KitchenAid KSB5OB 5-Speed Blender, Onyx Black
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of KitchenAid KSB5OB 5-Speed Blender, Onyx Black
Customer Review: In LOVE with my blender
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, I am in love with my blender. I can't say I've ever owned another brand or even another blender--this is my first. Saying that, I know to never even think of trying another.I have had my Kitchen Aid for two years and it has yet to disappoint. I make everything from margaritas to baby food and have yet to experience a problem. Everything I make is perfectly blended each time. Being that I use this each week at least twice I can also say that it is excellent quality.
The base is very heavy and has excellent traction to keep it from sliding around during blending. The glass mixing jar is very thick and sturdy and the top fits so snugly I can't imagine that it could fly off while blending. Clean-up is equally as easy. The smooth touch buttons mean you only have to wipe the base. Never worry about sticky buttons! The glass jar easily screws away from the plastic base and the blade making washing a breeze. You can even put it in your diswasher!
I notice that some people have trouble with not getting smooth blends. Let me say that you cannot just let it run for a few seconds---be patient. I make baby food WEEKLY and it purees very nicely. I let it run for about a minute and the results are always top notch.
My reccomendation--BUY IT! You'll love it too.
Customer Review: quiet and powerful
Summary: 5 Stars
Like the majority of the other reviewers, I love my kitchen aid bender. The reasons include:
1) It is quiet for a blender. Sure, that means it's still a little loud but MUCH less so than cheaper models.
2) It is powerful. The lack of extra noise does not mean that it lacks any power. In fact, it is more powerful than any other I've used. My husband loves using it for his smoothies before work outs.
3) The non-tapering jar. The jar is short and wide which makes it easier to clean AND do a better, more consistent job blending with fewer stops to scrape the sides.
4) Quality blades. The blending blades are high quality and will work for years without needing maintenance. My husband loves knives and sharp things and owns many sharpening systems but never feels the need to touch the blending blades.
5) Easy to wash. The blender comes apart easily, washes easily, and goes back together easily.
6) Good buttons. They don't let food in and also are easy to use.
7) Good quality construction. The base is heavy enough to hold the blender in place when in use, the jar is heavy glass, the whole thing is sturdy.
8) It looks nice. AND it comes in lots of lovely colors.
Customer Review: Turns bananas into raw oysters
Summary: 2 Stars
This blender is big and heavy. It looks powerful. It looks capable. It looks great.
It performs poorly. It spends most of its energy in violent stirring, not blending.
1. It takes a long, long time for it to liquify the ingredients that go into a smoothie (yogurt, a little water, sunflower seeds, 3 or 4 pieces of fresh fruit, maybe some raisins, perhaps a nice little bit of honey).
2. Bananas. Gotta have 'em in a smoothie. What this blender does with them is unique, and darkly fascinating, and maybe just a little bit dangerous: it breaks them into segments, softens them somehow, coats them with some especially slippery banana by-product (banucous?), and, when tipped, delivers them, plop-plop, into your cup. If you're not ready for them, they can slide right down your throat.
3. I AM ready now, but it did take some getting used to.
4. Raisins are also problematic for this blender. Some of them convert to the liquid state, some do not; the choice seems to be up to them.
5. This blender does good job of crushing ice. I always throw a few cubes into a smoothie.
I'm saving my money for a vintage Vitamix.
Customer Review: Great.....while it lasted
Summary: 3 Stars
This was one of the best blenders I had ever owned. I used it weekly for smoothies and it made great margaritas. It's very powerful and easily crushes ice on even the lowest setting. Unfortunately, after nearly 5 years of use the rubber part that spins the blades became brittle and shredded off. And as many other people here have said, there is no way to repair this obvious design flaw in the machine and customer service is downright terrible. It served me well for the time I had it, but for over $100 bucks this thing should have lasted at least 10-20 years!
****UPDATED REVIEW*****
After a second call to KitchenAide customer service I was able to find a repair shop in my area. They were able to fix the broken coupler in less than 5 minutes and it only cost 20 bucks. The repair technician at the service center explained to me that this part is designed to break in case the blades jam in order to prevent the motor from burning out. This made sense to me so I am upgrading my review to 4 stars. I am still with holding 1 star because Kitchenaid customer service was so bad and it took a lot of work just to find a repair shop in my area.
Customer Review: Great for Frozen Drinks
Summary: 5 Stars
While I do spend a small amount of time in the kitchen, my real motive for buying a new blender was to produce certain frozen drinks, usually consumed by the 21+ crowd. I've been through two other blenders in the past year, searching for the magic machine that will produce the perfect smooth, icy drink. The problem with my first blender was that the result of "crushing" ice was a sludge of melted ice and ice chips. I moved on to a second, more expensive blender, but this one refused to suck the top ingredients down to the blades, so whatever was on the bottom stayed on the bottom. That one definitely wasn't worth its price tag.
I sucked it up and bought the KitchenAid, and I'm absolutely thrilled! Taking ice straight out of the freezer, in a few minutes I have a wonderful frothy ice mixture with a texture just shy of an industrial icee machine! I do have a tiny problem with ice cream in that I end up with tiny ice cream lumps. However, it may be that I just don't have the patience to blend them all the way out.
If it's frozen drinks or smoothies that you want, this is definitely a blender that will give them to you!