Has this ever happened to you? You finish mixing up bread dough or your favorite recipe and your bowl is stuck to the mixer. Why did this happen and how in the world do I remove a stuck bowl from the KitchenAid Mixer?!?
Metal expands and contracts as it heats and cools, respectively. The mixer bowl tends to stick most when kneading dough. The motion the hook rotates tends to tighten the bowl and as the mixer runs, the bowl will heat up and expand inside the locking base. You feel as if you will tear a muscle trying to remove that bowl and yet, it will not release from the base!
I’ve had my husband help, but sometimes he’s not around and I just don’t have the strength. One day, after making bread dough, I filled the bowl with some water and covered it with a towel to deter the cat from eating dough bits (yeasted dough is deadly to animals!) When my husband came home, he went to pop off the bowl. It flew off with ease, sloshing water everywhere including all over my surprised husband.
After I stopped laughing, I realized what likely happened and decided to find out if it could be repeated. Success every time! Now I place in a bit of ice water, wait 5 – 10 minutes and easily remove the bowl by myself. But what if there is something in the bowl that needs to stay?
Use a cold damp towel! I will place a wet towel in the freezer before I start mixing. After, I simply wrap the now freezing towel around the base and let it sit for several minutes. This takes longer than the ice water in the bowl, so have some patience.
One way to prevent this from happening is it lightly grease the bottom of the bowl before inserting it into the base and only slightly securing it. Be sure to clean the base well after if you do this. Another option which is a bit annoying, but very effective is every few minutes, stop the mixer, release the bowl briefly and re-secure it. And as always, unplug a mixer before you mess around with potentially moving parts. Safety first in the kitchen!
Sometimes the bowl won’t budge. 
Try wrapping a cold damp towel around the base. 
If that doesn’t work put in some ice water. 
Few minutes later, voila!
There you have it. If you ever find yourself with a stuck bowl on the Kitchenaid mixer, this is how you can remove it without voiding your warranty like others suggest. Seriously, don’t hit your bowl with a hammer and expect a warranty to hold up when you break your mixer.
I have ice and water in mine now. I actually sit it outside on my carport. Heat definitely doesn’t work. My 1st time making bread in it.
I hope you were able to get your bowl unstuck! I don’t know why Kitchenaid hasn’t fixed this.
My bowl got stuck. Try putting ice and water doesn’t work. Please help!
I am so sorry Agnes that I didn’t respond earlier. I’ve been under the weather. I hope you have gotten your bowl unstuck by now. If you haven’t, let me know and I’ll help you troubleshoot.
I’m super frustrated. I made pizza dough last night and in the 15 years I’ve had a KitchenAid, I’ve never had this happen before (I never made dough before either). I tried the warm towel per KA’s website; that didn’t work. Mind you, it’s the next day now. I also tried filling it about 1/4 full of ice and wrapped a cold towel over it; that didn’t work either. I’m freezing more ice now and will fill the bowl higher and add cold water and then “patiently” wait for 20-30 min. to see if that loosens it.
Kathy, that is super frustrating! It is the biggest flaw of these mixers in my opinion. If you haven’t already gotten it unstuck, you can also get a piece of shelf liner with grip and fold it over the edge of the bowl and turn while holding it. It will give you more leverage.
Thank you for stuck bowl trick!! OMG, I was in a panic 😳 You made my day?
Hi Jane! So glad you got the bowl free from it’s base. I panicked to when it first happened to me, haha.
Nice to know that this isn’t just a “me” problem
Definitely not just a you problem, Elizabeth. Welcome to the “can’t remove the bowl” group! 🤣
Thank you thank you!!! I was thinking I broke the darn thing. Ice did the trick. Now I know!
You are very welcome, Pam! I’m not sure why they haven’t fixed this design flaw after all these years. Maybe someday!
This trick worked a treat even after a large batch of pizza dough. Thank you. It can still be difficult to hold both the mixer and the bowl when an extra pair of hands isn’t available. If you have a standard double bowl kitchen sink you can place the mixer in the sink. The sink will keep the mixer from moving while you are free to grab the bowl.
That’s a fabulous tip about using the sink, Kim! I’ll have to remember that next time.
Thank you soooo much for this. It took more than 1/2 an hour, but finally worked, I will remember to oil the bottom before using next time.
You are very welcome, Bea! It can take a while when the bowl really heats up. You think they would have come up with a solution to this by now so it wouldn’t happen at all.
Thank you so much for sharing! It was my first use and the bowl was stuck!! What a relief now!!
You’re very welcome, Chauses! So glad I could help. It’s such a pain when it happens.
Thank you so much. I’d run out of ice cubes so wrapped the bowl in frozen sausages and put frozen bagels inside. Worked in 15 mins and guess what we had for lunch?
That’s a great way to determine what’s for lunch. 😆 So glad it worked well for you. Getting stuck is the one thing I really dislike about this mixer.
Bowl in struck. Tried the ice water trick, and it is still stuck. What other options do I have.
Put ice in halfway. Fill up to the ice with cold water. Wrap a damp cold towel around the base. Let it sit 10-20 minutes. Fill with more ice if still stuck and wait another 10-15 minutes. You can also use something with grip to grab onto the bowl if that alone doesn’t work such as non skid shelf lining. The above combination has always worked if enough time passes to allow the metal to contract. If it doesn’t for you, time to call kitchen aid.
I had just made chocolate chip cookies, and I am big strong retired truck driver. That thing would not budge. I had my temper to deal with so my first choice was a hammer. I suppose I am lucky I did not damage the machine. I will definitely be using some of your ideas in the future. I particularly like the one about lubricating the base before starting and not securing it completely.
You made me laugh at the description. Glad I’m not the only one that has cursed at that bowl. I did find also if you stop every so often and loosen it from the base, it helps keep it from sticking as well. It’s the one major flaw of this machine.
Thank you! It was confusing to see conflicting reports about hot towels and cold towels and ice…but I didn’t want to get a towel all wet, so I dumped a bunch of ice in the bowl, and it worked within a couple of minutes!
So happy it worked for you as well! It was so simple once I realized the science behind it. The mixer heats up the bowl expanding it enough with the friction to stick. The ice contracts the metal enough to get it to shrink. This method also worked great when I recently bought two new baking bread pans that were stuck together. Have a great week!
Thank you!!! I used my husband and rubber gloves!!! Ice sounds a lot easier ha!
You’re welcome! It’s good to have husbands that can help in times like these! For nearly a year, I would have to wait for mine to come home from work to get the bowl off the stand. By then, the flour residue was stuck on the bowl like glue. One day, I even tried to hit it with a hammer. Still didn’t budge. 🤣
Made Easter Bread today and bowl got stuck I couldnt budge it (first time this happened to me). Tried your method and it worked perfectly ! Shared with friends in case they ever have this problem. Thank you.
Lydia, So glad it worked for you and that you’ll be able to help your friends in the future. Happy Easter!
Thank you! I have a fractured rib and couldn’t apply a lot of pressure to remove the stuck bowl. This remedy makes sense and worked perfectly. THANKS AGAIN!
Cynthia, I am so glad it worked well for you! Hope that your recovery of the rib is swift and as pain free as possible.
I think you mean voila!
Thanks, Grandma! I fixed it. I would have never caught it as I’m terrible at spelling and viola passed the spellcheck. 😉
I actually DID hit the bowl with a hammer. Ahem…it didn’t work. THIS did however. Thanks
Hi Lisa! You made me laugh as I hit the mixer bowl with quite a few items in frustration. Glad this worked for you!
Thank you! It worked great! I also hit the handle with a hammer!
So glad it worked for you, Susan! Isn’t it hilarious to find out lots of us smacked the bowl with a hammer trying to remove it from the base? 😀
Thank you for this tip. It worked! I was in a moment of panic but cooled right down.:)
You are very welcome! I know that very feeling. 🙂
Hallelujah! The ice water worked on the stuck mixing bowl. I am very relieved and happy, especially since I will start my Christmas baking this weekend.
I wonder why the KitchenAid website recommends using a warm towel? That certainly didn’t work for me.
Thanks for the information. Have a great holiday!
Joyce, so glad it worked for you. It’s a total pain when it gets stuck. I wondered the exact same thing about the warm towel when I first tried their method. The idea came from metal swelling in heat and contracting with cold. Since the mixer felt hot to me, I decided to try ice water and viola! Happy holidays! 🙂
Thank you for sharing this! I managed to remove the stuck bowl easily by following your tip… such a relief!
You are very welcome, Kite! Glad it worked for you.
I use veggie oil in base grooves prior to using it every time. No more sticking and bowl is easily removed. This was my last effort before giving the mixer away. I still have it!
Fantastic tip, Althea. Thank you for sharing it to help others out. Have a great evening!