Oster 6844 12-Speed Blender, Metallic Red

This is my first review of any sort of kitchen product. I bought the Oster 12 speed blender (in red--my favorite!) mostly to make smoothies. I make them about 4-5 times per week. I usually use frozen fruit, yogurt, and some form of juice or liquid. I use crushed ice probably less than 25% of the time--so if you are planning on using this blender to crush a lot of ice you may need to look for additional reviews of how it performs that function. For me and the limited amount of ice I use it has worked perfectly.

The glass jar is excellent and I've had no problems with cracking or breaking. All of the pieces fit well together and I really like how the "seat" of the jar in the blender does not include a lot of strangely shaped electronic pieces that are hard to clean. This one works by having the blender sit on a piece of metal. My last blender had weird plastic and rubbery items that covered the "seat" and it was very tough to clean.

I am exceptionally happy...Read more

Wow! It crushes ice in seconds, has lots of features / speeds, was reduced to $29.99, and it's red. What's not to like!

I was quite pleased that the pitcher is made of thick, sturdy glass. But the base is an entirely different matter. In fact, it feels like this base belong with an entirely different Oster pitcher. While this pitcher feels heavy and solid, in contrast the base feels light, flimsy and plasticky. When the blender is on, the base vibrates and rattles in a loud, harsh way that is beyond what I'd expect for normal operation -- especially considering that the hardest thing I've put in the blender is pieces of frozen bananas for smoothies. It's as if the blender vibrates so wildly because it's so top-heavy -- the base just doesn't have the weight or sturdiness to properly absorb the vibrations from the heavy pitcher.

This blender has made a couple of dozen frozen banana smoothies for me without a problem, but it is disappointing that the base -- which looked to me like it would be heavy and sturdy -- is actually mostly plastic and vibrates wildly. I make a smoothie at least once...Read more