Blender Reviews

i am thinking about buying this blender in cabolt blue to go along with other kitchenaid stuff if the same color but these reviews sometime seam to talk about an older model of blender and not this newer one. Yes things do get redisgned over time and replacement parts dryup so don't blame them for not having any. It would be nice when reviewing the product to give the moden number and date purchest so we would know if your reviewing the older or newer models.

KitchenAid KSB5 5-Speed Blender, Cobalt Blue
I received my new blender today and need to show why a lot of these reviews do not imply to this new model blender.
1) Color: Yes the blender looks blue-purplish but this is Cobalt Blue, do not confuse it with navy blue. Yes the lid has a more purplish color than the base but you are comparing a plastic translucent cobalt blue lid that lest light threw it to a metal cobalt blue painted base that does not. The amount of light does effect the lid more than the base but it's not a big deal the colors are very close. Also the color does match my other Cobalt blue KitchenAid appliances I own, Stand Mixer, Chef's Chopper & Coffee Grinder.
2) Plastic Collar: There is none to wear out like on the older blender others have talked about, at lest none I can see or find.
3) The Lid: This lid is not a screw down like on the older blender but a push down lid like on other blenders so this is another sign that the reviews that talk about a screw down lid are referring to the older model. There is a removable cup that is in the middle of the cap like all blenders, twist to lock on and take off. The push down lid holds tight and you might need to remove the center cup to slide a finger underneath it to lift it off.
4) Glass Container: Of course it's heavier than a plastic one but you don't need to be a weight lifter to hold it. I like it better than a plastic one, feels safer and stronger and I know I will not feel scared of anything breaking threw like with plastic ones. There is a deep collar on the container that site deep on the blender base so no fear of the glass container flying off cause you need to pick it straight up. Very good safeties feature if you have kids I think, no way of knocking it off the base.
5) Blades: there is no plastic star wheel like on the older blender that so many have said broke on them. It's the crown type that a metal strip sites in like all other blenders have. The base may be wide and flat but the blades are set lower than the glass base so this should bring the food into them with easy and the blades are big.
6) The Controls: Very different that any other blender I ever had before. First there is an ON & Off button unlike others when you just go to the speed you want to turn the blender on. You must push the ON button that shows a flashing light, which means the blender is ready for use then you pick your speed or function which are labeled. Second the pulse button is it's own button, when you press this it enables a pulse function for all other speeds that when you push there button the blender will run until your finger is removed.

I ordered my blender a few weeks ago, and I haven't stopped using it since it arrived. The first thing I did after pulling it out of the box was to test it with a few cups of ice. I read other reviews which indicated the ice chopping ability was a weakness, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had a pitcher full of snow when I was done. We've used it for making smoothies, batters, dips, and for chopping walnuts so far... and so far, SO GOOD!! I know that not everyone can be pleased with a product, but I am completely pleased. The KitchenAid KSB5 has not disappointed me yet! I would highly recommend this to anyone in the market for a blender that not only looks nice, but works well.

I have had this blender for a little over 3 weeks and I love it. I have been using it almost daily - making shakes, smoothies, pesto and grinding cheese. It grinds ice and fruit beautifully. The clean up is easy and the parts are sturdy. The base is also easy to wipe off since there are no crevices for food or liquid to get caught. I love the cord wrap underneath the blender so that you don't have extra cord all over the countertop.
I have noticed that if you use ice cream or ice, you need to hold the blender jar for the first couple of minutes that you begin blending. Otherwise, the force makes the jar "jump" and make noise. After the initial blending, you can easily walk away and do other things while it finishes.
It's a great product and I am happy with my purchase.

I bought this blender for its jar size, its 600 watts of power and the Cuisinart name. I assumed that meant high quality and dependable. I bought it in 11/03 to make smoothies, milkshakes and the occassional pina coloda. Two weeks after I bought it, it stopped working completly. I returned it to the place of purchase for an exchange. I figured it was a fluke. Now, less than 6 mo. later the blade assembly has stripped (blade spins freely from plastic gear housing). I consider my use normal - smoothies 1 to 2 times per week and the occassional milkshake or pina colada. And, when I call Cuisinart to inquire about the warranty, I have to leave messages that do not get returned in a timely fashion. I am very disheartened over my expensive Cuisinart mixer.

I use this blender for two things: frozen fruit smoothies and milkshakes. I got it because my old blender was not powerful enough to chop up the deeply frozen strawberries I use to make smoothies. It is loud, but I expected that with the immense power that this blender packs (600w!). The three settings are enough, I use ice crush to blend stuff really quickly. Bottom line: Yeah it's loud, but comes apart easily and blends powerfully and quickly, I would buy this product again.

I am recently married and, because of this, we have been able to try out a few blenders. We have tried a $100 Oster, an $80 Waring, and this ...Cuisinart. The Oster worked fine, but it was very loud. The Waring worked ok, but it was very loud and broke after the second pitcher of drinks. Now, this Cuisinart is awesome. The 50 oz. jar is big enough for a pitcher of frozen drinks without overflowing and it is at least half as quiet as the Oster and Waring. With the Waring, I felt guilty about running the blender for more than 30 seconds in my apartment. But with this Cuisinart, the noise isn't a problem at all. This Cuisinart has the most power of the blenders I tested, and the ice came out the smoothest. I usually buy bags of ice to make drinks because the ice is smaller and "softer", but when I wanted to test this Cuisinart I had no bags of ice. So, I used the icecubes from my freezer which are bigger and harder. The drinks came out perfectly smooth anyway, without one piece of unblended ice. PERFECT!
The one thing I cannot comment on is the endurance of this blender. I've only owned it a short time, so I'm not sure about it's lifespan. But if a perfectly smooth drink made quietly is what you want, this is the blender to do it!

When I first pulled this out of my old dorm room supplies I was enthusiastic. It has a very nice, clean design. However, I was sorely disappointed when I tried to use it to make smothies with ice. It is VERY DIFFICULT TO GET IT TO CHOP ICE (it doesn't suck the ice to the bottom well). Go for something else. This model is inadequate. I'm looking for a new machine.

This blender is just ok. If you're making milkshakes or smoothies (minus ice) it works fine. Forget making any drink with crushed ice like a dacquiri or slushy. The ice ends up as 1/2" chunks. After suffering with this blender for a year, I just bought a KitchenAid Ultra Power. It is great!

I believe in the phrase, "you get what you pay for". There are plenty of blenders out there that you could have paid less for. There are some (no doubt) that are more expensive. This better than average mixer is perfect for home use. The stainless steel base is as tough as it looks. The plastic piece & blade on the bottom are fairly easy to clean & change if necessary. This blender whizzes thru ice cream shakes & frappes as well as those drinks requiring a lot of ice. Plenty of power too - make sure the lid is on or you'll be scraping that strawberry daiquiri off the ceiling. Great unit for the price.

I like using this blender for smoothies and whipping cream. Its a little awkward to hold but was very handy as my old kitchen had few outlets. But after a few months its a hassle. Water, or some liquid has gotten into the shaft containing the blade - I can hear it when I shake it but I can't get it out. I'm wondering if whatever is up in there is getting into food. The plug for recharging the motor section jammed and will not fully extend, so to recharge I have to use an extension cord or that component just about falls out of the outlet. Frankly, I'm fed up with Cuisinart. I just moved and was surprised to be chucking a toaster and a coffee maker - both with little use. This hand blender will likely soon follow.

Had this indispensable item for less than two years when it died. Worked well one day; seemed to be recharging but was totally dead the next day. Three year warranty, but you have to pay postage both ways (they require you to send $7 with the defunct product).

I recently got one of these, primarily to make cream soups, but you can use it for anything you would use a regular blender for. I have used it for many things. I had one of the oldest models that ever came out (another popular brand), so was able to compare the power of this new one to the old one I had bought almost 15 years ago. There is no comparison. This little gadget is so handy and powerful. It protects your pans or bowls with the plastic feet and whips up whatever you want blended in a jiffy. It works better than a regular blender, but not as well as a food processor. But, what the heck? There isn't near the cleanup involved either. Just remove the blade end and run under hot water and your job is done! The battery has held out for the job every time I use it, so the "no cord" feature has proved to be not only handy, but also acceptable. My only complaint is that you must depress the run button all the time. An on/off switch would be more convenient. No serious cook should be without one of these!

This blender lasted less than a week for me. The motor burned up and all I did was make some juice mixes for my morning breakfast. Didnt even get a chance to use the food processor. I do not recommend this thing to anyone.

...I decided to purchase it. I am truly disappointed in the blender attachment. I attempted to make 1/2 batch of pina coldas and the ice does not get chopped. For some reason it gets stuck in the bottom of the blender and the spinning blades do not reach it. I have to turn it off and on several times and switch power levels many times to get the ice cubes chopped. A 1/2 batch of pina coladas typically takes 5 minutes blending time, by which time most of the ice cubes have turned to water. I often make milkshakes as well and I have the same problem. It is very frustrating and embarrasing to have company over and try to be blending drinks and then apologizing that they are all lumpy with big ice cubes.

I used the food processor attachment and wasn't impressed either. The blades do not reach to the outermost portions of the processing bowl, so it is necessary to scrape the food back where it can be chopped. I've used it for making graham cracker crumbs and for chopping onions.

I will be shopping for a new blender that actually does chop ice...It was such a disappointment for me.

The motor is strong enough to make a good smoothie or salsa, and the space saving aspect of two tops for one bottom is great. It's not the best in the world, but for [the price], I can't think of a better buy in the kitchen.

Thsi blender worked well, and we were pleased with its relatively quiet performance. That is, we were pleased until, after just over a year of very light useage, it simply stopped working. Dead as a doornail. We had a really cheap blender that didn't work as well and was very noisy, but it at least lasted for several years.

Summary: great value, blender works as well as anything I've tried (even models costing many times more), food processor simple but effective at what it does.

I've had this product for about two months now. I'm very pleased with it to date. The blender is reasonably quiet and powerful, but most reviews told me that. The real surprise for me was how well the little food processor attachment works. It doesn't do anything fancy, certainly (no kneading bread or making pasta), and its capacity is obviously limited. However, for simply chopping veggies like carrots, onions, peppers etc. it's worked nicely for me and it's a whole lot more convienient to use than a humongous food processor. I see a review here that says the attachment doesn't chop well and tends to leave some large pieces while turning the rest to mush. I'm not sure what to make of this, perhaps they were putting too much in at a time, but I can report I've had no problems like that. I did have a REALLY cheap food processor that did things like that but this product is IMO easy to modulate.

....

I've had this blender and food processor for 1.5 years now, and it's a wonderful widget at this price point for a young person learning/expanding cooking knowledge, with limited kitchen space and a limited budget to stock kitchen tools and gadgets.

Kitchen appliances are like any other tool: buy cheap, buy twice. I'm glad I spent another $10-20 over the next step down, because a glass pitcher beats the heck out of plastic jobs that crack and split easily. My pitcher still looks quite pristine despite reasonable use! The speed and evenness of the blending is great compared to my various former roommates' machines, with a wide range of speed, and the option of separate power burst as well as ice-crusher functions.

Yes, the food processor attachment is a simple thing -- only one twin-blade attachment that fits on easily, somewhat small in volume -- and therefore won't do everything perfectly. But, the alternative is spending a lot more $$$ for a Cuisinart or whathaveyou. At my level of cooking and budget, I'm not going to shell out for the real, upscale Cuisinarts, so this beauty-in-simplicity food processor is a great addition, doing almost everything I need it to do (onions, peanuts, whatever). It takes up very little extra precious space in my kitchen. The processor also has a nice safety design-it won't fit onto the base until the lid is on correctly and everything turned into slots just right, such that you can't accidentally hit a button and process your fingers or send your vegetables flying. :-)

The thing I love most about both this blender *and* the food processor, compared to anything else I'd seen previously, is that all parts are well-designed for exceedingly quick and easy dismantling and cleaning, with few if any nooks and crannies that you can't reach. The hole-stoppers in both lids that also function as 2-oz measuring cups are an extra-but-minor plus--a shot measurer if you need it.

Bottom line: for me, this blender+processor has been a high quality device for a reasonable amount of money. Skilled/experienced cooks who have a need for greater versatility will probably want to buy a separate, more complicated, more expensive, and harder-to-wash food processor.

When I first bought the blender I thought it was wonderful with it's abundance of recipes,however, after I used it twice the plastic teeth broke off and I still can't contact the company to get a replacement. The number on the manual is wrong and no such luck otherwise. Huge waste of money!

This blender is very powerful and it crushes ice very well if used properly. (The trick is to chill the pitcher first.) And as I was looking for just a good blender that crushes ice, this alone is worth 5 stars. Period.

But that doesn't do this nicely designed blender justice because there is one little design feature that I believe most people would like. Look at the buttons. Unlike some other blenders, the buttons are sealed toggle buttons. I really like sealed buttons in kitchen appliances for two reasons: 1) you just can't get any little particles or water into the machine through the gaps between the buttons and the mounting surface---there is no such gap. 2) it's really easy to clean by simply wiping across the whole surface---no careful navigation needed and the time I saved during cleaning is well worth the price.

Now honestly I was very skeptical about the "computer chip" inside a blender before I bought it. And now that I have used it for a while, I can tell you that the computer chip is almost useless. See, it's just for recipe data storage and you can browse through them via that little LCD screen. Not that the recipes are bad (actually they are pretty standard like those from books), but that it's not really that useful in real life. If I am to design a blender with a computer chip inside, I guess I will consider how to use the computer chip to control the blending process instead of just for display. But unlike bread machines that need more sophisticated kneading cycles, I can't really think of how a blender would need such feature. As such, consider that a gimmick.

To sum up, if you want a good blender with an elegant design, then buy one. But if you are simply excited about the computer chip gimmick, well, maybe you can find use of it such as impressing your visitors.

I was assigned the task of obtaining a blender and a "smoothie" recipe book. My wife had a simple Waring in mind, but that model was not in stock. I looked over the features on this one as well as the preceeding reviews and decided to take a chance on the Lectrix and to take a pass on the recipe book. We have not been disappointed. This blender handles mixing chores with ease, and has no problems at all with ice cubes. It's also reasonably quiet. However, the best part is the built-in recipe book. It's simple and intuitive (we did not read the manual) and gives all sorts of great drink recipes, including the smoothie blends that were part of my original assignment. It's not often I go out on a limb like this and come off a domestic hero, but in this case, I've gotten 2 enthusiastic thumbs up from the boss!

I insisted on having an Oster, because that is the brand I have always had--I have old hand me down appliances from my mom--and they were great! Oster was THE blender, back in the day.
I bought this model because of the "ice crushing" claims.
My motor is burned out after using it to process banana peels and egg shells in water for my roses---!
I did not leave it running. I used it no more than 15 seconds at a time. I did not use it in a manner inconsistant with the instructions (I'm fairly certain both items are much softer than ice!)
I thought I was going to have to throw the machine outside it started smoking so badly!
I will NEVER buy another product from the Oster or any of their other many companies-.
I will get a crank ice crusher and I will let my banana peels compost with the rest of the heap.

I love this blender. We purchased it off [...] about 8 months ago, use it at least 5 days each week, sometimes twice a day, and love it. It does a great job of crushing ice for our smoothies, so I don't know why the earlier reviewers are having problems. We've used this to make salsa with just the right consistency, the smoothest of smoothies (no ice chunks here), gazpacho, whipping eggs for really fluffy omelettes, and mixing for muffins, cornbread, and cakes. This guy does it all with plenty of power to spare. With the easy clean button, clean up is a breeze. We take it apart once a week for a really thorough cleaning, but it's never looked gummy or dirty from the the easy clean method. We've had a series of other brands, including some [$$$] models, that didn't do half the quality blending of this one. YES, YES, YES. I would highly recommend this blender.

I use this blender or food processor EVERYDAY. In the morning, I make whole fruit smoothies, at night, we enjoy espresso drinks. The food processor is so powerful the other day I turned frozen berries into sorbet! I just put everything in gave it a rough chop on ice crush mode then turned it on and slowly started streaming in juice until it had a nice smooth texture. The only thing I can say for ppl who are having problems is they're not using enough liquid. You need at least a half cup of liquid to crush ice you can't do it dry. Milk shake add more milk, smoothies more juice or yogurt to thin it out, it will thicken up once the blade can freely whip air into it. Bottom line is if you want something powerful that does it all... GET THIS.

I'm sending my 2nd one back, both quit working the first month I used them.

The list of features and some of the customer reviews sounded great so I picked one of these blenders up. What wasn't mentioned in any review that I read is that it may be the loudest appliance on earth. The first thing I noticed, is that gunk gets caught under the rubber seal on the lid when you're blending - making the clean-up process a pain. That problem went away though, when the rubber seal split and broke off the lid. Then the little center lid in the middle of the main lid started to crack and soon it had dropped off the little notches that hold it in place. Customer service at Salton sent me replacements for the seal and center lid and they both lasted about another week once they arrived. The biggest problem, though, was that the blender top itself started shedding its graphite lube and shooting little black chunks into the rotary area. Again, Salton sent me a new one, and again the problem repeated itself within weeks. Just last night, probably due to the graphite storm in the blade assembly, the motor siezed up and seems to have blown out the computer. The shower of sparks from beneath the motor was exciting, but not worth the pain this blender has wrought upon my kitchen. Oh, and I just passed my one-year warranty, so I'm out to shop for a new, non-Salton blender tonight. SAVE YOUR MONEY - DO NOT BUY THIS BLENDER. IT IS POORLY MADE ON EVERY LEVEL.

This blender has great features and when you first buy it you'll think it's a super product. Unfortunately it doesn't hold up and getting replacement parts is a nightmare. In less than a year I've had to replace the blender container twice because the bearing wears out. This time I've been waiting for over 1 month for the backordered replacement to arrive and the factory says it could still be 4-5 more weeks! What good is the blender when it's grinding it's bearing parts into my smoothie???

I purchased this blender new in sealed box, got it home, and it didn't work. The motor did turn the piece upon which the blade rests when the container is placed on the base, but the blade itself wouldn't turn (or turned sporadicallyl) - it appeared to be stripped such that it wouldn't entirely engage. I returned the item (the retailer said, "yeah, you're right, it doesn't work."). After about two months of light use on the new one, the same thing happened. I had it repaired under warranty (paying the shipping myself, of course) and, one month later, the same problem occurred. Two blenders, same problem, you do the math.

I received this blender as a gift. It was purchased by someone who believed that Krups products are high quality and thought I would like the features. However, this blender is the worst I've ever used. I'm sorry that it is taking up space on my countertop and hope to replace it soon. I suppose it would be alright for someone who only wants to blend powder into a liquid, or liquids only. But, if you want to make a smoothy, anything with fruit, nuts, vegetables and/or ice, this blender (literally) cannot cut it without overheating and taking a very, very long time to accomplish the task poorly.

I like it!, but the problem I have found it with it is The Rubber Gasket on the button of the Glass Jar, is you don't align it perfectly then you will have all over the counter the liquid that you are trying to mix.

And then, other problem I have found out with it is trying to buy a new Rubber Gasket, Krupps doesn't have a place on the web or anywhere else, where you can buy accessories, so please take care of it.

The Blender (if you didn't break the Gasket) it's real easy to clean, to use, and all the buttons make it incredibly easy to get the results you really want.

If you press WHIP button, you really get it whipped. If you press the Mix button is really mixes it, crushed ice is perfect.

Overall is the best piece of equipment you can have in your kitchen, and best Blender I have ever used not design for industrial use, only and only If you don't break the Gasket!, then the whole blender is useless..