j3fer's Full Review: Oster BPST02B 2-Speed Blender
I'm surprised I haven't seen reviews of this item here, because it was the top-reviewed blender BY FAR on another site. After checking reviews here and there, I absolutely had to have this blender... and so far (after 2 weeks), I haven't been disappointed!
You won't find a lot of fancy features on this blender. When it says "2-speed", what it means is ON and PULSE - there aren't even really two different speeds. The switch goes down or up - the middle position is OFF (does "off" count as a speed? :-)).
But really, who can tell the difference between "crush" and "pulverize" anyway, on those blenders that come with fifteen different speeds...few of which, I bet, can match the power of this one.
The blender comes with everything you need to blend - including a lovely bumpy glass pitcher, a blade, a blade collar and a rubber gasket to go in between the blade & pitcher. There's also a rubbery plastic lid for the top, with a clear hard plastic circle-bit that comes out so you can drop ingredients in while the blender is running.
It is simple to take apart to clean and simple to assemble afterwards... the only trick is getting the rubber O-ring on the correct side of the blades. It's easy to put it on the wrong side of the blade - someone who washed the dishes for me here didn't see the words "rubber ring side" on the blade and it put it together wrong, causing some minor leakage the next time I used it. I blame the dish washer, not the blender. ;-)
You can get a few other accessories for the Osterizer - most fit any Oster blender. I ordered a small blending pitcher in case I want to make baby food in a few months - it's also good for chopping nuts and other small things. There's also a Blend n' Go cup that lets you take your smoothies right on the road with you - I want it, but haven't bought one yet.
I wanted a blender because we are BIG on smoothies around here. Frozen fruit smoothies & milkshakes, frozen coffee smoothies, and other creamy and frosty beverages. Last summer, making a smoothie involved buzzing the ice in the food processor first, then transferring the "snow" (scooping it by hand) into a pitcher to use my underpowered, twenty-year-old hand blender. I definitely wanted something that could handle ICE.
And handle it, this Osterizer does! In fact, the first time I used it, I had it ON too long and the ice was completely gone... no trace of it - the drink was completely thin & smooth. Now I blend for a little less time and it's exactly right... creamy & thick enough to stand a straw upright in the middle of a glass.
So far, I have used this blender to make fruit smoothies, coffee "frapuccinos" and tomato sauce. I will probably continue to use the hand blender for soups and possibly for tomato sauce because it can work with any size container or blend right in the cooking pot - very convenient. But for the other things, the blender is ideal and I'm never looking back.
Three issues I've experienced - not very huge ones:
Other reviews I read warned readers that the blades move so fast it can create an "air pocket" above them which prevents frozen fruit from getting sucked right into the blades. It's true. If you overwhelm the blender with tons of frozen fruit and not enough liquid, NONE of it gets blended; it just kind of sits above the blades. I solved the problem by opening it up a few times and pushing the fruit down... eventually it caught and all got blended up. An annoyance, but a minor one. You could probably even get around it without opening the lid - just take off the little hole-cover and poke something down to push the fruit... but that doesn't sound safe, so don't tell anyone I told you to do it. :-)))
The other two issues are even more minor:
Yes, this blender is noisy. I have to warn my toddler when I'm making something so she can run & hide. Okay, you're buying a powerful blender... it's going to make a lot of noise; get used to it.
Finally, the fit between the glass pitcher and the rubbery black lid is not perfect... it doesn't feel snug and does feel like beverage could come flying out at any moment. I usually hold it down while blending just in case, but really, for what this cost, I shouldn't have to.
Another issue I have NOT yet experienced problems with is that when Oster says "all metal drive" to promote this blender, there are a few parts that are plastic that could conceivably break. Among these is the blade collar, but also - surprisingly - the silvery-looking bit between the matte black base of the pitcher (motor housing) and the glass pitcher. It looks like aluminum, but it's really just metally-looking plastic, therefore, slightly cheesy. But as I said, no problems with these parts so far. I know the blade collar is a standard part that costs very little to replace.
And I'm very happy overall with the fact that, since it's an Oster, it'll fit almost any Oster pitcher ever made, meaning that will also be cheap to replace when it - inevitably - meets up with our Stone Floors of Appliance Death.
SO here's the essence of my review: I love it! Buy one if you can! All the rest is just so I can get this review past Epinions' 20-word minimum. :-)))
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