Oster 6684 12-Speed Blender, Black

Features:
• 450-watt countertop blender mixes smoothies, frozen drinks, soups, and more
• Easy toggle speed control provides continuous, smooth blending for 12 speeds
• Exclusive All-Metal Drive system; stainless-steel ice-crushing blade; pulse option
• Dishwasher-safe 5-cup glass jar with generous handle; lid with measuring cap
• Measures approximately 7 by 11 by 15 inches; 1-year limited warranty
Small footprint big capacity high quality glass jar. Relatively QUIET but crushes ice thoroughly. Does not SPIT liquids all over the place and out the top as some blenders do. Has push buttons (12 speeds) not toggle switch, so lots of blending choices. I have had 5 blenders over the years (some of them were VERY expensive) and this is the BEST of the lot. Ergonomically balanced jar is easy to hold and easy to clean, easily fits under low cupboards. A complete delight to use. Freeze a strong cup of coffee and blend it with a can of chilled Slim Fast Optima Cappuccino for an awesome frosty Summer meal for 180 calories! Jar easily fits in the fridge, too. – Not A Quitter

I like this blender. So far I haven’t had any problems. It’s very easy to clean. I like the glass jar. The only downside to this product is that it’s very noisy, but it does get the job done! – cathypens

The Bad:
Not powerful enough

I’ve been making frozen drinks (margaritas and pina coladas) quite often, so I purchased this blender hoping it would do a better job crushing the ice into the perfect slush. It doesn’t do a much better job than a regular blender if you are looking for a blender to quickly crush all the ice. It starts well, then the blade turns freely and the ice stays at the top. There are some uncrushed pieces of ice with the slush, so I stop it, shake it around and start it again, and I do that several times in order to achieve the perfect result. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BLENDER FOR MAKING FROZEN DRINKS. – C. Merighe

Overall, the blender is ok. If you aren’t a heavy blender user but want one for the occasion when you feel like making a shake or sauce or something, then this blender meets that need. – Sajijoma

Further Information:

• Oster 6684 12-Speed Blender

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• Best General Blender – The best blender for all purposes. This quality blender comes with a reasonable price!
• Best Handheld Blender – Use this blender for quick blends and save a ton of time.
• Best Small Blender – This personal blender is compact enough for small kitchens and portable enough for your workplace.
• Professional Bar Blender – Powerful blender for your cocktails and smoothies.

• Always clean the pitcher after using it. Just press the ‘pulse’ feature after adding a squirt of washing liquid and water that fills half the pitcher. Wait for a few seconds and then switch off. Remember to put on the lid, or else you’ll be taking a kitchen bath
• If you have spare time, try to hand wash the plastic pitcher, the gasket and the blade assembly individually. This will aid in lengthening their life-span.
• A particularly effective way of cleaning under and around the blades is to pour hot, soapy water into the machine.
• Don’t forget to dry the blades! You don’t want it turning rusty.
• Do not interrupt the blending process by sticking a spoon in the blender. If you need to give it a little stir, always wait for the blades to stop first.
• Blending hot food right after a chilled blend and vice versa is a definite NO-NO. Likewise, always exercise extra care while adding hot food into the pitcher since glass pitches can crack.
• Even if you are in a hurry, wait for the motor to stop before lifting the kitchen pitcher off the blender.
• Remember this! Always add liquid while crushing ice. Why? When you crush dry ice, all kinds of damage can be done to not just the blades but also the container!
• A blender is only good if the blades are sharp. Use the tip above. The rationale? Liquids will soften the blow on the blades and this will ensure the longevity of the blades.
• Keep a lookout for the time spent when you run your blender. Give it a rest in between blends. Blend motors are designed for short period of blending. For example, try to let your motor rest for a minute or so when you have blended for at least 2 minutes or more.
• If you have an old blender that is making a last stand, don’t throw it into the dustbin just yet. They are quite useful. For instance, you could put it into a work shop or a garage for dirty mixing jobs. Want a good, solid mix of paint? Use the old blender! It might not work well enough on food for your liking, but it can do wonders on liquids like paint!

Regardless of whether you have bought a cheap or expensive blender, these maintenance tips will maximize the potential of your blender. This is one of the ways to make your money’s worth. Only a bad workman will blame his tools. I hope this helps.

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• Best Handheld Blender – Use this blender for quick blends and save a ton of time.
• Best Small Blender – This personal blender is compact enough for small kitchens and portable enough for your workplace.
• Professional Bar Blender – Powerful blender for your cocktails and smoothies.

Cuisinart BFP-703CH SmartPower Duet Blender/Food Processor

It measures 16 by 6-1/2 by 6 inches and produces a power output of 350 watts. The glass jar has a capacity up to 40 ounces. As this marvelous model can run different functions, it obviously comes with a lot of great features too:

The base features:
1) 500 watt motor that crushes ice at any speed (there are a total 7 speed settings!), and produces finely crushed ice in less than a minute.
2) Touchpad is easy to read and includes indicator lights to know exactly in what speed you are
3) Smooth design makes cleaning easy; no grooves where food may be trapped

The blender jar features:
1) 40 ounce glass jar with dripless pour spout
2) 2 ounce removable measured pour lid

The food processor attachment features:
1) 3-cup capacity work bowl
2) Cover with feed tube and pusher with liquid dispenser
3) Stainless steel chopping blade
4) Reversible slicing/shredding disc

Best of all, most of the attachments of this dual appliance are easy to clean – you can easily wipe them with wet cloth or sponge or simply put them into the dishwasher. The purchase will also include 1 standard blade, 1 slicing/shredding disc, an instructional booklet and recipes.

While many consumers have given positive reviews on this product, some made complaints about it. The most common one seems to be the issue of its durability and reliability, where a few had reported that the appliance breaks down after a period of 3 – 6 months of attaining it.

There is a 3-year limited warranty for the Cuisinart BFP-703CH.

Further Information:

• Cuisinart BFP-703CH SmartPower Duet Blender/Food Processor

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• Professional Bar Blender – Powerful blender for your cocktails and smoothies.

Proctor Silex 57171 7-Speed Blender

Features:
• 7-speed blender with pulse option for extra boost of power when needed
• Powerful 350-watt motor; simple-to-use push-button controls
• Large 48-ounce plastic jar; strain/pour/close lid; 2-ounce filler-cap
• Generous handle; drip-free spout; easy-to-clean buttons and base
• Measures approximately 10 by 7-1/2 by 12 inches

I got this based only on price, you can’t get a blender for less than $23 even at your local stores. I received it this past weekend and I put it to the ultimate test: Iced drinks! I put some ice cubicals, without precrushing them, and this little guy performed great! I then added some juice and fruits and enjoyed a wonderful iced beverage. Highly recommended also if you lift weights and need an easy-to-clean blender to mix the unmixable protein shake. All in all a great product and so far so good. I give it an extra point for not using glass (i.e. does not break) and for being extra easy to clean. – N. Rimawi

no problems here. i was looking for a quick, easy to buy blender for my love of good blended margaritas, and this does the job just fine. it likely won’t be powerful enough for more serious cooking labor, but for simple everyday blending, it gets my vote. – Mel K

Every smoothie came out lumpy, and with a bit of plastic aftertaste. I’ve had three blenders in the past. All could chop up almonds if you waited long enough, added a little juice, and tapped the sides. This thing has such a large and round jar with such small blades that it will just not reach every piece. Lumps and more lumps. I even tried sharpening the blades. The Krups turned almonds to powder in 10 seconds. This turnes almonds to small pieces in 2 minutes. So it makes a good alarm clock to wake the whole house. Even the banana was still lumpy. I read all these reviews and no one mentioned this problem. I’m definitely getting a different blender. – D. Carbone

I have no idea if a blender at this price should be expected to handle frozen fruit, but based on the reviews I read, it seemed to me that it would. It takes far too long for me to mush frozen fruit and even takes too long to crush my ice cubes. I only bought this to make smoothies, and I am wishing I had bought a higher-end model now. The item seems well-made though. – PommyGranite

Further Information:

• Proctor Silex 57171 7-Speed Blender

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• Professional Bar Blender – Powerful blender for your cocktails and smoothies.

Vita-Mix 1300 TurboBlend 4500

The benefits

1) Highest Quality Blender
- After researching many blender reviews, this has got to be one of the most reliable blenders. With 1380 watts of power, strong blades and designed with industrial strength, you can count on this blender.
- It can outlast many kitchen appliances.
- Its power is proven by its ability to turn anything into liquid in a matter of seconds.

2) Excellent Blending Capabilities
- At the maximum speed, it spins so fast that it pulverizes everything.
- So, you can put in pits (except peaches) and peels (except citrus, pineapple, melon and banana) into it and still receive a perfectly smooth blend with healthy extra fiber that the pits and peels provide.
- It can perform 40 different functions! It blends, cooks, churns, chops, crushes, creams, whips, mixes, dices, stirs, freezes, juices, boils, grates, grinds, minces, liquefies, purees, mills and simmers. Amazing isn’t it?

3) Multiple Uses
- It can make whole food juice, ice cream, sorbets, hot soups, sauces and bread dough. Now, how many blenders have that versatility?
- It is a blender, juicer, chopper, ice cream maker and food processor combined into one. By replacing several appliances, the price that you pay would be worth it.
- You can have both hot and cold treats with this blender.

4) Easy to Clean and Maintain
- This is a stroll in the park. From many blender reviews, there are three ways of cleaning.
- First and easiest method: Add in a dash of dishwasher soap, a cup of water and 15 seconds on high. That’s it!
- Second method: With the same amount of dishwasher soap, a cup of hot water, blend for 30 seconds and then rinse.
- Third and cleanest method: Fill the blender ¾ of the way and add a squirt of soap. Turn the blender for 5 minutes. Prepare to be amazed 

5) 7 Year Warranty
- Most blenders do not have a warranty that long. Either way, it should last you even past your generation so no sweat!

6) No Danger of Burning the Motor
- You can run it at such a high speed (37,000 rpm) for hours but you won’t get a whiff of burnt motor.
- Don’t worry about overheating. It automatically shuts down if it overheats.

7) Nutritious and Healthy
- The enclosed recipe book is pretty useful.
- It’s easy, healthy and delicious. Perfect for home made baby food or a kick start to get healthy.
- Since you don’t need to peel the skin off, the vitamins stay intake in your juice too.
- Are you a vegetarian? This is an exceptional tool to spice up your meals.
- You’ll learn to drink healthy juices regularly too since it only takes under a minute. No more excuses.

The Drawbacks

1) Expensive
-No doubt it is pricey. However, if you bought a blender, food processor, juicer, meat grinder, coffee grinder, and more, this blender’s price would pale in comparison to the total amount spent if you bought them individually.
- Additionally, think about those numerous repair parts and maintenance that you would have to pay for lower priced blenders. If you add them up over the years, they would cause you a fortune. However, if you buy this blender, sweat not as there is a warranty of 7 years!

2) The Incredible Hulk
- Huge and often reviewed as one of the ugliest control panel label, you might think twice if you love fashion in the kitchen.
- You would need a good deal of space on your kitchen counter too!

3) This blender roars
- Some blender reviews say this blender sounds like a helicopter crashing into the roof of your house. So beware!
- However, since blending is done in a jiffy, the noise only last for a while.

In my opinion, if you use a blender daily and is a serious, die-hard fan of blending and cooking at home, this workhorse is the one for you. However, if you are the kind that blends once a week, the price paid will not be worthwhile. It ultimately depends on the type of blending and cooking you like. Even if you are a novice, the recipes are easy to follow and with some experimenting here and there, you’ll become a super blender! Just a few words of caution; this blender is not available in stores, so internet purchase is your only avenue to purchase the product. Besides that, if you are staying outside of the USA, warranty will not be of much use to you. So, if you have the money and don’t want to purchase so many different appliances, get Vita-Mix 1300 TurboBlend 4500.

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• Professional Bar Blender – Powerful blender for your cocktails and smoothies.

Hamilton Beach 51101 Single-Serve Blender

Features:

• 175-watt single-serve blender for smoothies, shakes, and more
• Simple one-touch operation; durable stainless-steel blades
• 14-ounce blending jar doubles as a travel cup; less to clean
• Fits most car cup holders; travel lid and recipe book included
• Measures 3-3/4 by 3-3/4 by 12-1/2 inches

Take your drink to go-use the travel lid to drink from the jar. Convenient single-serving size. Great for fruit smoothies, icy drinks, shakes and more. Stainless steel blades. One-touch blending. Easy storage. Less cleaning.

Hamilton Beach 51101 Single-Serve Blender with Travel Lid

• Jar twists and locks into place on the base
• Comes with a travel lid to take your drink on the go
• Cord wraps around the base
• Not intended for all food – manual says not to process hard foods such as cheese, crackers or meat. A maximum of 12 tablespoons can be ground at a time. Do not try to mash potatoes, mix stiff dough, whip egg whites, grind raw meat or extract juice from fruit or veggies.
• Container cover has filler cap that can be removed to insert small objects when blending
• Can not use big chunks of ice. You need to break them down. I have an ice tray where the shape is a small circle (half ball) and it was fine. Perhaps this is what you can use those holiday themed ice trays for. Some of those sizes which I have seem I think would work in this.
• NOT dishwasher safe – but easy clean up – rinse, put water and soap in jar, blend for a minute, empty, rinse again and you’re done.
• No complicated speeds or choices – one push button
• I can’t find it on the box or in the manual but according to Amazon, the motor has 175 watts of power

While this might not do what a full size blender can, this is a great blender for smoothies, drinks, shakes and to grind coffee. I love that it’s small, the cord wraps around the base and I can use this thing at night and not wake up the neighbors! – K. Maxwell

I was looking for a very small blender to make smoothies in my very small kitchen. This seemed like a good size and it does work pretty well. I make smoothies from just yogurt and cut-up fruit and 2 small ice cubes. This blender has a tendency to get stuck on just spinning around and not chopping very well unless I shake it to get the fruit and ice to the bottom. Also, I must hold it in place or it will spin right off the base. In other words, it doesn’t lock in place. For my purposes it works fine but I wouldn’t recommend it for heavier jobs. – PCLane

Further Information:

• Hamilton Beach 51101 Single-Serve Blender

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• Professional Bar Blender – Powerful blender for your cocktails and smoothies.

Hamilton Beach 54245 Deluxe 14-Speed Blender

The blades are made of stainless steel Ice SabreTM, and along with the powerful 700-Watt peak motor, it will surely give you great results easily. Just put chunks of ice or frozen items in this blender and they will turn into slushy smoothies in no time at all!

This stylish appliance is easy on the eyes and comes in the classy colors of black and white. It features 14 speeds to accommodate your various needs and a 48 oz wave-action glass jar. The glass jar is thick and locks onto its wide, sturdy base to maintain good stability. The parts of this appliance are also dishwasher friendly and easy to reassemble.

To add to that, Hamilton Beach also offers an extra long 3 years limited warranty on this product.

Many reviewers have had positive experiences with the Hamilton Beach 54245 Deluxe and would recommend it to others. This is one of them:

“I absolutely love this blender. As a disclaimer, I only use this blender to make protein smoothies every morning with frozen fruit, ice, powder and liquids. It blends them perfectly every time. You can really actually see the WAVE technology fiercely mixing the ingredients up and around to make sure every item is chopped evenly. THE ICE CRUSHING IS PERFECT. I always get the perfect little crystals each time, never any chunks or sticking. I bought this model to replace an Oster that was more expensive. I had to replace the Oster twice in 4 months after both of them broke. I finally decided to just go with another manufacturer. This Hamilton Beach is a lot sturdier. With my Oster model, the bottom of the glass portion wasn’t wide enough and it always seemed a bit shaky on the base (like an upside down triangle). This glass container has a wide enough bottom where it sits in the base secure and locks in. It also looks great on the counter. I have a very modern, updated kitchen with black and stainless steel and this goes perfectly with everything else. Also, the glass container is very thick and doesn’t feel or look cheap. I would definitely recommend Hamilton Beach over other types of blenders.”
By Alicia “Bonita Morenita”, Miami, FL

Further Information:

• Hamilton Beach 54245 Deluxe 14-Speed Blender

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• Professional Bar Blender – Powerful blender for your cocktails and smoothies.

I went online and found many recipes for Hollandaise sauce, but after experimenting with several of them, I find that using a whisk for Hollandaise is just way too troublesome. Instead I just use my best blender. Here’s my fool-proof way of making Hollandaise sauce with a blender:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of butter (one stick)
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
cayenne pepper or Tabasco/hot pepper sauce

Actually it’s super easy. Just separate the yolks from the whites and put the yolks into the blender, and melt the butter in a saucepan. When the butter is fully melted – you can stir it to make it melt faster – turn on the blender to mix the yolks. Then while still letting the blender run, slowly pour the melted butter into the blender in a thin stream.

The mixture should begin to thicken by now. When the butter has all been poured in, add in the lemon juice (I prefer fresh lemon juice so that the tang of the lemon is sharper), and cayenne pepper or hot pepper sauce. Sometimes I like a little of both. You should stop the blender to add the pepper if you need to open the lid. Then turn it back on to blend it in.

You can add mustard too, if you like that, or substitute the lemon juice with white wine. If you think the sauce is too thick, you can add more lemon juice.

After everything has been blended, stop the blender and serve the delicious Hollandaise sauce either on Eggs Benedict, steamed vegetables, steak, or as a dip.

Proctor Silex 59735 Immersion Hand Blender, White

Just to mention the limitations first, in case anyone has great expectations – this hand blender is not powerful nor big enough to blend a full pot of stew. You can try, but it can only be submerged 3 – 4 inches beneath liquids, and the power is only 120 watts so it will take a rather long time to fully blend a whole pot.

Plus it doesn’t do the heavy-duty jobs like blending frozen fruits (thaw them first) and ice.

That being said, the Proctor Silex 59735 Immersion Hand Blender is just nice to puree, blend mashed potatoes, milkshake, whipped cream and smoothies. A small amount of soup is not a problem for this hand blender too.

Cleaning is easy by just rinsing the blades under the tap. The blending part is not detachable like some other more expensive models though. If any food is tough to get rid of, you can try blending a cup of soapy water.

Putting aside the limitations of the Proctor Silex 59735 Immersion Hand Blender, which is to be expected of such a budget priced model, there is one design flaw that catches attention. A pricky bump on the power button puts pressure on the finger. A reviewer suggested covering it with pad.

I guess this would be a nice little kitchen gadget for those who only need the occasional blending. The Proctor Silex 59735 Immersion Hand Blender costs $13. It’s cheap, it works, what more could be said?

KitchenAid KHB300 Hand Blender

There are lots of things you can do with this hand blender – puree tomatoes, blend the soup right there in the pot, and whip the egg whites and cream for desserts! The best thing about about having a hand blender is not having to move the food from container to blender and back, saving a lot of mess and clean up time.

The adjustable speed from 1 to 9 is undoubtedly the best feature of this hand blender. That means every task is fully under your control. Those physically challenged will able to start from slow speed and build up to a speed they can handle.

Most users agree that the chopper that comes with the KitchenAid KHB300 Hand Blender is an awesome attachment. It’ll take care of the chopping tasks like chopping onions, garlic, or making a salad dressing, and needs only half the cleaning time your food processor will take.

The one major complain about this hand blender is that it does not last very long, considering that it has plastic parts. Quite a few users have brought up that theirs broke after over a year’s time. However, there are also reviews claiming that it has lasted for years.

I guess for kitchen appliances you can’t be really sure when they’re going to fail on you, even if you bought the top of the line product. The KitchenAid KHB300 Hand Blender comes with 1 year replacement warranty, and so far KitchenAid’s prompt and helpful customer service is indisputable.

Here’s what Caroline has to say, despite that her hand blender broke a few times:
“I have to commend both Amazon and KitchenAid for their customer service. They obliged me with prompt replacements, and finally, after the demise of the THIRD KHB300ER, KA reimbursed me.”

Note: KitchenAid KHB300 Hand Blender comes in three colors, White (KHB300WH), Empire Red (KHB300ER) and Onyx Black (KHB300OB)