Kitchen Blenders

Adams :

Replaced an 30 year old Oster blender with this KitchenAid - and I love it. I use it 2-3 times a week.

Pros:
1. Power: It makes terrific smoothies and handles both fresh and frozen fruit.
2. Appearance: I had originally planned to keep the blender in my appliance garage. But this blender is so attractive (brushed nickel finish with black top), that I’ve left it out on my counter. It looks great and goes perfectly with the appliances in my kitchen.
3. Ease of cleaning. My old blender had 4 parts (blade, gasket, jar, and bottom plastic piece that held the blades and gasket). It was a pain to clean. This one-piece blade and jar makes clean-up a snap. I fill the jar with warm water and a squirt of dish washing liquid. I can drop the blender lid and plastic cap into the the jar itself - and wash everything in one quick step.
4. Jar size. I love the 56 oz. size. I can make several large-size smoothies at once.
5. The polycarbonate jar: I was really worried about this because I had always had a glass jar. I was afraid it might scratch, break, or otherwise not last as long as my old glass jar. But I decided to take a chance and really appreciate the lighter weight.
6. Pouring spout: my old blender didn’t have a spout. You were expected to pour from one of the corners - and I usually made a mess. The shape of this jar makes pouring even full loads easy to do, especially since the jar itself is light.
7. Controls: My older blender had push buttons. No matter how carefully I tried to clean it, eventually dirt, spills, whatever accumulated around the buttons and couldn’t be easily cleaned. This blender is a snap to wipe off - and no grooves that can trap food.

Cons: It is noisier than my old blender. But all the pros definitely outweigh this con

Futamura :

We are now on our second KitchenAid brushed chrome blender. The first one quit. I suspect I worked it too hard, making my own peanut butter. Until it quit it was perfect. When I called for service on this 8-month old blender, KitchenAid had a very nice American service rep who mailed me a new blender at their expense, with a box to return mine, at their expense.
I have never experienced customer service of this quality, ever. It’s KitchenAid appliances for me from now on. As for the peanut butter project, I think I was asking too much of a blender in this price range, so I’ll quit. If you want really heavy-duty blending, probably the astronomically-priced VitaMix is your baby. I’ll stick with KitchenAid for all my appliances. The appliances are good, but the service quality I received was fantastic. I sure hope they don’t try to figure out a way to cut costs in that department!!

Quadros :

I just bought this blender based on being chosen #1 by Cook’s Illustrated Magazine, a publication I formerly held in high regard for their integrity & content. Like Consumer Reports, they do not accept advertising in their magazine so the assumption is that their advice is not slanted because they “have no horse in the race”.
I found out this is not the case.
Apparently they have a symbiotic relationship with Kitchen Aid. With my new blender came a postcard with a subscription offering for Cook’s Illustrated. My problem is that after doing some online research I found out that this blender is functionally the same as the much less expensive Kitchen Aid model KSB 560. The only difference is the coating on the base. The motor, container & controls are identical.[...]
When I inquired @ Cook’s Illustrated about why they hadn’t informed their readers about the better value of the KSB 560, their reply was “we haven’t reviewed this model”. I find that a very weak answer! I guess it’s like they say “it’s all about the Benjamins”
I feel ripped off!!!

Quisenberry :

I love this blender. It has a lot of power and the blades work in such a way as to blend very quickly and efficiently.

Gaffney :

Bought this blender on the Cooks Illustrated recommendation and it is a good blender with a solid glass jar. The rubber gasket between the jar and the blade is almost clear and I lost mine. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the $1.99 gasket would cost over $20 to replace! The Kalorik website only handles minimum of $10 orders so 6 gaskets are the minimum purchase. I decided on an additional blade ($9.99) and 2 gaskets. Shipping for that is $10.85. So it is costing me $24.82 for the $1.99 gasket.

Moral of the story - HOLD ONTO YOUR GASKET!

Maybe I should buy the 6 and sell the other 5 through Amazon. Hmmm.

Thomsen :

I’ve always really hated using blenders, mainly because they are such a pain to clean. Now that I’m pureeing my baby’s food, I’m forced to use a blender on a regular basis. I bought this one after the glass jar on my old one broke. Now that I’ve been using this blender for about a month, I’m so glad I broke my old one (and might have broken it sooner had I known! :))

What I love about the KitchenAid blender:
1) It is SO EASY to clean. Food doesn’t get stuck under the blades like the other ones I’ve used.
2) It is shatterproof. With a curious toddler in the house now, I’m a huge fan of things that can’t break.
3) Powerful. I’ve used it to puree fruits and veggies, and to make smoothies. The crush ice feature is nice because you can break up the ice before mixing it.

What I don’t love about it:
1) The base is really heavy
2) The buttons are a little weird. For example, to go from pulse to a regular speed, you have to hit Off first.
3) It’s struggled a little bit blending tough, stringy veggies like squash and sweet potatoes. Takes a bit longer and you have to help it along by stopping to stir it up. But this is the case with most blenders, I think!

In summary, the pros WAY outweigh the cons. I really love this blender!