KitchenAid Ultra Power 5 Speed Blender

For me, there's only been one reason to use a blender so far. I love making smoothies - fruit smoothies, yogurt smoothies, ice cream smoothies and more. I know they have "smoothie" makers out there, but why buy another product when your blender can do the same job?

The KitchenAid blender has worked awesome, but has some flaws.

The Good
The product stays together very well. I don't know the technical terms, but the metal cutter/blender part fits right in the bottom and once you tighten the bottom you know there is no leaking. The lid, once tightened also stays on very well. There are two unscrewable attachments in the lid. One is for adding things to the mix, and the other for pouring. Once again - no trouble with leaks here!

The power of the blender seems very strong. I can put in the thickest of ice creams and frozen fruits and it will still blend very well once it breaks through the thicker parts. I've used other blenders that couldn't handle these same ingredients so I've had to make liquidy smoothies in order for it to work. KitchenAid does cut through the heavy stuff so I can have thicker and yummy smoothies.

There are 5 speeds as the product name indicates. These are stir, chop, mix, puree and liquefy. I really don't see the difference in all of these since I only make smoothies. I tend to start with puree and move on to liquefy once the heavy stuff has been broken up a bit. You can also "pulse" each of the above settings. Pressing this button speeds up the blender for a few seconds to send a pulse of power through the ingredients. This is good when you find the blender seems to be stuck or not making it's way through a certain ingredient.

This blender has held up well as we've owned it for at least 3 years. It might have been longer but I really never used the blender until 3 years ago so I don't know when my mom bought this! Although I only use it for smoothies, my parents have used this for many things throughout the years and we have had no trouble with all the various ingredients.

Finally, the blender has a nice capacity in that it will hold over 5 cups worth of ingredients. I can usually make 2.5 smoothies with no problem, and if I try hard enough I can make up to 4 smoothies. It's safer to make less at a time just to make sure it blends properly, but it is possible to make more!

The bad
I've learned my lesson with this one - you have to leave the lid on and open the "pouring" hole if you want a smooth pour. This is ok for the first few glasses, but when you are trying to get the rest of the liquid out it tends to get all stuck in the lid. I like to use every drop, and it's hard with this lid. Plus, if you have particularly thick drinks they will not pour well. The round design is it's downfall. If you think of other blenders that are square with the spout, those work much better for pouring.

The second downfall of the product is how tight the bottom stays on. There is no leaking as I said, but it's very hard to take it apart when you want to wash it. Sometimes it seems impossible. I get around this by setting it on the blender stand and using that for resistance to help me untwist the bottom.

Finally, the lid will be tight once you get it on, but it is sometimes hard to get it on correctly. I remember at least 2 times where I thought it was twisted on all the way and when I started the blender liquid came out the top. This was because I had twisted it at the wrong angle and it wasn't really on correctly. Be careful when putting the lid on and you should be alright.

Conclusion
I say the pros outweigh the cons in this product. I like the round shape overall as it just seems like it holds more than the square/triangle designs. It blends very well and never seems to get too stuck up on anything. Once I figured out how to pour it and take it apart I began to like it more. You don't need a separate product to make smoothies! but you will probably need a blender eventually so make this your smoothie-maker.