So, I’m tired of crappy plastic blenders that leak from the bottom almost the second you get it out of the box. If I were to want to buy a blender to outlast all blenders, which one would you recommend? (Also, I like the little spouty thing at the bottom of blenders, but I think maybe that’s something that only exists on the cheap blenders that I keep buying?)
Wish I could help, but I only have one blender that is used about once every 12 years and to be honest, I am not even sure where I have tucked it away.
I know that Target has a nice selection, and some of them are shiny and pretty.
We had an Oster that lasted 30+ years without a problem. It looks like their current models receive good ratings and they are fairly inexpensive.
Among the restuarant trade Waring and Vitamix are heavily favoured. For stick blenders, try bamix and Robot Coupe
I bought a Vita-mix about a year ago, and it’s the best blender ever. It not only will last forever, but it works better than most blenders. I dunno what you use your blender for, but if you need to do things like liquify stuff for soups or juices, this thing is amazing. Of course, for the price, it better be amazing.
I don’t know why their ads/website looks so much like a Ronco/Ginzu place, but try to ignore that. The product really is good. One of the most fun things it will do is that if you fill it up with cold water and turn it on, the friction will heat it to boiling within about 5 minutes. Completely useless feature, but so cool!
Well, Kitchenaid seem to have the best reviews here
My mother has a Kenwood Chef mixer/blender/liquidiser that she has been using daily since 1978 if that’s any help.
Magimix is another reliable, solid brand.
As mentioned, I am not a blender person, but wouldn’t the fact that it turns cold water into boiling water be a kind a bad thing if you were making Margaritas?
No, because good Margaritas are served on the rocks.
But if you’re worried about shaved drinks in general, the answer is No. It takes 5 minutes to get water boiling; going from ice cubes to the perfect shaved ice drink takes about ten seconds. No chance of melting there.
My recommendation is Oster. My mom’s had hers for at least 40 years. It’s strong, like a jet engine, and simple: On, and Off. Up and down toggle switch. None of those banks of stupid “low-to-middle highspeed semi-liquify” buttons. I bought one for friends when I was living with them a couple years ago, and its simplicity and reliability are revalatious.
I myself have a KitchenAid, but I would trade it for an Oster any time. THe KitchenAid’s machine-jar gear interface is rubber, and sometimes when it’s been running awhile (big batch of mayo), I can smell hot rubber. The Oster’s gears are metal, no such problem. KitchenAid’s blades are not sharp, which is a plus: they’ll never grow dull because they’re not *about *sharp. My mom’s blades have a few knicks, from dropped spoons etc., but they’ve never needed replacement or sharpening.
Ditto the Oster. We finally dumped ours, not because it was broken or had worn out after 20 years, but because we hadn’t used it once in the last 5. I can do just about everything better with a food processor and a stick blender. YMMV, obviously.
My great old Oster blender got ungifted 
About 15 years ago when I went to college I got to look through most of the old stuff my dad had had in his bachelor days. It had been in storage since my dad had last used it 20 years before that. Among them was a clasic old Oster blender that worked perfectly. The big old heavy duty eveything kind with a huuuuge motor. It worked so well I kept keeping it as I moved finally into my own house. One day my parents came to visit. Apparently my mom had decided to redo the kitchen in retro style but was unable to find a suitable blender, But she and loved my blender, which she had never seen before. My dad says he was tired of looking at blenders.
There was some discussion over what was a gift and what was a loan, but at the end of the day I no longer had a blender :mad:
Here’s the Oster I bought my friends. My moms has a white enamel base, but I think only the steel is available nowadays.
Hm. Judging from the feedback, which is almost all 5/5, you should maybe still go look at them in person: looks like some models come with rubber interfaces. Get the metal one, even if it costs a little more.
My mother still has the same Oster from when I was kid, so 30 yrs and still doing it’s job.
I have Waring Pro that I have enjoyed for the past 3 yrs without any problems. And we do love our frozen drinks!
The E-Z method of buying one blender. Ever.
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Buy a blender.
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Get married. You will likely receive about thirty blenders. When one craps out, open another one.
I have the Beehive, in chrome. Fantastic blender. Crushes ice like there’s no tomorrow.
It weighs about 800 pounds, and I’m always worried my tipsy friends will break the heavy glass carafe after the third batch of daiquiris, but so far so good. I LOVE my Oster Beehive.
I haven’t noticed any non-metal parts on my blender blades or motor, so I guess I have one of the good ones. Mine’s about 6 years old.
I’ve got a Vita-Mix, too. Lemme tell ya, it’s a truly professional item. We’re talking 11+ amps of ice-pulverizing, egg-beating, batter-mixing, milk-shakingest blending power! Pack it with the hardest, coldest ice chunks and it powderizes it all in a few seconds.
I once took it to a friend’s house during a party for daquiris. Someone who wasn’t paying attention accidentally turned it on without the lid and painted about a third of the ceiling strawberry pink.
I’ve never heard the boiling water trick, tho.
I have a KitchenAid blender. I recomend it. It is very heavy and very strong (as my right hand found out the hard way a few years ago). It doesn’t appear to be aging. It has digital controls, but so do most these days. My parents had an Oster for 30 years, but it did eventually slip into a coma and died.
Mr. Legend and I skipped the first step of this. We opened the Oster blender first, and we’ve never had to resort to the second, off-brand, one. Perhaps we’ll dust it off to make frozen daquiris on our 25th anniversary come May.
I have exactly the opposite tack: we have a $30 smoothie Jr. We are PROFESSIONAL margarita drinkers. The Goal is to wear out one blender a year. Sadly, we’ve been doing it for 6 years and have only gone thru two blenders.
There’s something intensely satisfying in mulching frozen strawberries where you can smell the ozone and the poured drink has a fine mist cascading off it.
Frozen Strawberries + Hornitos + Cointreau + Mr & Mrs T’s strawberry marg mix + Blendy goodness = numb cheeks by the second drink.