Planetary Problems: Fixing my KitchenAid Pro Stand Mixer

Here's a post that has nothing to do with Thumper or babies (until the end), because it's about something that happened long before I was ever pregnant, that got lost in the shuffle when we moved to the city: the saga of our broken KitchenAid mixer.

The Yeti has always been far more into cooking than I am, and when we got our first place together after college, a big "adult" purchase was a KitchenAid Pro stand mixer (in Nickel Pearl, ooh).  Probably the Yeti's favorite thing to make with it was pizza dough (mine was cinnamon rolls), and many a calzone or personal pizza was had for a few years.

Then one day, it was in the middle of mixing something when we heard a clunk and a grinding noise and the thing stopped spinning, though the motor was still running and grinding.  It also looked like the beater had dropped about a half an inch lower into the bowl, and later examination showed that the entire "planetary," which I think of as the "ceiling" to the beater, was hanging loose.  After the swearing died down, we poked and prodded it with our limited knowledge and came to the conclusion that we had no idea how to fix it, or if it was fixable.

How it's supposed to look, all tucked up into the body (featuring the hand of The Yeti)

But no, you can see daylight here

I looked at Amazon reviews and my heart sank.  Many people had complaints about this part or that part breaking after a few years, stuff made out of plastic instead of metal, and so on.  Many of these complaints had been fixed since the negative reviews, but only in recent years, and ours was bought before then. You could send your mixer off to be fixed but it supposedly cost $150 at least, not counting shipping for the beast.  And that was still much cheaper than buying a new one.

However, the mixer was not a necessity and since we didn't decisively know what to do, we didn't do anything.  It sat there, silent, for weeks and then months and then... two years.

At that point, I got sick of it taking up space and decided to figure out whether I could fix it.  I'd been on a DIY kick and was convinced I could find a YouTube video that would teach me how to do anything.  Unfortunately, while I could find many DIY videos and blog posts about the stand mixer, no one seemed to have our specific problem, so I couldn't just follow steps exactly.

A few YouTube videos were incredibly helpful along the way, though.  One is here.  Though the description is very similar to my issue, it wasn't exact (the other video has since been made private, but it was mostly the same thing from additional angles).  However, it provided two important pieces of information.

First, it showed me how to crack open the mixer and get a feel for what's going on inside.  I was never a tinker-in-the-garage or build-your-own-computer sort of person, so it's not in my nature to attempt to take everything apart on my own.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that had I attempted to do so before watching these videos, I would have opened it up, seen that it's a massive, messy ball of grease and Noped out of there.  But this video showed me what stuff should look like, what something damaged looks like, and just generally made it seem more accessible.

The other vital piece of information is a recommendation for the site mendingshed.com.   They sell individual parts and pieces, and also provide copies of manuals.  We would wind up needing both.

So I set out to see what was going on.  I cracked open the mixer and cleaned up as much of the grease as I could, and examined the gears.  Some of them were indeed scored and gouged, likely from when the planetary slipped and everything ground together.  I set them aside to be replaced, but they weren't my main problem.

Between the Yeti and myself, we determined that the main problem was actually under all the gears and stuff, but above the planetary.  There's a piece of metal that's supposed to be pressed into the underside of the lower gearbox, that would no longer stay.  As such, the planetary dropped, and the little "tower" of gears on top (you can see them in the first picture) dropped down, causing the gouging on the gears.

The problem was there was no way to fix the metal piece.  It was not sold as a separate piece, because it comes as part of the lower gearbox.  Since it's just supposed to be pressed into place, there was no snapping or gluing we could do.

Luckily, Mending Shed actually sold the entire lower gearbox piece as a replacement.  I wound up buying a few replacement gears, a replacement lower gearbox, a replacement planetary (might as well, couldn't tell if it had been damaged), a little pair of pliers for a snap ring, and a big tub o' grease, all for around eighty bucks.

Now, here's where I jump to the future.  I checked out the site today and they now have the option of a much smaller container of grease, more suited for the task at hand, for much cheaper.  Also, for those replacement pieces, now they actually have a pretty wide selection of colors to choose from.  At the time, not so much. Still, I was more worried about functionality than looks, so to replace my Nickel Pearl parts, I got a white lower gearbox and a dark pewter planetary.

Upon receiving the parts, we got an amusing surprise - the piece that had caused us all this trouble had been changed.  Instead of a separate metal piece that provided the extra height (a piece that could fall out), the new gearbox had it simply part of the actual box:

In the old gearbox, that metal washer is sitting flush on the ground

In the new gearbox, it's sitting nicely on some molded plastic

Now all that was left to do was screw in all the bits the way we found them, including the new gears and pieces... 

Cover all the prettiness with a giant mass of grease and screw the cover on...

And voila!  A fully functioning stand mixer, now with white racing stripe.  

Good as new

I wanted to write about it because I still haven't really seen anything online with a similar planetary problem - usually they just want to replace the worm gear (which we did, but it wasn't the real issue).  We fixed the mixer about three years ago and it's still going strong as ever, for about 80 bucks altogether.  When it first broke, fixing it seemed like a daunting process, but it really wasn't that bad, thanks to the miracle of the internet!  And yes, I still rather believe that I can learn anything with YouTube.

Okay, a bit of a baby update in the present day: St. Patrick's Day happened.  One side of my family has Irish roots (when I was younger, I felt "extra Irish" because I have green eyes), and I grew up eating the typical corn beef and cabbage meal (which is not an Irish meal, but an Irish-American immigrant thing, like much of the holiday) and decorating the house and so on.  I don't really have the focus to go all out anymore, but I do make an effort to wear green and I'll probably do more in the future with Thumper (because we all know I love a holiday and ignore the dubious origins).  

Last year: 

This year: 

Okay, he's not wearing his official shirt there, but the parallels in the face make me laugh.  I had to cover up the official shirt with a hoodie, but he's ready to take on sunnier weather, I think: 

Happy Spring! 

He Didn't Catch the Garter

The wedding!  Still no pics to share, unfortunately, but I'll try to snare some when I see them.  So the wedding was between a friend I've had since high school, and his fiancee, who is quite lovely and they've been together for years.  That being said, I had no feel for what the wedding would be like.  It was at night, which could mean a more dramatic setting, but they're both pretty low-drama people.  They're both geeky, but more traditional, so I wouldn't expect a themed wedding... and so on.

As it turned out, it was short and sweet, in the most complimentary sense of both terms.  Everyone looked lovely.  The ceremony itself was incredibly short - we're talking less than five minutes - but the vows were original and said together; it wasn't perfunctory.  And I actually got to listen and enjoy because, as the ceremony was so short, Thumper didn't even have time to get bored or antsy!  We weren't expecting such a smooth experience.

The plan was to feed Thumper in the car when we first arrived so we'd be able to give him water and food at the table but not deal with massive hunger issues.  Well, that didn't exactly happen.  He's not used to being in a car (we used ZipCar) and when I let him out of the car seat, he just wanted to explore.  After wrestling with him for a few minutes I gave up.

Fast forward to the cocktail hour.  After we'd been standing around outside for about a half an hour chatting, Thumper started to melt down and it was clear that he probably needed to eat and take a quiet minute.  I headed inside the hotel on my own, confident that I could find a dark corner or something.

...But I couldn't.  The hotel was really crowded with people and every chair and lobby corner was filled.  I hadn't brought a wrap or something to cover myself with because I'm a moron.  Out of curiosity, I checked out the lobby bathroom; it was a nice hotel and sometimes nice bathrooms have little separate lounges.  Not this one, though.  It didn't even have a baby changing table.  It did have a tiny counter off to the side, and briefly I entertained the thought of feeding him there.  I tried to set him on the counter and he looked at me like I was insane.  I figured we'd have to duck out to the car.

Anything but the bathroom...

As we were leaving the bathroom, I passed a woman I'd seen at the wedding, with a newborn.  She was heading into the bathroom with the baby and had an all-too-familiar panicked look.  "Are you looking for someplace to change her or feed her?" I asked.

"I was looking for somewhere to nurse," she said.  "Yeah, me too," I said, grim.  That was all that was said, but a few guys who worked for the hotel overheard us and launched immediately into action.

"We're pretty full here but... hang on," one said.  A few minutes later we were led through the crowded lobby and into the relatively empty spa reception area.  The woman at the desk led us to the spa waiting room, where you sit and meditate (or, if you're me, eat nuts and drink cucumber water) before being called back for your massage.  It was empty, with couches and a fire going and dim lighting.  Rarely have I ever seen Thumper snuggle down so contentedly, and never outside of our home.  It was the perfect place to recharge.

Our timing was perfect: we left the spa, met up with the Yeti (who was now waiting outside the bathroom because he thought we were in there - sweetest guy ever) and it was time to head in for dinner.  Thumper hung out in a high chair and we gave him little bits of our food.  We'd also brought a sippy cup, and a tupperware with a few snacks, but he mostly played with everything.  We chatted with friends we hadn't seen in years and I think Thumper did more than his part in giving babies a good name.  He's still not particularly forthcoming with strangers - I'm not sure he smiled at anyone the entire time - but he wasn't miserable, either.  Mostly just interested.

The ceremony was at six, and as it approached nine it was clearly time to wrap it up and go home... so we did.  It was fun seeing our old friends and it was a fun, relatively laid-back reception, but we had a baby to put to bed, and I don't feel like we particularly missed out on anything.

I remember going to a wedding with a night reception when I was a teenager - the wedding of a distant cousin.  The wedding party hung out on a party bus between the ceremony and reception and drank, and I saw a groomsman passed out in the bushes already when we were walking in.  That set the tone for the evening.

This was not that kind of wedding.  It was sweet, simple, and fun - a perfect wedding to include a baby, and lot of fun without one, too.

Next time he'll be hitting the dance floor

Illness Intermission

Lemme tell you, it's a good thing I bought that dress for the wedding two weeks early; if I'd waited till the weekend before, I would've been screwed.  Here's how last weekend went:

Thursday morning I woke up and my stomach felt mildly uncomfortable.  It sort of felt like a fist in my stomach; no sharp pain, just something there.  I think I looked cross and the Yeti asked me about it.  Just a little stomach issue, no problem, I said.  Out the door he went to work.

Flash forward a few hours and it's time for Thumper's morning nap.  I'd been feeling increasingly worse, starting to feel achey all over, but still manageable.  When he went to sleep, I threw up - nothing major, but still.  The Yeti had been having a string of later-than-usual nights at work.  I texted him and told him Thumper was asleep, I was soon to join him, nothing was majorly wrong, but I had thrown up and I'd appreciate a regular work day if possible.  Then I went to sleep.

A few hours later I hear Thumper stir and it wakes me up.  I felt probably ten times worse than I had before I went to sleep - stomach ache, achey, hot, chills, just terrible in general.  I seriously contemplated texting the Yeti to see if he could come home early because the idea of even moving seemed terrible, much less crawling around after Thumper.  I still hadn't decided about texting when I heard a rustle in the apartment.  The Yeti was already home.  I nearly cried with relief.

I decided to go in to the doctor, leaving the Yeti with Thumper.  I wasn't sure if I had a stomach bug or flu or what, but I had a fever and I hoped that if it was the flu, maybe I could get Tamiflu and shorten it (my biggest fear was giving this to Thumper).  The doc visit was a disaster - a long wait with me running to the bathroom to throw up during it.  As I could have predicted during a more rational time, they didn't figure out what was wrong with me, just prescribed me anti-nausea meds and took some blood (and gave me a pregnancy test; rational thing to test, but negative).  I found out at the pharmacy that the meds were incompatible with nursing, and I'd already gone over an hour without throwing up by then, so I decided to play it by ear and never did take them.

It's still unclear what the deal was.   I had a fever, aches and chills for a few more days.  On Sunday or Monday my stomach hurt again, and I began to wonder about gallbladder issues, but it's been fine since.  Probably just a bug, but thankfully, the Yeti and Thumper have remained unscathed.  My guess is that I picked something up from barre class.  That's what I get for trying to be healthy.

The upside of the illness is that I basically missed all that internet furor over "the dress."  It looked light blue and brown to me, anyway.

The wedding was fun and I'll go on about it in more detail later but I don't have any pictures yet - we didn't think to take any of our own and the wedding photographer took a lot anyway.  I know she at least took some of Thumper, but I'm assuming I won't see those pics until the bride and groom get back from their honeymoon.  Worst case I'll stick Thumper back in his clothes and take some recreations because, bow tie!