Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Sad Blender Saga

The History of the Saga: Some of you may remember our blender saga from fall 2004. A piece broke while we were pureeing pumpkin for real pumpkin pies, but it was still under warranty, so we started the process of sending it back. I won't bore you with all the details, but it was a long, drawn-out, frustrating process to get a new blender. Finally, our new Black & Decker Crush Master Blender arrived. Black & Decker Light-Show Finale: Lately, we've been into smoothies since it's a great way to get all your fruit for the day. Well, while waiting for it to suck in and blend the last few frozen strawberries, the base suddenly started popping with flashes of blue light. Ah! Turn it off! It smelled funny after that, so we set it outside, and it was hauled off with Monday morning's garbage. Bummer. I guess these days it's pretty good that it lasted 3 years? (I seem to remember my mom's green blender lasting 20.) But I don't like the process of blending stuff when you have to blend, shake it, stop and scrape the sides, blend again, stop and stir... Why can't it just pull everything in and blend? High Hopes for Oster: After shopping around for anything but a Black & Decker, we settled on the Oster Fusion. This one looks really good (6 points on the reversible blade) and is pricier so it should be better and last longer, right? We immediately got it out to make smoothies. We threw in all our ingredients, pushed the pre-programmed "frozen drinks" button (oooo - fancy!), and watched. It started off great with the reversing blade to help reposition the ingredients, then it kicked into high gear, and... nothing. Everything was sitting there on top like it wasn't even in a blender. Unbelievable. We still had to get out a spatula and try to help get the food to the blades.... not once or twice, but at least 6 times before we had a smoothie. We tried it again last night just to be sure we didn't put in too much stuff at once. It had to have help just to blend a banana! Help Us Shop: Maybe our expectations are too high, but we want to a blender that can make a smoothie without a spatula's repeated intervention and that will last awhile... ok, and that's not $400 like Blendtec. Any suggestions?

4 comments:

gleefulgirl said...

I checked my blender that I broke the cup of, and it was a Hammond Beach. I really liked it and had no complaints, until I dropped the cup on the counter. :(

Anonymous said...

Maybe you guys just have bad luck with blenders and it doesn't matter what brand you try? :)

Anonymous said...

We got a cheap blender from Target...a $19.99 Oster 10-Speed. We have made several milk shakes in it, including chocolate-peanut butter-bannana. It mixed everything up nicely. Yum.

Unknown said...

Blenders are of the devil. You will burn in hell for using one.
Just kidding. I honestly have never given a blender more thought than just "Blend this thing, punk!"
Shopping for a new one has never entered my mind. Why should I spend money when I have one? (That's the cheapskate in me talking)