Blenders

[brib68]

Well, it's January and hubby is back on another diet and exercise challenge. dark and early Monday morning, there he was, occupying the kitchen counters where I was trying to dish up cat food (for the cats, of course!) and get my lunch packed for work. He was making up some mad-scientist brew with protein powder, frozen bananas, almond butter, and heaven knows what else. He says this is supposed to become a regular habit, so I'm not looking forward to having to hand wash the used blender so it's ready for the next smoothie.

The question is, the blender he used is my Krups from late 1999 or so. I know it has good blades and a strong enough motor for ice, or in this case, frozen bananas. My other blender is my mom's old (70's) Osterizer. It has something like 10 or 12 speeds and a pulse button. I don't remember my mom ever crushing ice with it, and maybe even telling me not to. What say you, oh community of experts??? Should I put the vintage Osterizer in the smoothie rotation, or should I keep it sheltered?

PS: I have photos...please nag me to post them when I get home and have access to them!

 

[turquoisedude]

Oster actually stated in the instruction booklets of the 70s that thou shalt not crush ice cubes.  The booklet for my 1970 Galaxie 10 says to use at least 1 cup of liquid in the jar when chopping ice.  

 

[petek]

I've never actually crushed ice or gotten into making smoothies so I couldn't say, even though I own about 50 blenders of all types LOL.. You can buy an Oster Ice Crushing blade online Amazon,, they're not that expensive. Not sure of shipping. One thing about Osters,, you can always get replacement blades cheap if they wear out or break.. not so easy for other makes.

CR gives the $60 (less on sale frequently) Ninja Master Prep PRO high marks for smoothie making, equalling if not bettering the Vitamix for smoothies. If I was into smoothies I think I'd be buying one.

http://www.amazon.com/Oster-4961-011-4961-Ice-Blade/dp/B000BD6L0O

 

[brib68]

Thanks, guys!

I'm not sure if frozen bananas would be harder than ice cubes or not, but I don't think I'll chance it. And I don't think I'll pop for a new appliance until and unless I am convinced that this will be more than a flash in the dietary pan. (Oh me of little faith!)

Paul--thanks for letting me know that the ice prohibition came from Oster, and wasn't based on "the racket will send your father round the bend"!

 

[danemodsandy]

Oster Ice Crushing:

As Pete petek mentioned, Oster made an ice-crushing blade, and it's not expensive. They also made an ice-crushing attachment similar to the one Waring made.

The ice-crushing blade is fine if you have the glass jar or the stainless jar for your Osterizer. I don't really recommend it if you have the Cycolac plastic jar; that jar will get stress cracks in it over time if you crush ice in it.

As for cleaning: For a time, protein powder was the bane of my existence; my late partner doted on the stuff in his own mad-scientist smoothies. If it is not dealt with right away, it sets up like JB Weld, only harder. I learned two things:

1) Putting about a cup of very hot water into the jar along with a couple of drops (literally, drops) of dishwashing liquid, and then running the blender for a few seconds helps enormously to de-gunk the blades.

2) If you can't get time to wash the blender jar right away, leave water in it until you can clean it. My partner was very, very bad about not doing this, and I eventually got a second blender and told him that that blender was his - and his responsibility to clean. I had had to soak and scrub my prized Hamilton Beach commercial blender too many times - for no good reason.

 

[whirlpolf]

Any of them

Hey Brian,
lucky you (a sporty hubby frankenblending around in the kitchen with protein powders....)

But blenders: What was said before (glass or metal jars) seems precisely what I have observed here: My older Waring and the Osterizer (they had been bought on a trade fair here) and all 3 Vorwerks and the Braun can perfectly handle ice cubes.

The Gorenje, Privileg, TCM cannot.

A sales trick of Waring (back then in the 80s): Although the (German translated) manual says "no crushing ice without liquid" the sales lady DID: She would just turn the motor on to medium to top speed and then let the cubes drop onto the rotating blades. The cubes were kicking around for some seconds, then they were gone. I have tried that on all blenders: It works, but plastic jugs will get scratched or grayish. Glass and metal can withstand.

Another point: I do not trust any blender blades that are riveted to the shaft (so TCM, Osterizer, Waring, Gorenje and Privileg will all have to go). Although ALL could stand the "drop the cubes" method better than the "start the motor with cubes in it" method, quite some many of them started rattling after this (while still working ok for regular jobs).
Only Braun and Vorwerk can stay. (Both shrugged off the test with a slurrish "so what?" and that was that).Both have sturdy glass / stainless steel jars and really sturdy (exchangeable) blades with some capped hex nut on top.So:

Mind to choose hex nuts, blades thicker than 2 mm and the non-plastic jug.I think Magimix offers similar machines.

Joe

 

[brib68]

more good info!

Thanks, Sandy! Vielen dank', Joe! Yes, my avocado Osterizer has the dreaded plastic jar, so thank you both for warning me off using that for ice. (The Krups has a glass jar.) Funny thing, I think my mother still uses the little mini-prep jars (with the metal screw-on lids) for storage, even though I've had the blender for years!

Protein powder is bad, but nothing compared to the time we tried to make vegan "quiche". I don't remember what all went into it, but it formed a near-molecular bond with any plastic it touched. (It was to take to an 80's party hosted by a vegan couple--I refused to touch it.)

As for my husband...I'm just happy that I finally got him to understand that the blender jar LIFTS off the base--it doesn't unscrew. ("It leaks all over when I try to take it off!") I swear, working out kills brain cells.

 

[rp2813]

As the recent recipient of a beautiful vintage Lady Kenmore (Osterizer) blender with sliding scale speed adjustments, I did some research after seeing the oddly shaped ice crusher blade assembly at ACE Hardware.

 

I'm going to buy one for smoothie purposes, and I'm going to make sure it's an Oster product.  I've read a lot of reviews on Amazon that the ice crusher blade offered by the predominant seller there is a knock-off not made by Oster and very prone to failure.

 

I've also read that the ice crusher blade creates a much more violent movement of the contents as opposed to the smooth vortex made by the standard blade, and that it's best to keep the lid on and the center cap in place if using the ice crusher blade.

 

What I like about Osterizers is that the blade assembly can be removed from the carafe for cleaning.  A glass carafe with blade and bottom fitting removed can go through the dishwasher, and I won't own a blender that only offers a plastic carafe.  I like my vintage Waring Blendor, but the blade can't be disassembled from the carafe for cleaning, which makes the job a little more difficult.

 

Waring Blendors were originally designed for mixing drinks, and mine does a great job on smoothies that call for ice cubes (or in my case, crescents).  I had a retro reproduction beehive Osterizer for a short time, and it did a lousy job breaking up ice included in smoothie recipes.  I think part of the problem was the round shape of its carafe instead of the classic square type.  It was also excessively noisy.  Vintage Osterizers are far more quiet.

 

I'm confident my vintage Lady Kenmore will do a much better job than the modern beehive did.  It just hasn't been frozen smoothie weather around these parts for a while, so I've yet to put it to the test.

 

I would be wary of anything Consumer Reports has recommended.  They can no longer be trusted to provide sound advice based on a history of performance data.  The "as seen on TV" Ninja blender hasn't been around very long and simply based on its monicker you can be assured it's not made in the USA.   It's also very cumbersome to use, as witnessed while sitting around the bar at a friend's house this past summer.

 

[danemodsandy]

Brian:

If at any point, using the Oster for ice becomes desirable for some reason, the glass jar is readily available and works just fine. It also uses the same base/blade assembly and lid parts as your plastic jar, so there would be nothing else to buy.

I cannot even imagine what something called a "vegan quiche" must be made of. Quiche Lorraine contains bacon, butter, cream, Gruyère and eggs; any vegan version would be getting into some pretty weird science indeed.

Quelle horreur!

 

[brib68]

Quelle horreur, indeed!

Well, you know it had to have some form of tofu in it. And turmeric, for the staining power. Beyond that, I've blocked the memory. So I suppose I should be grateful he is on the paleo diet, which is pretty opposite vegan.

I was thinking that maybe I should look into a glass jar for the Oster. I kind of think the plastic jar may have been a replacement. Tell me if you agree that it looks a little smaller than it should...

 

[danemodsandy]

The Plastic Jar:

Always looked smaller to me. I think it's just because it's thin-walled.

I don't think you'd regret getting a glass jar. Especially if you can find one locally and don't have to pay shipping.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The ice-crushing blade RULES! I use it for everything. It pulls stuff down into the vortex better, like when I am pulverizing oats for oat flour. I still wash the blade by hand though after years of having water get in the bearings if they were put in the smasher.

 

[rp2813]

Imperial Pulse-Matic 10

I think your Imperial Pulse-Matic 10 could have been outfitted with a plastic carafe originally.   My mom's Oster Cycla-trol 8 (gee, that sounds frumpy) from the late '60s had a plastic one.

 

Personally, I think with a name like Imperial Pulse-Matic Ten, it deserves a nice heavy glass carafe.  They turn up in thrift stores quite often, sometimes on a blender base, sometimes not.

 

Tom, thanks for the testimonial.  I'm going to pick one up at ACE next time I'm in that part of town.

 

[mikael3]

I have an Osterizer 463, and it is truly fantastic.  I have the original glass jar, but I don’t want to break it, so I bought a modern glass jar to use instead.  I also bought a new ice crusher blade, and it really is everything Oster promises it will be.  We mix up a lot of icy cocktails in the summer, and I am amazed at how quickly and efficiently the Osterizer works. In fact, I can only blend the drinks briefly, or the ice will completely disappear.

 

I also make smoothies and they come out very nice.  I don’t bother with the regular blade anymore, regardless of what I’m blending. 

 

For the record, I will say that the Osterizer does not liquify the ingredients that way a Vita-Mix does.  We have a Vita-Mix at the office, and we often have Smoothie Friday when we grind up all sorts of stuff that should never be put into a drink.  If that’s your idea of a tasty treat, then you have to pay up for those expensive machines.  But honestly, I think those smoothies vary from creepy to revolting; so I’m perfectly happy with the average-guy smoothies from my Osterizer.

 

As Ralph pointed out, you really need to buy your replacement blades direct from Oster.  The amazon and eBay stuff is really questionable—and you don't save any money, either, since Oster sells their blades at a good price.  I did get my glass jar off eBay, but there’s less that can go wrong with a jar than with a blade.

 

Another thing that I LOVE about the Osterizer is that the collar and blade mechanism fit onto regular Mason jars.  For any recipe that makes 1½ cups of something, this is a fantastic option.  I haven’t experimented with how much ice a Mason jar can take without exploding, but I have had no trouble with a few cubes added to whatever I’m blending.

 

I think at one time all the major blenders would work with a Mason jar, but I’m not sure how many of them still do.

 

[tolivac]

Think I would choose that vintage Oster blender over the new Krupps.I have used Oster blenders for crushing ice when mixing the ice as part of a drink.Commercial Oster blenders do it all the time.The Oster blender has an all METAL drive--Not
PLASTIC as new blenders use.These can break from ice crushing.
I have a Ninja blender-doesn't come close to the performance the VM and Blendtec can do.I would even take my Oster commercial bar blender over the Ninja.My Ninja sits forelorn in the back of the cuptboard.And that machine is sort of awkward to use with its colunm like blades.And the Ninja is noisey-kinda like an electric drill.

 

[brib68]

But...but...but...

The Krups has a dedicated ice crusher button, Rex!

Truth be told, I already had a very good, rather heavy duty (or seems so) blender (Cuisinart, I think), but I saw the Krups on sale, and the dark green Power Burst button went so well with the kitchen in the house we'd recently moved into.

At some point, I traded the Cuisinart with my mom for the Osterizer.

Anyway...RESOLVED, I shall now be on the lookout for a glass jar and a genuine Oster ice blade.

 

[petek]

You shouldn't have any problem finding a glass jar at a thrift store either with the machine for cheap or just the jar sitting on a shelf among all the other glassware. I see them all the time but what I always grab are the Waring jars which aren't as common and had various drives.

 

[petek]

what's a blender thread without videos. Yikes this was a long time ago

 

[tolivac]

Brian: didn't realize the Krupps had an ice crush function-were you supposed to use it with some liquid in the jar?Most blender makers say to do that so the ice cubes will be pulled into the blades.The ice crush champions I have are both the Blendtecs and Vitamixers.They can crush a whole jar of ice and liquid within 5 seconds!
The Oster Pulse Matic blender could well be considered the first blender with a preprogrammed cycle.Crude as it may be-but worked.Besides thift stores-try appliance parts store-often they have containers and blades for Oster and Waring blenders-another would be a restuarant supply store-esp one that has parts.The commercial parts for Waring and Oster will fit the home machines.Blades,jars,lids and gaskets.I had an older cuisinart blender-was styled after an Oster-that older machine was much better than their new ones.Wished I still had it-gave it away during one of my moves.