My blender died

[HeatherFeather]

Last night, I was making a mango lassi and my blender just would not crush the ice for ages. It smelled like it was burning the motor, so I decided to toss it out.

I won't be replacing it until after I move, but I was hoping for some recommendations to keep in mind. I had a fairly cheap blender (I think mine cost around $30 new a few years ago). I can't afford a high price tag. My main use is to make frozen beverages, especially smoothies. I almost never use my blender for any other reason.

I already have a magic bullet that is quite small, and for now I will try using that. It is convenient that it can make just one beverage at a time, but that is also its main drawback when I want to make several servings in 1 hit of a button.

[Kchurchill5]

Black and Decker Crush Master 10 speed blender. I recently inherited it from my friend who is moving and didn't need it. I was looking for a new one about 6 months ago, as my glass broke (well that was after I dropped it). Anyways, I was lucky and got this. I looked it up and it is under 30 at Macy's, Walmart had it for 24, and Target for 30.

Crushing ice, smoothies, milkshakes, cold cold cocktails is really what I use it for.

Anyways, it works great. I had a Black and Decker before, a 12 cycle one, and it worked great, until I dropped the container. I could of just replaced that, but it was almost the cost of a new blender once I paid for s/h.

I had the Black and Decker, and so did Mom and Dad. Reliable and affordable.

[Sue]

Most blenders except the vitamix are disastrous at crushing ice. The vitamix is expensive, but instead you might want to get an ice crusher like the Deni brand, crush your ice first, then use a cheaper model of blender with that since the crushed ice will reduce the load on the motor.

[HeatherFeather]

I wish I could afford a Vitamix or a Blendtec or something that good - they are on my dream wish list. I tried using the magic bullet yesterday to make my mango smoothie and it was still a bit of struggle to get the frozen fruit chopped up enough - even though i broke it into smaller pieces before adding it.

I will keep my eyes open for the Black & Decker model and see if that could work out for me. The magic bullet is better than my previous blender at chopping up the ice, but still gets stuck and won't really do the job it needs to do quite as well as I wish it would. I remember having a great blender in the past, and it always used to be fine with ice. However, the last few blenders I have had have just not been very good, despite saying they were designed with ice crushing as a feature.

[Sue]

I saw this today in my email and thought of you, HF. I found a link to it.
http://get.ziplist.com/
Check out the Vitamix giveaway- and good luck!