Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The fact that there have been many posts in the past several years about grey residue does not speak well of KitchenAid's ability to resolve issues of quality control. The solution that worked for me was scrubbing the bowl with baking soda paste as recommended by the KitchenAid website. I purchased this model KitchenAid (Aqua Sky) in the past week (in March 2016) and had the problem many have reported of grey residue around the bowl. It ruined my very first recipe, a batch of lovingly prepared yeast waffle dough, when I started mixing. At first I thought it was grease that had dripped from the motor into the food, then I realized the contamination was coming from the bowl, which I had washed once before use. (The imprint on the bottom of the bowl indicates it is made in India.) After throwing away my ingredients, I re-washed twice with a Scotch-Brite scrubby sponge and hot water and detergent, and then twice more scrubbing extremely vigorously with Comet cleanser, then rinsing thoroughly. But still wiping the inside of the bowl with a white kitchen towel left a grey residue! After further research I found a page on the KitchenAid site that describes this problem. You can find it if you Google 'KitchenAid remove residue from stainless bowls'. The article says the residue is from polishing in the factory and cannot be removed in the dishwasher or by ordinary hand washing. It recommends 1) Bar Keeper's Friend, or 2) a mixture of lemon juice and salt, or 3) baking soda paste. I purchased the Bar Keeper's Friend, but I wanted to try the other steps first, in case it can help anyone else reading this who would prefer not to make a special trip for Bar Keeper's Friend. After a thorough scrubbing with lemon juice and salt, there was still a slight residue coming off on a towel. After the baking soda scrubbing there was no longer any residue and I did not have to use the Bar Keeper's Friend. Then I successfully redid my recipe and had no problems with residue.