Customer Reviews

Tribest Personal Blender PB-200 Super Convenience Pack

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've been using the Tribest Personal Blender for about a year now and it is one of the more utilized gadgets in my kitchen. My family loves smoothies and we each have our own preferences of ingredients so the personal blender is ideal for us over the traditional "big" blenders. The frozen fruits blend nicely without big chunks. I occasionally add almonds or other nuts to my smoothies and they blend okay but not perfect. I don't mind the little chunks of nuts. Clean up is easy. I just rinse the blade attachement in warm water immediately after each use. I rinse the cups after each use too then wash them in the dishwasher without any problems. No warping. The adults use the 16 oz cups and the kids use the smaller 8 oz cups. It's a great way to get kids to consume their fruits and vegetables! My mother has the Magic Bullet and my friend has a similar one that she bought on sale at Macy's and to me they're not as easy to use as my Tribest blender. I've used it to make things other than smoothies - mostly sauces (like Pesto sauce) and salad dressings. It's fun to experiment with various ingredients. The set comes with a recipe pamphlet so you can get some tasty ideas. I've watched the Magic Bullet commercials on TV to get other ideas too. I've even tried blending together left over veggies like broccoli and cauliflower with chicken broth and a little milk then heating it in the microwave. It makes a great soup! After a year of constant use, my Tribest Personal Blender is still working well! We love it.

For months, I've been weighing between getting this or getting a Magic Bullet. I wish I got the Magic Bullet.

I have an Oster Intuitive Blender with Blend'n'Go cups. It was extremely cumbersome and messy. Because my sister-in-law had a Japanese version of the Magic Bullet and it was sturdy and easy-to-clean, I thought I'd retire my blender and give in to the personal sized blenders. The Magic Bullet has been on my to-buy list for months when I perused the reviews. Most seem to be disappointed with its wimpy motor and short life span. Amazon's other suggestions lead me to Tribest. I bought Tribest based on three major factors: 1) the reviews, 2) the ease of finding replacement parts, and 3) ultimately (this particular model) because of the ability to blend straight in a Mason Jar, my preferred method of storage, with the extra conversion lids. Some who had previously purchased the Magic Bullet seemed to prefer Tribest, which they bought when their Magic Bullet died.

When the Tribest arrived, I was so excited. I thought it was going to look like my sister-in-law's personal blender. Unfortunately, it didn't. One of the reviewers described it right when they said that the plastic parts look cheap. The cups are fine. The plastic that holds the blade looks flimsy and cheap. It's made of an almost white, almost clear plastic that bends under slight finger pressure. It looks like it could warp very easily under hot soup or in a hot dishwasher.

I made my usual kefir smoothie, but made it with some strawberries I had. So I put the strawberries in first and blended them and then added kefir and honey. Despite blending them more than I felt they needed to be blended, there were still large bits of strawberries. It was fine to eat, but I didn't think the blender was that effective. And a previous critic (in another model of the Tribest Blender) accurately stated that you smell a burning rubber smell if you blend longer than a minute. But, hey, it's new. Many small electronics will smell like burning rubber when run for the first time. I have yet to find out what happens when I make TWO smoothies. I bought XL cups too, because I thought the 16 oz was too small, but I shouldn't have bought them. The 16 oz was a perfect size serving for me. Quantity control is key to every diet.

That said, the delivery was quick (but it was coming from California and delivered to California). It came nicely packaged in a box. It comes with extra amenities like a cutting board and a long handle spatula and of course, the mason jar converters. If you tend to use mason jars for storage, I recommend this model. Otherwise, don't waste your money.. buy the one without the extras, unless you think you're going to use them. I plan to make dressings and chop vegetables and garnishes with mine and store them in the refrigerator so I wanted extra small cups.

Cleanup is a snap. I hate cleanup chores so rinsing it immediately after the smoothie is not as cumbersome with the Tribest as the large blenders, even when the large blenders have the attachments for blending into travel size cups. I found myself cleaning the lid and the cup only, when I usually have to clean up the cup, the blade, the lid, the blender base and the counter -- my blend-n-go cups leak!

Pros:
Replacement parts are easy to find and you don't have to send a photo of the model in to get assistance.
Cleanup is a snap and there's less to clean.
It has a small footprint.
It's quieter than my Oster.
I can blend straight into a mason jar.
It blends my smoothie in a minute (but I don't use ice).

Cons:
The plastic lid that holds the blade looks flimsy and cheap.
The first use smells of burning rubber.
The plastic lids and sippy lids look cheap and feel cheap.
The spatula and cutting board are lame and you probably won't use them.
The cups don't have handles like Magic Bullet cups.
The blender base seems cheaply made compared to the asian personal blender models out there.
It's more expensive than the Magic Bullet.

Would I recommend someone to buy it? Hmmm... Having never bought a Magic Bullet, I don't know how it stacks up. But if I were to make the decision over again, knowing what I know now, I'd still buy a personal blender like this, whether it's Magic Bullet or Tribest or the Asian version, because they're A) easier to clean, B) my smoothies don't require a lot of power, and C) it takes up a smaller footprint and is quieter than my regular blender even with the blend'n'go cups.

We've owned this for 5 months. Originally bought a Magic Bullet which is poorly made but the same concept. We use our Tribest every day for smoothies usually. Well made, very sturdy, easy cleanup. It's so easy to use and clean, we use it much more than our old, big blender. Highly recommended.

I chose this blender because it was the only brand I found that could be adapted for use with glass Mason jars (I don't like plastic), with the additional purchase of an adapter ring. I loved that feature. I also really appreciated the design, which was elegantly simple, so that, in addition to taking very little space on the counter, as intended with a personal blender, it didn't add much "visual clutter." As for actual blending results, it didn't always puree blueberry skins as well as I'd have liked, resulting in smoothies that were a little more textured than smooth (to be fair, that was surely due, in part, to my tendency to blend for less time than necessary). But the real problem: The blender died after an all too short and very easy life -- no more than a single fruit smoothie per day, four or five days a week, for less than year. (I don't remember my actual purchase date, but the blender certainly died way too soon.) Also, while it was still brand new, I discovered that the rubber ring in the adapter was stuck and could only be removed for washing by ripping it out, thus destroying it. The adapter did come with a replacement ring, but getting the new ring to fit required a good deal of painstaking work to remove the chunks of rubber left stuck to the adapter when the old ring was ripped out. I tried to contact Tribest about this issue with no response until I left an irrate message saying that I was going to give the product a poor Amazon rating. The company then contacted me immediately and sent a new adapter, which arrived with the same exact problem. Rather than hassle with Tribest anymore, I did the painstaking scraping and made the replacement ring fit. Had I known the blender was going to die so soon, I wouldn't have bothered -- I would have sent everything back for a refund. Actually, had I known, I'd never have bought it in the first place. I would have stuck with my big old Oster blender, which is still going strong after nearly twenty years of blending vast quantities of soups, making bread crumbs, and countless other jobs.

I've battled with my weight since high school. I'm 50-something now and finally found a way to lose weight without feeling deprived, thanks to my Tribest Blender and Fiber One Bran Cereal, 16.2-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 6)!

I had reached an all-time high with my weight - 220lbs plus. I can't say for sure how much I weighed when I decided to start to losing weight (yet again), because I had stopped weighing myself once I hit 220. I didn't wanna know. However, my actual weight had to be 230 or more because I was wearing my 220lb jeans, but I could no longer zip them at all. So it was either lose weight, or buy a whole new wardrobe.

I started trying to find a diet that I could stick to, but I had to face it - I had tried them all, and always failed because of my ginormous sweet tooth. After about a week or two of depriving myself of sweets, I'd wind up breaking my diet. I knew the only way I was ever going to lose weight was to find a way to do it with, somehow, including sweets.

I won't bore you with the details, but I finally wound up creating a smoothie recipe that was so delicious that I didn't feel sweet-deprived. I substituted the smoothie for two meals a day and ate sensibly for the third meal. I LOST 50 LBS IN 6 MONTHS! Whoo-hoo!!! I haven't been this "skinny" for over 20 years!

I'm still losing too (-60 lbs at the time of this writing). It's been slower going lately, but that's because it's winter and I'm not walking my dog in the park for an hour 4 or 5 times a week. Once the weather warms up, I plan on going back to my walking and I'm sure the weight loss will speed up again.

I prepare my smoothies with my Tribest Personal Blender PB200 Super Convenience Pack. You drink using the container you used to blend, so there isn't an extra blender container to wash. Rinse the blade assembly with warm water immediately after blending to save more washing. I grind the Fiber One cereal in the small, 8 oz container first. Then, in the larger, 16 oz container or the extra-large 24 oz container (available separately), blend all the ingredients except Fiber One Cereal together, or just cover and shake, to make room for the cereal. Add the Fiber One last and blend thoroughly.

The commuter lids are great for taking your breakfast with you in your car. You can make and store smoothies in the 'fridge overnight, with the included regular covers, for a super-fast breakfast. You can also get replacement parts and extra accessories (unlike similar as-seen-on-TV products). You can also get an optional carrying case for the blender to take it to work or on vacation.

I like the mason jars for mixing and freezing both dry and wet ingredients with the Tribest, like ground flax seed and home-made veggie blends. You can get extra mason jars just about anywhere and also use them for freezing leftover or batch-made spaghetti sauce, soup, etc. Also dry ingredients like flour, rice, brown sugar (no more hard lumps!), bulk spices, etc. The dry products can store either in the freezer or on the shelf.

As far as some of the complaints saying that their Tribest blender died after only a short time - it has a built-in, shut-off mechanism to prevent the motor from over-heating, which can happen if the mixture you are blending is very thick, which over-works the motor. If you just let the blender cool off for a few minutes, it will work again. Thin the mixture with a little more milk or a few ice cubes.

There are several Tribest combo pack options for purchasing the blender which can save you money. Just type Tribest into the Amazon search to see them, and to see all the available accessories.

Anyway, enough about me - if you've stuck with reading this to this point, you're probably hoping I'll reveal my secret recipe. So, without further ado, here it is.

Basic Fruit Smoothie Recipe (makes approx. 14 oz)

1/2 cup Fiber One Original Cereal, pre-ground if possible
6 oz skim milk
1 cup fresh or frozen fruit (nuke frozen for 15 sec. to make blending easier)
2 Tbs Sugar-Free French Vanilla coffee creamer (optional), I use powdered
No-cal sweetener, to taste (add last, after blending and tasting)
1-4 ice cubes, if necessary, to reach desired coldness or to thin a too-thick smoothie

Frozen fruit works best because the smoothie will be very cold. Bananas can be frozen if you peel ripe bananas, slice into one-inch pieces, arrange on cookie sheet so that the pieces don't touch, place cookie sheet in freezer until bananas are frozen, put frozen banana pieces into zipper plastic bag, and return to freezer. You want to freeze the pieces on the cookie sheet first because if you just dump all the banana pieces straight into the plastic bag, you'll wind up with one giant frozen banana lump. You can use this method for other fresh fruit too.

Suggested flavors: Banana, strawberry, blueberry (my fave!), raspberry, blackberry, pineapple, orange, lime, lemon.

Suggested combos: Banana/strawberry, blueberry/strawberry, pineapple/banana, pineapple/orange.

Use fruit juices in place of fruit too. Use 6 oz. of juice or, if using frozen concentrate, 2 oz. of concentrate and 2 oz. of milk or the equivalent in ice cubes. When buying juices, choose only those marked as 100% juice if you want to avoid sugar.

I often use a few banana slices to sweeten, instead of no-cal sweetener. The banana will also add a little more thickness for the thinner consistency smoothies, such as those made with juice.

Other variations: Chocolate (1 Tbs cocoa added to banana smoothie), mocha (1 Tbs cocoa, 1 Tbs freeze-dried coffee, 2 more oz. milk, banana or no fruit), pineapple-upside-down smoothie (sweeten with Splenda Brown Sugar blend - it's half Splenda, half brown sugar), pumpkin pie smoothie (cook and refrigerate pumpkin first and sprinkle in some pumpkin pie spice), sweet potato smoothie (same prep and spices as pumpkin pie smoothie), banana nut (blend in a few Tbs chopped walnuts).

For those who want a bigger meal, add another cup of fruit and 2 more oz milk. Use the larger 24 oz container. You could also get all your fiber for the day in one meal by using a full cup of Fiber One Original cereal and a few more oz of milk, juice, or ice cubes.

The main point of using Fiber One in the smoothie is that it makes the smoothie meal very FILLING and will keep you feeling full longer. You can't get much more filling in a 14 oz meal than 14 grams of fiber! None of the commercial diet liquid meals can't touch that - and you pay a lot more for them. With two smoothies a day, you're getting over 100% of your daily fiber, 4 fruit servings, 2 cereal servings, and 1 1/2 dairy servings. Fill out your food pyramid with your third meal. Doesn't hurt to take a vitamin/mineral supplement also.

And, if you're really into veggies, you can make green smoothies with Fiber One too.

I LOVE MY TRIBEST BLENDER!!!!

************************************************

9/27/2010
UPDATE: I've now reached 100+ POUNDS LOST!!! *does cartwheels - now that I can actually do them ;) *

I'm now only 10 pounds from my target weight - 125 lbs. I still can't believe that I did it - especially since it was so easy for me. I didn't feel like I was on a diet at all. No counting calories, or points or carbs. No planning complicated meal plans. No guilt over the occasional fast food meal or candy bar - I just stick to the 2 smoothie meals a day. I think it was so easy because I like these smoothies so much that I actually look forward to them.

I plan on sticking with the smoothies after I reach my goal weight, but just one a day. I don't really WANT to stop drinking them - they're my all-time favorite breakfast and snack! :)

This product mixes and blends with good power and results. It breaks down ice cubes and just about anything you would put in it. Note; this unit will not replace your VitaMix blender but it does well as a replacement for traveling purposes. It is small, compact, and lightweight so it is excellent on the road. I really need to buy the large container next, that is the only shortcoming I see with it.

I ordered this item in March after going through a Magic bullet and Qvc's cook's essentials brand personal blender. We use our blender every morning for two smoothies and that is about the extent of it. We were pleased with our Qvc version (and have actually ordered two over the last several years) but after about two years the rubberized motor clutch finally disintegrated entirely. We thought we would try something else and chose the Tribest because it seems as though this company is geared toward the healthy lifestyle and would put more thought into their products.

The shipping did take some time, but we did in fact like the quality of the Tribest better, the base is sturdier and although the glasses are still plastic, they seem a bit hardier and the tab system is such that they won't be susceptible to break off like the bullet and many of the other blenders do. The style is prettier and the glasses fit into cup holders in the car better than the "footed" version of the Qvc brand and those ugly mugs of the Bullet. The clutch seemed better, there was no "clutch dust" blowing off each time because its designed better

THE PROBLEM: about 3 months into use, the non-rubberized motor clutch which seemed more substantial cracked and blew apart one morning. Needless to say, we were not thrilled. I like everything about this blender better so I called to get a replacement clutch. After a 7 minute wait on the phone I was told to leave voice mail or call back later. This happened 4 times before I got through. The CSR was very thorough, knew right what I was talking about and is sending one out under warranty. She did give me the option of sending it back for someone else to do it. I will keep you informed how this turns out, I really like it better but I hope that every three months I'm not calling for a new clutch!

Not very high quality. You'll find that the base is made of cheap plastic and mine has a broken gear gog after four months of once a day use. Several other reviews on the web confirm the same problem. IMO another poorly designed throwaway item. Very unfortunate since my mothers loves it and has been having healthy smoothies for breakfast for the last four months, untill it broke.

My wife loves this thing. She makes smoothies at least 3-4 times a week. We left our first one in the mountains so just had to get another one for our home. Now she has them at end stop.
Great for chopping finely to add things to cooking needs. Salsa idea is good only if you like pureed style. I like mine chunky so just add some more diced onions and tomatoes after chopping the first round. This is so easy we know it will be good!

I've had this little gem for nearly a year and am very satisfied. I mostly use it to make at home frappacinos.. ice, milk, flavored syrup and espresso. It works great and hasn't leaked yet.(Ice cubes are icemaker size, not large ones from ice trays.) One thing to keep in mind, it doesn't replace a large blender. Every now and then there are a few chunks of ice that won't fit up the straw but for the price, easy clean-up and ability to quickly make a drink on the run, its well worth it.

On a side note, if using it to chop ice in smoothies, I recommend leaving it in the unit and giving the whole unit a little shake to reposition the contents. It's easy to twist wrong way causing leaks when trying to reattach. Also, using a pulse method to blend helps items shift rather than a continuous run method.

In regards to the looks cheap/feels cheap, I find the parts to be constructed to my expectations. I've dropped pieces and nothing has broken or chipped. And the metal parts that chop and blend don't bend to the touch, I just went and tested it to be sure. I also like that cups have measurements on them, not sure if thats mentioned anywhere.