Customer Reviews

Sunpentown CL-510 Round-Base Stainless-Steel Blender with 1-1/2-Liter Glass Jar

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love this blender. It looks nice. It is easy to use. It blends frozen fruit, ice and protein powder wonderfully to make a smooth smoothies-no hunks. The powder we use is full of vitamins & minerals, so if you do not blend well you get lumps and powdery taste-this blender blends everything beautifully. We make smoothies almost every morning for breakfast and in the summer, this is often our dinner as well, so we keep the blender out all the time - this is nice size so it fits on my counter nicely. It's easy to clean. Even my teenage son can use, clean and put away without any trouble.

I've had this blender for several months and I'm generally pleased with it. It seems well constructed and it looks nice on my kitchen counter. The only drawback for me is that there are just two speeds. They're labeled "Lo" and "High," but they're really more like "High" and "Somewhat Higher." There's actually very little difference between the two speeds. I use the blender mostly to make smoothies, for which the high speed works well. For some blending jobs, however, I would prefer to start off at a slow speed and then shift into a higher speed. That's not possible with this blender.

EDITED 10/29/11
I've downgraded my review from four stars to two stars for the following reasons:

(1) The blender has become increasingly loud over the past few months, and the jar has developed a tendency to shake and come loose from the base during the blending process. I have to stand by to make sure it doesn't fly off the base.

(2) It's developed a leak. So far it's not a major leak, but it's been getting worse. The plastic part that is connected to the blades and which fits onto the motor has gotten loose, and there is no way to tighten it. This is probably the source of the leakage. Sometimes a dark liquid drips out from the bottom of the container. I'm not sure what this is. Perhaps it's coming from the motor. When pouring from the blender container, I have to be careful that none of the nasty looking liquid gets into the food.

(3) The lack of a slower speed has become very irritating. I'm not sure why they even bothered to have a speed switch. I had originally thought that there was a slight difference between the High and Low settings, but if that difference ever existed, it's surely gone now. The only speed is a very high speed that makes it impossible to add ingredients while the blender is running.

The blender is now over a year old. I've used it only for making a morning smoothie that consists of milk and protein powder. I don't even put fruit or ice in the smoothies, so this blender has not been overtaxed with heavy-duty jobs. Perhaps one year is all the lifespan that can be expected of small appliances nowadays. I've noticed from the reviews that some of the more expensive blenders are prone to the same problems as my cheap Sunpentown blender. I've bought a new Kenmore blender that comes with a five-year warranty. I'll see how that works out.

It died trying to make a smoothie straight out of the box.
Motor started to slow, then stopped, burnt material came out of the bottom and burnt smell came from motor.
Never had this happen with any other small appliance. Have read other reviews that stated died on second use.
Amazon had easy return process, ordered Kitchen Aid with only complaints about not crushing ice the way they wanted it.
Would not reccommend the Sunpentown, bad reviews, poor quality(cheaply made). Blade guide gear is flimmsy at best.
The motor spoke for its quality on the first operation.

I had a backyard party for the holiday, and this blender did the job. The Strawberry Daiquiris, Margaritas and other mixed drinks were great!!!! The blender handled the ice without hesitation, and the drinks were really smooth. Great success! I think I might buy another one just for the kitchen and one for just backyard parties. Very good product, and also very beautiful sitting on my kitchen countertop. Wonderful product.

Babbs in Chicago!

Every blender I ever had, regardless of the price, broke down and stopped working after just a couple of months (we have not purchased a commercial blender yet though). And that was before we really did consistent, weekly smoothies. In the last year or two, we have been using a blender a lot more frequently.

We like to buy bulk berries and bananas and make smoothies several times a week, mixing in powdered herbs and spices (such as ginger, spirulina, wheat grass, ginseng, etc.) to get extra nutrition. We have been using this blender (previous model) for more than a year, mainly for this purpose. We also use this blender to make homemade mayonnaise, which it does an excellent job of doing.

We purchased the previous model of this blender, when it was priced higher than it is now, from a different online store. We had not heard of the brand before, but the main feature we were looking for was that the blender could NOT have a digital interface. I love the manual switch on this thing. Too many times a digital interface will break and render a product useless.

So we have been making smoothies several times a week for more than a year. The previous version (which is almost exactly the same) held up much longer than any blender I've ever used. The motor still works fine to this day, and I know it has been more than a year.

The only negative I have about this product, is the reason why I had to buy a new one (which is the newer version, the one sold here). There is a plastic, rounded piece on the bottom of the glass container (yes it is a glass container, not plastic, which is another bonus), that helps the container sit on the main stand (to do the mixing). This plastic piece came loose and we tried but could not get it to go back on permanently. We looked for a replacement part, but with shipping it would have cost nearly as much to get the piece as buying a brand new blender. So we bought a new blender here on Amazon.

This thing appears to be well constructed, but that piece needs redesigned. I saved the old blender as a back up, for parts (especially the motor, since it still works fine). But man, if that one piece had only been constructed better, we'd still have the same blender for who knows how long, which with the way they make blenders today, (when you use them consistently the motor breaks down fast) it would make this blender a total steal. I'd gladly pay a little bit more for a better design for that one part.

Overall, this is the best blender I've found in our many years of using them. I still bought the same brand when we had to get a new one because it flat-out outperforms all other ones we know of, particularly in durability.

By the way, we have not really used this thing for major ice crushing or anything like that so I can't comment on that; however, 1/2 the time we use it, we are blending frozen strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, mulberries, etc.

I have been using this blender almost daily for over six months. I use it mainly for smoothies. I half fill it with a liquid first (almond milk) then process ice cubes, raw beets, whole flax seeds, protein powders, raw carrot, frozen bananas and frozen berries. I even use G-I-A-N-T frozen strawberries, but I add just a few at time. *If your mixture gets too thick then add a little ice water.

After processing you can't find any trace of flax seeds or oats, fruit pieces, or vegetable pieces and no ice chips! It works like a pro for a VERY good price. I was considering buying another one (even though the one I have works great) because they are hard to find. I want to be sure I can get another one should this one ever wear out.

Another great feature is that when you take the blender off the stand to pour it, it does NOT leak at the bottom! I think it's fast and easy to clean too. I just clean it right away by hand. NP!

PS. After processing your smoothie if it doesn't taste great then I add instant decaf coffee to it, maybe some cocoa and more stevia or other sweetener. Then it tastes so "bad" for you but it is really quite nutricious. YUM! It's great for someone like me whose system can't tolerate ice cream. A smoothie is the next best thing! Enjoy!

This has been a great blender. Use it mostly for smoothies and shakes. Has held up well and easy clean up.