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KitchenAid KSB5WH 5-Speed Blender, White

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Aik...@frederica.com

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May 22, 2009, 8:11:14 AM5/22/09

List Price:$129.99
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Best price found: http://bestdeallocator.info/index.php?id=B00004SGDI

Terrible blender that doesn't blend very well at all. I've had this blender for about 3-4 years and never have been happy with it. I honestly can't believe KitchenAid is still making it, because it's such a horrible design. Try to make smoothies or daquiries, and fruit comes out in chunks. No matter how long I leave it on 'liquify', it isn't capable of liquifying anything. The settings for 'puree' and 'liquify' should be labeled 'chunkify'. Immediatly after the warranty expired, it started making a horrible rattling sound, and it's just getting slower and slower. However, can't blame this malfunction for its poor performance; it NEVER blended anything well, even when it was brand new and appeared to be working as designed. This blender's controls are weird and difficult to learn - definitely not very intuitive, as I have to fiddle around with them every time I use the blender, to relearn them. Also found that I have to push harder and harder on the buttons to make it work. I expect them to stop working altogether soon, so I'm looking for a replacement now before it dies. Now, you might think 'hey, this guy's had this blender for 4 years so it can't be that bad'. But after paying a premium for this blender, I was really just trying vainly to get my money's worth out of it - wasn't worth the hassles, so I'm cutting my losses at last. There's really not much to a blender, and a decent one should last a good 10 years, so this one is going to the dump WAY before it should be. Bottom line: Don't go for the glam shot here; this blender is all beauty and no brawn. Not even worth the shipping cost.
I purchased this item and like many before me expected this to blender to last a lifetime. However, what I received was a nice blender that had one severe fault, the teeth on the gear where the two pieces met completely disintegrated on me. As a chef I expect and demand quality when utilizing my appliances and up until a month ago this blender performed near flawlessly. It blended, chopped and pureed with ease with the occasional mix or stir to fully incorporate the ingredients. What took place during the last blending was disaster. I was blending up some ice-cream, milk and pineapple for a smoothie for my son and wife. The blender started to wind up and make all sorts of strange noises and then sounded as if it was going to spin out of control. I shut it off and tried to wait for it to stop but when I took off the jar out shot gear teeth which I blocked from hitting my son. I contacted KitchenAid and they apologized and sent out a new version with a Polycarbonate Jar and it's worked quite well. My advice is to get rid of this blender by calling KitchenAid and exchanging it out for a newer, safer model. It's not worth the risk on this ticking time bomb, because you may never know when the gear teeth have had enough. If you continue to use this product be very careful and continually check for damage or wear on the gear teeth and replace it as soon as you notice a problem.
Blender's coupler broke to pieces three months shy of 4 years. At this price, I would have expected it to last much longer. After doing some basic online research, turns out to be that it is fairly common problem. Most reviews I read about it say they experienced this problem between 14 and 36 months after buying the blender. It also looks like kitchenaid will enforce the 1-yr warranty (i.e., they will not repair this problem free of charge), and also that some people have managed to fix their blender by pulling the broken coupler with pliers and installing a new one available thru online parts resellers. I'm not sure that I want to try that. We're not heavy blender users, and we always took good, reasonable care of it. As a new blender, it never worked very well. There were always large chunks of stuff left over in the blender, even after letting it run for several minutes. So all in all, this was a huge, expensive disappointment. I think I would have gotten the same level of service from blenders costing 1/4 this much.
I have both a KA stand mixer and KA dishwasher and love both of them. I didn't mind paying a premium for the KA name on a blender, but what a disappointment! The good: The profile is esthetically pleasing. While the glass (that's very good) container seems a little small, it's just fine for most blending tasks. You won't want to make margaritas for a crowd (or ANY margaritas for that matter), but for one or two servings, it's generous. The squatty wide-mouth shape is very nice for cleaning and scooping. The bad: It's not very satisfactory for chopping hard items--it just rounds the edges of Parmesan cheese and ice chunks. The ugly: The little round things that secure the blender to the base come off REALLY easily--I've only used this blender four times, and three of the little round things have come off. The only up sides are the shape, size and the glass container, but it's very expensive for a piece of kitchen sculpture. The KitchenAid name is very misleading on this particular appliance. Not recommended. I would have given it only one star but I hit the wrong button!
I bought this item because of other Kitchen Aid products I've used in the past and liked. It did not live up to my expectations. It runs very well but if you don't hold the bottom of the blender when you remove the jar, you end up with your food all over the floor. I wash it immediately after every use with warm soapy water, yet the base is now stuck and I can no longer remove it. Imagine having to tip over the entire blender, motor and all, to pour out the contents. Years ago I had an inexpensive Sears blender that was wonderful. I used it all the time until it wore out. In comparison, I rarely use this one which has many more settings because it is such a chore to use. I'm one to return items that don't work. Unfortunately, it took me awhile to use this the first time and because it was Kitchen Aid, I thought I was doing something wrong. I wish I would have returned it. Now I'm thinking about throwing it out, which will be hard to do as it works, and buying one that I will actually use like my old cheap but easy to use blender.
KITCHEN AID 5-Speed ULTRA POWER Blender KSB5WH - Heavy-Duty 40 ounce Glass Jar Sure-Seal Stainless Steel Blade Assembly Step Start Feature Clean Touch Control Pad Easily Wipes Clean Space-Saving, Easy-Clean Design Sturdy Metal Base Under Base Power Cord Storage Instruction and Recipe Guide with 75 Recipes Assembled with Pride in Greenville, Ohio Dimensions - Height 15.0 Width 7.0 Depth 8.0 / Weight 13.2 lbs Kitchen-Aid Exclusive Hassle-Free Replacement Warranty - If your countertop appliance fails for any reason during the first year, KitchenAid will replace it FREE OF CHARGE
This is the blender of the future. It performs all the traditional blending tasks (crushing ice for margaritas, thinning ice cream) plus you can use it like a food processor (mincing garlic, puréeing peppers). The wide jar is rounder and squatter than old-style blenders, which makes it easier to reach in and scrape the sides (when the blender is off!). To reduce splatters of strawberry daiquiri, the Step Start feature starts blending slowly, then picks up to the chosen speed. This blender also comes with a booklet containing 75 recipes--my favorite is the Frosty Chocolate Raspberry Latté. --Dana Van Nest Editor's Choice:KitchenAid's five-speed blender has a number of functions that set it above the crowd as our choice for best blender under $100. It starts with the five speed settings and the pulse function, which works at any of the speeds--a really nice touch. The blender's 40-ounce glass jar has a squat shape, making it more manageable than taller blenders, and comes completely apart.