The Oster Fusion Blender -- Almost Perfect, Except for This

I should begin by saying that the Oster Fusion Blender is the best blender I have ever owned. It has different blending programs stored within the unit, one for "Frozen Drinks and Shakes" and one for "Food Chop." The blending is further customized by different manual speed options, such as "pulse" and "ice crushing." In terms of price, you can buy this blender for about $79.00, and given the power it delivers and its versatility, that's a pretty good deal.

We make a lot of fruit smoothies in our home, so I couldn't get through my day without this blender. I should also mention that it makes killer salad dressings, so if you are a salad junkie, then this is the blender for you. It's a natural for pureeing soups, and its Hollandaise and Bearnaise sauces are the best, hands-down.

So what's not to like about the World's Best Blender? I have the same problem with it that I have with just about every other blender - there's no easy way to get at the blades in the base of the blender to clean them. Although the glass jar is detachable from the base, the blades are affixed to their own little metal base, and even worse, some of the blades bend downward, creating surfaces that probably even a toothbrush couldn't reach. Oster would most likely tell me to take apart the jar and put all of the blender pieces in the dishwasher, but we don't have a dishwasher (we rent), and I think it's unwise to assume that everyone who buys this blender will have access to one. Even if we did have a dishwasher, I would prefer to be able to scrub the blades by hand every once in awhile and actually get them clean. I don't know if those little gritty particles in the dishwasher soap can get in those tiny spaces.

My idea is to figure out a way to design the blade so it is detachable from its little base, so it can be cleaned more easily. I am not a product designer, and I can't provide schematics on how to do this. But I can tell you that my Cuisinart food processor is designed in such a manner, so I'm sure it can be done. Cuisinart makes blenders too, and they do look pretty efficient from the photos I've seen. But Cuisinart also recommends that you put all of the pieces in a dishwasher to clean them. And from what I can tell, even their most expensive blender, the PowerEdge 700 Blender priced at $149.00, has a blade designed like the one in my Oster.

Any blender manufacturer who can ace this glitch will reign supreme in the blender market. That's the long and short of it. I'm sure I'm not the only home cook who has thought about this issue, particularly among those of us who obsess on our families' safety day in, day out. So there's your incentive!

Sources:

Personal experience

http://www.oster.com/Category.aspx?pgid=1031 (the Oster blender page)

http://www.cuisinart.com/products.html?product_id=1&item_id=1&cat_id=1 (the Cuisinart blender page)