a few gears disintegrated: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0722VGTHJ/?tag=atomicindus08-20
rlitman
Well-known member
The grease from Kitchenaid is way overpriced. That looks like a good choice.
It is of course best to replace the plastic gearbox with a metal one before gears get trashed. When I did that to mine, I was able to reuse all of the grease.
pedrodagr8
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If the gears are trashed you should not reuse the grease. The metal shavings end up in the grease and it ends up being more like liquid sandpaper than grease.
Agree with you on replacing the plastic gearbox housing, one of the dumbest decisions that Hobart made was transitioning some models to the plastic gearbox. At least Whirlpool is transitioning their higher end models to metal again. For the 500+Watt models, this is almost a must due to the forces involved. Before anybody says it, Whirlpool DID NOT introduce the plastic gears either, that is stupid internet myth. The plastic sacrificial gear was another Hobart invention and a good one, it serves as a mechanical fuse of sorts to protect the motor. Many of the Hobart models (K5A, K4C, etc.) from the 70s and on had a plastic worm gear.
Truthfully, for the KitchenAid mixers, if you (or your spouse) plan to use it regularly especially for kneading and what not, then step up to the Professional 6000HD or higher models. These utilize a DC Motor which is much better suited for mixing and kneading duties. The torque curve of the DC motor fits the kneads of a mixer VERY nicely. Additionally, it has an ENTIRELY different all metal dual planetary reduction gearbox.
The gear box is designed to handle the extremely high torque levels of the DC motor. Truthfully, these models have almost scary amounts of torque. On top of that, they are MUCH quieter than the 600 and lower models and have overall better build quality. The only downside is that some of the bowl attachments (ice cream maker for example) don't fit the 6000HD or 7 Pro-Line Series models. I got a 6000HD refurb on Amazon for $200 a couple years ago (an absolute steal) and the wife uses it around 3-5 times a week. She has thrown everything possible at it, from large batches of thick tough bagel dough, to grinding semi-frozen meat (recipe instructions), to more normal duties. It never even once has overloaded, though it did snap a wooden spoon once (me being stupid).
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Got a pair of these in the commercial bakery. They're total beasts that are very tough to slow down. They dealt with kneading bread dough for hours a day with flying colors, though they did get uncomfortably hot in the process. Eventually upgraded to an A-200T. Now that thing will rip your arm off and not think twice.
jonesg
Well-known member
Can't imagine what anyone does to these machines that damages gears, throwing frozen butter in the bowl?
I used them commercally for 40 yrs before retiring, the only one ive seen get smoked was used with the pasta attachment, stupid cooks.
I had the 5qt, 20qt , 30qt and 60qt.
Sold them all still running when I retired, best mixers in the world....bar non.
rlitman
Well-known member
Either a design flaw, or wrong choice in aftermarket parts.
For a while, Kitchenaid switched to a composite gear case that is well known to flex (you wouldn't have seen this in machines from 40 years ago). This causes gears to break eventually, as correct gear alignment is critical to their longevity. With this gear case, failure is more of a when, then an if. When I learned about this issue, I got a replacement cast metal case (that is known not to have this problem), and swapped out the part. While I was in there, I saw that there was no contamination of the grease by metal, or wear on the gears, so in my case, I caught it well before it became a problem.
Aftermarket beaters can also put undue stress on the gears. One of my favorite tools is a beater/scraper. This has a silicone edge that wipes down the bowl as it mixes. The genuine one has only one silicone edge. The fakes usually have two, which puts twice the stress on the gears. This attachment can also be a bit harsh if you're mixing with chocolate chips in the bowl, as they get caught between the beater and the bowl.
pedrodagr8
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Even the "low-end" Professional 6000 HD model with the DC motor can be downright scary with its torque curve being how it is, it will easily mangle fingers, snap wooden spoons, etc. The largest thing my wife and I have encountered that stressed it SLIGHTLY was a large batch of cold bagel dough. Even that was just slightly, I have no doubt these could run and run. Comparing that to my mother's KitchenAid Artisan is like night and day. The Artisan could barely handle the biscuit dough that I was making and was TWICE as loud as the loudest the 6000HD has ever been.
That A-200T is a whole different ball-game both in price and performance I am sure. I somewhat jokingly tell others that the DC motor versions of KitchenAid mixers are KitchenAid's REAL pro-sumer line. Good enough for even the highest level home gamer but also capable to work in the real world for someone starting out. Especially at the price differential it makes for a VERY good balance of price and performance. As you mentioned though, they do get QUITE hot if you don't give them time to rest.
Mostly it is the cheapy artisan level and below, as well as the older entry-level bowl-lift models, think $150-200 Kohls BF Specials. People don't read the manual and try to knead on high or use way more dough than the machine is rated to handle. The sacrificial gear does its job and shreds saving the motor from burning out. The DC motors models don't have this problem as they already require a motor controller so building in a motor overload circuit is trivial, which is why a sacrificial gear is not necesssary.
Yeah, I have yet to find exactly when they transitioned to the smaller gearbox with the plastic covers. I believe it was late 70s or early 80s when the gearbox was no longer a monsterous cavity in the mixer. Take a look at the old K4C (damn beautiful stand mixer) and look at how much grease it takes to pack that cavity, it was rather insane. I think they used to say greased for life...yeah there was like 5 mixers lives worth of grease in there. Additionally, through the 60s and 70s the price of plastic was still going from a specialty chemical to the commodity material we know today. Either way, I fully agree with you that the plastic gearbox case is completely stupid. For anyone who has a model with the plastic gearbox, I would FULLY recommend they replace it with a metal one. For $20-30 it will make your KitchenAid Mixer last notably longer with much lower risk of gear failure. On the other hand, DO NOT replace the plastic gear with a metal one. That is just asking for trouble and a burnt out motor.
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DO NOT BUY THE KITCHENAIDE GREASE!!!!!!!!!!
I rebuilt my wife's 600w Pro mixer years ago. I bought the KA grease, maybe a quart or so, whatever. I used 2-3 tablespoons, if that.
You need grease for your KA mixer, PM me, I'll send you enough for 3-5 repairs. Assuming, of course, I can find the can again......
I rebuilt my wife's 600w Pro mixer years ago. I bought the KA grease, maybe a quart or so, whatever. I used 2-3 tablespoons, if that.
You need grease for your KA mixer, PM me, I'll send you enough for 3-5 repairs. Assuming, of course, I can find the can again......
Jazz1
Well-known member
Just bought a new Professional 5 Plus-Lift Stand Mixer,,, these are no longer made in USA, only Designed and Assembled in USA. Hopefully same quality as the Kitchen Aid we are replacing. This mixer won’t dance along counter when it’s mixing bread dough
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InjectorService
Well-known member
Wow some of you guys are really knowledgeable on stand mixers!