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| Blendtec’s Total Blender isn’t just a blender. It’s an all-in-one appliance that makes smoothies, fresh juice, ice cream, milkshakes, cappuccinos, margaritas, soups, sauces, breads, dressings, salsas, and more. With the Total Blender, you can blend, chop, grind, freeze, cook, hash, crush, mince, dice, mill, purée, and more, replacing up to nine other appliances with one fast, easy-to-use machine at a fraction of the cost. You can really bring the professional experience home, starting with the patented two-prong stainless-steel blade with lifetime warranty and the unique 64-ounce-capacity square jar, which you’ve probably seen before. For years, blending professionals have used Blendtec machines in the best coffee shops, juice bars, gyms, and restaurants around the world. The reason for this popularity is simple: Blendtec machines are known for producing the best, most consistent results in taste and texture. With the Total Blender, you’ll enjoy the same great results in your home. |
Exclusive Smart-Touch Tec-nology Raises the Blending Bar
| The Total Blender’s precision and power comes from its exclusive Smart-Touch Tec-nology, which means when a cycle button is pushed, the Total Blender automatically speeds up and slows down, then shuts off when the cycle is complete, so recipes turn out perfect every time. Since it uses one-touch electronics, there are no old-fashioned knobs, dials, or switches to clean up. There are six different preprogrammed cycles: ice cream/frozen yogurt, ice crush/milkshake, soups/syrups, sauces/dips/dressings/batters, whole/juice, and smoothie. There are also speed-up and speed-down buttons for altering power, as well as a pulse button. The Total Blender has so much power that it turns ice to snow and actually comes with an ice-crushing guarantee. Its 1,500 watt, 3-horsepower direct-drive motor \ that spins the blade at 29,000 rpm makes it the most powerful home blender on\ the market. From the home gourmet chef to the everyday smoothie fan, from hot soups to cold ice creams, from whole fruit juices to savory sauces, the Total Blender fits all lifestyles. |  <> |
Features and Specifications
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Blendtec Home TB-621-BHM The Professional’s Choice 1,500-Watt Total Blender Reviews
You Get What You Pay For
In the world of blenders, you get what you pay for. Power is everything and as that increases, so does the price. Blendtec is near the top in both power and price, but for good reason. If you’re someone who uses a blender a lot or plans to, the Blendtec is a worthy investment. As someone who decided to start eating healthier, being able to make a fruit smoothie every morning with ease is well worth the price tag to hopefully live a little longer.
As others have mentioned, the blender is powerful. It will destroy just about anything you put in it. Most blenders have issues with ice while the Blendtec turns it into snow (great if you like making snow cones). The jar is made of a thick plastic and withstands both hard and soft items well. While some have complained about the sound, I wouldn’t put it much more than standing next to a vacuum cleaner.
One of the most underated aspects of this blender is how easy it is to clean. After you’re finished, simply rinse out the blender, fill it with some warm water and a drop of detergent, blend for a few seconds, and rinse it out. The blender comes out looking like new in under a minute. There are no extra parts or items you need to scrub.
Now there are a couple minor things that bother me. The first being that it’s not as easy as they make it look. Most of the demos show them throwing whatever ingredients they want into the blender and hitting the preset button and standing back. Wa-La! They have a perfect smoothie. Fact is that sometimes the blender doesn’t blend everything right. Using too much frozen fruit or not enough liquid can cause issues. It takes a little time to figure out how to get it to work the way you want. I know that some would say that no blender is perfect, but I think it’s a reasonable complaint when they advertise the machine as something that seems to blend everything flawlessly.
Which brings me to the other minor issue, the presets. There are buttons for smoothies, milkshakes, etc. The concept is that you just hit the button and it’ll make it how you want. Fact is that the presets don’t provide the best results. I found myself just using the speed up and speed down buttons along with the pulse for making what I needed. After a few rounds of it, I knew what speed was best. The presets on the other hand would give mixed results. Sometimes I’d have to hit it twice, sometimes I’d have to pulse before and after.
All in all it’s a great blender at a fair price. If you are someone who blends quite regularly, it’s a great investment to your kitchen.
Will it Blend? You bet!
I got my Blendtec about two months ago, and I wanted to wait until it got through one hundred cycles before I posted my review, just to make sure the ‘honeymoon’ stage was over. For those that are not familiar with the blender, the LCD screen on the base keeps track of how many cycles it has been through. A cycle is basically pushing any button on the blender except pulse.
Initial Impressions:
I quickly figured out that the blades on the Blendtec work slightly different than the blenders I was accustomed with. The blade doesn’t really have an ‘upward’ angle to it, so if what you’re blending will not fall to the bottom of the jar, it will not be blended. The best example I can think of is an orange: previous blender’s blades would pull it down into the blades and then keep chipping away at it, but on the Blendtec it would just balance between the center bolt on the blade and the jar wall. But boy, when that fruit was sliced and did get into the blade, there was little left of it. Previous blenders had left me accustomed to fine chunks of whatever I was blending, but the Blendtec could turn a whole unpeeled orange into what looked like orange syrup.
I have seen several reviews cite the Blendtec as being excessively loud, but I did not really think that. It IS loud compared to a $12 Durabrand 200 watt blender, but it is not much louder than a higher end (~$60) consumer blender. And the preprogrammed cycles mean you can just start a cycle (around 40 seconds) and walk away.
While Racking Up the Cycles:
I have primarily used the blender about once a day in an effort to help me work some fruits and veggies in my diet. I have also used it a few times for things like pancake batter and iced drinks. I’m still amazed at how this machine can liquefy a leaf of lettuce or kale. I had tried a few times with other blenders to blend up greens but was usually turned off at how chunky the end result was.
One thing I really grew to like was the preprogrammed buttons on the base. After pushing a button, the LCD will start a countdown timer and you can hear the blender running at different speeds to make sure everything in the jar is getting into the blades. This works pretty good 95%+ of the time, but when it doesn’t the one piece lid does not allow you to prod the offending piece of matter into the blades. Sometimes I wonder if Blendtec should have integrated a tamper like Vitamix, but for few times it would be needed it would probably just be more of a hassle than a help. If larger things like apples, oranges, and lettuce leafs are diced or chopped before blending it is much less of a problem.
Cleaning the Blendtec is by far the easiest blender I have ever cleaned. Because the blades are integrated into the jar, it only has two pieces (jar and lid) compared to traditional blenders that have around six. For the most part after using the blender I just put water and a small amount of soap into the jar and pulse it a few times, rinse it out, and then set it out to dry. The base is also easy to clean since the buttons are not raised, just a quick swipe with a rag.
-Conclusions-
I give the Blendtec 4 stars because there are a few things that keep it from being perfect. While some of the “don’t likes” were not mentioned in the main review, I still feel they are important enough to keep from mentioning.
What I liked:
-Preprogrammed cycles allowed me to just push and walk away (but still stay close, see below)
-The blender’s ability to pulverize anything placed into it
-Super easy to clean
-Very few parts
-It is aesthetically pleasing enough that it doesn’t seem out of place on a counter if it is left out
What I didn’t like:
-Occasionally all items in the blender would fail to enter the blades, chopping with a knife ahead of time could usually prevent this… But part of me hates dicing food before putting it into a blender.
-After about 50 cycles when the blades were spinning down after a cycle it would squeak like an old car’s engine. This would only last about a second or two, and I’m not sure if it is even a problem, the blender performance has been unaffected. I just hope it isn’t a symptom of a bigger problem.
-Of the 100 cycles, once during a cycle the blender starting vibrating violently, causing the blender assembly to rotate on the counter. It then blew the lid off and propelled green liquid on to my upper cupboards and counter top. I am still unsure what caused this, as I was using the same ingredients and cycle I had in the past. I have since kept an extra eye on the blender and refrained from leaving the kitchen completely.
What I’m Indifferent About:
-Price: If you are reading this review, you already know how expensive the Blendtec is compared to other blenders. While I would not classify this product as a ‘must have’ kitchen appliance, I still think its performance is far superior to the traditional blender. I realize that this would not come without a price premium. This blender is not a deal, but I also do not feel like I was ripped off either.
The Blendtec vs. Vita-Mix dilemma
I must give you a little bit of history before reviewing the Blendtec . . .
Our local Costco was having a Vita-Mix road show and i bought it knowing that I really liked everything I had ever read about a Blendtec. A couple of my friends raved about the Vita-Mix, so I felt I needed to pay a little attention. A large purchase like this deserved a little research so that I wouldn’t have any regrets. I watched the demo, was impressed and took home the Vita-Mix that day. I was anxious to make a smoothie with it because I had been using the Magic Bullet for five months. I made my first smoothie with it, and it turned out great but the “honeymon” didn’t last very long. I did not like the sheer size of the Vita-Mix! It sat VERY high on my counter, wouldn’t fit under the cabinet and it looked like it belonged in a commercial-sized kitchen, not mine. I absolutely disliked everything about the lid, except the ability to drizzle liquids in from the opening. The lid was not easy to put on nor remove. And the tamper!!! A good machine should not require a tamper to push the food around. The blender canister has these decorative grooves on the sides and oh what difficulty to “get every last bit out” with a a rubber scraper. I felt like I was wasting food! Then, I made a vegetable pate and the 4-pronged blade made it extremely difficult to get the food hiding below the blade. By this time, I had had enough and was only too happy to take it back to Costco.
That same night, I ordered my Blendtec. It arrived promptly and have LOVED everything about it since Day One! It is so-o-o-o easy to “get every last bit out” because the sides of the blender doesn’t have the unnecessary decorative grooves on the side. It makes a big difference if you’re the type that doesn’t like to waste. I feel that the Vita-Mix and Blendtec are equally noisy, but it does its job so quickly and efficiently that it really isn’t on for very long. It is so efficient and powerful that it doesn’t need a silly tamper to get everything blended well. It fits under my cabinet where I like to keep it and it is just perfect in every way. I make whole fruit and/or leafy green smoothies, sometimes twice a day, and it’s always smooth and perfectly blended. As long as you add the proper amount of liquid, that “vortex” forms and everything gets pulled downwards. Everything i make just comes out absolutely perfect. I just can’t say enough good things about this machine.
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