Kitchen Aid Mixer Repair Center? [General]

2009 Aug 10
Something tells me I'll get an answer quicker here than on their 1-800 number. Been on "ignore" now for about 10 minutes.

Is there a place in Ottawa to get my mixer fixed?

Blew the gear box making whole wheat bread :-(

2009 Aug 10
This page provides an email address, which I guess beats waiting around on hold forever

www.kitchenaid.ca

2009 Aug 10
Here is what I got on the phone :

Personal Edge
St Laurent Center
613-746-8513

Pembroke
Arrow Appliance
613-735-3365

Pembroke
Marcus Appliance
613-735-6523

Rather odd that there are more repair centers in Pembroke than in Ottawa-Gatineau (yes, I did ask for Gatineau)

2009 Aug 11
I have an address and phone number of the KitchenAid repair. It has been a few years so I don't know if it is still good.

613-820-8606
22 Antareas (sp?)
Ottawa

off Huntclub and Merivale


2009 Aug 11
I think it's spelled Antares Drive.

2010 Jan 30
I finally got around to putting it into Personal Edge at St Laurent

$40 down, non-refundable

The guy said stripped gears like mine should come in about $80, so we shall see

2010 Feb 1
Another place that can fix the Kitchen Aid mixer is at J.R. Perry Electronics (on Wellington in the Castle Tower building). It is near Parkdale at the bottom of an apartment building.

2010 Feb 1
Oh cripes, fine time to tell me that - it is right across the street from my house!

2010 Feb 1
My impression was that they are not that hard to fix yourself if it's just a gear problem. Of course, my actual experience here is limited...

I have been thinking of getting one. I've noticed the Kitchenaid Professional HD stand mixer is on sale at Costco for $299, and I was thinking of getting one. Anybody have experience with this model, and it's value?

It seems to have all metal gears, 475 watts soft start, and the lift-bowl design.

2010 Feb 1
Yeah PiO, our mutual friend actually fixed his own for 10 bucks for the part. But I am too busy with other stuff right now to do that. Wish I'd known about Perry before bringing it in to the other place -I bet he'd fix it at half the price for one thing. I should have thought of that myself :-(

2010 Feb 2
PIO I picked on those up 2 years ago. We love it, no problems at all. My wife and I do a lot of baking with it. (well the mixing part anyway - the oven takes care of the baking)

2010 Feb 2
PIO: I bought $299 Kitchen Aid mixer from Costco and it arrived today!
Mine is red, I found it is bit noisy, but it works so well.
I bought this model because it has a powerful 475-watt motor!
Come to my home and check it out :)

2010 Feb 3
Don't make too much whole wheat bread with that 475 watt motor, Aisu. It killed mine.

I was at the Urban Element last night and noticed they had a Cuisinart and asked them about it versus Kitchen Aid. They said they'd gone through a few Kitchen Aids and finally gave up on them and bought the Cuisinart, and will never look back.

2010 Feb 3
I just might take you up on that offer Aisu. Does anyone know if they offer the $299 price in-store, or just online?

Zym.. although my testosterone boils when talking about 'more power' for the mixer, we have to remember that all the retail manufacturers rate their models via power consumption (watts) and not power delivered (horsepower). I'm pretty sure Cooks Illustrated did a review where they found the advertised wattage was not necessarily a good measure of how much power it delivers. Hobart, for example, still rates theirs by horsepower.

That being said, I think two top contenders in the Cooks Illustrated testing (not including Hobart) were the KitchenAid Pro 600, and the Cuisinart you've pictured above. It's interesting to note that the Cuisinart has (I think) plastic gears, and the KitchenAid's (higher models) have metal gears now. However, KitchenAids are plagued still still quality control issues on their gearboxes that if used heavily they start to eat themselves up.

Did you run your KitchenAid for more than 7 minutes at a time mixing/kneading bread Zym? I'm pretty sure that they list some crazy short period of time as a 'maximum' for running the mixer with heavy load. I believe what happens is the gearbox heats up, and the lubricant becomes less luby... I've spent far too much time googling 'mixer' in the last 4 days...

2010 Feb 3
My Kitchen Aid is the HD Pro model from Costco and has plastic gears. Bought it about 2 years ago now. I had it open myself and saw them - plastic.

I know that power consumed does not equal power delivered. But a professional kitchen saying they blew 2 of one kind, and have not blown any of the other, tells me something.

And the Cuisinarts can be had a pretty good price if you look around. Not $300 mind you. But not much more. To do over again, I'd have not bought the Kitchen Aid for $300. I'd have spent a bit more for the Cuisinart.

2010 Feb 3
Pros use Hobarts more oft than not, go find one at an auction or used kitchen supply store. You can get someone to service it at home, I see the repair guy driving around in his truck every once in a while.

2010 Feb 3
Would just like to point out that Zym did not actually indicate how long he ran the mixer, nor what the book indicates as maximum run time. ;)

And, yes, having our KitchenAid at death's door over Christmas made me a wee bit bitter. ;)

2010 Feb 3
Even a used Hobart is over $1000 that I can find. Believe me, I've been looking. Costco used to sell new for about $1700 but now they carry some European equivalent for about $1100

www.costco.ca

And not all pros use them - case in point, Urban Element is by definition pro, and they use Cuisinart

2010 Feb 4
Zym: Mine is 10 speeds and the manual says that use speed 2 to mix or knead yeast dough. Use of any other speed creates high potential for stand mixer failire. Also, do not use recipes calling for more than 12cups all -purpose or 6cups whole- wheat flour when making dough with a 5pt mixer.

Tip for the mixer: My baking theory book says :Adding salt to a dough strengthens the gluten, making the dough feel tighter. Tightening the gluten in a firmer dough, means kneading will be more work. When mixers are doing the work of kneading,the salt is usually not added until the end of the mixing process in order to minimize stress to machine. Salt can make a firm dough even tighter which will lengthen fermentation time since the dough is resistant to expanding.


2010 Feb 4
for anyone in the market - The Bay is doing 20% off all KitchenAid and Cuisinart stuff this weekend (Fri-Sun)

2010 Feb 17
So the place in St Laurent Center says it needs the whole motor repaired and would be almost the cost of a new one.

I'm going to take it to JR Perry and see what he says. Will be interesting ...

2010 Feb 17
kitchenaid-fun.com

The link above is in Japanese, but There are many pictures that show you how to fix Kitchen Aid Mixer.
Click to enlarge the pictures.

2010 Feb 17
Canadian Tire (in Kanata at least) had the professional Kitchen Aid on sale until tomorrow (18th) for $349.99 down from $499.00. They are the ones with the handle that raises the bowl up and down.

2010 Feb 18
CA Paradis on Bank St had Delonghi 7 Quart, 1100 watt mixers on sale for $300, regularly $600, not sure if they're still available, but they were 2 weeks ago.

We bought one because the Cuisinart died and we needed a replacement right away (still have to see about getting it repaired, just haven't had time). It's been in pretty much constant, daily use for a few weeks now and has worked well for pretty much everything - from cinnamon bun dough to cookies, that we've thrown at it.

2010 Feb 19
We use the Delonghi 7 quart mixer, too, particularly for making very dense seitan dough. The machine works so hard that the entire work bench shakes. And it cleans up easily. I've had it for 3 years and I'm still happy with it.

2010 Feb 19
I picked up my mixer at Personal Edge - luckily they did not charge me the $40 "non-refundable" since they were not fixing it.

I dropped it off at Perry's about 30 minutes ago and he said he'd call on Monday with an estimate. Said he'd been getting a lot of them lately thanks to this thread :-) He also mentioned that he has a really good supplier now where he can usually order parts and get them in the next day.

2010 Feb 19
I've recently gotten some work done at Perry's, I was very happy with the service and price. Wasn't for my mixer though.

2010 Feb 19
There was every imaginable electric and electronic device there! A friend recently had his several-year-old LCD TV blow on him and I forgot until after he'd bought a new one to suggest Perry's. D'oh! But I saw several of them at the shop today.

2010 Feb 20
I wonder if Perry's can fix my coffee maker. It is about 15 years old and made by Panasonic. Coffee maker grinds coffee beans and wash down the grinder while brewing coffee. I think I can find something nice at store, but my husband designed this coffee maker, so I am hoping to fix it for him (surprise !)

2010 Feb 20
Worth to take it in and check anyway Aisu.

2010 Mar 13
Horray! I have my mixer back!

It took a while because Mr Perry's supplier did not have the part in stock.

Cost was more than I would have hoped - $145 including taxes. But that was still a lot cheaper than the other place. Mr Perry told me that in my case it was a really rare case that he'd never seen before. I'd somehow managed to bend the vertical shaft that the tools connect to, and this in turn managed to cause damage to a whole bunch of stuff including the parts that drive the attachment port.

So that gives you an idea of what a "worst case scenario" might be in any case. he said most broken mixers are cheaper than this to fix.