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I have been looking for a blender for a few weeks now. We have started making smoothies at home and burned up our old one. Our girls like the "Chocolate Elvis" recipe from the local smoothie place which contains peanutbutter, bananas, yogurt, ice, and milk. I guess this is really hard on blenders. I bought one at Target 2 weeks ago that had "700 watts peak power" on the box. It died in 2 days. The power spec on the bottom of the blender said 450 watts. I think that is false advertisement. I have seen this on 2 different blenders now.
I have been leery of buying any blender with the little plastic teeth couplers because of all the bad reviews here on Amazon. I also wanted to stay away from anything with only 450 watts.
I was in another store and saw this blender. It has a new design for where the blades couple with the motor. "Commercial quality couplers with 12 interlocking teeth....coated for quiet operation".
We have had it for a few days now and have made some pretty thick smoothies. So far, so good. No burning smell like the one that was immediately apparent with the Target blender. My youngest daughter complanied that her smoothie was "too smooth". I guess she got used to the chunks of ice that our past blenders have left.
Kitchenaid doesn't seem to advertise the actual power specs on their blenders. On the bottom of this one it says that it draws 6 amps. Which is about 720 watts or about 0.9 horsepower.
My only complaint so far is the soft start feature. The blade starts at a slower speed then quickly increases to the speed you chose. This process still throws everything up into the lid, which is what it should prevent. It works fine though as long as you have the lid on. It also works if you start with the slowest speed and work your way up.
Overall this blender seems to be well made and pretty well thought out. The cord storage on the bottom is a great feature. It has much bigger feet than the previous model. So far, I would highly recommend this blender for the person looking for a good blender in the under $200 range.
Added comments:
It is a year and about 300 smoothies later and we still have this blender. I would highly recommend it!!
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We bought this Kitchenaid blender over a year ago, and after several months the container started to leak. The leak was small, and we put up with it for awhile. We finally got tired of the mess, however, and called the factory. We were told that the container had been redesigned, and they would send us a new one immediately even though our warranty had expired. When we got the new one we could see that it had indeed been redesigned, and have used it for some time now, and NO LEAKS. A leak proof container plus the other great features of this blender now warrant a definite five stars.
3/24/12 update. Our blender is now five years old, is used every day, and has been problem free since they replaced the container in 2008.
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My husband and I make smoothies almost every single night (as in, 6-7 nights/week), so we're really hard on our blenders. We have been through 4 blenders in the last 3 years alone. We started with a cheap Oster blender, but quickly realized that it was pretty much useless for the thick smoothies we like to make. Next, I bought the Back to Basics Smoothie Elite, which was great for as long as it held up, but as it turned out, that was only 6 months. So, we upgraded to the Back to Basics Smoothie Professional, which was great until I dropped the glass jar into the sink and broke it, only to find that you couldn't buy a new one ANYWHERE so my $120 blender was now worthless.
After all this, I decided to stop fooling around and buy a Kitchenaid. This blender has all the power you need (way more power than any of the first 3 blenders I bought; both the smoothie blenders came with a stir stick, but such a thing isn't even necessary when you have the power of this Kitchenaid), and is a steal at $99, since we've had it for a year now and it's still as good as new. The motor is unstoppable, the blade is fantastic, it cleans easily, the jar is polycarbonate (i.e. unbreakable if you drop it), and there is a removable plastic piece in the lid in case you do want to use a stir stick.
I love this blender, and when it dies (which I hope/believe will be years from now, given how reliable my other Kitchenaid appliances are) I will be replacing it with the exact same make and model. It's everything a blender should be!
Honest reviews on KitchenAid 5-Speed Blenders with Polycarbonate Jars
I was loving this blender until a couple weeks into owning it and making smoothies daily, I noticed that it was leaking from the bottom of the carafe below the blade. The longer I used it, the worse the leak got until it was virtually pouring out of the bottom of the blender everytime I used it. So I returned it to Amazon and got a replacement. Thinking it was a fluke, I began to use my replacement blender. It is now a couple weeks old and again it is beginning to leak from under the carafe. The motor and everything below the carafe is wonderful, but it appears that there is a design flaw with how the blade is secured to the bottom of the carafe. The nut slowly begins to loosen and with time begins to leak. I would not recommend taking a risk on this model. Looking at the higher priced professional Kitchen Aid model, it appears to have the same carafe and may have the same problem so you may want to try a different manufacturer or research it further before making a purchase.
UPDATE: My original purchase was in 2007, and I'm surprised that people are still buying them in 2013 and commenting to my original review that the same leaky carafe issue remains. Buyer beware. KitchenAid customer service seems to be telling untruths to customers that the carafe has been redesigned, when it hasn't. I have often wondered if it's their own staff that is writing all of these positive reviews about the blender, because it's clearly poorly designed, and still leaks. Some food for thought before considering this manufacturer.
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Love how the blender looks, but it's got a major, major design flaw. The problem is that after a few weeks of daily use making my smoothies, a leak developted at the base of the jar where the blade attaches. This leak got progressively worse to the point that within a month, my smoothie was completely dripping out the bottom and covering the motor housing. There is a cheap plastic nut that holds the blade to the jar, and this nut will not stay tight. Tried retihgtening it multiple times by hand, but kept coming loose. Finally, I tried tightening it down with a socket and the rubber gasket that creates the seal got twisted from the added pressure and brokethus making the jar completely useless. There are other posts stating this problem-Strongly recommend you search for another blender. REALLY wanted this one to be a blender I would have for years, but, didn't last two monthsVERY DISSAPOINTED. Shame on KitchenAid for not using a stainless steel nut with a fine thread that could be permanently tightend. Advice to KitenAid-get design engineers with some experience, and dont cut corners! I really wonder if KitchenAid even tested this blender before they brought it to market.
