NASTY!

Is the reaction I got out of Emma when I showed her just how bad our Kitchenaid mixer needed a cleaning.  We've owned this thing for 12 years, and have never overhauled it before.  Anyone who owns one of these knows how much it can be used.  It's the only original appliance Cyndi and I have left since we were married.  It was also making some funny grinding noises, which might indicate that the grease inside has failed.

Even the rubber feet on the bottom had crap caked on it!

Although this thing is just simply a big motor with a metal casing, I didn't want to just start tearing it apart without some kind of guide or manual.  I didn't feel like buying another one just because I did something stupid. I found a good tutorial at http://artisanbreadbaking.com/ka_greasing/

This blog post is a simply picture tutorial.  It doesn't show you any of the screws you need to deal with, or how to disassemble the unit.  Please use the website mentioned above to help you out if you want to do the same thing to your Kitchenaid.

There was still lots of grease, but it was dirty and dryer than it should be.

There were no metal shavings in the grease, which is a VERY good thing.

All of the parts were in great condition.  Took a while to wipe most of the grease off.

Lotsa towels needed to get all that grease off.

Notice a black gasket around the housing.  Handle this with caution, as you don't want it breaking or tearing on you.  There is also a paper gasket around the back of the motor housing (not shown).









































 Getting all of that nasty grease off was the worse part of this job.  With the old grease slightly dried out, it made it that much harder to clean it off.  To get all of the grease off, I used brake parts cleaner.  You can get it at any auto parts store, or even Wal-Mart.  You NEED to use this cleaner OUTSIDE and with plenty of moving air (a fan works great).  I can't stress that enough.  The only other cleaner that works better is gasoline, but you're just playing with danger there.  If you have access to a parts cleaner bin (any auto shop or serious mechanic should have one) then that would be even better/quicker, as it will do a cleaner job than using spray cans and towels.  Don't worry about cleaning the white exterior quite yet, as you'll just get a greasy fingerprint on the clean outside without much effort.  It's better to just wait until you have the gears reassembled and the casing put back together.

All parts cleaned and fresh grease applied

I used wheel bearing grease, but any heavy duty auto grease will work.

Now that all of the internal parts were cleaned and regreased, it was time to move onto the outer cover.  I first used Lysol 4in1 and kept wiping and scrubbing until all of the grease/unknown nastiness came off.  I even got the electrical cord cleaned up nicely.  As a final step I used pure lemon oil to get off any last bit of film and to give it a nice polish.  Turned it on and now it purrs like a kitten.

Looks like a brand new machine. 

We can now display it proudly again on our counter.