Dr. Rite | Tuesday, October 10, 2006
First, I am not an employee or vender writing commercial hype.
Yes its a good blender - A BLENDER, nothing else. It has a powerful AND VERY NOISY motor, such that its unpleasant to use for very long. For the store demos you dont hear this since the ceilings are 30 feet high, and their demonstration table is also high, with bowls of fruit etc blocking some of the sound along with a megaphone sales pitch.
Second at least mine 5000 series did an incredible job- ice would become invisible and freeze a drink, strawberries would be blended so thoroughly that there was no evidence of seeds. HOWEVER after about 3 months of casual use, ice blending was quite incomplete, and any fruit that was blended left tiny fragments of seeds etc - even after 5 minutes of auditorially painful turbo speed blending. Note - I even put the unit on a folded towel to help with the noise, it helped but not enough to make this a good kitchen device.
Third, for those bragging about cooking soup in the machine - thats baloney! If you start with hot water, yes it works, but dont think about using filtered tap water, because it will take forever and never be that hot. Does it really make sense to use a blender as a heater?
Fourth, you will notice during the demos how nice and shiny everything is, and how easy it is to clean. Well its almost easy if you rinse right away and that means not waiting 3 minutes! Other wise it will take some effort to remove whatever has stuck to the sides. The container also becomes permanently cloudy quite quickly and is really to large to fit nicely in the refrigerator (they dont recommend that) or easily under most kitchen faucets for cleaning.
Fifth, the white color fades into a yellow white, even if never exposed to sunlight. So a sligly yellow look makes it look cheaper than it is.
Sixth, if you use it to chop food, because of the depth of the container there is some moderate waste - hard to get the food out, it also sticks the the vertical ridges on the side.
Would I recommend a $400 blender - not quite. There are many nice units with a lot of power for around $50 and glass containers that really do clean nicely. A food chopper will do a better job then a blender, be easier to clean and zero waste; use a saucepan for soup.
Mine had or has a 7 year warrantee, which is nice but I could buy a new blender every year for the price and have money left over.
Overall: Good quality, Very Noisy, Blades dull fast, Container clouds quickly and looks unclean, awkard size and over priced.
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Update: Months later, I got of my okole' and contacted the company. The CSR was very nice, and after putting her ear to the phone decided the motor might have a lose bearing. Regardless she arranged for pickup, and the repair folks basically replaced the unit. While the "appearance" is corrected I really cant tell that it makes things super smooth - my guess is that the blades are made of lesser quality and dull fast but that is just a guess. Hot water from the tap is probably not healthy, but if that works for you why not? All my other comments stay the same but I will say I am VERY IMPRESSED with the Customer Service. Bottom line, as with most purchases, would we do it again? For me, not. Glass, quiet and a small easy to clean blender (Oster comes to mind) will do the trick. However I do love the VM store demos.