KitchenAid Mixer Care and Maintenance
With KITCHENAID MIXER CARE AND MAINTENANCE, your mixer will last forever. These tips will fix any small problems you might be having!
I received my KitchenAid Stand Mixer as a wedding gift 15 years ago and it still works like I just pulled it out of the box. It’s about the only appliance that I use regularly and have not had to replace. To keep your KitchenAid in top working order, it’s important to take care of it and regularly check to see if you need to make a few tweaks to maintain it properly.
Cleaning your KitchenAid Mixer
The simplest thing to clean your KitchenAid mixer with is warm soap and water. Remove any attachments and make sure to clean the spring and pin your attachments go on. These can get clogged with food especially if you’ve started the machine on a high setting and splattered your batter. If you find you are having a hard time putting on attachments then you need to put a little oil on the spring and pin, move the spring up and down a few times and you are good to go.
Care for KitchenAid Attachments
Some of your attachments are coated and are fine to be put in the dishwasher these are white like the flat beater and dough hook. Unless you purchased a stainless steel whisk with the bowl-lift mixer then you will need to handwash your wire whip by hand or they will end up like this and you will get yucky black stuff all over the place. Yes, I speak from experience as you can see. These attachments are made from aluminum and washing them in the dishwasher causes oxidation which is that nasty black stuff.
If you have mistakenly washed your wire whip or other uncoated attachments and they are getting black stuff everywhere there is a fix for this! Put your attachment in a pot and add 2 cups of vinegar. Put in enough water to cover the neck of the attachment and boil it for 20 minutes.
Wipe it down with a clean dry rag to get more of the black stuff off and if you still have a bit then repeat the process. Mine was really oxidized and I could not get it all off but it looks way better than it did and now I don’t get black stuff on me or in my food.
How to Adjust the Beater on Your KitchenAid Mixer
When you first buy your mixer the beater is preset to just clear the bowl. But after some use, you may find it needs an adjustment. To test your beater to bowl clearance, KitchenAid recommends putting a dime in the bottom of the bowl. turn on the flat beater and if it doesn’t move the dime at all you need to lower it. If the dime moves around the bowl a little at a time you are fine. It’s just one little screw you need to mess with and is easy peasy! When properly adjusted, the flat beater will not strike on the bottom or side of the bowl.
- Unplug stand mixer ( I know your thinking really she just had to tell us that!).
- Bowl-Lift Mixers – Place bowl lift handle in the down position, or for lift-top mixers lift-back the motorhead.
- Attach flat beater and close top to see if it needs to be moved up or down
- Locate the screw on the neck of the mixer as seen in the picture below for your tilt-head mixer and adjust it so the flat beater just clears the bottom surface of the bowl.
Turn the screw counterclockwise to raise the bowl and clockwise to lower the bowl. Just a slight turn is all that is required: the screw will not rotate more than 1 ⁄4 turn (90 degrees) in either direction. (The full range of adjustment is one half turn or 180 degrees.) If you have a bowl-lift mixer you will find this screw where the head meets the neck of the mixer. - To check Place bowl lift handle in up position or lower the motor head to check clearance.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 if necessary.
If you are more of a visual learner like me here are videos to show you.
Fix a Tilt-head KitchenAid Mixer that Wiggles
After prolonged use you may find the head on your tilt-head mixer starts to wiggle. You just need to tighten the hinge pin and here is a video to show you just how to do it.
hi
what is your suggestion ? my whole house burned out.. one of items recovered is a kitchen aid mixer, the bowl will not be saved, other attachment will be dumped.. but.. what to do, how to clean mixer? it is covered with .. i would say.. smoked damage… motor works fine… the whole unit is covered with something black, kind of a tar.. mud…soil, oil, at once…I can not dump it into the water with any solvent, i have to use a liquid(?) mixture (?)
tnx for any suggestion..
My kitchen aid is not letting me put my flat beater on the shaft very easy like before. It doesn’t want to slip on like it use to. Any ideas why? I’ve been trying figure it out looking at different trouble shooting tutorials.
Just saw your post as I was looking for tips for my mixer. I’ve had the white mixer for 12 years and it’s still beautiful white. I clean with a damp microfiber cloth that had dawn and warm water. These mixers last with colour and function for years.
Thanks so much for the tips – you saved me from bothering my brother in law. I adjusted the beater height and tightened the pin. I feel so proud of myself! 😆
My KitchenAid stand mixer was laid on its side to transport it. Oil leaked out and made a mess. Should oil leak out? How can I transport it laying on its side without the leakage?
I definitely have an aluminum whisk. Thanks for the cleaning tips. Today I noticed that I also have black residue in the groove found where the bowl narrows to fit the machine. I have an artisan style with stainless steel bowl
My mixer stopped working after just using it a week ago! I tried the breakers on the outlets and still nothing. I don’t use it often just around the holidays so I don’t know why it would stop. Help!!
Mariah, You need to contact KitchenAid to get help with this. Hopefully they can help!
We have put our coated attachment in the dishwasher and now the coating is wearing off. Any tips? We will hand wash going forward but wondering if kitchen aid would
Replace the part.
Eeep! I made the mistake of washing a few accessories in the dishwasher as well. I just made some cookie dough and it has a very small amount of the black oxidation sludge. I’ve scooped out what I can see. Think it’s safe to use the dough or do I need to throw it out and start over?
Amanda, that would make me nervous to eat it. I would probably start over. Sorry!
Great info!! Please see my reply about the grease. I had to replace the grease in my mixer. Messy, but easy to do. There are youtube videos to show you how.
Will the body (white) turns yellowish as time goes by ? Is your kitchenaid white glossy or Matt ?
Thank you for your vinegar cleaning tip. You just saved me some money on a replacement part.
Hi Kelly help tried the hinge pin thought I cracked it but no still keeps coming out even tightening the screw under the machine is it time for a new one. Will I damage it if I keep using it. is there anything else I could try.
You can try a locking product on the screw, talk to a mechanic you know about what might works if it’s loosening up. If it won’t tighten at all you may need a part.
Thanks you saved me a lot of money thought that was it.needed a new mixer the pin kept coming out. Have had my kitchen aid fifteen years. I am making a lot of bread and rolls.my machine has taken a lot of work due to covid
Hello. Thanks for your advice but I have a special problem. I ended up with the mixer after the divorce and I don’t believe my ex ever washed it. I was too zealous in my cleaning and apparently got water inside my mixer and it won’t start. Will it turn back on after it completely dries or is there something else I must do for it?
You will need to contact customer support through KitchenAid. What we provided are tips and tricks learned over time but your situation is a bit more intense so we’ll leave it up to the professionals.
Hello Julie,
It would be helpful for every housekeeper. It helps me more to mix up my kitchen things. this is the best mixer I have ever seen. It works fine and fantastic.
how do i change the attachments I cannot seem to get the attachments off so that i can put a different one on
It would be tough to explain here. Do you have your instruction booklet still, they have a great reference guide or please check out Kitchenaide.com for more information.
Should the motor be oiled ever? Thank you…very useful info!
Per KitchenAid, the mixer is packed with enough solid grease to last the lifetime of the mixer. If you feel that your mixer is having any issues please contact an authorized service facility or kitchenAid directly.
This is what they want you to think but its not true. I have had to replace my grease. If you ever see grease (typically black or grey) coming out of your mixer from the top then you need to replace the grease. Not difficult to do but definately messy!! You can get food grade grease on amazon or from mixer repair parts websites.
My wife should know about this. Thanks for sharing these tips.
Thanks so much for posting the fix for the “wiggle”. I searched for anything about this and could not find it until I saw your site. I couldn’t even come up with the right word to describe it. So appreciate you posting about this!!!
I’m so glad we could help Jen!