Are you looking for a blender that will last more than a few weeks or months? Then you'll want to think about the KitchenAid blender.
I bought a 5 speed KitchenAid blender ten years ago, for $100 on one of the shopping network channels. At the time I was worried about spending $100 on a blender - after all, you can get them at Kmart and Walmart and online for $30 all day long!
But in this case, you DO get what you pay for.
My KitchenAid has been going strong for ten years with no sign of stopping.
Things I particularly like are the fact that the pitcher is glass, it's heavy and substantial and holds up to anything. The pitcher jar unscrews from the base for easy cleaning, and it's simple to pop in the dishwasher. The base has a strong.9 horsepower motor, and blends anything. Every morning I make my family fruit smoothies for breakfast with frozen strawberries, peaches or cherries, and some milk or yogurt along with protein powder. This blender is able to handle anything I throw at it!
The top is two pieces, the rubber-ish (I don't actually know what it's made of but it feels like pliable rubber) stopper with a center clear plastic cap that unscrews if you want to add something to the mixture inside.
There has been one issue that we deal with periodically - the blender coupling tends to wear out after so much use. The piece I'm talking about is the small black spinner with fingers that twirls the blender prongs, located on the top of the motor, but outside the pitcher. The good news is that these couplings are easy to buy and replace for about $5-$10.
I was a little unhappy with having to replace that coupling on my KitchenAid blender, but my husband explained that the rubber coupling is a good thing. He told me that if it was metal, it would constantly grind. He said metal-to-metal contact means constant wear. In this case, the rubber piece contributes to quieter blender operation and prevents the motor from burning up if it was prevented from turning by some hard substance (the rubber coupling would give first).
Okay, so in the past ten years I've replaced the coupling twice. Not bad for daily use for the past decade!
KitchenAid makes three types of blenders: three speed, four speed and five speed. I'm pretty sure that I could get along with only three speeds, but my blender has five options including a "pulse" option that I like very much.
Yes, you may need to spend a bit more for your KitchenAid blender, but isn't it better to buy something once, and know you can count on it for years?
