I'm so angry right now I could just spit and I hardly ever get angry. Over the weekend my Kitchenaid Pro 6 broke. We took off the top and there's a gear that's missing 3 teeth. I know it's not under warranty (3 years old) but called around to get it fixed. Turns out Kitchenaid makes their mixers with their own set of tools, so no one else but them can work on them. The authorized dealer tells me I have to bring them $100 CASH for them to even look at it! But, they're SO kind and said the $100 would apply to the repair if I choose to have it fixed.

Then, the very next day, my Kitchenaid pasta roller won't turn anymore. My DH got it for me for Christmas so it's 6 months old. I use it to roll out fondant. It's under warranty for a year. I call to get it replaced. She asks what I was rolling when it broke and I stupidly said fondant. I get a "OH, I'm sorry then, but your warranty is void". Then she generously offers to sell me a new one at a 20 % discount.
Folks, if you have an issue with their pasta roller (which I just LOVED until this point) then LIE! You were only using it for pasta dough....NO FONDANT!

I am just sick over all of this. I'll never buy a Kitchenaid product again!

Jodie

Yikes! I've never had a bad experience with them, but I do use the pasta roller for fondant, so will keep that in mind. Thanks for letting us know.

I've had Kitchenaids for 24 years. My 24 year old one still works perfectly, I've just had to replace the beaters. My daughter has it now. But, it was made when Kitchenaid was still Hobart. My second Kitchenaid is 7 years old. The DH bought me the newest one because he wanted me to have the biggest one. He was even sweet enough to buy me an extra bowl and beaters.
Now GE owns them. It sure feels like they're setting folks up to pay a fortune for repairs and to keep from replacing items under warranty.
Just be really careful what you say if you ever have trouble with your pasta roller. She sounded absolutely delighted to tell me my warranty was voided.

I plan on writing a letter of complaint, not that it will do any good. The only thing I can do is not buy any more Kitchenaid products. I'll have to get my 6 quart mixer fixed. It cost way too much to throw it out.

Jodie

Yep, I had a bad experience with KA customer service about two months ago. I was shocked and dissapointed at the rudeness and unhelpfullness of the rep. I was told that they cannot help me because my professional series mixer was not meant to handle high volume use (4 batches of cookies a week) I wondered what it was meant to be doing: mix a Christmas bundt cake and then collect dust the rest of the year?

Ever since the company they use currently to make Kitchenaids took over the quality of the KA has went down. I really miss the quality of the Hobart built KA.

Sorry for your bad experience, but thanks for sharing what to say if something happens.

We just bought a brand new Classic Kitchen Aid. It started leaking oil where you attach the whisk or the paddle. It leaked into my frosting, so we took it back. We decided to get a Kitchen Aid with the Lift thingie...and I don't think I like it. Now granted we just got it about an hour ago. But I played with taking the bowl off and stuff and I think I like my tilt head one better.

Any thoughts on this?

Let me add, I have another Classic KA with the tilt head. So I wasn't talking about wanting the leaky oil one.

Both of my KA PRO 6 Qt. machines bit the dust about 18 months after purchase. Damn near $800 down the drain... will never buy another one again.

I guess i should be very happy I have a Wolfgang Puck and love it! They have wonderful customer service. I had to order a replacement beater and iut was easy and fast. Maybe you guys should look into it.

Gee, i must have gotten lucky when my KA bit the dust after 10 years i called to see if there was someone locally that could repair (nearest place i found on my own was an hour away) Well the girl asked me what happened. They ended up replacing mine with a refurbished machine, free of charge.

I would buy again from them in a heartbeat.

Whirlpool actually owns KA now. I have a couple of them and I haven't had any issues yet. Maybe Whirlpool changed a couple of things on the KA..and so they are starting to have problems with their quality. I hope they figure this out and get back to making the same quality machine as when Hobart own them.

Interesting about the pasta roller thing and how the warranty's void because you rolled fondant. One of the cake supply places online is advertising the KA pasta roller as a "fondant roller". Perhaps you could find that website, print out the page and send it to KA! Maybe the cake supply place shouldn't be selling it as a "fondant" roller, even tho lots of us use it as such. There could be some lawsuit in there just waiting to happen.

I still have my original KA too and it's got to be at least 20 yrs old. I also have a newer model that's about 2 1/2 yrs old so I'm hoping it lasts now that I hear these stories.


A little off topic but since it's your thread Jodie.........How is your Son feeling? Is he home from the hospital?
I hope all is well with everyone,
Deb

You always have to lie to them. Just like you're never supposed to admit to going over speed 1 or 2 (depending on what the lowest speed on your KA is) when using the dough hook.

Ive had my KA for fifteen years now. The only problem Ive ever had is with the mixing tool being worn on the bottom. Cant figure out how to adjust the screw to make it stop so I just let it go. But other than that nothing. My KA stove, only had a problem with one of the bulbs under the cooktop, the dishwasher on the other hand,we had several problems with it leaking on us. They finally said it wasnt installed right after the third time of coming out for it and havent had a problem since. But I worry about Whirlpool owning it. I know tons of people that swear by Whirlpool but I just got rid of a washer and dryer set that wasnt worth the space it took! Broke down every four months. Dryer would never dry right. Happily replaced it with a brand new Electrolux set!!

Marbeck Appl.....fixes them for 69.99 I shipped mine a week ago and they are supposed to call when they figure it out and I can pay with my visa. That 69.99 includes the shipping back to me. I think it cost me 16 to ship it to them.
I pushed the beater blade down in to thick of BC and turned it on...it stripped the gears....that is what hubby thinks.
But I have a 20qt and 2 other KA to fall back on!
Good luck...the web address is marbeck.com

Before you write your KA's off there is a cog in the motor that is designed to break if it is put under too much strain. So if you push it, that burns out not the motor. I believe that is what the OP was talking about.

If its in warranty it's replaced free the first time... After that its about 100bucks.

As for taking the top off, please dont do that. Like anything, if you try to home repair while in warranty you will void the warranty. For those who were contemplating home repair. And the service charge sounds normal too, You wouldnt expect your mechanic to have a look under the hood without charging you a fee?

Its a good machine if you know its limitations. For every complaint there are thousands of people around the country that swear by them and wont use anything else.

Sometimes you get bad and unhelpful reps, sometimes I suggest giving it a few days and trying someone else. Some people are jerks. Some are lovely, thats not the company, just bad staffing.

I hope this helps, I sell KA's so I hear alot of bad and a lot of good. Overall they are a great machine. But like all machinery they have limitations. You just have to know how far you can push it.

What's the use of calling a mixer "professional" series if you can't use it for more than a cake or two?

i have two KA mixers, the one I use for cookies, frosting, etc has a larger motor and the other I just use for cake batter, etc type stuff that's not a strain on the motor.

My biggest complaint is the beater blade - I'm on my third one. The first one hit the bottom of the bowl, I can understand why the coating started to peel, but the others don't hit anything. Look at the picture - what in the world would the beater be hitting to cause the coating to peel below the neck on the first horizontal bar??? It would be nice if they could create a product that wouldn't do this. BTW...the blades have never been in a dishwasher - only washed by hand.

Dkelly...thanks for asking...my son is doing well. He's still anemic, but that's not surprising considering how much blood he lost. He gets really tired, but again, it's amazing he's here at all. He went and saw the Dr. that did the original surgery on Monday, and he said his throat is almost completely healed. He was just horrified over what happened. The only thing Adam is really worried about right now is not being able to play his trombone for a few more weeks. They're giving him a full scholarship at the U of I for Grad school, and he hasn't been able to play since the end of May. I keep telling him to just let the professor know. I think that having a major hemorrhage in your throat is a pretty good reason for not practicing over the summer!
Roweena....I have loved my KA's! If I didn't, I wouldn't have had 3 of them. I'm just horrified over the customer service! The woman on the phone was very deliberate in getting me to say I'd used it for something other than pasta so she could void my warranty.

Jodie

edited to add: I understand what you're saying about the gear going to protect the motor, but the only thing I was using it for at the time was rewhipping SMBC. I still think it's lousy that they make them with very specific tools, so they can only be repaired by authorized dealers, who can then charge whatever they want.

Oh Jodie that's great news I'm so glad he's on the mend. Congratulations to him too for the scholarship!

Deb

I have 7 professional tilt heads and 2 -5 qt lift bowl ones at school.. they all were purchased over three year ago, and they all work wonderfully.

I have two at home the tile head and the 5 qt...the beater on the larger mixer is stainless so you do not have the peeling problem. i have only seen that once and it was on my home mixer, i had to purchase a new beater, you don't want to risk that coating peeling off into your cake or icing.
i even have three of the ice cream makers that fit on the mixers. bought those this year and the kids (high school) were amazed that you could make icecream...DUH!

the only thing i do not like is kitchen aid hand mixers i have one at home and two at school. those skinny beaters just don't put out enough air and they fall out.....

Just found this on the kitchenaid forum. A person had posted a question "what is fondant?" Their moderator wrote this:

"Some people use our pasta roller for this. Now, you have to be careful with cleaning afterwards, letting the rollers completely dry and then brushing out the sugar and/or wiping with a damp cloth. Our rollers cannot be immersed in water."


I think I'm going to be making another phone call tomorrow! How come their mod doesn't say you'll void your warranty???? I'm looking for more posts now.

Jodie

Mine is like that also, and the whisk beater gets black crap all over if you use it in the dishwasher.....I think you will find, its wear and tear.....although mine wore darn fast!

Thanks for the warning, maybe I will check out a new brand too.

Listen, if you felt comfortable enough to open it up and see that a gear was missing three teeth, you can fix it yourself for under $20. That was most likely the Worm Gear. If you google repair parts for kitchenaid, everyone has good visuals and some have great help with the repairs. Really, this is what sucks about KA. Those parts are designed to fail so the motor never gets burned out. The repair is relatively easy. You might want to buy two of those since they are relatively cheap($15). Slap the new one in and say "goodbye" to the repair man.

Tip for do-it-yourselfers: Take digital pictures as you disassemble the parts. Then you have a visual guide to put back together. For a first time repair, it might take an hour or two. If you've taken it apart before, 15 min - half hour. You've really got nothing to lose.

If you don't want the coating to wear off your beater, I've heard handwashing rather than putting it in the dishwasher helps. I wouldn't know personally, because I don't have the luxury of a dishwasher.

You CAN'T repair it yourself...that's the point! They have manufactured their own tools! You can't take the motor apart, or remove the gears without their tools. I have been told this today by 4 small appliance repair businesses. That's how KA guarantees you'll get it serviced at one of their dealers and they can set the prices.

I've looked up the price on the parts...it's $14.95. But, there's no point ordering it if we can't put it in.

Jodie

Jaime.... I apologize if suggesting folks "lie" offended you. What offended me is KA voiding my warranty because I put fondant dough through my pasta roller. I now own a 6 month old $80 paperweight.

I'll rephrase......If you use your pasta roller for fondant...OMIT that fact if you need it to be replaced under warranty. Otherwise you too will own a very nice paperweight and they don't have to honor the 1 year replacement warranty.

Jodie

See, I have another 9 to 5 where warranties have a purpose. They are to protect the customer, the business, and keep costs down for now and for the future. I guess when enough other people misuse their equipment and KA goes ahead and honors those warranties and has to raise prices on future mixers, then I'll be paying a lot more for my KA when I need a new one in the future. Thanks for that!

Sorry, as a business person who deals with warranties for non cake related stuf, that burns me....bad.

Do I misuse equipment? Sure...all the time. But I know not to try to get someone who is not responsible to pony up for it either. And yes I'm being quite harsh, but you are the one that put out the banner saying "LIE TO KITCHENAID!!"