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Choosing Your Blender
First, look at how you cook and make drinks to see you you'll be using the blender. You'll need a standard kitchen countertop blender if you are going to be blending ice and tough ingredients and making thick smoothies. These blenders feature large jug containers made of glass, plastic, or polycarbonate. They also have powerful engines, ranging from 450 watts to 2 or 3 horsepower. You'll also find the speeds on these blenders will vary from 2 to 15 on some of the high end blenders. One of the best standard countertop blenders on the market is the Vita-Mix 4500, which has a five year warranty and 1380 watts of power.
If you are always on the go and only need small portions for your smoothies, then a personal blender is a very good option. One example of this type of blender is the Hamilton Beach Single Serve Blender. It has small cups where you blend your ingredients. You can then carry the cups with you. These cups are so convenient that you can put them in the cupholder of your car. You only have one cup to clean too, which really saves you a lot of time.
If you need to get down in a boiling pot and blend soup, then an immersion blender is the way to go. They are also useful if you move around your kitchen a lot. The Braun Hand Blender has 15 speeds and 400 watts of power and is one of the best of hand blenders on the market. Hand blenders are long and thin and can be moved easily around the kitchen and submerged in boiling pots.
Blender Features
Once you've decided on the type of blender you need, you can start looking at features. Capacity or the amount of ingredients you can fit into the blender container is very important. You can blend lot of ingredients if you get a large capacity jug like 64 ounces or so. Another important factor is the container's material composition. Polycarbonate is one of the best materials, but it also expensive.
You also want to make sure your blender is dishwasher safe, which makes clean up a snap. The power of the engine is also very important. You want to be sure that your blender has enough power to get the job done and not leave any ice chunks in your smoothie. 450 watts and up for a countertop blender is usually good. You can get by with less power on a single serve blender because the container is smaller.
How expensive is the blender you're looking at? You'll find that you usually get what you pay for, the best blenders are the most expensive. There are some quality models that you can find for less though, that work very well. The Oster Fusion blender is a great option for only $80 and it has many fantastic features.
Consumer Opinion
Reading owners reviews on-line is also a great way to help you make your decision. You can find these on many sites including GoBlendIt.com and Amazon.com. If you really want to make sure you don't get a lemon, then you better take a look at some consumer reviews. Many marketers make blenders sound great, but consumer reviews will reveal if they really are that good. You can find out about product defects, and quality and reliability by reading a few owner reviews before you make your purchase.
As you look through reviews make sure you get both sides of the story by looking at positive and negative reviews. You definitely want to read the reviews from consumers who bought their blenders a few months ago and have been using them a lot. An engine failure or other defect will usually occur in the first couple of months or so.
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