Blenders?

[El Chivo]

since my dentist came at me with pliers, I've been using a small blender for much of my food preparation. I'm supposed to eat more fruit, etc, and as it turns out, I'd rather drink it. I make morning shakes with fruit, egg, dry milk, sugar, and Coffee Mate. It works out great.

However, my cheap blender is starting to burn up. It was that carrot that did it. I can smell that poor little motor burning.

Any recommendations for a long-lasting blender? I'd like to continue with carrot and celery and apples - the hard stuff.

A plus is an easy-to-clean design like the one I have. You put everything in a glass, and the blade assembly screws on the top. Then you invert this and stick it on the motor and run it. I'm not a fan of the traditional pitcher type with blades at the bottom - hard to clean and lots of small parts and gaskets. But I could tolerate it if necessary.

[Mdl53]

Just got one called a "Ninja". Not cheap but if you look around you can find them under 100. Just make sure to read the add to see if it is brand new or refurb or used. Seems to work great. I think you could probably puree a moose if you wanted. Then you could have a moose mousse.

[pwl44m]

I was just looking at the "Ninja" at Sams Club. I dont know if it will liquefy though. They just don't make Blenders to last any more and when You smell the motor it is about done.
Perry
Just saw mod53s post, I think the Ninja at Sams was $39.

[spaceman spiff]

Bullwinkle Mousse

Bass-a-matic, anyone?



spaceman

[Rusty]

If you talk to someone who is a vegan or into raw foods they all swear by the Vitamixers. They are so powerful they will actually heat food from the friction of the food in the mixer if you leave it in there long enough. Our local Mexican eatery uses one for making their salsa. But, they are pricy.

I have a commercial Proctor Silex we've had for 25 years that is almost as good. It has a S.S. mixer and the threads are the same size as a small mouth mason jar which comes in real handy.

[Dave B]

The Oster Stainless Steel Blender has always been my favorite. I've had mine for many years.
Amazon has a deal on one with a kit of extras. The milkshake blade does come in handy.
http://www.amazon.com/Oster-4125-6-Piec ... el+blender

[olyinaz]

This one has a 3.75hp motor and should work well for you:

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/waring- ... -Equipment



Oly

(The Oster stainless unit looks great, but the glass pitcher model runs a bit less: http://www.amazon.com/Oster-4093-008-2- ... d_sbs_hg_2 )

[Ji in Hawaii]

My wife uses a Vitamix, and she loves hers, it can even grind grain into flour, pretty powerful. I won a cheap plastic Oster blender in a drawing and I'm surprised it's still going after almost 10 years but I don't make margaritas too often.

[zzr7ky]

My Oster has stood the test of time and MANY years of making horseradish. That's the real test around here.

[Dave B]

(The Oster stainless unit looks great, but the glass pitcher model runs a bit less: http://www.amazon.com/Oster-4093-008-2- ... d_sbs_hg_2 )

I like the stainless pitcher because smoothies and shakes seam to be colder. Plus, you never have to replace a stainless pitcher that was broken.

Dave B

[Blaine]

They have an Ice Blade that seems to chop up stuff way better than the blade that comes standard (Oster, I think is what I have)

[jshinal]

There is always Blendtec, they are probably the ultimate in durability.
http://www.blendtec.com/ <--- warning, noisy site starts playing video with theme music

Check this out - it's real.

Steel soup - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtpFzMhGw_E
Baseball juice - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFkYKKVu ... ure=relmfu
A handful of marbles - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OmpnfL5PCw

[Ji in Hawaii]

Bass-a-matic, anyone?

spaceman

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/ ... tic/229056

[jdad]

I sell restaurant equipment, for a living. Buy either a VitaMix or Blendtec. The "commercial" Blendtec's come with 2 jars.

[Poohgyrr]

FWIW, we bought a Nutri Bullet and it has become a favorite. Mixes everything into kind of a smoothie. It takes maybe 10 to 30 seconds to mix up, for example, a combo of raw spinach, some fruits, some nuts, and water; that includes whatever you put into it, pulp and eveything. Comes with a milling blade but I haven't tried that yet.

[shooter]

Everyone in my family has a Vitamix, and they are absolutely awesome. Probably the best blender out there. They can boil water, make hot soup, grind grain into flour, and completely juice whole fruits. Like I said, everyone in my family has one...except me. I couldn't see spending $400+ on a blender, so I bought the Ninja. As previously stated, you can find them for around $100. We bought ours at Khol's. It is slightly less powerful, and doesn't heat water because it is a totally different blade technology, but as far as juicing and grinding, it works great. I love it. Ours came with a pitcher for food processing, and a larger one for juicing, etc. It also came with several different blades. There is one for mixing dough, and a couple others. We mainly use the regular blade for making shakes, juices, etc. There are other brands out there that are probably somewhere in between the Ninja and Vitamix as far as quality and function, but I don't know anything about them. I can only offer my experiences on the ones I have actually used. If you're going to use it every day for years and have the extra cash, go for the Vitamix. If you don't have the extra cash, I'm almost positive you'll be satisfied with the Ninja.

[El Chivo]

quick update, I went ahead and bought the Waring Nublend, however I got it from a local restaurant supply store I like to go to. They'll have replacement clutches and blades when the time comes. I like to buy from the place that lets me examine the item even if it's more expensive. They even turned it on for me because I was concerned about the noise. Plus I didn't want to mess around with shipping, picking up, waiting, etc. I have bananas spoiling RIGHT NOW.




http://www.webstaurantstore.com/waring- ... BB180.html

This sucker has about the most powerful motor out there until you get into Vitamixes and such - I thought this might help for longevity. The blade and drive train were also noticeably more heavy duty than Hamilton Beach or lesser Warings. I didn't like the Waring beehive models they had there, they looked cheap. This is basic but utilitarian. It's one of the few with pulse, which I wanted for chopping up the hard stuff before blending everything together. Also if I want to chop onions for soup I don't have to puree them.

It's easy to take apart for cleaning, just 3 pieces - pitcher, blade assembly, and skirt. The latter is the top of the dome you see on the base - it's attached to the pitcher. So the pitcher has a 5 1/2" base so you can set it down and it won't tip over - other brands will tip because of the tiny bottom. It's also easy to fit onto the motor - no locking or twisting; although it works better if you stand there and hold it down.

So far I've made one shake, first I chopped up ripe peach pieces with water using pulse, then added two bananas, dry milk, Coffee mate, sugar, and an egg. Very fast, and consistency is perfect - no lumps remaining yet there is some texture to it which is as I like it. Some small flecks of peach peel can be seen, it's not completely liquefied. Probably 10 seconds on low did it.

Coming from an encapsulated "Magic Bullet" design, my first pulse blend was with the lid off. Won't happen again, although it improved the wallpaper. The unit is pretty loud in my kitchen but this depends on what it sits on. I have ear muffs handy anyway.

[jdad]

quick update, I went ahead and bought the Waring Nublend, however I got it from a local restaurant supply store I like to go to. They'll have replacement clutches and blades when the time comes. I like to buy from the place that lets me examine the item even if it's more expensive. They even turned it on for me because I was concerned about the noise. Plus I didn't want to mess around with shipping, picking up, waiting, etc. I have bananas spoiling RIGHT NOW.




http://www.webstaurantstore.com/waring- ... BB180.html

This sucker has about the most powerful motor out there until you get into Vitamixes and such - I thought this might help for longevity. The blade and drive train were also noticeably more heavy duty than Hamilton Beach or lesser Warings. I didn't like the Waring beehive models they had there, they looked cheap. This is basic but utilitarian. It's one of the few with pulse, which I wanted for chopping up the hard stuff before blending everything together. Also if I want to chop onions for soup I don't have to puree them.


It's easy to take apart for cleaning, just 3 pieces - pitcher, blade assembly, and skirt. The latter is the top of the dome you see on the base - it's attached to the pitcher. So the pitcher has a 5 1/2" base so you can set it down and it won't tip over - other brands will tip because of the tiny bottom. It's also easy to fit onto the motor - no locking or twisting; although it works better if you stand there and hold it down.

So far I've made one shake, first I chopped up ripe peach pieces with water using pulse, then added two bananas, dry milk, Coffee mate, sugar, and an egg. Very fast, and consistency is perfect - no lumps remaining yet there is some texture to it which is as I like it. Some small flecks of peach peel can be seen, it's not completely liquefied. Probably 10 seconds on low did it.

Coming from an encapsulated "Magic Bullet" design, my first pulse blend was with the lid off. Won't happen again, although it improved the wallpaper. The unit is pretty loud in my kitchen but this depends on what it sits on. I have ear muffs handy anyway.

You did well. The BB180 is probably more than you will ever need. I sell a lot of them.