Which Blender To Choose

What Consumers should know about Smoothie Blenders before making a purchase!

Regardless of price consideration there are certain little detail issues that consumers should know before making a purchase decision for an expensive high performance blender. As one can guess, the various blender manufacturers have each their own marketing strategies. The cost factor, such as the actual retail cost to the consumer is not always really justifiable when considering a blender purchase and comparing it with another.

It is especially a problem in the blender manufacturers industry where companies sometimes resort to gray-area marketing claims that border on false advertising, and even are straight-out lies sometimes. All of these controversial marketing battles that involve the design, production of components, features, and statements, including patent infringement law suites, one against another, the consumers are in the middle of a difficult high performance blender purchasing decision.

Too many different claims, designs, features, levels of service, quality, workmanship, quality control issues, customer service quality after the purchase, how warranty is dealt with (if consumers have to pay for return and replacement warranty shipping costs…) would have to be considered as well. One cannot always take everything into account, because primarily, and frankly, this is a quickly changing market place environment and it is difficult to keep up with the changes among competitors and their strategies. One company or product might perhaps be better than the other in one way or the other. According to consumer suggestions, some major issues are discussed here.

Competition Sales Motivation and Strategies

The major competing high performance blender manufacturer (everybody here knows who we are talking about), and Health Master Blenders, and more, are competing manufacturing in the market. The market consists of restaurants, bars, smoothie bars, other commercial kitchens, and consumers. Each company intends to take over a segment and/or maintain it and gain its market share over the competitor(s). In order to achieve this, each product is introduced with certain benefits over the other. Some of these benefits are even stretched beyond its real truth.

Today one may announce a Motor-RPM of 36,000 and tomorrow the competition announces 48,000 on its brand. Who knows what is really true and how should we measure that anyway?  Really 36,000 RPM's would require 600 revolutions per second. It that even possible for a blender?

Does it really matter what the RPM's are? How about just looking at the smoothie result, the longevity of the whole blender, and the price point? It is really tiresome to be in the middle of a factory war as a consumer. These factories shoot all sorts of gimmick statements at us and we are expected to believe everything they say. Well folks, the truth behind the scene is that factories are even caught lying about various different things; their stretched truths.

Container Size

One competitor started its business about 90 years ago in Ohio. They offered for its residential and most commercial applications blenders with 32oz containers and 64oz containers. Some very expensive even 4 hp blenders offer the option of even a 1.5 gallon large container. Waring has one of those above-and-beyond $1000 dollar blenders as well. And the Orem-Utah-located competitor probably felt a little neglected in the market so it introduced its 96 oz Jar, now renamed the Wilde-Side™ container and that was renamed they were caught red-handed with a false-marketing statement since the 96oz jar was found to be only 76 ounces.

[Little side note on the one competitor's strategy: Today, after they renamed it, the Wilde-Side™ jar is nearly 3 quarts. The stretched truth has shifted from one term to another so the company can retain its so-called competitive edge. But the Wildeside™ container is really closer to 2 quarts in size than 3 quarts.]

Not one of these before-mentioned containers, no matter what the size, is able to actually handle the effective blending to its full-stated capacity. So consumers often announce their concern why factories say a container is a 64oz jar when only 44 oz is the volume that can effectively be blended. For example, all 64 oz containers can effectively emulsify its ingredients inside the jar between 40 ounces and 50 ounces, although you can fill into the jars about 70 to 80 fl oz of liquid. But it won’t blend well at that level. You may have wondered that a Blendtec 64oz (aka Regular jar) has measuring markings up to 32oz and the larger Wildeside one has them at 44 oz. Some consumers called me to notify me that they had ordered the 96oz jar but received a 44 oz jar instead... go figure! Of course there are misunderstandings.

The OMNI V blender company with its 3 hp blender had originally named its 64oz square container a 1.5 liter / 50 oz container. So we wanted to compete in the market place and got smart with it and renamed it a 64oz jar. In reality you can put in 80 fl oz. To the other hand, the 32 oz Competitor jar from Ohio is actually effective only up to about 16 to 20 ounces of ingredients to be emulsified. They had originally equipped the 64oz jar with the dry blade and then later found that it was not handling this amount / volume well and in order to avoid consumer concerns then reduced the container size to a 32 oz size.

Everybody pushed it’s containers as a 64oz container although the measuring markings and the actual manageability of ingredients ranged between 40 to 50 ounces, that including the Waring and the Health Master blender jars as well. Even the falsely called 96oz / 3 quart Jar with its 5^th wild side and 4 inch blade can only effectively handle about 40 to 50 ounces. And by the way, the Wilde-Side formerly called 96oz container fits actually only 76 oz fluid ounces at which point liquid runs over the edge of the lid opening. But of course it is still a good blending jar...this issue just had to be spoken out loudly.

Container Shapes

Basically, when considering the high performance blender containers from one competitor, and Waring, and OMNI Blenders, there are some differences in height, shape and functionality. Two competitors have jars that are about 13 inches tall with the lid in place. Omni and Blendtec jars are about 9 to 9.5 inches tall. The OMNI and Blendtec jars have a square design from top to bottom. The other competitors, one being Waring, their jars are wider on the top and narrower on the bottom, kind of roundish but still square.

The ones that are narrow on the bottom blend better tough ingredients with level volumes of less than 8 fluid ounces. The square and wider jars (Omni and Blendtec) blend better everything else (larger, harder, ice cubes, and ingredient-volumes >8 fl oz). The containers that are wider (square) on the bottom because they are square can easier be cleaned and tough pastes can be removed easier too. But often times when the flow is not strong enough, ingredients tend to stick more in the corners. As long as you have enough flow created with enough liquid or mass / water, nothing will get stuck. As long as the ingredients are flowing to and from the blade action during blending, with any container, your smoothie will get blended well.

The OMNI blade and jar is interchangeable with its main competitors, but the OMNI jar does not perfectly fit on the Waring blender. The OMNI Plate on the bottom of the container sits directly on the Waring blender drive socket and will shave off the socket. The Blendtec blade runs the opposite direction and does not offer any blade inter-changeability. The Blendtec container is wide and open on the bottom like the OMNI container. The Blendtec jar with the blade being little higher up from the jar floor does not let you blend just 10 almonds. You need a narrower container for that... But who wants just 10 Almonds anyway?

Horse Power and RPM-s

In today’s raw food health and diet blending trend, it has been found that horsepower of a blender does really make a difference. In addition, RPM-s (Revolutions Per Minute) have gained importance and so did torque. It appears the more power the better the outlook of a blenders usage and longevity. Some consumers refer to poor quality or low-powered blenders as opposed to high powered blenders or high performance blenders.

A 3 hp blender obviously is expected to blend its ingredients to a better and finer texture of the smoothie. It is justifiably also expected to last much longer than the inferior 2 hp blenders. Yet a 2 hp blender is really more than adequate to blend most greens, other vegetables and fruits into fine purees and smoothies; at least for an occasional home use.

The Waring blenders have been found worthy of the smoothie task with its 3.5 hp motor although that the containers and blades are inferior. Waring claims a whopping 48,000 RPM-s of its motor. The other competitor are following with 38,000-something, so did Blendtec, and OMNI. It is certainly put to question whether that is really possible. It would help to know how engineers really have come to that outrageous conclusion?

To pose the RPM question to consumers for an intelligent consideration, anybody with two eyes, a nose and an average brain between two ears can very likely determine if it is possible that the blade in any of these 2 to 3 or 3.5 hp blenders turns 600 times in 1 single second. Simple, one might want to count “ONE-ONE THOUSAND" to pass a full second. While that is said out-loud, in order to justify a 36,000 RMP, is this revolution possible? Think again; 600 revolutions in 1 second times 60 seconds in one minute should add up to 36,000 RPM-s, right? So, is it possible? Have you looked at your blade revolutions lately? You don't need to be an Albert Einstein to figure that out yourself that there is no way that the blade turns 600 revolutions or more in one second.

Container Material

For years, even decades blenders have been supplied with heavy glass containers and also made from stainless steel. Stainless steel and glass are proven materials that have been used in contact with food stuff for a long time, to say the least. This allows science to look at a large study group and population to determine if this interaction of materials might lead to any suspicion of dangers, food poisoning, genetic interference, etc.

Plastics in connection with food stuff have started being used about 30 plus years ago. According to science, it has been suggested that the interaction of plastics with food stuff has not been tested or observed long enough to study it sufficiently. We may want to give it another 20 plus years and perhaps then we will find out that a population that consumes food from plastic containers or processes food in plastic, may have grown a third leg or developed some kind of an abnormality…who knows.

The point today is that most blender containers, especially those blenders with 2 hp or more use plastic containers. One of our most favorite competitors (the one in Ohio), suggested that a container from glass is hazardous because if a fork or spoon were left in the jar, the blade speed would crush the spoon against the glass and it could shatter and cause harm. It has been observed that even low-powered blenders such as the KitchenAid or the Cusinart blenders nowadays come with a plastic containers. And these blenders have a 1/3 hp motor if it comes high.

The more popular but expensive blender competitors have come out, to even complicate this discussion a little more, with a Co-polyester material container that is said to be free of a carcinogen called Bisphenol-A (BPA). Apparently BPA has been found in some food stuff after food has been micro-waved in a plastic container for minutes.The BPA has been identified as a carcinogen based on test with some poor rats.

There are however different qualities, thicknesses and weights of plastics and containers. And there is a food-grade Polycarbonate material also, that contains significantly less of the BPA. A blender container, such as from the OMNI, Blendtec,  and others appears to be quite heavier than the material of a HDPE or PETE bottle which is normally used in the water bottling industry. The water bottling industry is not even regulated by the FDA.

A HDPE water bottle is said to become defective at room temperature and already leeched BPA into the water during transportation in the semi-truck trailer on the way to the grocery store. Bayer Chemical Corp, the manufacturer of Polycarbonate materials for the food-grade OMNI Jar (Polycarbonate) has published a Food Safety Testing Disclosure and Information Paper (which can be searched on Google under BAYER MSDS Polycarbonate). Bayer reveals that they boil the material at 130Degrees Celsius or about 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours in order to render the material defective. Then in a second test, right after, they cook it up to about 105 F degrees for 10 days which is then tested for hazardous particles. Of course, in spite of the possible bias here, the FDA and Bayer are satisfied that the material is safe for the use of food in associated polycarbonate containers for human consumption. Even the European Commission for Food Safety has evaluated the Polycarbonate Material safe.

The fundamental critique on this subject is the fact why some competitors offer a so-called BPA-Free Copolyester Eastman Tritan™ Container to consumers but not for the use in restaurants? Restaurants and smoothie bars are known to use a container probably about 100 to 200 times per day while a consumer, if it comes high, uses their container maybe 2 or 3 times per day. It is believed that the Copolyester Tritan material is not hard enough for the restaurant applications. Therefore, at which point is  the leeching of plastic-related defective materials in connection with food stuff a higher risk, at a residence or in a restaurant?

And just to throw off a few more marketing strategies most likely behind the BPA-Free Jar material, if heavy duty plastic container were to leech, it would more likely be the BPA-FREE Copolyester jar than the Polycarbonate jar. That is because the Polycarbonate material's melting point is at 130 Celsius and Copolyester is at 110 Celsius. And if at least during leeching the BPA is not in my soup, but other plastic components, I still would not want to eat it. Plastic is plastic, and I won't have it! Got it? Still, OMNI is having its BPA-Free jar, because this leeching pro or con discussion is mute. What really would make us consumers safe is the use of unbreakable glass jars. Maybe one day.

Wet, Dry, and Ice Blades

A competitor, the oldest USA-based blender manufacturer, started the gimmick statements and claims about wheat grinding, and dry and wet blending. And Blendtec jumped on it as a marketing opportunity. The wet-blade is for every thing soft, the dry-blade is for grains and hard ingredients, and the ice blade, as the name indicates, is for ice drinks. This may all be true, but what only the small prints and hidden texts reveal is that the wet-blade in the 32oz or 64oz competitor container blends it all anyway. So Blendtec calls its blade a “Does-it-all Blade”. Of course its competitor, for lame sakes', tries to up-sell the dry-blade to consumers, telling them they need it for dry grain, nuts, etc... OMNI of course offers a multi-purpose blade, which blends it all.

Blender Functionality

Isn’t there a perfect blender out there? Unfortunately, all blenders may demonstrate some pros and cons, depending on what the consumer needs. One blender is predominantly manually operational with a toggle on/off switch and a variable speed / High Speed toggle switch. In the middle it has a turning knob for variable speed adjustment. There is however nothing manual about when considering the circuit board inside the blender to which the knob is connected too and which controls the blender operation.

Blendtec is even more electronically sophisticated. Leonardo DaVinci said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Blendtec apparently never considered that when going the extra long mile to create about 25 blending program cycles that most consumers rather replace with an up/down speed control knob. The Blendtec competitor could use a pulse button which the Blendtec however has. The Waring blender has the spring-loaded pulse toggle switch and the OMNI Blender has 3 timer settings, the pulse feature, and high/med/low speed selections.

In reality, the speeding up motion from slow to fast is important to get ingredients blended up enough in the beginning and then increasing the speed to high for a full emulsification (aka the SMOOTHIEFICATION). The OMNI has this feature built into its functionality on every all, the HIGH, 35, 60, and 90 second timer selections. Blendtec too has this function with intervals as well, like the OMNI, only the Blendtec offers too much of the nifty super-electronic-program-sophistication.

Trademark issues when comparing

Of course when a consumer wants to make a smart purchasing decision, he/she gets in between the factory trademark battles. It is difficult and almost impossible to stay out of conflict when trying to compare all pros and cons of all good blenders. One competitors may feel treated unfairly and starts complaining "unfair competition". And so it goes.

In conclusion, in order to make an educated decision about a good high performance blender purchase, the issues discussed above were the most important things to consider. There are however a few more details such as space issues, the cost factor (is rather big), noise levels and hearing sensitivity, and rate of defects. One blender may be better for one person than another person. All of the 3 major high performance blenders (including the OMNI Brand) are good blenders. The bottom line however may be what each blender can do and how well it does it, how long it will last and how the purchase prices compare. As long as the blenders can do the same and are about the same in quality, the one that costs the least might be a best bang for the buck- choice.

Manufacturers’ advertising strategies and motivation, motor strength, motor revolutions, container shape, size and blade interaction, container materials, blade blending focus and blender functionality, there are a few more details to consider.

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