Vent: My stand mixer caught fire mid-batch of chocolate chip cookies

Last Sunday I was making a double batch of cookies for a bake sale at my kid's school. About halfway through creaming the butter and sugar, I smelled something weird, like burning plastic. Then I saw smoke coming out of the back of my KitchenAid. I yanked the plug out of the wall and the whole mixer just stopped, with a little flame flickering near the motor. The butter sugar mix was a gross gray color from burnt grease. I had to toss the whole bowl and start over, but luckily the mixer didn't fully catch fire. My husband says it's because I run it too long on high speed for stiff cookie dough. Has anyone else dealt with a mixer overheating or catching fire like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

miles_robinson2017d ago

Wait, a FLAME flickering?? That's wild. I've had my mixer get hot before but never actually seen fire come out of it.

mileslane17d ago

Nah I gotta disagree on the power cord being the fix here. If you're actually seeing a flame or even just flickering that intense, that's probably a failing capacitor or a short on the circuit board, not just a dirty cord. Dust in the vents can cause overheating for sure, but a visible flame means something is already arcing or burning. I'd be more worried about the transformer going bad or a solder joint cracking near the power supply. Did you check the internal fuses after you swapped the cord?

ruby65917d ago

Swapped out the old power cord first thing. That fixed most of the flickering for me. Then cleaned the dust out of the vents, never had the problem again.