Oster 4119-022 2-Speed 500-Watt Beehive Blender
by Oster

List Price: $94.99
Category: Kitchen
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Product Summary

• Powerful motor blends, chops, grinds, grates, and crushes ice
• 2 speeds plus low-speed pulse function for just the right amount of control
• 40-ounce, ribbed-and-tapered glass container
• Classic beehive-shaped base clad in chrome; rubber feet equals stability

Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Oster 4119-022 2-Speed 500-Watt Beehive Blender

Customer Review: Old Faithful
Summary: 4 Stars

In those 2.5 years, I've had to replace two glass jars. You know that plastic cap that screws onto the bottom of the jar? Well, after a few years of screwing and unscrewing it, the glass screw-threads on the jar cracked.

So I ordered a second glass jar from Oster. Then I did it again. So I got wise and bought a plastic jar and have had no such problems since. (I did have a bit of a problem because Oster didn't send me the appropriate plastic jar, and then mistakenly assumed the lid for my glass jar would fit on the plastic one too, but eventually I got that worked out too.) All the other parts of the blender have held up just fine.

The blender will pulverize ice, even those big curvy-trapezoidal chunks ~2 inches long you get out of the fancier refrigerators today. But if the mixture inside is too dry or too chunky, the blades will create an air pocket and spin uselessly, even if you try to "pulse" the blender by turning it on only briefly at the slow speed setting.

The dread air pocket problem is quite a nuisance, because it means you have to stop the blender, take off the lid, and use a spoon or some device to push the gunk down towards the blade and break up any air pockets down there, possibly repeatedly. Possibly repeatedly. Possibly repeatedly. Possibly repeatedly.

What a hassle! As a work-around for that problem I've honed my smoothie formula very precisely in the last 2.5 years, both in terms of the amount of each ingredient used and in terms of the order in which they're introduced into the blender, and I blend in stages. You can't just throw everything in at once and flip it on and expect it to come out right. No; for best results, I find I have to place the Gatorade in first, then the protein powder. Then I blend those two alone. Then I add the frozen fruit. Blend again. Finally the ice cubes, and one last final blending.

Another problem I note with this blender is that my smoothies are so thick that you can put more into the jar than can possibly be blended. In other words, sure you can "fit" five cups of smoothie materials inside the jar, but only the bottom three cups or so will actually churn when you turn it on. The top layer will stay perfectly still as the bottom layer mixes. (For me, this means ice cubes calmly floating on a tranquil smoothie surface while everything beneath cycles through that savage vortex.) Then, again, you need to take off the lid and mix manually with a spoon. Possibly repeatedly...

Would a more powerful motor resolve this "layered churning" problem? I dunno, but it's already 500W as it is. (Or was it 450? I forget.) Any more and you might really need ear plugs.

Still, I've honed my smoothie formula precisely enough that I can live with these limitations, and I suspect that other blenders suffer from the same maladies, probably even more acutely. Overall I'm very happy with my faithful Oster.

Oh yes! One final thought -- this Oster blender has parts which have to be hand-washed: the rubber O-ring and the blade. That's also a hassle, so if you want to be able to toss everything into the dishwasher you might consider a fancier, and pricier, blender (such as a Waring model) where the jar is one piece (doesn't disassemble), and is therefore completely dishwasher-safe.

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