A bit of my KitchenAid blender just crumbled to dust! Anyone else had this?

[SweetApril]

Hi. I've had my KitchenAid blender for about 5 years. Admittedly it's had very little use in the last year but when I tried to blend something in it last night the black plastic thing on top of the base that the blender sits on just fell apart into dozens of pieces. It looked fine before I put the blender on the base but when I switched it on although it made the right noises it didn't blend. And when I took it off again there was the thing all in bits. Has anyone else had this problem? I know the blender isn't new but I was still pretty since they are pretty expensive. Prior to this I had my grandparents ancient old Kenwood blender and it lasted a good 25 years. Was still going strong when I got this one. Does anyone have a clue how long the guarantee might be on these things or how I might go about sorting it out? It was a present so I don't even know where it came from.

OK, so just ignore me. I've done a bit of Googling and discovered that this is a common problem and I can buy a spare part it seems (with some kind of special wrench ) and fix it myself. Very though that this is a common problem on a blender that costs so much money.

You can get the parts on ebay. I dad to replace mine last year but it was partly my own fault for grinding ice at too high a speed.

Yes! Mine did this! Whereabouts was it you found the spare part thingy please? Bit bloody [grr] that this is a common problem for what should be a high quality product.

Oh FFS, it is [ angry], not [grr].

Coming in a bit late to this, but exactly the same happened to me a few years ago. I had to order the part from the States but it was v cheap and arrived quickly. I then had to get a strong man (dh actually) to fix it on - that was a bit of a mare apparently...

Have you still got your receipt. I have had mine 8 years now with no probs but I know their guarentee is fab.
If you have purchase docs thingy , ask them

Umami, I found this company online. The thing is called a coupler. Also on ebay as Jacaqueen said.

Thanks, everyone. Just re-read my post and it looks a bit stroppy - I meant "ignore me for I am being dense today" not "oh, why don't you all just ignore me then"!

Thanks April, I'll have a look at that. As Pag says, the guarantee is fab, and I've heard good things about their customer services people. Sadly, I suspect my tidy-minded DH will have thrown our guarantee out