Home / Household Tips / Kitchen Tips / 22 KitchenAid Stand Mixer Tips & Troubleshooting Help  78 Comments    Print     EmailI love my KitchenAid and although I haven’t had any problems with it yet (knock on wood), I decided to put together a page full of tips and tricks that I’ve bookmarked from around the web so I have them on hand “just in case”.So far there are basic maintenance solutions and fixes but I’ve also found a few neat ideas to try (such as shredding chicken, pulled pork, making homemade butter, etc.).If you’re a lucky duck who has an old workhorse mixer that just won’t quit (pre-1986) and it’s getting a bit beat up, you’ll find a tutorial for how to take it apart and repaint it so it looks shiny new again.Is there a goody I missed? Please feel free to share your experience in the comments section below. I’ll be adding more helpful ideas to this page as I find them so you may want to bookmark it for reference.PS: Don’t miss the appliance cover tutorials I have listed on this page, these will help keep the machine dust-free.

How To Grease It: Here’s a well done tutorial with plenty of pictures showing how to take it apart and grease it (for maintenance).Leaking Grease Fix: (video) This can happen if it sits too long between uses.Converting Bread Machine Recipes: Especially useful for recipes that call for the bread machine’s dough cycle.Shredding Cooked Chicken: Uses the cookie paddle attachment and takes just a few seconds!How To Adjust The Beater: (video) Shows how to make small adjustments to the screw, testing is done with a dime in the bowl so you can tell when the tweaking is ideal.Use The Dough Hook For Meatloaf: (can also use the paddle) The result is a finer textured meatloaf that holds its shape well.Drape A Towel Over The Bowl: (when mixing) This helps protect from a cloud of flour kicking up.Dump In All Dry Ingredients At Once: (instead of incrementally) No more fussing with trying to add scoops of flour!Head Wiggles: You’ll need to do a simple hinge pin adjustment. This quick video will show you how.

Brown Ooze Around The Drip Ring: (alternative fix to leaking grease mentioned above) Turn on Speed 10 for 2 minutes then wipe up any oil.How To Paint It: If you have an old one that’s getting pretty shabby, here’s how to re-paint it and add vinyl decals.Roll It On Marbles: (comment from January 7, 2009) Remove the 5 rubber feet at the bottom and replace them with marbles. Rest on a dry sponge to avoid it sliding off counter.Make It Easy To Slide: By setting it on top of a dishcloth or small towel (the page has more tips too).DIY Fixes: Covers a few issues such as oil leaking, overheating, working with non-KitchenAid recipes and overkneading.Make Butter: Two quarts of cream will make a pound, whip at high speed, rinse well, wrap and freeze.Kneading Advice For Various Flours: The time difference between white flour; Pin “Won’t Push In” Fix: Wipe spring with a hot wet cloth then apply a drop of vegetable oil and wipe again. Work the spring by hand a few times before trying attachment again.

Easy Pulled Pork: Cut meat into 2 pound pieces (removing excess fat & the bone first) and use the dough hook for 20-30 seconds at a time.How To Cream Butter & Sugar: Some great advice in this thread including: Make sure to use the paddle, beat butter first then add sugar (and more).Hand Painted Designs Gallery: No tutorials here but wow! these are too beautiful not to share. Lots of inspiration if you’re planning a makeover.DIY Splash Guard: Cheap & easy to make by cutting a hole in a plastic lid.blender tribest pb200Make Your Own Flour: Requires the grain mill attachment, Chef Adam Kaye states that recipes will take on a whole new dimension.breville hemisphere control blender kaleWe’ve taken the time to look at the best stand mixers currently on the market and compiled a breakdown of which stand mixer is right for which type of use, what features they provide, and even which ones are more affordable.cuisinart spb-10ch powerblend 500 blender

KitchenAid is well known for their products’ durability, made up of all metal working parts instead of the all too common plastic we see in other brands, and standing behind their one year hassle-free warranty.  With a motor powerful enough to knead large batches of bread dough on the regular and available attachments to make pasta, grind meat, and even grate a block of hard cheese, you’ll be using this machine so often, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.  breville hand blender set vhb014Regular old stand mixers often lack the power to mix up heavy batters and doughs and cheap plastic parts wear out before you make it through the first Holiday season.  waring blender schweizKitchenAid’s Artisan will be taking care of your baked goods for years to come.waring waterfall blender review

This beautiful stand mixer comes with a lift-assist mixer head, 5 quart stainless-steel mixing bowl, 12 speed control with a pause function, LCD screen with a 10 minutetimer, pouring shield, scraper beater, flat beater, dough hook, and wire whip all on top of the 550-watt power and a one year warranty.  Breville is known for their attention to detail and durable small kitchen appliances so if you’re looking for the best electric stand mixer on the market today, the Breville BEM800XL is definitely worth a closer look.ninja 700 watt pulse blender bl 250 Other professional stand mixers tend to look industrial and robotic and may be just as strong but you’re paying double, triple, or quadruple the price for something that doesn’t even look that nice sitting on your counter.  The KitchenAid KSM8990OB is much closer in price to a regular household stand mixer than other professional options and has great features like the commercial style bowl-lift function and soft start to prevent throwing or flinging ingredients out of the bowl on startup.  

Of course, since it’s a KitchenAid it has the power hub for the various grinding, grating, and pasta-making attachments available which can really come in handy in a professional kitchen.  This mixer also comes with a 2 year warranty and is certified by the NSF for commercial use. The KitchenAid Professional 600 Series stand mixer has the strength of all-metal gears and a direct-drive transmission with a 575-watt motor. Bread dough needs the strong quiet type to show it who’s boss. With brawn, brains, and good looks, that tough, sticky bread dough won’t know what hit it. This stand mixer also comes with KitchenAid’s one year hassle-free warranty. Costing less than a third of some of the pricier mixers but having just as much power and mixing-ability, the Hamilton Beach 63325 does a great job doing exactly what it says it will do.  It’s a mixer, it mixes, and it does a great job. The planetary mixing action is what everyone is searching for in professional mixers, so to have this feature in such an affordable stand mixer is absolutely awesome.

It’s perfectly capable of handling all of your everyday mixing needs without being overly fussy and complicated.  Who doesn’t love having an easy to use, beautiful machine, and a little extra dough in their pockets?  It comes with a 1 year limited warranty. With all of that power and control, every home baker can be certain to have the best mixer around. This Cuisinart stand mixer comes with a limited 3-year product warranty and a full 5-year motor warranty, which is nearly unheard of in the small appliance market.  Cuisinart is really standing behind this mixer’s durability and we can see why. Nothing could be worse than getting a cheap plastic mixer for this Holiday season and having it wear out by the next. A regular old one-year warranty always seems to expire just before your new mixer stops working, but Cuisinart is really stepping up with a full 5 years. KitchenAid makes arguably the best known stand mixers in the world.  Chances are your grandmother or mother had one, and many of the newer models look practically the same as the old.  

That’s because their design and functionality has been proven to work year after year.  KitchenAid provides a hassle-free warranty service and stands behind their products. Breville makes many small appliances, such as juicers, blenders, and toaster ovens as well as their wonderful stand mixers.  They have a reputation for durable and beautiful small appliances as well as high user satisfaction. Hamilton Beach has some of the most affordable small kitchen appliances on the market, including their stand mixers.  They are often the choice for home cooks and bakers. Cuisinart products were brought into popularity by Julia Child and James Beard and if they loved them, you know they’re good.  Popular for their food processors at first, they’ve become a master at making all sorts of small kitchen appliances.  Their stand mixers are definitely top notch. Do I really need a stand mixer? Some people don’t bake often and find a hand mixer to work just fine for the occasional box mix or dessert.  

If you’re baking more than once a week, if you have arthritis or other problems in your hands or arms, or if you feel that your hand mixer isn’t quite mixing as well as you would like, a stand mixer is right for you. How much space is this thing going to take up? Many stand mixers take up about the same amount of counter space as a large toaster.  Some are a bit heavy to move in and out of your cabinets, but some are pretty enough that you would probably rather leave them out anyway. Do I need a tilt-back head or a bowl-lift stand mixer? That’s really up to your preference.  Both are great options.  The bowl-lift system is what you’ll see in commercial kitchens, it helps get larger and heavier bowls of ingredients into place for mixing.  Some people prefer the tilt-back head to make changing out the mixing attachments a bit easier. Who uses all of those extra attachments? If you’ve never used a pasta-maker or ground your own meat you may think these extra attachments and cost are not right for you, and that’s perfectly fine.  

Grinding your own meat, making your own pasta, and grating your own cheeses can be fun ways to get children involved in nutrition as well as making sure you don’t fall into the unhealthy processed food pattern so many of us fall victim to.  Fresh, homemade foods also just taste great! Is planetary mixing action really as great as it sounds? If you’re working in a professional kitchen, you’re using a mixer with planetary mixing action.  When you watch online baking tutorials and television baking shows, this is what they’re using because they know that planetary action mixes much faster and more thoroughly than the regular old two-beater systems like a hand mixer. What’s with all the stainless-steel mixing bowls? If you’re used to a heavy glass or ceramic mixing bowl, get ready for lightweight stainless-steel to be your new best friend.  Not only is stainless-steel beautiful and easy to clean, it’s much lighter and more durable than those heavy glass bowls we’ve used in the past.