KitchenAid KHB100

It was a wonderful little blender, very handy in size, not a lot of fussiness, attractive, easy to use, all that. HOWEVER, I honestly was only able to use it about five times over a six-month period. I… made some pestos, a soup or two, and...that was about all I could get out of it before it croaked. I took it out of the box one day in great anticipation, but its spirit had parted. And no one knows when or how it happened. I tried to call customer service of course, but they basically said that it must have either short-circuited or the insides had come apart, and all I could do was buy another one. The best price they gave me was forty-five dollars for a refurb sans shipping costs. Imagine the disappointment. I had to bury a shiny new acquisition before I even had the chance to wreck it. And I had just purchased the whipping attachment. I will just stick with my mother's 15 year-old hand blender for now, because 3 watts of power through 15 years is a better deal than 60 watts for five thrilling uses. I talked to some friends after that and they seemed to have similar opinions about kitchenaid appliances (in contrast with some other familiar brands)--attractive and great UNTIL. They work well until they decide to stop working, by my survey, and it seems to be a rather undependable and unattractive gamble you're asked to take with the kind of price range their brand commands...

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This has been a great blender up until earlier this week. You can read all the great positive reviews here on Amazon to get a feel for the versitility of this blender. My purpose for writing this review… is to warn others not to use this with ice or frozen fruits. I'd say that my blender is about a few years old and about a year ago I began making protein shakes for breakfast, sometimes using ice or frozen stawberries & bananas. I'd say I made 3-4 a week. The other day when cleaning out my sports bottle, I found one of the BLADES at the bottom. It broke clean off! (I uploaded a picture) I can't imagine the pain I would have been in if I actually drank that thing. If this hadn't happened, I'd just be as happy as a clam like everyone else with this thing. I recommend that if you get it, only use it for "soft" blending. NO ICE OR FROZEN FRUIT! If you treat it gently, I'm sure it will last you quite a bit longer than mine did. Maybe it was my fault for assuming that I could use it this way. I did look back in the manual and the only indication given that it can't handle this is where they give some recipies and then say "frozen xyz fruit, partially thawed" by one of the ingredients. I've decided to try the Miallegro 9090 MiTutto instead as it looks like it has thicker blade tips and should work better with this type of use. Buyer beware!

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I was actually looking for a new hand blender and snapped up this KitchenAid blender when it showed up on sale. It arrived today and I decided to use it while preparing dinner. First I took a carrot, a bit… of celery, onion, spices, basil, some V8 juice and a few tomatoes to make a simple and fresh soup. Then I cleaned the blender and and mixed up a quick salad dressing and for dessert I made a thick and creamy vanilla milkshake. I was impressed how smooth the soup was and I was barely using the blender at half power! This thing is big. I'm a big guy and it doesn't bother me at all but I can see how some people may feel some discomfort if they are holding this 2 pound blender at shoulder length for extended periods of time. The mixing beaker is also pretty big at 32 ounces. I appreciate this as it gives you room for a lot of ingredients without your food splattering everywhere. Despite the unit's size, it's actually easy to store. It does break down into two pieces. I wholeheartedly recommend this blender to anyone, especially if it shows up as a gold box special again. Even at $50, this is a great kitchen mixer.

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