Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best (& Quietest) Blender I've Owned, May 20, 2008
Just finished my first blend - was a bit worried after reading all of the negative reviews concerning about whether this unit can adequately blend frozen fruit. First impression - very nice. Smoothie with frozen strawberries (+ almond milk & protein powder) was well blended. Unit did turn itself off, either from an (unseen) auto timer or the heat sensor issues raised in other reviews, but my smoothie was finished anyway. Very quiet blending - a huge plus as my cheapo blenders used to make me plug my ears and I'm sure woke the neighbors (apartment neighbors), as loud as jackhammers. So far so good, very pleased.
UPDATE: Many smoothies later - it occurs to me that those complaining about the lack of a "vortex" action, or incomplete blending, probably aren't following the blender directions. You must start the blender on its lowest setting first, then once the material has been broken down, you can move it up the speed list. If you make it go too fast too soon, there is no vortex action. My smoothies are chock full of frozen stuff and this blender handles it well (if I follow the unit's directions). Wonderful to be in the same room with an operating blender and not worry about hearing loss...
HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!
*UPDATE - 3 MONTHS LATER*
2 Blends a day, this blender handles it all, does a great job, still very quiet, I'm buying an extra for the office soon.
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64 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
All Mass, No Muscle, January 15, 2007
Given the name and great reviews, I had really high hopes for this blender. It is a solid blender, but it just did not blend solid food. At 1,000 watts it should have had the power to do what I needed it to do, which was to blend my frozen fruits into my daily smoothie. I use various frozen fruits depending on the flavor, as well as soy milk and yogurt (that I partially freeze as well to gain a certain consistency) and some dry ingredients, such as sugar and protein powder. My old blender, the L' Equip 228 R.P.M Blender, only had 900 watts and it handled the blending extremely well, but the shoddy construction of the L'Equip blender meant fishing out little bits of aluminum shards from my smoothie, which is what sent me looking for a replacement blender in the first place.
Right out of the box, it seemed solid, if enormous. This blender will hold about 33% to 50% more than your average blender, without really taking up more space, and I can see how that can be a benefit for someone who needs it. That black band between the silver and glass is part of the jar/blade assembly, it envelops the base and sits solidly on it, and this probably enhances stability. The parts seemed well made and durable. I like a glass jar better than polycarbonate because it will not scratch up, and the whole thing assembles for use and disassembles for cleaning very easily. I really liked the lid construction, because instead of being super tight it has tabs that you slide into position underneath a lip on the jar that keep it in place while blending, and you can still remove the cap to add things while blending. It has no stir stick, but I never really used that on my last blender anyway because I wasn't blending enough ingredients for the stick to be very useful.
So far so good, I like the parts and the construction, but the true test is in the actual blending, right? Since I use both frozen and partly frozen ingredients, for best results I always add the more liquid ingredients first and the frozen fruit last. Any other blender I've ever used before has had a vortex that sucked the ingredients down toward the blades, and how well they blended frozen foods was dependent on how much wattage power they had. Not so this blender. The first time I tried it I used my usual mix of frozen and semi-frozen ingredients and wound up with chewable fruit. To test it out further, the next day I did not partly freeze the yogurt or soy milk and defrosted the fruit first, and it actually would not even blend the fruit that day, instead the fruit just floated on top and spun in circles. I tried the various speeds and pulses, still no real blending action. It was quiet and I did not smell any peculiar odors like another reviewer mentioned, but it did not blend, and any benefit to the machine being quiet was drowned out by me yelling "get off your fat butt and work you big dumb blender!!!!" at it while it was running. Any neighbors who heard me are no doubt hoping my medical coverage includes mental illness right about now. And really, what's the point of a blender with so much power that ramps up slowly and can't blend anyway? Going 0 to 60 in 5 minutes or more in order to maintain peace and quiet doesn't impress me when you still cannot blend your food. It's like giving a Porsche to a little old lady to drive to the grocery store 2 miles away at 30 mph each week.
Needless to say, I boxed it up and sent it back. It did not blend my food, it stirred it, and I already have a spoon that does that.
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30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
dissapointing, January 11, 2007
This is a very loud and expensive machine that I returned because it gave off a funny smell when used and left my fruit shakes lumpy. Amazon quickly gave me a refund and I then bought an Osterizer Classic (retro red beehive style) which works great and is less than half the price of the Krups.
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