Blender Reviews

... and I have had several blenders. I was specifically looking for a blender for protein shakes and smoothies. I went to the Viking Store in Atlanta and did a side-by-side test with other blenders, incuding the Waring bar blender. The Viking's blades are noticably larger, and when we fired them up it was no contest. I have now owned this for about 4 months and never has it failed me (or left even a small ice chunk).

I love this blender! It is absolutely perfect for entertaining because of it's large capacity- one base (with two motors) and two containers (with spouts) which hold seven cups each. I use mine when I have parties, or on a daily basis to make milkshakes, smoothies, and frozen coctails. There is a drip tray underneath the spouts on the containers to keep your counter clean from drips and spills. Clean-up is a breeze, because the spouts are removable, as well as the grate on the drip tray. I previously owned a Smoothie Jr. blender by Back To Basics, and the motor quit after three months of heavy use. However this model by Villaware is made for heavy duty use, it is made to last. It's twice what I had paid for the Smoothie Jr., but it's also twice the capacity, it's really two blenders.

P.S. I have bought cookware and electronics by the Villaware brand before, and I have never been disappointed.

This blender is an awesome blender! Not only does it make excellent frozen ice drinks, smoothies, shakes, and protien drinks (Baskin Robbins, Starbucks, Cinnabon, Jamba Juice and many others use this brand of blender) but it also makes great baby food, applesauce, soup, ice cream, sorbets, peanut/almond butter, and the list goes on. I have had mine for 3 years and have had no problems. I live in a court and all of the neighbors LOVE to come over for a variety of beverages. (I even bought the special cups and straws that the restaurants use!) The best thing is that you don't need special mixes and powders. Just pour some milk in with fozen fruit, blend and enjoy! (It's much healthier for you, too!) You will be so pampered with this blender that you'll never use any other blender again!

The 50th anniversary blender appears nearly identical to the "Waring PBB204 Professional Bar Blender, Chili Red". The box indicates "Claret Red" as the color and the style as "R500GGT". To my eyes the red color tends toward black, not toward blue or orange.

The base housing is metal and solid with a heavy three-prong cord. The base of the blender is stamped "Waring Commercial". The motor purrs very nice at both speeds; it has a pleasant loud sound. I have not found it a problem to have only two speeds.

The pitcher is glass with an integrated blade. The top is rubber and has a removable plastic plug in it. To clean the unit you must rinse it then add water and a bit of liquid soap then blend for a while. I haven't found this to be too troublesome.

If you simply dump ice in the blender then turn the blender on it doesn't magically pulverize all the ice. Based on the product manual, the blender is designed to have ice added slowly to liquid already in the blender. This seems to work well and finely pulverizes the ice.

The Waring web site is http://www.waringproducts.com/

Several facts:

- 1 HP motor (on low setting this thing will crush rocks)
- All parts are serviceable / replaceable (just like any good industrial piece of equipment)
- Will pulverize ice drinks (margaritas) in about three seconds
- Made in USA!

I got lucky and found as an out-of-box special at my local Fry's electronics store for $99.90 - stole it. This is last blender I will own in my lifetime, what is that worth?

Yes you could spend less, and get an average household blender. But how often can you afford the best? Can you afford the best car in world, the best house???

I am very impressed with the heftiness and solid build of this stick blender. I have another Braun, much smaller, which now feels like a toy compared to this one. Time to retire the little, less powerful one. I also like the size of the food chopper - it is much bigger than the mini choppers that are in the market. You can easily put in all the ingredients for salsa or guacamole, and chop it all in one chopping session, rather than chop little portions as you would in a mini chopper. Much easier than hauling down the food processor. Great in-between size.

The ONLY reason I give this item 4 stars (would have given it 4.5, if I could have) is that it is much bigger than I had expected, and as another reviewer mentioned, the "base" of the stick blender is quite wide (2-7/8 inches in diameter) and therefore, does not fit most drinking glasses. Solution to this: use the included beaker then pour into the glasses. On the other hand, it is really nice to have the wider base for puree'ing soups - makes your job much faster, especially with its power. The whisk I really don't have a use for, much faster and less clumsy to use a hand whisk. But hey, it is still an added bonus.

One day, I'm browsing kitchen gadgets on amazon.com (as I am wont to do), and I see this hand blender. I think to myself "Gee, this looks pretty handy, but would I ever have use for one?" In another screen, I'm talking to a friend so I ask her if she has one. She says yes, and it is the best thing since sliced bread. She tells me there are some models you can't control the speed on and some you can and the variable speed one is the one you want. So I bought this one.

WELL. I don't know if there are enough adjectives in the dictionary to describe how much I love this thing. With the stick blender part, I make amazing strawberry-banana smoothies or rich chocolate shakes in a minute. With the chopper attachment, I made delicious salsa in 30 seconds or chop bell pepper for my quesadillas in less time than that.

I love quesadillas but I hate chopping the onions and peppers I put in them. I love fresh salsa but I hate chopping tomatoes and onions to put in it. This product has become my lifeline to quick quesadillas and salsa. :)

Don't think that just because your regular blender is on the shelf collecting dust, you won't use a hand blender. Trust me, my regular blender hadn't been used in YEARS, but I'm still finding new uses for this stick blender!

After much disappointment from another cheap piece, finally the one that works like a magic.
Powerful, quiet and versatile.
Definitely rewards you back for your money.

I have the new Froth 'n Sauce, which is similar to this except it has an additional whip that makes sauces and/or gravies. I love it! We have our cappuccino every night and this machine provides PLENTY of froth! The froth does maintain its shape (or form) for a full 45 min., if you can wait that long to drink it! No more froth dissolving into the hot coffee. I don't find the clean-up to be difficult at all. I rinse the unit immediately, and the milk coating really just rinses out. To make additional batches of froth or latte you merely rinse the container with cold water between batches. It makes wonderful hot chocolate even using the store bought chocolate milk! Low fat milk products work best.

Ever since I got my Froth Au Lait, I cannot wait to get out of bed in the mornings. I start my coffee maker, pour in the milk and VOILAA I get the best tasting cappuccino around (yes, including Starbucks). So easy to use, the froth is so thick and you can add many flavors. Its a great option if you want a delicious , low-fat dessert. I love it and cannot imagine life without it.

This hot milk frother is excellent. You get scalding thick hot milk for you coffee, with a topping of wonderful froth.I love this item. ready in 3 min, put it on while the coffee is brewing.

This has become one of my favorite kitchen appliances. It saves alot of time because now you can mix/blend whatever you want, wherever the food is, whether it's in a cup, pan or bowl. It doesn't matter! The variable speed knob gives you the freedom to blend how you please. Cleaning this couldn't be easier. You just snap off the bottom section and rinse it. It also comes with a chopper attachment to chop practically anything. The attachment wire wisk comes in very handy as well to mix things. When I used to make shakes just for myself, it was such a hassle using a regular blender and CLEAN IT! Now all I do is blend in the cup I will be drinking from, snap off the bottom part and rinse. Highly recommended!

I bought this hand blender to replace our old Braun 4166 hand blender which is 13 years old (still working fine, although the blades have dulled). The biggest advantage of this unit is cleanup. The plastic shaft on our old unit has gotten somewhat yellow from blending curried soups. The MR550MCA has a stainless steel shaft that is, well, stainless. Better yet, it easily detaches and pops into the dishwasher for painless cleanup! The motor is also more powerful and less noisy. There's every reason to believe that this unit will also last 13+ years. I haven't tested the chopper and wisk attachements -- that's not why I bought it. The chopper looks pretty good, though. This makes a great gift. (I gave it to my wife for Mother's day.)

If you don't already own a hand blender, you don't know what you're missing. We use ours almost daily to make smoothies. It's especially good for pureed soups. No need to transfer the soup to a blender, just pop the hand blender into the cooking pot! Hand blenders may not replace regular blenders all blending jobs, but for many tasks they're easier to use and reduce cleanup.

Seldom have I ever bonded with a kitchen gadget so quickly! This blender definitely deserves to be called a kitchen tool. It is used in our kitchen almost daily and replaces a lesser Braun hand mixer. In fact, my wife and I burned through two of the less expensive Braun models before we found this. And it has been hard at work in our kitchen for about nine months now, showing no signs of wear.

We use this unit most often as a blender - about 90% of the time it is used to blend protein drinks or make fruit smoothies. I find it much easier to use a hand blender with a large container for making drinks than to use a conventional blender. Clean up is much (MUCH) easier and quicker as well.

I didn't think I'd be using the other attachments, but the chopper and whisk attachment have proven useful and effective. The whisk attachment is great for beating egg whites. I use the chopper for medium sized jobs like chopping and blending herbs, shallots or garlic. I find it doesn't give enough control for jobs like chopping onions.

The other killer app for this appliance is blending soups. Rather than the mess and burn risk of pouring hot soup from sauce pan to blender - just stick the Braun directly into the sauce plan and blend in place. It works great and is again much easier.

If you have used a lesser model hand blender, you have no idea what this unit is like. It has far more power, is more flexible, and generally more useful. If you are thinking about buying this unit, I can heartily recommend it!

I thought I'd finally found the perfect blender, and it worked great - for two months. I used the blender exclusively for smoothies, usually made with chunks of frozen banana, OJ, and yogurt. I was careful to make sure the blender was running and there was plenty of juice in the jar, but the "all metal drive" broke - there is actually a hard rubber coupling beneath the drive spindle, and it sheared right off. Oh well - on to the next blender! I also have to agree with other reviewers about the noise - this puppy will wake the dead! Don't plan on making midnight snacks with it.

This is a very powerful blender. It is just like the restaurant types used to make the frozen drinks. It blends wonderful and completly crushes the ice in the drinks. The only downfall is that this is EXTREMLY LOUD!! I ended up with a headache after using it for the first time. It sounded like a jet in my kitchen.

I've burned through 3 other brands of blenders -- each time the plastic "spinner" in the motor base (which mates to a plastic spinner in the pitcher's base that turns the blade) broke. Finally we decided to try out the Oster "Classic" because it uses a metal shaft that fits directly into the pitcher's base to turn the blades rather than the plastic disks that all the newer blender designs seem to use. That does the trick. I make a lot of fruit smoothies using frozen fruit -- which can be pretty hard on blenders -- but so far the Oster Classic has been up to the task. I highly recommend it!

My former roommate had this mixer when we lived together, and we used it all the time, especially for making salsa and smoothies. This unit takes the place of about 5 other appliances! I was in the market for a mini food processor, but after rediscovering this now I don't need one! It is also extremely easy to clean, and you should keep the box for storage-makes it a lot easier to put away. I can't say enough about this Braun Multimix!

If you don't have the space or the money to invest in three products--a mixer, blender, and mini-food processor--this is a great deal. (It also has dough hooks.) I just bought my second one. The first wore out (motor began to die) after about 8 years of nearly constant use. Some of the plastic parts are delicate--I dropped the chopper adapter soon after I got it and it chipped--but still worked. After about 7 years--the blender shaft broke. (There is a model called the M880M that has a steel blender shaft--but it's really hard to find.) I was able to find a replacement part rather easily (on-line) for about 8 dollars. Someone who cooks a lot might want a larger food processor that could support different blades and slicing disks--but this works well on many items--nuts, tomatoes, onions, etc. The chopper also has a lid for storage--which is a nice plus. The hand blender is nice for small jobs too--a smoothie, or to blend some soup. Again--if you really use the blender a lot or for large volume items--you'll probably prefer a stand-alone product. The mixer is fine for all needs. It beats egg whites, butter, and anything else I've tried quite well. The whole thing cleans very easily as well and is quite easy to use and store. A good buy.

I teach cooking classes at a local community college which has its own large food processor. But I found that by the time we got the food processor set up, chopped what we needed and then washed for the next student to use, a lot of time was wasted. So I started bringing my own Braun Multi-Mix to class. They were so imporessed that now the school owns some and we hardly ever use the large food processor anymore.

I love what this powerful little motor can do. I love cooking with nuts and chopping them is a breeze. I can even make nut flour because it chops the nuts so finely. I can enjoy making bread because of the dough hooks, I love the blender for pureeing soups - the motor is strong enough to plow through any thick dough you could mix up. But I would have to say my favorite thing about this processor is the chopper.If I chop meat into small pieces I can even have ground pork or chicken. I do a lot of Thai cooking and I am always chopping vegetables. If it wasn't for this gadget to chop my nuts and my fine Wusthof knives - I don't think I would enjoy cooking so much! This processor makes cooking fun.

The other great thing about this is that cleanup is a breeze (unlike that of a large food processor) and it stores so easily.

Some people have mentioned that they have a hard time finding it at a land based store. I bought mine (I own two) at Linens 'N Things or at look at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I believe I bought mine there for around $40 but that was many years ago and worth every cent. Look for it by the blenders and small applicances.