How To Grease A KitchenAid Stand Mixer
Your KitchenAid Mixer is often the backbone of many great dishes and keeping it in good running shape is vitally important.
Now you may have come across this guide because you noticed some weird grinding noises were coming from your mixer, you noticed oil was leaking from your mixer, or because you just want to keep on the standard maintenance for your mixer.
Regardless of the reason that you are here today replacing the grease on a KitchenAid stand mixer is a fairly simple task and should not take you more than thirty minutes.
Although you can definitely knock it out in fifteen minutes or less once you get the hang of it.
Anyways there are a few items you will want to make sure you have handy before attempting to replace your mixer's grease.
NOTE: If your mixer is still under the one to two-year full coverage warranty KitchenAid will usually fix this issue for you free if you go to their website and send it into one of their facilities. I highly suggest you do this if you still have the full coverage warranty as any self-repair on the KitchenAid Mixer could void the warranty if they deem that it is the cause of the issue and not something on the manufacturing side.
If your mixer is under two years of age and it is not acting right or is leaking oil I would highly suggest you go to KitchenAid's Stand Mixer warranty and give them a call.
If you are outside of the warranty and all is left is the limited they will consider this typical wear and tear and will not fix it for you.
Items Needed For Replacing Your KitchenAid Mixer's Grease
- Putty Knife
- Flat Head
- Phillips Head
- Food Grade Grease
- Disposable Gloves(Optional. Nice to have as it gets very messy but you will survive without them.)
- Needle Nose Pliers (Optional. It makes removing pieces easier.)
- Container to store your screws (Optional. When you take the back off of the mixer you can use it as a container for your screws.)
- Newspaper or a big piece of cardboard to work on (Optional. Saves you the trouble of cleaning up your table afterward. The grease is not the easiest in the world to remove.)
How To Grease A KitchenAid Stand Mixer (Simplified Steps)
These are the simplified steps to replace the grease in your KitchenAid Stand Mixer.
If you would like the more detailed instructions they are below this.
- Remove the rear cover of the mixer
- Remove the metal strip that goes around the mixer head
- Remove the planetary ring
- Remove planetary cover
- Remove the 5 screws hidden behind the planetary cover
- Remove the 4 screws at the bottom of the mixer head
- Pull the power cord out of its strain guard
- Separate the top and bottom half of the mixer by removing the top
- Remove and check the gasket
- Remove three more screws that should be on the top part of the bottom portion of the mixer
- Remove the old grease using the putty knife and maybe some towels
- Check the gear teeth to make sure none are broken
- Put gasket and any removed gears back on
- Apply new grease to both upper and lower gears
- Combine the bottom and top portion of the mixer head.
- Put the four screws you took out in step 6 back into their appropriate places.
- Screw back in the 5 screws you took out from the planetary head
- Reattach the planetary cover
- Put the planetary ring back on
- Reattach metal strip
- Strain relief for the cord back on
- Put rear cover back on
How To Grease A KitchenAid Stand Mixer (Detailed Steps)
1.) Remove the rear cover of the mixer
This is held on by one Philips head screw located at the top of the cover. Once you have removed the screw simply pull the rear cover at.
Note: At this time you can place that rear cover on the table and begin to store your screws in it if you opted out of grabbing an additional container.
2.) Remove the metal strip that goes around the mixer head
This metal strip is held on by two Philips head screws located at the back where we just removed the rear cover from.
Once you have removed these screws you can then pull off the metal strip with your hands and set it aside for later.
3.) Remove the planetary ring
The planetary ring is held on through friction so all you will need to do is gently pry it off using your hands and the flat head screwdriver.
4.) Remove planetary cover
Now that we have the planetary ring off you will want to remove the planetary cover.
This cover is held in by a metal pin you will need a small screwdriver or punch to push the pinout. You can also use a nail and hammer if neither of the two is readily available. This is where the pliers can come in handy to pull out the pin once you have it partially pushed out.
Once the pin is out you can then use your flathead screwdriver again to gently remove the cover.
It is best if you use your hand once you have it started with the screwdriver.
Note: be careful when doing this as it is easy to break the planetary cover. It is best that you gently separate several points on the planetary cover with he screwdriver instead of trying to force it from one side.
5.) Remove the 5 screws hidden behind the planetary cover
Once that planetary cover is removed you will notice 5 flat head screws. You will need to remove these and set them aside.
6.) Remove the 4 screws at the bottom of the mixer head
One of these screws will have a washer on it remember its location as it will have to go back in the same spot.
7.) Pull the power cord out of its strain guard
Near the rear of the mixer, you will notice the power cord is locked into a divet.
Pull it out of that divet so that we can fully detach the upper half in the next section
8.) Separate the top and bottom half of the mixer by removing the top
After the screws have been removed you can now separate the mixer into two parts by gently pulling off the top half of the mixer.
The split between the two should be pretty obvious with that metal strip removed.
9.) Remove and check the gasket
You will want to gently remove the gasket that is around the base of the gears and make sure there are no tears in it.
Otherwise, if it does appear damaged you will want to replace it as well to avoid any further complications.
After deciding what needs to be done with the gasket just set it to the side.
10.) Remove three more screws that should be on the top part of the bottom portion of the mixer
We need to remove these so that we can then separate out the gears and properly remove all of the grease.
NOTE: You can get away without doing this step however it may be hard to get all of the grease out.
11.) Remove the old grease using the putty knife and maybe some towels
You will need to remove as much of the old grease as you can before putting in the new grease.
This includes the upper and lower portions of the mixer as you will notice grease is typically all over the insides your mixer.
12.) Check the gear teeth to make sure none are broken
You will want to do this step especially if you have been hearing a grinding noise coming from your mixer.
13.) Put gasket and any removed gears back on
You will want to put the gasket back on along with any gears you removed.
This includes the one that we took off to clean that has the three screws holding it in.
NOTE: Before putting the gear with the three screws holding it in you will want to grease the lower portion of its gears.
14.) Apply new grease to both upper and lower gears
Be sure that you have a food-grade grease that you are using that matches the specs of the KitchenAid Mixer both for your safety and the mixer's safety.
You will want to ensure you apply grease onto all parts of the gears including the ones in the upper half that we removed and the lower half.
Be sure to grease the upper front portion if you use the attachments for your KitchenAid Mixer heavily as this is the gear that makes those work.
15.) Combine the bottom and top portion of the mixer head.
16.) Put the four screws you took out in step 6 back into their appropriate places.
17.) Screw back in the 5 screws you took out from the planetary head
18.) Reattach the planetary cover
You will need to put the pin back in place
Push a small screwdriver through the hole while rotating to make it easier to line up.
You may need a hander or you can you the handle of your screwdriver to pop the pin back into place.
19.) Put the planetary ring back on
This should just slide back onto where we took it off from if you just push it with your hands.
20.) Reattach metal strip
Do not forget this was attached with two screws on the rear section of the mixer.
21.) Strain relief for the cord back on
This should just slide back into the divet towards the back.
22.) Put rear cover back on
Finally, slide the rear cover back on and screw in the one screw on top to lock it in place.
How Often Does My KitchenAid Mixer Need To Be Greased?
Many of you may be wondering how often you will need to be doing this. However, the answer to this is very complicated as it is dependent on a multitude of factors.
Some KitchenAid Mixers can go a lifetime without ever needed grease while others can end up needing it fairly often. It really just depends on how often you use your mixer and what conditions you put it through.
In short, though the most likely time that you will want to grease your KitchenAid Mixer is whenever you notice something off about it.
One of the most common scenarios is when a KitchenAid Mixer is leaking oil as the only way to stop it is to replace the grease. Otherwise, you can follow some of the temporary fix steps that will at least keep it from leaking for a little while. Which is to basically run your mixer on a medium to high speed before use to dislodge the oil and clean it after doing so.
Any funny noises or just your mixing seeming to not work correctly is also a good time to do a regrease as it allows you to take a look at the gears and gasket inside of your mixer. The teeth on the gears are prone to damage but are relatively cheap and easy to replace compared to buying an entirely new mixer.
Finally, the other major scenario where regreasing your KitchenAid Mixer is usually a good idea is whenever your mixer has not been used in a long time as the grease could separate into liquid and solid forms and become less effective.
You also need to check the fiber tooth gear. This strips out under heavy loads or a jam.
Easy to change out as long as you got it apart to Change grease. This gear is designed to strip out so you don’t do more serious gear damage.
I’ve changed out many of these where I used to work at.