‘Will It Blend?’ and more Blendtec Blender Blather
When I first saw Tom Dickson turn a rake handle into sawdust with a blender I thought he might be a candidate for our dubious prestigious Honorary Kitchen Warrior award. But as it turns out he’s just a guy trying to sell blenders.
But what the heck, overall commercials are a lot more fun to watch nowadays than they used to be. And the ‘Will It Blend?’ series is no exception, its so much fun watching Tom blend everything from marbles to cell phones that its easy to ignore that someone’s trying to sell you something.
The first impression after seeing your first video of the Blendtec is bound to be ‘My gosh that’s a powerful blender’ (assuming you think in family friendly expletives). Then once you get the idea you’ll want to see them all (see end of article for link). Completely pulverizing stuff, it seems more like a shop tool that a kitchen appliance.
More power! Somewhere Tim Allen grunts. My first inclination was I have just GOT to get me one of these blenders. Clickety click click off to the website . . . lets see the price is . . .
Holy CRAP My Gosh they’re $400.
So SMACK back to reality. Nonetheless fresh off the wise purchase of the Kitchenaid stand mixer I was open to being convinced I needed (or at least wanted) another mega-powered kitchen tool.
Considering none of my food is as tough as rake handles (at least that I tell you about) I’m going to assume that the 1500 watt Blendtec Blender is powerful enough to easily handle all my blending needs. But power isn’t everything. For example if I was willing to waste $400 just to make a point I’d show you what the wood chipper in my garage would do to the Blendtec Blender. But it doesn’t help my food.
But seriously power really isn’t everything, even in a blender. For example highly respected Cooks Illustrated did a blender comparison (which did NOT include the Blendtec) last summer and the 525 watt Braun Powermax ($37) crushed ice better than the 1380 watt Viti-Mix($399) and was rated as good or better in every category.
The problem is that for most people blenders aren’t every day tools. Blendtec makes an effort to show you many things you can do with their $400 blender but the thing is that many of the tasks they demonstrate are easily accomplished and accomplished well by the $37 Braun, like smoothies, crushing ice, milkshakes, soup and batters.
So I decided to pass on the Blendtec. Personally I’m not convinced I’d find it to be worth over $360 more than the stellar performing Braun. But then I don’t use a blender on a day to day basis. If I needed a blender more often and for more challenging jobs like peanut butter or pureeing masses of vegetables I might think differently.
As for Blendtec, once they have my attention by grinding a rake to sawdust I’d really like to see them demonstrate how their blender compares to other blenders with food. Does a blender that can pulverize golf balls really make a better smoothie?
In other words don’t just show me the Blendtec can grind marbles, show me I haven’t lost mine if I spend an extra $360 on a blender that I only plan to use with food.
Link to ‘Will It Blend?’ videos
Items in this article at Amazon-
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- First Honorary Kitchen Warrior: Guy Fieri
- Crack Goes The Garlic (Press) - What Will OXO Do?
- The Year Is 1932. The Recipe Is Toast.
- Did The Food Network Scam Everyone? Turns Out Robert Irvine Never Really ‘Gone’.
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I agree, spending more than 30-40 bucks on a blender is a waste!! I am surprised at the kitchen gadgets and ideas that keep cropping up!! do ppl really use them or buy them???
Your review is true but think of how much fun it would be to have your friends over, have a couple of drinks and throw there shoes in the blender!
I mean really I could have a blast with this thing and never even get to food. Heck I dont even cook and I want one.