Customer Reviews

Braun MX2050 PowerMax 525-Watt 58-Ounce Jug Blender

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I bought this blender on the recommendation of Cook's Illustrated - I wanted a blender that could power through ice for mixed drinks! And... at first, I thought it was about worthless... I would put ice and mixers in and blend and it seemed like it took forever and ever and still had chunks of ice. I tried a few different times and it was always "just okay." So, it sat in the cupboard and I gave up on it.

Then I decided I wanted to make fruit smoothies (couldn't afford the $5 a pop at the local joint) so I drug out the blender, but I didn't have high hopes. And, unsurprisingly, it didn't do well on that, either. I couldn't understand - I had liquid and frozen fruit - and it kept getting bogged down - I had to stick a wooden spoon it and try to break it up to get it to blend. Then it would only blend for 5 seconds, and you could hear the blades just spinning, but nothing was happening. I was ready to chuck the blender and get the KitchenAid a friend has and raves about...but I didn't want to spend $100. So I gave it one more shot - and finally figured out the secret.

[In my experience] YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT PUT ALL YOUR INGREDIENTS IN AT THE SAME TIME. Meaning, to make my smoothie, I put in all the liquid and a small handful of frozen blueberries - then blend. When that is smooth, then I add a frozen strawberry or two - then blend. Then another strawberry or two - then blend... until I have the desired smoothie thickness.

I have yet to try this method with pure ice for frozen margaritas, but I imagine it would work the same way. But even if it didn't work, I drink smoothies way more than I drink frozen margaritas, so for the time being, this is the perfect blender for me, as it has paid for itself just in the month I have been making smoothies!

NOVEMBER 2007 UPDATE: I changed my rating to 3 stars (and changed the title to "light use"). Why? This blender has died. It could not handle making a frozen fruit smoothie every day, and broke down after less than two months of steady use. I am not sure what the technical name of the piece is, but it's the hard plastic "teeth" that join to make the blades spin. It completely broke in half and was irreparable. To replace it would involve buying an entirely new jug, which costs more than buying a brand new blender! Since I was going to be making smoothies every day, I opted for a professional VitaMix blender. But, if you only use this blender for light duty a few times a month, then I would still recommend it. But if you are using it every day, this is probably not the blender for you.

The order was handled by Amazon with their usual excellent speed and efficiency, but my mistake was believing the reviews saying that this is a relatively quiet, high efficiency blender. When it came, I left the blender in the box for a couple of weeks while the kitchen wiring was being finished. We don't drink, so we don't make crushed ice drinks, and we never crush ice in a blender. We do make milk & fresh-fruit smoothies, without ice, several times a week. It quickly became clear that this blender is not up to the job. Despite the quality name, the basic moving parts are flimsy. It vibrates because the gears are made of plastic/nylon and don't mesh properly. The size and thickness of the plastic gasket has been cheapened to the point that it doesn't always stay in place as the bottom of the jar is tightened, and sometimes twists in a way that leaves half of the area at the bottom of the blender jar open and dripping milk all over the counter. Maybe all of this is just Braun's way of telling us that you don't get a high quality blender for $48. When I tried to return it, I discovered that Amazon won't accept a return after 30 days. It is true we'd owned it for more than 30 days, but we'd used it for a little over a week at that time. And after a lot of annoyance, it's time to look for another blender. I have been using our ultra-noisy but dependable old Oster in the meantime.

When I finally decided I needed a blender instead of just using my food processor for pureeing, I chose this one because of the top ratings given it by America's Test Kitchen. Obviously, they never tried mixing waffle batter in it and I find it hard to believe they managed to blend frozen fruit. There isn't enough suction to the bottom of the container to blend anything thick at any speed -- the food just sits there and you constantly have to scrape it down. It does a fine job on raw berries, for instance, but frozen or partially frozen ones just sit there. It can't handle batter at all. Decidedly unimpressive. On the plus side, it is a really attractive unit and is very easy to disassemble, clean and put back together. This is probably a fine unit for someone who just wants to blend juices or puree cooked soups, but I find it hard to believe this is supposed to be one of the best on the market.

I bought this blender by mistake, but then was delightfully surprised. I wanted a powerful blender to crush ice and our old one was more like "scratching" ice cubes than "crushing" them. After reading a few reviews on amazon I decided this is the one to go, then hastily placed order. Minutes later, keeping reading more reviews, I started to see complaints about this blender's limited capability in crushing ice, then I thought I made a mistake and tried to cancel the order. Too late, with prime shipping option, the order was instantly placed into processing stage and no cancellation was possible to my chagrin.

Today I received the package, pulled out the blender, and instantly noticed one review complaint I had read about this blender was untrue - that the top removable cap can easily pop off during blending. No way! If you twist the cap, it actually LOCKS into place, not just sits there waiting to pop off. Anyhow, I added a handful of ice cubes, and turned on the blender at speed #1. Wow, it crushed the ice cubes into white powder with no relent. That's the kind of blender I'm looking for to make margarita and other iced drinks. I regretted the purchase only two days ago but now it turned out to be a total delightful surprise.

We've had the blender about a month now and despite the warnings, we've had no problems with the teeth breaking off the blade. We pub frozen fruit in it all the time and it grinds it up into a liquid in no time at all.

It also makes "snow" out of ice cubes in seconds! A great purchase. We couldn't be more pleased.

Seriously, you will just wind up brokenhearted. It fails sooner or later--usually sooner, and stays that way. The motor is great, the jar is great, and while it works you'll think it's the best blender in the world. But then the blade assemble WILL fail, and you will have a broken blender, and you'll think it's just a fluke, and you'll order another one (not cheap, either)--and that one will fail almost immediately or better yet ARRIVE BROKEN. We have ordered SIX replacement blades, more fool us, some from Braun and some from other vendors, and NONE worked upon arrival. And I don't mean even for crushing ice--we tried fresh, raw cantaloupe, tender delicate slices-like-butter cantaloupe, and the blade was immobilized. (We have video to prove this.)

Those great reviews are by people who haven't had the blender long enough for it to fail--but it will, and they will be writing back any day now.

Skip the frustration and go with another blender. Until Braun promises they've fixed the blade assembly problem, this one is just an expensive way to waste time and counterspace. Just put a vase of flowers there instead.

After reading the many reviews, I decided to take a chance on this machine.
We use a blender several times everyday. I had, in the past, bought blenders at the $40-60 level and they were not very good and last about 2-5 years. So I moved up to the $100-$150 range. My last purchase was the Cuisenart Duo. That machine was LOUD and slow and was hard to get things to the smooth level without a lot of stirring. It lasted about 4 years (with one replacement of the blade). It might go another year but the motor is starting to overheat. I was ready to buy the $500 vitamix turbo blender. I have seen it at the fair for years and thought that I have over the years spent this much. Then I saw the consumer reports and it recommended this one. I was worried that a blender in this price range would not be what I wanted.

However, I am SO glad I bought it. It is fast, powerful, makes great smoothies and best of all it cleans without any of the fruit sticking. I am not sure how it does this, but the fruit just rises off from the glass. The triangle shape makes pouring so much easier and the water seems to create a volcanic spin off of the three flat sides so that the liquid is pulled to the bottom. I could not be happier. And it is so much quieter. I waited 5 months to see if there were any problems but I see none. And I am grateful to the people who wrote reviews and I wanted to return the favor. I feel so empowered as a shopper to be able to talk to real people who are not invested in "selling" me something. So I am returning the favor. (I decided against the vitamix when I realized that the height of it would touch my cabinets.) This one is the perfect size. My recommendation is buy it. It might not last forever but then for $50 -- if it lasts 5 years, I will happy.

This is the 5th blender i've purchased in the past 5 years. I wore out a KitchenAid, Black and Decker, and Cuisinart with heavy use, each in less than a year. The i bought a Vitamix for it's durability. Love the Vitamix, but read an article about possible leaching of chemicals from their plastic pitcher. Vitamix is changing pitcher types in response, but who knows what issues the new material might have. I decided to stick with a glass container, and bought the Braun. I am very happy with it's performance, even compared to the Vitamix. It performs not as good as the Vitamix, but comparable and much quieter. It does a good job supporting a raw foods diet. It performs much better than any blender under $100 i've tried. I wonder about durability. I've read several reviews about fragile gears. They are made of plastic, and looking at them, it's reasonable to believe they may break with heavy use. I've been using it daily for several months without problem. I figure if their is a problem, i can always go back to the Vitamix until it's repaired/replaced.

I have "killed" 3 Oster Blenders by trying to make smoothies in them.This blender does the job,and has outlasted the first Oster by 3 weeks.Has an auto-shut down when the motor overheats, so no burn out. Does a great job. Basically the best buy for the job.

Really loved this blender for the 4-5 times I got to use it. The plastic coupler broke that causes the blade to turn, and unable to find a replacement for it online. I guess I am back to the drawing board again to find a reliable blender.