A KitchenAid saga

I tried to do a good thing last week. The BSU has a KitchenAid mixer, one of those table-top models that is a hand-me-down heirloom from her mother's lunch counter from many years ago. I think the spouse received the mixer, well used, in 1986 or 1987. I even repainted the mixer not too long after it moved into our house so long ago. And last week, I decided that I was going to replace the worn out power cord. The rubber insulation had cracked and split and was hanging down and it just looked pretty sad.

So I bought a white 2-wire extension cord on my way home from work on Wednesday last week, and after dinner, I carried the mixer out to the shop for a power cord transplant. I have changed many power cords over the years- its usually a simple task to open up the case of whatever appliance or tool that needs a new cord, disconnect the old cord from its connections and to install a new cord in its place. Not so much with a KitchenAid mixer though...

I spent an hour trying to take it apart. I could see where the ends of the cord were, I just couldn't get it taken apart far enough to access the connections. After an hour of fiddling, and after cutting the old cord off, which I had done first, before discovering I couldn't get the mixer apart, I gave up and went inside to look for some instructions. A little Googling did produce a PDF copy of the repair manual for these mixers, 28 pages worth!

It seems that to get the top cover off so that the cord can be replaced, a pin needs to be driven out and a planetary gear case opened up and all the gear grease drained out first. I decided that maybe I would find a real repair shop and let the shop change the power cord and reset the speed controller timing instead of me fussing with it.

So I did find a local repair shop and I took the mixer in to get it fixed. That was Thursday and they promised to have it back to me in time for Thanksgiving mashed potatoes and pie. On Saturday I got a phone call, the repair guy said he couldn’t fix my mixer. He claimed that the power cord was unique to KitchenAid and obsolete! He insisted tha no other cord could possibly be substituted in spite of the fact that it is just a rubber insulated, 2-wire cord… Good grief! In reality, it just sounded like the repair guy didn’t care to tear it apart either.

Monday found me telling this tale to my buddy Loc. He got busy on the KSL classifieds and found 2 mixers for sale locally. Or sort of locally, as it turned out, because the one that I wanted was down in Lehi, nearly 75 miles away. But the machine was nearly new and a price that couldn’t be ignored, so I called and ensured it was still for sale and then made plans to go get it after work.

In spite of numerous miles of backed up traffic due to lane closures and 2 accidents as we went through Salt Lake City, we did make it successfully to the home of the seller. After checking it out, the spouse declared it perfect; it is much quieter than the old one, and I paid for the machine and we headed home. We stopped for dinner on the way back home and by the time we finally got to the house, it was nearly bedtime!

The spouse loves the new machine and I still have to pick up the old one. I’m going to fix it myself, clean it up and retire it as an heirloom once I get it back home.