Thanks for writing all this and sorry it took me so long to respond. My site was hit with a ton of spam, so it was buried. The picture really shows the problem. Sorry you had all these problems. For me, the real solution was to go to a proper spiral mixer for stiff dough.

I forgot one aspect: The N50 doesn’t move. Period. While the K5SS moves around quite a lot when mixing (stiffer) doughs, the N50 does not. I felt comfortable leaving the N50 alone and doing other things when mixing anything, while I had to babysit the K5SS with stiffer doughs to hold both the bowl and the mixer itself in place. That’s because the N50 weights a lot more, which is a problem for some people that want to move their machine from time to time. I’m probably fairly strong, as this did not bother me at all when mixing the machine a bit for cleaning etc. from time to time.

I bought the machine used about a year ago, and from the “MD” section on the plate on its back it should be a machine manufactured in March 1991 (the service manual has a chart to determine that).

I tried to get someone from Hobart here in Germany to fix it. The service technician I talked with on the phone told me they also very rarely service any mixers, so he would send in my machine to the German headquarters. Also, they won’t service this model unless they install the guard of the CE model as well, which alone would cost >700 €.

Thus, I decided to try fixing it myself and took the machine apart to figure out which parts need to be replaced. Then, I tried to order these parts, which is a real kafkaesque experience here in Germany. Hobart has a website for ordering spare parts, but you need to register for that. On my phone, you see no information about how to do that. On my desktop, I saw a text that I would have to email to be registered. After waiting for a month and calling Hobart to get informed they didn’t see my mail because it was in their spam folder, I got an email a day later referring me to an “authorized sales partner”. Finding the parts I need on the page of that sales partner is extremely cumbersome, as they DO have the part numbers from Hobart, but searching for them turns up thousands of other unrelated parts as well. Luckily, you can filter for maker and model, so I could manually look through 126 parts (most without a picture) to find what I needed – I ordered the two gears (plus some washers for adjustment) for 362 €. Of course, none of them are currently in stock. I’ll also have to order some new lubricant, which the service manual says is “Daraina #2” – a lubricant that does not exist anymore for quite a few years (I’ll use Super Lube 41160).

Other than that, I was very happy with this machine until it broke. I previously used an original Hobart KitchenAid K5SS (i.e. a model from the early 80s before KitchenAid was sold), which I now am using again, while the N50 is kaput. As far as I know, the K5SS is regarded as (one of) the best and most robust KitchenAid mixers ever. But I also broke this model before with my pasta dough, and had to replace some other parts in this machine, but as this machine is much more ubiquitous, acquiring these parts was much easier.

In direct comparison, I can second that the KitchenAid is very noisy (even though my N50 did already have grinding gears when I got it). The wire whip on the N50 is much better than on my K5SS (it has a lot more wires), which makes whipping much faster and creates a much fluffier and stiffer result. But from your pictures, it looks like the whips for the newer models have more wires than the K5SS, so that might not be a big difference anymore. The “E” dough arm (the one formed like a “C”) is a joke on both machines, but I got a replacement with a spiral dough hook that works flawlessly. I can also second your impression that the N50 is much more powerful, which I can testify to by comparing the way they handle(d) the super tough pasta dough. The K5SS was audibly overwhelmed with that dough and could only handle about 2 eggs + flour. If my ratio was a bit off (i.e. a stiffer dough by adding a little bit too much flour), or if I tried to knead more dough, the K5SS would get stuck. I only experienced this problem once with the N50, and I regularly knead 50% more dough that I did with the K5SS – that is, until it broke recently 😉

As to the question of other comments here: The “agitator attachments” (whisk, beater, dough hooks) even from the K5SS do not fit the N50, even though they are (nearly) exactly the same machine below the motor. The 5QT bowls from my K5SS fit perfectly, though. The only difference of the lower parts of both machines is that you can secure the bowl in place on the N50 with some latches, which is a very nice feature for stiffer dough. On my K5SS, it happened pretty often that the bowl just jumped out of the bowl holder mid-knead (even for bread dough). This never happened on the N50.

I still love my N50, especially now that I have to use the K5SS again, and I hope I’ll be able to fix it again. I decided to get an actual pasta machine (a TR 50) to not strain the N50 with kneading pasta dough again. When thinking about that, I also thought about replacing the N50 entirely with good a hand mixer, a pasta maker and an actual dough mixer (for bread and pizza dough), as this is all that I do with the mixer part. But we also use the attachment hub with the shredder (frequently for grating cheese, shredding nuts, chocolate etc.) and the fruit and vegetable strainer (infrequently), and replacing those as well would mean more stuff. The N50 / KitchenAid do all of this with one machine and a few attachments, which is a really nice and space-saving way for us, so I’ll only buy a pasta machine.

Now that I wrote so much, I think I might put this text somewhere on reddit as well 🙂

Hello Jim. I am developing a spiral dough hook for my 6 quart bowl lift KA so that I can knead 100% rye flour. I am wheat intolerant. I would be interested to know what per cent hydration was your rye dough when you broke the dough hook? My prototype works great at 74% hydration and I am thinking of dropping the hydration down significantly but my prototype is 3D printed with plastic so I am concerned with breakage. The difference between the prototype and the factory dough hook is the distance they are from the edge of the bowl. The factory one is more than 10 times farther from the bowl. The prototype is also at least 4 times the diameter to give it more strength.

Thanks for reading and your comment. It depends on your usage. If you do some baking every so often, a Hobart may be a bit overkill. It is really for professional use or for those that demand the very best from their equipment. I love mine, but I also bought it pre-COVID when prices were more sensible.

Maybe someone else can answer, but it sounds like the gears are disengaging due to a mechanical problem, not a lubrication issue.

hi i’m new, (french) sorry for my english. my n50 work fine 3 or 4 times after reparing.
but just after 3 or 4 use the beater disconnects and spins in a vacuum.
I can’t understand where this is coming from..
the gear spring?
or is the white fat too thick?
thank you.

The only kitchen aid attachments that work with the n50 (other than the accessories run off the front hub) are from the kitchen aid model G from the late 20s through the 40s, which was the precursor to the Hobart n50. On the kitchen aids after model G, the bowl height is different than the n50, so they won’t work. Too bad, because the hobart attachments are significantly more expensive. That’s why people can still get $50 on ebay for a decades old n50 beater.