Home Appliances - best thing to do?

[bUU]

Have you considered buying a better quality blender? It will cost more upfront but save you money over time by not needing to be replaced regularly. Plus it will do a better job of blending as well. We have a KitchenAid that we use regularly and it works great.

We thought Kitchen Aid was a good blender. This is the one we bought ten years ago:



It was relatively highly regarded, and we have a food processor from that same line, which we've used even more than the blender, which hasn't failed us (yet).

It spun the blades by a connection between the blade assembly and a rubber spinning thing on the base, which looks like this:



Those little rubber teeth break off after a while.

What I've noticed is that the newer models no longer rely on the rubbery spinning thing, and instead the blades are turned by a metal-to-metal connection:

http://www.kitchenaid.com/digitalassets/KSB560ER/Feature_1175X1290_P120059_15.jpg

(Image is too large to embed)

So clearly they realized that relying on rubber for something like this is poor design.

However, we decided to go with America's Test Kitchen's recommendation: Breville BBL605XL Hemisphere Control Blender.

[rennigade]

Have you considered buying a better quality blender? It will cost more upfront but save you money over time by not needing to be replaced regularly. Plus it will do a better job of blending as well. We have a KitchenAid that we use regularly and it works great.

We had a kitchenaid blender for approx 3 years that broke after minimal use. The bottom piece that holds the blade in place kept stripping. Of course you couldnt just buy that piece alone...the entire jar had to be replaced. I think it was my particular model that didnt allow that simple piece to be replaced. It would have cost $45 for a new jar/blade assembly. I threw it out. Thats half the price for a new kitchenaid blender.

We purchased a ninja blender. Its the same price as the kitchenaid but imo works a lot better. Maybe the kitchenaid blender that we purchased was just a lemon from the start, I dont know.

[bUU]

Maybe the kitchenaid blender that we purchased was just a lemon from the start, I dont know.

The fact that you and I both had problems with the bottom portion of Kitchen Aid blenders makes me think that they're simply not very good at designing that portion of the appliance, rather than either you or I having had a lemon.

[boefixepa]

Forgive me for not reading all of the previous posts, sorry if I repeat anything. My mother in law is a research crazy person, to the point of driving people crazy, but in the end she does get down to the best buy for her dollar. If you want a washer and/or dryer that is going to last longer then a few years you should look into the "Speed Queen" brand. They don't have a lot of bells and whistles and they are not computerized and they are not sold by the box stores or the like. You have to find an independent dealer. Most all of the familiar names (Matag, Whirpool Etc) have been bought out by GE. The brand is still out there but the "guts" are all the same. The repair man my MIL talked to for a few hours said that the newer computerized ones are VERY costly to repair and give people trouble with in a few years. He says gone are the days of them lasting for 15-20 years. You will be lucky if they last 5. But he said the "Speed Queen" brand is still old school and they make all the washers/dryers for Laundromats. Speed Queen is their in home version. Like I said, nothing fancy, but they get the clothes clean, you can still use dryer sheets (apparently you shouldn't in the new dryers as it causes the sensors to have issues), they are reasonably priced, last a decade or more, and are a great buy. They have a model that runs about $500 each and will last, so I am told. Take it or leave it, that's what my MIL recently discovered.