Which Blender is better?

[laughsandlaughs]

I'm curious to know what brand/type of blender you guys find to be better. I know Cooks Illustrated has a place on their website for cookware reviews and did an article on this but I'm not a paying member, so I couldn't access the site. I bought the Kitchen Aid Ultra Power (about $100) and must say I'm not too happy with it. I want to be able to make drinks, soups, crush ice, etc, pretty easily.

So which blender do you guys like better?

[KimKelly]

I got that issue a few months back and was just looking for it myself as I was on the market for a blender. I will look again for you, it must be burried under my stack of "waiting to be read again" magazines that , well, you know never get read again! Anyway, I do remember that the one they recommended was not very expensive. I don't think they liked the kitchen aid etiher, or the quisinart if I remember correctly. I actually just purchesed an Oster at Costco for $24 or so and I have been fairly pleased with it. I use it mainly to make smoothies for the kids (and margaritas for me!) and it has worked very well, my old one "bogged" down with the smoothies when I added the frozen fruits.

Anyway... I will look for that issue and see what I can find for you.

Kim

[mb]

I have the KitchenAid Ultra Power and I've been quite pleased with it. What kind of problems did you have with crushing ice & making drinks, etc.?

[SallyJ]

I just bought a Krups blender this week. In Dec, Consumer Reports rated the Krups model 239 as #1, especially for its ice crushing feature. I bought the model 243, which has the ice crushing feature but also comes with a separate 3 cup food processer attachment. My local dept store had it on sale for $49.99. You should be able to find the 239 model for around $40, maybe less on sale. It seems very durable. As soon as I got home with it, my husband had to make margaritas! He loves the ice crushing feature. My old blender was a JCPenney model, over 20 years old and it didn't do much. I think we'll both be happy with the new one! (It's also not as noisy as the old one.)

[Laura B]

Here are the conclusions from that article in Cook's Illustrated:

"None of our blenders excelled in every single test. Chopping ice evenly and easily, which any blender should be able to do, stymied our two top choices, the Oster and the Hamilton Beach. Otherwise, both models were reasonably priced at around $40 and sailed through all the other tests with aplomb. Only the Krups and the Cuisinart did a great job crushing ice, but otherwise they turned in spotty performances. The losers of the bunch were the Sunbeam and, to our surprise, the costly, handsome KitchenAid."

[sneezles]

I have had my Kitchen Aid Ultra Power blender for about 6 years and haven't had any problems with it. It seems to make frozen drinks just fine. I will say that I use my immersion blender for creaming soups because it does it right in the same pot. And I did get an ice shaver for my birthday last year and I love it for drinks rather than making a huge blender full I just have to shave enough ice for each glass! Less cleanup.

[Vanessa]

I have an Oster (glass container) and my mom in law gave me an ice crusher attachment for it. I had another Oster before this one and was quite happy with both.

[RunnerKim]

I have a Waring and really work the heck out of it and its done great. It's rather simple - only 2 speeds (what are all those speeds for anyway??). I regularly pulverize greens and carrots (or some other root veggie). After I burned out the motor on a $30-40 Hamilton Beach I looked around for something that wouldn't die so easily on me. I've forgotten how much I paid for it but I'm thinking around $100. It continues to do well. I've used it for smoothies, soups, etc. with good results as well.

Kim

[luv2cook]

Well, I missed the reply of the quote from CI. Must be getting tired. Here they are in order
Oster, Model 6663
Hamilton Beach, Model 54200R
Farberware Millennium, Model FPB600
Krups, Model 572
Waring, Model PBB201
Cuisinart, Model SPB-7
Sunbean, Model 4142-8
KitchenAid, Model KSB5

If anyone wants more detail about which one exceled in whatever category they're interested in, e-mail me because I printed it out.

Here are the categories: Speeds, Capacity, Smoothie, Frozen Drink, Soup Puree, Crushed ice, Berry Puree & Pesto

[laughsandlaughs]

Yesterday I tried to make smoothies in my Kitchenaid that had sliced almonds and frozen bananas added...I wanted those almonds minced up (like ice) as well as the banana chunks...I ended up with the almonds being hardly touched (I have done this with another blender--cheaper, and it worked fine) and whole chunks of bananas left even though I had blended for a good amount of time and had plenty of liquid. I think I should expect more from this brand new $100 machine.

[sneezles]

Do you put all the ingredients in at the same time? Maybe if you do the almonds first then add the banana chunks through the opeing in the top and then your liquid, you might have better results. Adding the liquid too early leaves the almonds and bananas suspended in the liquid requiring more scraping.

[laughsandlaughs]

It just seemed like the thing wasn't strong enough...I also blended Tomato Soup with Basil and even that didn't get the basil all pureed!

[Karenf]

I've always had an Oster which typically performed well. I bought a Cuisinart last summer, for a new 'look'! What a mistake. It is a 5-speed Model CB-9 that I got at Costco for $49.99. The rotator part on top of the base melted and the I had only used it 3 times. I sent the base back to Cuisinart for replacement but I just don't think this is a good choice. So this post is very helpful for me.

[Melman]

I've also been considering buying a new blender (mine is a lovely 1978 harvest gold model...yuck!) I had been looking at that Krups model mentioned earlier. I also saw a Consumer Report that tested blenders recently....the Krups model was #1.

Now...for the good news.....check your local sales brochures from the weekend. We have a store called Homeplace (not sure if this is nationwide or just around the southeast). They have the Krups model that has the food processor attachment listed as $50..but with a $10 rebate from Krups. They ALSO have a $5 off coupon on the back of the brochure. I'm thinking $35 for the whole package is a great deal. Where's that checkbook!!!

[Joyce]

This will probably sound ridiculous, but I see a lot of them. My favorite blender is an old "1950" era Oster(the glass container on the HEAVY beigish metal base.) They are found at many tag sales for next to nothing and beat any of the new blenders.