For a while now, Becky’s been looking for a new blender.  Our el-cheapo Target model (I think it’s a Sunbeam or a Hamilton Beach) has about given up the ghost.  Becky’s been making lots of smoothies recently, which involve lots of ice crushing and very full pitchers (relative to the old blender, anyhow).  She’d really wanted a Blendtec, but couldn’t begin to justify a $450 blender, so we set out looking for alternatives.

We found the  KitchenAid KSB560, and a previous version of the Cuisinart CBT-700.   We sent both blenders into the Kitchen of Doom, and only one emerged as Becky’s New Blender.

A few weeks back, we decided that it was time to bite the bullet and actually buy a blender.  We went to the Berkshire sale at NFM and, after talking to a factory rep, got a pretty good deal on the Kitchenaid KSB560 which is a pretty basic, if powerful, model boasting “.9hp” (which translates to 670 watts, for comparison) and a one-piece plastic pitcher.

Before we’d had a chance to try out our new purchase, a slightly cheaper (around a $20 savings) 700 watt Cuisinart model (the CBT-700) had caught Becky’s eye at Costco.  This model features a screw-together glass “carafe”, as well as 30 more watts of ice-crushing thunder. Always in the mood to save a buck, Becky brought that one home too, resolving to return the KitchenAid.

A few days later, we got around to actually making a smoothie.  I unpacked and pre-cleaned the Cuisinart, while Becky prepared the ingredients: Ice, Soy Milk, Flax, oil, and frozen fruit (berries and a banana). At first, it seemed that the blender was doing a really good job, as the fruit and liquid components blended to the pink color you see above almost instantly.  Unfortunately, that’s about all that blended, initially.  The blender promptly developed an air bubble around the blade, and stopped mixing all together without having really crushed any of the ice.  We were able to eventually pulse, prod and stir the bubble free, but it took a few minutes, and wasn’t really any different than the blender we already have.  We’d initially thought that the larger diameter of the glass pitcher on the Cuisinart would help with the bubble problem, but not so much. After several minutes of blending, there were still large chunks of ice in the pitcher, near the top, where the blades couldn’t get them.

Addionally, the “Hot Motor smell” was pretty pronounced, though this was probably just the motor burning in…  At no point did the unit seem “under powered”, it just didn’t blend adequately.

Becky decided that this business was no good, and certainly not worth several times what our existing blender cost.  She decided to do an empirical test, and make an identical smoothie in the KitchenAid, to see if it fared any better. We mixed the same ingredients, in the same order in the KitchenAid’s plastic pitcher, with substantially different results.

The blender initially crushed some of the ice (which was on the bottom), and proceeded to mix the other soft ingredients, for a moment sounding like it was slipping, but then diving into the chunks of ice full force. Within 90 seconds, the entire contents of the pitcher was blended completely.

Bottom line? KitchenAid wins hands down, and the Cuisinart is headed back to Costco.   This isn’t to say that Cuisinart makes bad appliances (we love our Cuisinart Prep 7 food processor), its just that their blender is woefully inadequate at making thick, creamy frozen drinks.

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