Customer Reviews

Tribest Personal Blender, Compact Package (PB-100)

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This blender looks pretty nice, it is small, and it requires less cleaning than traditional blenders. It is also higher quality than other one cup blenders. That aside... the instructions say that you cannot put the cups into the dishwasher so you must wash by hand. The cups also have measurement marks on the side, but they are very hard to read. One cup was washed by mistake and the plastic became fuzzy.

The blender will chop full sized iced cubes, but not well, it leaves big chunks. If you crush the ice first with your fridge dispenser or with another machine, then this blender does a much better job. Tribest does sell an ice crusher attachment but not with the package I bought.

With thicker shakes content can get stuck up at the bottom of the cup. Do not shake the blender to move the stuck content down towards the blades while the machine is running, this will make the motor smell like burning rubber. Take the cup off, shake it, then put it back on the motor. Also place ice, hard stuff toward the top, close to the blades, and protein powder right at the top, the first thing to touch the blades. These tidbits are not in the instructions but are necessary to avoid excessive shaking and scraping protein powder off the side of the cup later.

The instructions also say not to run the unit for more than 60 seconds at a time with 45 seconds in between. This is probably because there is only a 200 watt motor in the thing. The problem is that 60 seconds is not enough time to blend most smoothies that have ice.

Don't get me wrong, I have used this blender everyday for ten weeks and it is still much better than a larger blender, easier to clean, less noisy, and smaller.

Oh, and the biggest benefit. Since the container is small, 16 oz there is not a lot of air that gets incorporated into the drink. In a normal sized blender the contents expand when making one drink and all that air can make you feel bloated. With this blender there is less air that can be whipped up into your single serving smoothie.

This is the best, most beloved item in my kitchen!!!

I only wish I had bought the grinder and all the different cups (which I am going to now add on).

I read some of the other reviews---and at first I was also disappointed with this blender. Now that I have learned how to use it, I LOVE IT!!!

DO NOT put Protein powder into it first, it will get stuck in the bottom of the cup which you invert onto the blades (When you invert it, the bottom becomes the top). If you put liquid in first and then the powder there's no problem. You have to learn how to use it. You will want to put the frozen fruit in last if you are making something really thick.

I read the reviews here before I bought mine and a woman said hers was junk but I went ahead and read the rest of the reviews and decided to buy it. If mine breaks in a year, it will have been well worth the price. I use it every day and sometimes three times a day. On a hot day when I want something slushy and cold, I'll put in orange juice with some strawberries and ice---in a flash you have a refreshing drink. It's fabulous.

I could use my Cuisinart, but this blender is so easy and quiet by comparison. There are no buttons to push, you just fill the cup with your juice (I often add protein powder) and something frozen (Ice or frozen fruit) and screw on the lid (which have blades in it) and put it on the blending base and twist. You can either twist and pusle it, or twist and leave it to blend on its own. Then you take the lid off, rinse, and that's it.

I love hummus and I will never make it in the blender because you have to dig it out and most of it gets left behind. With this gadget, you fill the cup, blend it, then screw off the blade lid, screw on the refrigerator lid, and that's it. Nothing to scrape, just put it in the refrigerator. (Oh yes, you do have to rinse off the blade lid, that's the whole clean-up).

If you like frozen drinks or sauces you blend, this is a great gadget!!! I live in two places and I am getting another one for the other place, but I'm buying the complete set this time.

I like drinking a smoothie during lunch at the office, but don't want to cart around a icebox full of ingredients, or a giant blender... The Tribest Personal Blender is perfect because I could leave the motor base at work, and can bring the perfect amount of ingredients for my own smoothie in the cup! All I have to do, is put it on the base and let it blend! I get fresh smoothies every day at work! And I don't have to worry about making a mess, having too many or too little ingredients, or lugging around a bulky blender!

All of the 5-Star reviews are spot on regarding the convenience and effectiveness of the Tribest Blender. It is a great product except for the fact that it simply isn't nearly durable enough to warrant the investment. When my first unit broke in less than 3 months I was happy to assume that either I or one of my kids had done something wrong and immediately ordered another. Now that that unit has also broken in less than three months I'm convinced its just a poorly constructed product. In both instances the plastic disk on the bass unit that spins the blender simply broke. I remember enough of my high school physics to understand torque but these units were never challenged to do more than blend a half cup of frozen berries with juice and protein powder. And probably not more than a half dozen times a week.

I've become a huge fan of the single serve blender and replaced the last one with the competitive blender with hopes that I will get more than 3 months life out of the product. If you buy the Tribest, DON"T THROW AWAY THE WARRANTY!

I bought this blender after having burned out the clutch on my Kitchen Aid from daily use for about a year. Now that I've used this baby for a while, I don't think I'll ever go back to large blenders again.

The blend quality in this machine is flawless. I've used it to make frozen drinks, smoothies, and to blend my eggs to make scrambled eggs. This blender does not leave any left over hunks of ice or fruit to clog your straw up. Ice is blended to a very fine consistency. Much finer than I was used to with my old blender.

Powders and oils are not a problem. If you have some powder that seems to have clumped into a corner while you were putting the ingredients in, just shake it up a little bit like a carton of milk before you blend it.

Flaxseed oil gets completely mixed up in the mixture during blending. My old blender would waste about half of the oil when I hit the on button by slinging it all over the jar and coating the entire blending jar with it. This machine has not left any oil on the sides of the container. Probably because the mixture takes up the entire container.

Speaking of the mixture taking up the entire container -- this is a very good thing. I had bought the 24oz container since my smoothies always seemed to fill up that much space after blending. It turns out that most of that volume was air. All of my ingredients fit inside the 16oz container, and since the container is closed air tight while it is blending, it prevents the mixture from pulling in excess air. Now I don't have smoothie burps :)

The 8oz containers are perfect for blending eggs. You can blend everything with the eggs, and it comes out looking like the pre-blended varieties you can buy in cartons at the store. The eggs cook out nice and fluffy just like I bought them at a restaurant.

One last thing I want to mention is that I thought the containers looked ugly and too long while looking at them on this site. However, they look very nice on the counter. The plastic on the containers is nice and thick, and seems to resist anything sticking to them. I can just tell that the construction is solid from the look and feel.

I highly recommend this blender.

Update (Oct 2007)
The blender is still going strong. I use it 1-2 times a day. The only problem I've had is the o-ring in the blade attachment broke in half. Literally, I only have half of an o-ring. You can't buy a replacement for just the o-ring. It's not much of a problem, though. I found that it will not leak as long as you rinse it off if you have to open it before you're done blending. Happy blending.

As a middle-aged woman who is always trying to lose weight, I know that studies show that dieters who incorporate several servings of low-fat dairy into their diet lose weight better. But I really don't like plain milk and can only eat so much yogurt!

Once I discovered this little beauty, my problem was solved. Unlike my full-sized blender, which is too big to leave out on my counters, too heavy to lift up and down from the cabinets all the time, and too much of a mess to clean, the personal blender is tiny, easily fitting on my counters, and SO easy to clean.

Plus, it makes any drink a smooth, fluffy treat in a few seconds. Now I drink several servings of 1% milk a day, and I enjoy every sip. These are all lowfat and low calorie (Weight Watchers will know what the "points" mean):

8 oz 1% milk with 1 tablespoon of Nestle NesQuick Chocolate Drink Mix - 2 points (1 T of drink mix is 0 points!)

8 oz 1% milk with General Foods International Coffees Cappuccino Coolers drink mix - 3 points

8 oz 1% milk with 1 tablespoon Nescafe Ice Java coffee syrup - 3 points

I like this blender so much that I'm thinking of buying another one for the office.

My 16 oz. cup is on my desk as I write this. After doing my research I settled on this little blender and it was the best purchase I've made twice this year. I bought one blender for home and a second one for work. Every few days I make a pot of coffee, add some sugar and freeze it in the ice cube tray. In the morning I fill my cup with as many cubes as possible and some milk and cap it. When I get to the office I blend it for a nice frappuccino. I also took my blender to the beach and made smoothies and pina coladas for my girlfriends. It is so easy to clean that I didn't mind making different flavors for each friend. With only 2 pieces to clean it is a dream among appliances!

I just got this blender and LOVE it! I can now make healthier "frappucinos" using decaf coffee and protien powder!! It crushes ice quickly and finely...can't wait to make some margaritas!!

If you are looking for a small blender to mix single servings, this is a great one. It crushes ice without a problem. It's easy to clean and if you are experimenting it is easy enough to try your mix, add a little more to it and mix again.

I have been using it to make protein shakes and it has been working great.

I would recommend this blender highly and without reservations.

*** We have been using the blender more and more now to make smoothies. This morning the I noticed the rubber ring had broken and was caught up in the blades. I untangled it and discarded. After a minute with Tribest customer service, a new one is on it's way to me.

Still no complaints about the blender. We really like it.

I read a lot of reviews before ordering this. I had already been making daily smoothies in my full-size blenders and clean-up was just a pain in the butt. So I wanted something smaller. After reading the reviews I opted for this one. I chose this over the PB-200 simply because I had no need for the 8oz cups. I did order a 24oz cup tho, and will order another one as that will generally be the size I will use.

It works just as well as it claims. I did find that I had to take the cup off and shake it up a bit to get things to move around to get things from the top blended but that may also be a matter of putting the heavier (banana) things at the top instead of the bottom when putting the items in.

My one complaint is that I wish the cups were wider. They are much narrower than they look in the pictures. Because of this is can be hard to fit everything in at one time. I found that I was blending some then putting more in to get the full amount.

Also, because of the size of the cups (tall and narrow instead of shorter and wider) I don't think I would drink directly out of the 24oz cup. It's too long for a straw and I find that most smoothies just drink better with a straw.