My Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer is leaking oil or grease

It's pretty impossible to say for sure without having been there to witness it, but it seems possible that it happened. Some mechanical oils and greases are all-natural and wouldn't harm you if you ate a little of them, but that's not something that KitchenAid would ever tell you. As frustrating as it is, I for one would probably choose the safe route and make a new batch.

Leaking oil is caused by the grease in the gear box separating. This often happens when the mixer is not used much and the grease is not kept mixed by the moving gears. The solution is two-fold. First run the machine more frequently. Second is to open the head and replace the old grease with an approved food-grade grease (6 oz. is the right amount). KitchenAid grease can be found online and at Ebay. The Service Manual can be found at:

http://www.kitchenaidparts.eu/documents/pdf/service-manual/classic-svc-manual-new-email-version.pdf

While the Artisan series is not specifically referenced, the procedures are the same.

You can also take the mixer and manual to a competent repair person.

The grease leaking out of the KitchenAid mixer can be a common problem. Here is the cause, and how to fix it, and prevent this issue from happening in the future.

The KitchenAid mixers use a Benalene 930-2 grease inside of them. It is a dark, thick grease that can break down and leak out of the mixer. The grease is a non-toxic vegetable based grease, basically it is a food grade grease. Over time, or if you do not use your mixer often the grease can break down, so it would appear that there is oil leaking from the mixer. It is most common for it to leak from the beater shaft (agitator shaft) and from the drip ring.

What you need to do is take the mixer apart, clean out all of the old grease, replace it with about 6 ounces of new food grade grease (http://www.mendingshed.com/kagrease.html). It is also recommended that your replace the o-ring on the center shaft (http://www.mendingshed.com/67500-55.html) and the gearbox gasket (http://www.mendingshed.com/mixergasket.html).

To prevent the grease from breaking down in the future if you do not use the mixer very often, it is recommended that you pull the mixer out and run it for about 2 minutes every 3-4 weeks, this should stop the grease from breaking down as quickly.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

This applies to mixer models, K45, K45SS, KSM75, KSM90, KSM103, KSM110, KSM150, KSM151, KSM152, K5, K5A, K5SS, KSM5, KSM50P, KP50 AND KPM5

Thank you,

Colleen
Customer Service
MendingShed.com
[email protected]
800-339-9297

Your gearbox grease is breaking down, time to repack it with some new stuff.

TRY REPLACING GREASE IN GEARBOX AND MAKE SURE YOUR FELT COVER IS IN PLACE (AND CLEAN) THAT SITS UNDER GEARBOX.
**** KENWOODCHEFUSEDMIXERSANDSPARES

nydadinga - Sorry to hear about your fallen mixer. This is not a tragedy, and after cleaning up the grease with soap and water, it should operate normally. Your KA mixer has internal transmission and planetary gears which convert the electric motor's rotation into the mixer's rotation. The internal gears are factory packed with enough grease to last a 'lifetime' (whatever that means), and over the course of your move the shifted mixer leaked the grease inside the transmission housing. You did not mention where the 'oil' was found. Hopefully it was not exuding 'oil' from the brush cover caps located on opposite sides of the body, but coming from the planetary (the part that turns with the blades under the body). I also don't know how old/how used your mixer is. The older the mixer, the more used it is, the more fluid the gear grease, and tend to seep from cracks and gaskets that aren't tight. Gravity can be very insidious. The inspection and troubleshooting of the inside of your mixer is a DITY capability, particularly if your mixer is out of warranty. Just be sure to have the correct Part List manual around when you start to disassemble your mixer. You can download it from KA customer care. Click on Customer Care>Locate Manuals & Guides> Enter the 6 character model number and select the Part List file that is listed. I hope this helps! Howard, Burke, VA

Yup, gotta have lubricant. That oil started out as grease. It is food grade grease and most appliance psrts places have it.The motor itself should be oil free. The grease is for the gears.:)

It can be. This may require replaing the plate that the shaft comes through, since there is now enough play to allow the grease that is in the nead to leak through. You can find the parts online, but be ware, it involves tapping out pins and undoing many screws. Manuals are available online at Kitchenaid.com

There are screws under that metallic ring on the mixer head. Gently remove the metalic ring by pushing down on its edge with a screwdriver. Once the ring is removed the screws are exposed. Tighten each one and then again to make sure they are snug. If this doesn't work, you need a new grease gasket. Good luck.

This kind of unit are lubricated with grase paste. If the unit stays inactive for a long time, or if the motor and gears are overheating the grease paste gets melted into thin oil, and that will cause the leak.
The oil leak is usually coming from the gear box inside the appliance.
To fix the problem the unit must be taken apart, and cleaned. After this step, there is need to spread again the grease, using special foodsafe grease paste.
Disassemblying the gear box is not that easy, you will need previous experience and a gear puller to do the job properly and safely.
This appliances are also held with security screws to prevent the users from taking apart the unit, and can only be disassembled using a Security screwdriver tip.

The grease can be purchased here, check at the bottom of the page: Kenwood chef food mixer Grease.