Hamilton Beach 56406 BlendSmart 18-Speed Blender

We felt like we'd taken a step into the next century when we replaced our old blender with this state of the art beauty by Hamilton Beach.

It took us a while to adjust to the fact that we no longer had to stand over a blender, turn it off, and circulate the mixture with a spatula. This blender is aptly named "Blend smart" - it is programmed to blend automatically and then turn off. All we have to do is touch the Blend Smart Button once for 45 seconds of pre-programmed blending cycles.

In addition, this blender has the capability to crush ice and other solids msoothly and consistently.

For safety's sake the jar is locked to the base so it won't tip over.

Now, our shakes and drinks are perfection. Why didn't we get one sooner?

I recently purchased a Smart Blend 18 speed blender after sending back a Smoothie Maker. The Smart Blend does everthing that the manufacturer stated. It does a great job at shaving and blending ice and quickly. The price is moderate compared to other blenders and I feel a good buy.

The quality of the Hamilton Beach 56406 BlendSmart 18-Speed Blender is excellent. This is a POWERFUL blender. It comes with 550 watts of power. The glass jar is thick and has a very wide bottom. The jar locks into place when used so you don't need to worry about the jar shaking off the base. The base of the unit allows you to wrap the cord around it to neatly put away the cord or to shorten the cord so that you don't have a cord dangling around your countertop. This is a nice feature that is not present on most blenders. Another nice feature present on this blender is the speed dial. This is far more convenient to use than a bunch of separate speed buttons. The unit also comes with a special ice crushing blade. The big question is: can this blender crush ice well? With most other blenders, in order to crush ice, you have to baby-sit the blender, manually pressing the pulse button several times, stopping once in a while to shake the jar or stir the ingredients with a spoon to loosen...Read more