Wattage on Kitchen Aide mixers

M

marilynfl

Moderator
I’ve been trying to learn how to make my mom’s apple strudel and her instructions are vague to say the least. ”Keep adding flour. Nope. Some more. A bit more. Nope. A bit more. Okay. That will work.”

As I had no scale with me while this tutorial was going on, I ended up with a “dough” but still had no idea of how much flour.

Back home, I’ve been weighing test ingredients and switched from my lift arm KA to my rarely used lift bowl KA.

I was kneading the dough at Speed 2 (as specified) with the hook and there was a distinctive motor odor. The mixer wasn’t hot but it certainly smelled, which caused concern because I don’t want to burn out the motor.

I queried the symptoms at The Fresh Loaf when I read this:

”If you are going to consider another mixer, advertised wattage has no bearing on the power of the mixer as manufacturers only advertise the input wattage, never the amount of power the mixer actually produces.”

Wow. That shocked me as much as the woman in a class once who said “you can eat anything you want as long as you drink the same amount of water to flush it out.”

Hand to God. I can’t make this stuff up.

So now I’ve got to research KA mixers and see just what they are capable of.

Has anyone else run into this issue?

 
As one who HAS burned out a KA motor by mixing something that was too thick for that

model, I do expect the wattage to measure input--although I hated physics. YOu lift bowl model certainly has a higher wattage than lift head and should be able to handle bread/strudel dough. Even a lift head probably would depending on the total amount of flour you are adding. Non?
Maybe the odor was from a seldom used machine having something on a motor part to burn off? Was it "laboring"?
Was "2" on that machine too low maybe?
Here is this from a source
While you would expect a high-wattage mixer to easily handle any dough, they do have limitations. Even the best mixers have trouble handling a very stiff dough. When dough causes the motor to become sluggish and stall, that means your mixer was not designed to handle that capacity or denseness of dough. It's not unusual to finish kneading bread dough by hand, even with a powerful mixer. To prevent motor burnout, follow the manufacturer's guidelines as to how long to operate the mixer during a session. Keep in mind that not all mixers have built-in overload protection and they are not meant to run continually for long periods.

 
Sorry, Marilyn, I am not 1/100th as scientific as U are! If my "lift arm" KA smells like it's being

over-taxed, I simply shut it off to cool down and then crank it up again later to finish the job.

I distinctly remember taking several cake decorating classes back in 1990, when the instructor said that ONLY the students in the class who owned an Ultra Power Kitchen Aid mixer should even attempt to make a certain frosting,/cake topping but naturally, now I cannot recollect which type of frosting or cake covering she referred to.

Later....I just finished reading through my 3-ring binder of copious "Cake Decorating Class" notes and didn't see any reference I'd made to which type frosting should only be mixed in an Ultra Power KA except I know it was NOT buttercream. (Maybe fondant or perhaps royal icing?)

I own an Ultra Power KA lift arm model so I do remember making whatever cake covering instructor Donna Wilson had cautioned the class about.

Although very sketchy, this is the best info I can offer--something entirely NON-scientific. Smile. Wigs

 
it depends...

I have the 325 Watt lift arm model purchased about 25 years ago. It is billed as "Heavy Duty" "Professional" I had a problem with it about 10 years ago. I did a lot of the maintenance stuff on it and replaced some parts. The "smell" is not necessarily bad. You said it is seldom used. If the smell is like burning plastic that is bad. But a rarely used motor can collect debris/dust and it will kind of toast it when getting a good use. Something that I found out was that the older models I believe through the 1980s but I could be wrong on the time period, had all metal gears but somewhere around 1990 they started using plastic gears. These can burn out. That was one of the problems mine had and I replaced the gear. (disappointed to find out that it had plastic gears).

 
I'll bet the problem child was a nougat icing or candy. Was watching BA try to duplicate Snickers

and I was intrigued since I had attempted that EXACT same thing back in 1987. For 6 insane months I was the test cook for a restaurant owner who would suggest crazy dessert ideas and ask me to work them out.

Ideas such as: pecan pie with NO sugar. Or, how about apple pie with NO crust, NO sugar and baked fresh within 5 minutes for each serving. Anyway, he was looking for ideas and I told him that since Snickers are America's favorite candy bar, we should have a thin tart that duplicated it.

There went 3 weeks of my life and while I got close, the nougat part never worked for me.

On the BA episode, Claire was burning through heavy duty BA mixers because it's so stiff, so I'm not feeling so bad now.

 
My mom had a Hobart KA lift-bowl version way back when and it NEVER got hot. Now she has

a 40 Qt 3-phase Hobart standing mixer. Woman doesn't do anything by halves.

 
The only thing that almost got mine was grinding all the veggies

for a big batch of chow chow with the meat grinder. I ran it a long time hard, but it was fine.

 
I think seldom used is the key phrase here

For some reason after I got my lift arm model, the lift bowl models will not fit under my cabinet so that nixed that right there, I didn’t use it right away. I remember I probably didn’t use it much the first year, basically never. However, a good year if not longer into ownership I used it, but it leaked oil! I got on the phone with KitchenAid right away, but they said sorry no warranty you didn’t use it which meant the oil gummed up inside of the machine and caused this leak. As you might imagine in my eyes I had a brand new KitchenAid that failed. I was not amused. However, it was too bad, so sad for me. They refused to do anything about it. The moral of the story is apparently if KitchenAid mixer‘s sit for an extended period of time unused, they know that it’s not gonna work properly. I’ve never had it repaired, It mostly only leaked the one time, but it’s had other issues that in my mind a machine that cost that much money should never have. I sprung for the nickel finish which is much more expensive than the painted finish. The lock head button broke off for no reason and the tilt head constantly needs adjusting so it doesn’t drag the bottom of the bowl. Oh and the tilt head would come off from vibrations (it has fallen off) if I constantly didn’t hammer the tilt pin back in. So, I love my mixer, couldn’t make bread without it, but need to keep a hammer and screwdriver with me to use it.

 
I would be so annoyed. Mine dropped bits of oil as well, when I didn't use it for a few months. I

guess all motors are alike. They just need the oil oozing through them on a regular basis. And KA should state that in the manual.

I now buy anything major at a store that replaces within the warranty period, to the greatest extent, regardless of whether or not the problem is covered. KA has the market all tied up so should not be acting dishonourably.

 
I have one of the older standard KA Mixers, inherited from my late MIL. Metal Gear:

It is old; harvest gold color.
A while back, when I could find a local small appliance repair man, I had the speed control replaced ago. He told me to keep the machine because the drive gear, a worm gear he called it, was metal. The new ones he said were plastic, and made so to strip if the going got too heavy; I guess to keep people from burning their mixers up. Of course maybe it made the mixer less costly to manufacture, thus saving money on KA's end and making for a better profit for them too. And sad to say most small appliance repair shops have gone the way of the dodo, so more business for KA should you decide to buy another.

Currently it is not running; we THINK it needs a new orbital something-or-other gear(s). Found a place to repair but I have to drive an hour to get there, one way. Husband says he can fix (and I believe him) BUT we are not super sure as to what part we need.

Well, husband is always claiming he wants to put more miles on the car, so maybe a 2 hour round trip is in my future.

 
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