News & Views

Ah, summer! Higher temperatures made bearable thanks to cool drinks made mostly from ice in your family blender. But wait - what's wrong with the blender?

Well, there shouldn't be anything wrong with the blender! That's why you spent megabucks on the fancy schmancy Kitchenaid model. But there it sits making motor noises without any blade movement. Yuk!

It turns out that the powerful Kitchenaid electric motor in the blender base connects to the whirling blades on the blender jar via a small, hard rubber coupling. Every time you turn on the blender, rubber prongs slam into a metal bar that is solidly connected to the blender blades. Every time the blades chop ice, the metal bar puts pressure on the rubber prongs. Every time you lift the jar while the motor is still spinning, the rubber and the metal clash once again. Over time, the rubber dries out and all the pounding causes it to crumble away.

If you call the company, they will ask you to ship the blender to their repair shop (at your expense). Technicians will make the fix and ship it back with a small warranty. But it's spendy. A quick browsing of online discussions shows that some people think that the cost of a factory repair is exorbitant, thus turning their beloved blender into a "paperweight."

So, why not search the web for sources of repair parts? It didn't take long to find The Gourmet Depot Company <www.thegourmetdepoco.com>. They carry thousands of parts for all kinds of appliances. It turns out the rubber part I needed cost $6.95 plus a couple of bucks shipping. Instructions are included.

Remove the old part by using a large screwdriver to pry it off. The motor shaft is high grade steel and the coupling is rubber with a thin bottom made of soft aluminum. Apparently it doesn't hurt the motor to pull of the old part. (I'm guessing the Kitchenaid tech have a special tool that holds the motor shaft so the piece can be twisted off.) The only tricky part about the whole repair is that the replacement part has a "reverse thread". Instead of spinning it on clockwise to tighten, you twist it in a counter-clockwise manner. The part tightens as it is used, so hand tight is fine.

The whole fix took about five minutes, and my wife did it all by herself. (Well, i did locate a big screwdriver for her.) The next time your appliance goes on the fritz, try going online for parts and instructions!

2006 Philip B. Bowser

Phil is the newsletter editor of the Apple Blossom Computer Club of Winston, Oregon, one of Oregon's oldest Apple User Groups. Other user groups may use this article with proper attribution. If you reprint, please notify the author at philip574@aol.com.