Customer Reviews

Cuisinart SmartPower Premier 600-Watt Blenders

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(29)
1 star:		(65)

 

 

I have yet to see a blender do everything perfectly. This blender isn't likely to go very far on your counter; maybe not because you'll use it all the time, but because it's a pain to lift. Good if you have dedicated bar space, but you'd like to be able to use it for regular kitchen work too. I don't really use a blender for chopping, the knife and kitchen robot are better for me, but for liquids it's the way to go.

Questionable features are the digital timer and flashing lights, I don't know about Cuisinart's forays into electronics. I would expect those things to fail before the motor. And why a glass jar with a "durable" plastic handle, huh? As if they were trying to save weight on this one. It's some unnecessary cost-cutting that lowers the robustness a bit and makes cleaning a little trickier.

Separate ice crushing button and being able to add things through the top are both helpful features, and the warranty is excellent, they will usually stand by their products.

I had this unit for two weeks and used it once, or sometimes twice a day. It makes glorious smoothies! Unfortunately, it's so noisy that you can't speak to someone standing next to you without shouting (96db at the operating position, if you care). It's impractical: there are lots of little nooks & crannies for food to be trapped in. It can't pour for @#%*... who designed that jar?! But it makes glorious smoothies!

One morning I was admiring the glorious smoothie process when I thought I heard a change in the motor's pitch. My nostrils began to detect a delicious toasted aroma. Little-by-little the smell grew more-and-more acrid, until I realized that a delicate haze was permeating the kitchen. I switched off the blender and lifted the jar, only to see a cloud of black smoke waft into the room. Had I burned out the motor? No! The little high-speed spindle that rotates the blades inside the jar had over-heated and melted the plastic surround! When the plastic was gooey, it slowed the motor down -- once it had cooled, it fused solid, hopelessly locking the motor.

It's going back to the store, where I'll ask for a replacement. Why am I bothering to replace an impractical, noisy, poorly designed fire-starter? Well, it might be a one-off... and did I mention the glorious smoothies?

We've had our Cuisinart for over a year and use it infrequently. One of the reasons why it gets so little use is the size and the weight. This is a heavy, heavy blender. And while I normally equate heavy industrial kitchenware with quality, in this case, I'm afraid Cuisinart has let us down. I never stress the motor on our model, yet even blending salad dressing, I get a faint whiff of burning rubber or... There is also an issue with the actual glass, the lip of the blender is so wide that pouring liquids is a pain--tons of spills. I have a feeling that Cuisinart's best men/women were out to lunch the day this design was passed. Maybe we can blame it on the interns. And while pictures of the product look nice, seeing the thing sitting on my counter, well, it's so large and bulky that that is exactly how it looks: Large and Bulky. No real elegance and it's not funky cool the way KitchenAid mixers are. Seems to me we got more longevity and easier use out of my cheaper model that I tossed to make way for this one.

I am recently married and, because of this, we have been able to try out a few blenders. We have tried a $100 Oster, an $80 Waring, and this ...Cuisinart. The Oster worked fine, but it was very loud. The Waring worked ok, but it was very loud and broke after the second pitcher of drinks. Now, this Cuisinart is awesome. The 50 oz. jar is big enough for a pitcher of frozen drinks without overflowing and it is at least half as quiet as the Oster and Waring. With the Waring, I felt guilty about running the blender for more than 30 seconds in my apartment. But with this Cuisinart, the noise isn't a problem at all. This Cuisinart has the most power of the blenders I tested, and the ice came out the smoothest. I usually buy bags of ice to make drinks because the ice is smaller and "softer", but when I wanted to test this Cuisinart I had no bags of ice. So, I used the icecubes from my freezer which are bigger and harder. The drinks came out perfectly smooth anyway, without one piece of unblended ice. PERFECT!
The one thing I cannot comment on is the endurance of this blender. I've only owned it a short time, so I'm not sure about it's lifespan. But if a perfectly smooth drink made quietly is what you want, this is the blender to do it!

I was skeptical when I purchased this blender after reading the other 35 reviews here at Amazon. I picked this up at a local retail shop because I had a gift card which made this blender only $52 ($102 normal retail price). Got home, plugged it in, and made my first frozen berry smoothie.

I smelled the same "burning rubber" smell that others have commented on and having worked in construction for a couple years can say that is the smell of a powerful electric motor. I smelled the same thing using electric drills. This is a 600 watt motor... not the cheap motor you get with a $35 blender.

The blender is heavy. The glass jar is thick and heavy as well. I'm a guy so I don't mind the lifting of this weighty behemoth, but if weight is a consideration for you just keep that in mind before you purchase.

The blender crushes ice like a champion, frozen fruit is no problem. With any blender put your liquids in first, followed by you softer items and heavy (ice like substances) last.

The mouth of the jar is wide and it can be tricky when pouring out your liquid but its not all that bad.

The metal blades are sharp and thick, good for chopping up those ice cubes and frozen strawberries.

I like the clean simple buttons and interface. Has a handy count up digital timer to let you know how long you've been blending.

Overall I am very pleased with this blender and would not hesitate to purchase it again.

PRO: Heavy duty construction and motor, powerful. Large capacity. Simple button configuration.

CON: Heavy. Pouring of liquids from its wide mouth might prove challenging if you're not careful.

An expensive purchase that I spend alot of time thinking about before I bought it. Once I made the leap I was thrilled with my new blender, powerful, practical, something I would be able to use for many years to come.

Once it was cleaned and put together I put it to use and everything was great until I tried to pour out what I had made. The spout on the glass jar is useless! While the liquid pours out some also dribbles over the spout, down the front of the jar and in between the base and the jar so you would always have to pull the assembly apart to clean it.

Considering everything you make in a blender has to be poured out I am very disappointed and will probably return this blender.

If this blender could pour as well as the rest of it works I would give it five stars but my disappointment means 3 stars at the most, which isn't enough to warrant the price I paid.

It looks pretty, it's powerful...what's not to like?

1. I don't use it much for blending ice, as many reviewers do. Mostly I use it for blending sauces, many of them hot. It is almost impossible to put a hot liquid in the blender and turn it on without it spewing scalding liquid all over myself and my kitchen. It EXPLODES, even if you break the seal on the lid. My KitchenAid stand mixer ramps up to the desired power setting -- I wish this blender had the same feature. I have scalded my arms several times.

2. Nearly every use it emits that "motor burning" smell.

3. I now apologize to my family in advance for the noise, which is startlingly loud.

4. The design of the jar. Ack! First, there's the pouring problem that everyone else mentions. There are also numerous places for food to get stuck in and around the metal band at the top of the jar, etc., and I find it really annoying. Even a trip through the mighty dishwasher doesn't work. The jar never looks clean.

I would never buy another one of these blenders. It's too bad, because it is powerful, and I appreciate the lack of 25 speeds (two speeds is perfectly adequate, and I'm a very experienced cook). But if you think your blender is trying to kill you, you take the hint.

....I had very high hopes for this blender. I have had 3 of these units now and all of them have broken in the same place. There is a black plastic housing that holds the spindle of the cutting blades. It's just not up to the job. It's not as if I'm making the machine do heavy work: I'm simply following the recipes that are found in the accompanying booklet. I make 1 or 2 smoothies a day and can't get one of these units to last longer than 3-weeks.

Nice looker, but fatally flawed.

This blender is too expensive for what you get. Sure the moter is 600 watts. Sure it can blend heavy duty foods. But that is not enough for a blender. You buy a blender to chop food by automatically sucking food down to the blade to chop the food to tiny bits. This blender will NOT always do that unless you put in a good quanty of liquid, usually more liquid than you want. If you dont put in enough liquid, the food will sit above the spinning blade and not get pulled down. You will have to manually assist the blender (pain point). I had to either add more liquid to the very heavy glass jar or stop the blending and use a fork to push the food into the blades and start again (I would repeat this until the food would get cought by the blender). If you want a blender to make smoothies (for one person) this is not the blender that you need. I returned this blender 2 weeks after I got it and replaced it with an Oster. It pulls the food down to the blade no matter how much liquid I put in the jar and it works perfectly every time! Oh, it cheaper too!

We just used this blender for the first time to make smoothies and although it does chop things up well (I had no problem putting frozen fruit in) getting the stuff out is where we ran into trouble. If you're pouring into a big bowl than you're in luck, but if you're pouring into a glass (like we are) than you'll need some luck. The spout is so wide that the contents of the blender just pour over the whole side, so you get your contents in the glass and all over your counter top.

In addition, to get the blender to pulse you have to press ON, then Pulse, than high or low - seems like a lot for pulse. Also, once you turn it on if you forget to press the OFF button it stays on, seems like a danger in the kitchen waiting to happen to me.

Anyway - we no longer have this blender as we returned it after several failed pouring attempts.