Kitchen Blenders

Hayward :

I bought this blender less than two months ago for making smoothies. It worked well for 10-12 uses and then suddenly one day it wouldn’t turn on at all. My return window with Amazon has passed, and Cuisinart won’t replace it. They will only repair it, and that’s only if I pay the shipping costs to and from the Cuisinart returns department. Raw deal and shoddy craftsmanship if you ask me.

Sisterman :

This blender replaced a Hamilton Beach blender I bought almost 30 years ago. That blender never gave me any problems but I thought the motor was beginning to struggle a little and it seemed like a good time to get one with more power. The Cuisinart SB-5600 has that. Unfortunately, in the short time I have owned it I am close to spending as much in replacement parts as I did for the blender. The glass jar broke first. The Hamilton Beach had a glass jar…the same glass jar for almost 30 years. This one seems sturdy enough, and I know things happen, but another glass object barely touched it. Next, a average size frozen strawberry got wedged in somewhere, somehow, bent a blade on the cutter and stripped the threads on the piece that engages the drive clutch. Still waiting for that part to arrive in the mail. I expect the flimzy black part that the glass jar screws into to go next. Buying two of these may be a good idea. You could use one for parts.

The blender does have good power. It also has good noise, but so did the Hamilton Beach. It seems like a lower speed or a smaller container is needed. If its not full or if you are mixing something like a smoothy it seems to cavitate very easily, even on the lowest speed, which eliminates all cyclonic action. The high speed is all but unuseable unless your making a large smoothy for more than one or the contents is thin. Once you figure out what it likes it works great…unless its broke.

Oakwood :

this thing is a piece of junk. poor job at blending and leaks like crazy and impossible to fix

Cervantes :

We received this as a wedding gift almost 3 years ago. I love the glass jar part of it but overall as a blender it really disapoints me. We mainly use it to make smoothies. It ALWAYS gets stuck… ALWAYS. Even if all we through in there is frozen berries, frozen yogurt and OJ. It simply is not strong enough for smoothies- hence why I only give it one star. It also failed to blend baby food to super smooth and also failed to finely chop slices of bread into breadcrumbs. We are currently shopping for a new blender that can make smoothies since that is the main reason why we even own a blender.

Kaasen :

I love making smoothies for my family and this machine does a great job on chopping up the ice. We get perfect smoothies every time! I also love the ease of use and the sleek stainless steel look.

Olah :

I purchased this blender on sale for $39.99 from Kohls on sale. Not bad.

When I first opened this blender, I thought it seemed more durable than my old Oster, whose motor burned out. The lid isn’t all flimsy and made with floppy rubber - it’s hard plastic. The jar is a bit on the heavy side, but I like how it’s very wide both in the jar and the base so it stays very sturdy. The spout hole turns and locks perfectly into the plastic lid, preventing spillage.

Too bad the bottom is where the spilling comes from. You absolutely cannot pour your liquid out without it dripping from the bottom of the jar. While I like how the glass jar is firmly attached to a plastic bottom that sits atop the bottom half with the motor, so there is no twisting or readjusting, there is ALWAYS a burnt smell the second you turn on the blender. This suggests the blender simply does not fit perfectly into the bottom half. I never unscrewed it from when I bought it so I know it wasn’t due to a misalignment.

As for ice crushing, there are 6 speeds: stir, whip, mix, puree, liquify, and then ice crush, which requires you to push the entire button and hold it there. The ice crush function works very well. However, if you don’t use it, the blender’s performance is overall somewhat weak. I cannot puree any of my soups - all I had in my soup was thoroughly boiled leafy vegetables and onions and yet there were still tiny bits in the soup. My old Oster, while bad at crushing ice, was very able to puree the soups.

Overall, if you want to spend under $45 for a blender that purees ice well for the money, get this on sale and it’s very well worth it. Otherwise, I suggest you spend just $10-20 more than its MSRP for a model that won’t leak and is able to puree the soups better than this.