Mine's over thirty years old, still in great shape.

Raye -- and yours will be still working when the ones they are selling now are broken and have been replaced!

That's why I make the effort to care for my older appliances - they just don't make them like they used to...

Sorry to hear about your new KA. I have a 42 year old one that still works great, but that was when they were made in the US and has all metal parts. Check Craigslist or ebay for one of the old ones. It will say Hobart on it.

Mine is 26 years old. I have used that machine four times per week at a minimum with lots of hard doughs and it works perfectly.

It was an engagement gift of sorts, and I never liked the color, but I'll take well built over colorful any day.

Sorry, Martha, but mine's also over 30 years old, too! I was watching a Mellisa Clark video today on YouTube (Melissa is a cookbook author and food editor for the NYTImes), and she was giving a tour of her home kitchen in Brooklyn. She proudly showed off her 30 year old KA mixer - it's exactly like mine.

It just breaks m hart when I see a brand known for quality and longevity go for profit and the assumption that today's public views everything as "disposable" and rather quickly, at that. I treasure my mixer!

Before that, I had an ancient Sunbeam mixer. It was great until I broke one of those heavy glass bowels that came with it. No longer made, no replacements. Of course, that would probably have been possible now with eBay and the internet. But 30 years ago, not so. I don't regret having to purchase my KA at that time as it was part of the "good ones" that were still being made!

Mine is 51 years old. It has the metal screw. Have used it very little in the last 5 years or so, but it got a lot of hard use for about 45 of those years.

When you look at what Kitchen Aids used to cost and compare that to what they cost now it is obvious they cant be being made to the same standards. The first one I ever bought was a damaged floor model-there was a small chip out of the housing and I paid about $80 for a $180 machine-standard tilt head. That would be about $600 for the same one new without the damage now. My present one I bought from a store that sold auctioned returns from high end department stores. I had a choice between a beautiful blue tilt head for $60 or a Proline in metallic grey-I chose the larger machine-paid about $75 in 1993. they cost about $400 or so. this is the one with the bowl that raises and with a more powerful motor than the usual lift. That would be over $700 now. When you look at present prices how are they making them for so much less? Plastics.

I, too, am a dedicated KA user and mine is around 40+ years old. I wish it's motor were a little stronger but I make age related allowances for it the same way I do for myself these days.

However...that being said...y'all will be happy to learn that KA is still considered the # 1 top-of-the line according to this Good Housekeeping study. As I'm considering replacing my ancient "friend" in the not too distant future due to uncooperative arthritic hands that balk at finishing some of the jobs that my KA refuses ...I've been doing some on-line research and was happy to find this.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/appliances/mixer-reviews/g2224/stand-mixer-reviews

Mine was bought with wedding money, 32 years ago. It doesn't get frequent use, but it's always there when I need it.

Patriciae, exactly. When I was growing up, a new KA was expensive enough that my mother could not justify the splurge since she baked about once per year. Today, colorful KAs are standard in most all kitchens it would seem.

If I were to replace my almond KA, I would get a pistachio green Ankarsrum

https://pleasanthillgrain.com/ankarsrum-swedish-stand-mixer-heavy-duty-kitchen-mixer?_vsrefdom=gpshop&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI582rkJ2L5gIVSNyGCh0RdgsDEAQYAiABEgKC1fD_BwE

Cool Zalco. The only issue I have would be the amazing access-is there something to stop the thing if someone is dumb enough to stick their hand in it? The down side of Kitchen Aide is the difficulty in adding ingredients but it does make it harder to do something stupid.

ETA: oh look, it comes in Pink!

Nothing is as it seems anymore...it’s kind of depressing when you think about it. It took me a long time to splurge on my Kitchen Aid so i haven’t checked the back of it. For now, I don’t want to know; I just want to keep loving it. It’s a black beauty and while I would have loved a colored one, I couldn’t justify paying 50.00 more just because the color was different.

I thought it was pretty cool when they introduced the mini sized version. They’re perfect for someone who has limited counter space.

Mine is 37-ish years old and has the screw. Still looks new. So many appliances aren't made the same now.

Mine is old, I don't know how old because it was a gift from Nancy/wizardnm, back when I was broke and single and mixed everything with a wooden spoon. She used it in her deli and when she sold the deli and renovated her kitchen she gave me the bright red KitchenAid and bought one that matched her new decor. A few years later she noted that the old one she gave me was a better machine and I offered to give it back, but she refused. It gets a LOT of use, and I have a meat grinder, a pasta attachment, a slicing attachment. I haven't quite ever gotten the hang of the pasta attachment, though, and so I use my hand cranked Atlas for that.

Zalco, I have a "Magic Mill", it's the old version of the current Ankarsrum. It took a bit to get used to but I can put 25 cups of flour in it, it gets heavy use when I'm baking dinner rolls for a wedding reception or having a big family Christmas and want to bake sandwich rolls. I've never stuck my hand in it, so I don't know about safety switches, LOL.

I bought my youngest daughter an old KitchenAid at auction, paid something like $40 or $50 bucks for it. I replaced the "brushes" in the side after watching a YouTube video and it still works great.

Annie

Mine is 30+ yrs old...but we bought DD#2 one for her college graduation a few years ago....it is what it is and the question is is there a standing mixer for sale today any better? As said earlier--EVERYTHING is less than it was and appliances are for sure not what they were!!!

My KA has the screw! I feel like I just won the lottery! DD got the jewel. When my aunt was in her final months of life, she was giving stuff away willy-nilly. When she asked DD what she wanted, DD asked for her mixer. It is 30-50 years old. I think that means it has a good chance of being one of the ones made by Hobart.

Mine is 11 years old so I don't consider it "new". DH got it for me for my birthday and I was in mixer heaven. It has the screw so it's one of the "good" ones. I was thinking that the "new" ones -- those in all of the pretty colors that I think are so expensive and every "farmhouse" kitchen has one on the counter -- are the ones made with a plastic parts motor.

I will agree that for what you can do with one it is hard to beat a Kitchen aide. It whips perfectly and then powers through making a big batch of Brioche without a sign of distress. With the power take off the possibilities are endless. I have ground a lot of meat and made miles of sausage. Wonderfully versatile and powerful. It is a pain to add ingredients though, I have measuring scoops now that help. I hope I never need another one though.

Mine is about 30 years old. Sears was closing about some of their appliances and I bought mine for $75.

On another note, there are a ton of kitchen aid mixer decals/stickers to change the look. Here are some on Etsy, for example.

Not a KA but pretty cool; SMEG by Dolce & Gabbana

I'm upstairs at the moment, and my Kitchen Aid mixer is downstairs in the kitchen. Offhand I don't know if it has a screw or not, but I presume it does. It was a gift from my Hubs in either 1987 or 1988.

My moms KA is several decades old and was made by Hobart. That thing is a monster. I told her I want it when she’s done with it and it will probably outlast me.

I remember when K-mart carried them for $69. Everyone in my family made fun of them. I finally purchased one, about 20 years ago. It has the screw! Yay! I also would have liked another color, the rough silver finish....but not for another $100!

Martha, this site lists a lot of parts for the mixer.

https://www.ereplacementparts.com/kitchenaid-mixer-parts-c-114958_114959.html

Hubby always wanted to buy me one, but not being much of a baker, I resisted due to the price.

Found one at a yard sale for $25....from 1974!

Still plugging away! Love it!

I don't have a KA, but my Mom bought me the Oster Kitchen Center back in 1980. It has 2 mixing bowls, dough hooks, a blender attachment, also a meat grinder and a food processor. That makes it 49 years old and it is still working Had to have the motor repaired once. I would love a KA, but this work horse just keeps on ticking along!!

I bought mine for 180, in the early '80's. Love it. It's white, and that is fine with me... Bought my daughter one in the mid 90's, and hers gets used a WHOLE lot. Not sure about a screw... I am not home.

We LOVE ours.

Moni

I got DD a Hobart-made Kitchenaid at a flea market. I don't recall the model but it has the bowl lifter arms. She loves it.

SWMBO was peeved that she'd waited 20+ years and never received a KA mixer. So she found herself a newer, less heavy-duty, but still nice KA at some used sale. Hers is the tilt-head type.

My own mixer is an older Electrolux DLX that I bought for bread dough. I don't have the attachments for whipping cream, but we have a hand mixer for that, and my Cuisinart has a cute little whipping accessory that works okay.

We don't bake that much - everyone is low carb to some degree - so we could probably do without a mixer at the moment. But things change, so we hold onto this mixer fleet.

Read this thread after I was already tucked into bed, but knew I had to get up and check for the screw (yes, it's there!) or I would not be able to sleep. The internet makes me crazy :)

Rose -- thanks -- I will save it but I found a certified service center in St. Louis, called them and the part is on it's way!

My KA mixer is fairly new and I recently had a mishap with a screw on the appliance. I was making a cake, and perhaps the vibration of the mixer caused the screw holding the KA logo at the front of the mixer to loosen, making the metal logo fall off right into the cake batter. I fished the logo out of the batter and reattached it to the mixer. I decided that we would use the cake ourselves and I wouldn't contribute it to the bake sale as I had intended.

Anglo - I still have both of the white glass bowls that went with the Sunbeam mixer...

Another happy cook who has a screw! I don't think it's a Hobart, on the cusp, bought in 1995 or '96 but it's been a work horse.