By the_bureau from London on 11/20/2007

Having had a serious use for blenders for many years, it struck me that one thing the British just don't do right is a blender! The American models e.g. VitaMix, Waring, Blend-tec are WAY ahead and like many, I just can't afford the ridiculous prices they charge. I have been through many (and I do mean many) blenders over the last few years and none of them were worth the effort. Your typical supermarket blender (anything from £20-£100) just doesn't blend to the right standard and won't last more than a few months when really pushed hard. I'm talking cocktails with frozen fruit and ice, and raw health foods like tahini, flax seeds, frozen bananas etc. Thankfully there does appear to be a solution! I love the concept of this blender - taking commercial quality materials and a similar design approach to produce a true mid-range blender which can deliver similar results to a blender costing 4x as much but in the domestic kitchen, where use is likely to be less frequent and prolonged. To be honest, they have done a remarkably good job! The blender looks good and feels very tough compared with most other blenders I could find for this price. It does have a very powerful motor and this is reflected in the speed and consistency of blending - I have seen many blenders rant about a monster motor and yet they simply draw more power, without really providing any advantage. This blender lives up to its rating and really seems to translate the power directly into decent results. The design of the pitcher is extremely effective - it's also very large, which is wonderful when preparing large batches of cocktails/soups/smoothies etc.It's easy to clean and the angular "square" formation (more common to the blend-tec range) gives it a massive advantage over blenders with the old-school cylindrical carafe.The drive mechanism really did surprise me - very solid and no "play" or wobble whatsoever. All of this is extremely encouraging albeit superficial (there's no way of telling how good components are, deep within the machine) and so I'm almost sorry to broach the subject of the switch. The one thing that really lets this blender down and somewhat ironic, as it is one of the main selling points. The "infinitely variable" switch which also acts to ensure a "soft start" is a superb idea and something of particular merit in a blender as powerful as this, however, for some reason they just seemed to run out of commercial quality materials at this point and opt for a very tacky, unreliable and frustrating heap, which causes the blender to cut in and out quite randomly and wreaks havoc. The only way to really make things happen in the blending dept is to use the wretched switch to get it up to a high(ish) speed and then hit the pulse button which blasts things into the next dimension. Keeping you finger down for entire duration of the blending process may seem a little far-fetched, but this thing whips it all up in double-quick time so it isn't quite so arduous as one might think.I had two of these blenders as I thought the first one was simply faulty and anomalous. Not so - the next one that arrived had similar problems and frankly, I just decided to live with it. Great shame about the switch but if you can hack standing by the blender as it works, then you still get yourself quite a beast in the kitchen for a very decent price.

By duckworp from london on 11/20/2007

[...] the motor didn't work properly, cutting off as you turned the dial. Also very noisy.