This customer (Mrs. M) has the CLASSIC UNIVERSAL that is no longer available - so do many of you so hopefully this will be good advice and help for any of you out there if some dough has snuck down into your center post?

I recommend you take your bowl apart and make sure it is spit spot...take off the screws and remove the entire center post...etc...clean it all in a mild bleach very warm water solution with soap...rinse it all well...use a toothbrush and qtips and toothpicks or whatever you need to get every crack clean...I use have used a scrubbing brush too...then rinse, dry it all well...put it all back together...make sure you have your CClip on the bottom of the shaft...you will see it plainly if it hasn't gone a missing...looks like a "C" sitting around the bottom shaft pole when you turn the bowl over...that missing gives the shaft too much play and makes dough go down where it shouldn't in my experience...you can get them at any hardware store..or I have them here....then...put on a new dough guard and wash your immediately after each kneading in the dishwasher on the bottom rack upside down and from there I hope you don't have problems...I never have ;))))

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Mrs. M again: Great advice! We do have a dough guard, but dough does seem to get in anyway! Do you take the dough guard off?

Marmee: I never take my dough guard off - unless it gets all warped and seems not to fit anymore...but that is few and faaaar between. Now I own a PLUS UNIVERSAL and am thrilled with the center shaft that pops out with one twist and is so easy to clean - no more dough guards needed in my opinion!

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Mrs. M again: We've been getting by with running the dishwasher once a day, but we wash a lot of dishes by hand! Maybe we'll just do an extra load on bread-baking day! So do you take your Bosch bowl apart every time you bake in order to put it in the dishwasher?

Marmee: no'm....I just scrap out my dough..turn the bowl upside down on the bottom rack...put the dough hook in near it on the bottom rack...slide the splash ring in the plate rack and load it up w/ all the other dishes and turn it on..it comes out spit spot every time...I never have to clean the center inside but every once in a blue moon. Martha

Mrs M.: Thank you very much, Martha! I wish I'd read this somewhere when I first got our Bosch two years ago! We never washed inside there! I feel so dumb. I will follow your advice, and get our smelly bowl "spit spot".

Marmee: Please don't feel dumb...one day many years ago my nose led me to my mixer too - peweh! and I learned that day it could be taken apart and cleaned well - we all have to figure things out sometime. The new UNIVERSAL PLUS mixers do not have this issue at all and i just LUV that new twist out center post...what a PLUS! :)