Oster BPST02-B Professional Series Glass Jar Blender Black

I use a blender every morning for breakfast smoothies and nearly every afternoon to puree the vegetables that I am tossing in the dinner or soups. This blender is by several magnitudes the best blender within this price range on the market. If you are only making smoothies for 2 people, or you only need a blender a couple of times a week, this blender is not only efficient, and fast, it is also durable and reliable. The manufacturer has replacement parts, should you lose a piece - because is is very unlikely that anything on it is going to break. I have had other oster blenders that lasted for 20 years - using them on average a couple of times of week. I had tried another blender brand (Villaware) it was pricey, it leaked, and there were no replacement parts (I didn't lose them, they leaked early on). Because I use blenders so much, and for so many years, I did recently upgrade to one of those horribly expensive other models. But, that is only because I needed the capacity. If you don't need the capacity, and you don't need your blender to make soup and ice-cream and grind your wheat, go ahead and get this one, because it makes delicious, fast, very smooth fruit and vegetable drinks. I would like to offer this suggestion for those smoothies...put your soft items on the bottom of the blender (bananas, grapes, watermelon, spinach) along with a little water, or milk. Then add the the apples or pineapple or pear or carrots. Once the blades are whirling around they can catch the harder items and grind them up for you. If you put the harder items at the bottom, you will have to empty out the blender and start over. The very expensive blenders (you know which one I am talking about) can handle the hard items on the bottom, but the slight inconvenience of starting your drinks with the soft items is not worth the hundreds of additional dollars for that benefit. Read more

My (almost) thirteen year old daughter calls this blender "awesome," and she's right! It blends beautifully and crushes ice like a champ. It looks terrific on the countertop too, no need to hide it away. The beehive base and the matte black and stainless finish work equally well with traditional, vintage or modern decor. Form aside, this is a functional machine. I love the simplicity, the power and the ease with which it does the job--right out of the box. The quality is obvious and it is a joy to use. Plus, no more scrapping off dried smoothie (yeah!) I can stick the jar right in the dishwasher (the last blender jar I used melted when I did that!) As a family we are heavy into protein smoothies after workouts. We also love icey drinks and creamy soups. We have been disappointed with other blenders on one job or the other. This blender handles it all with ease. The Oster Professional Series Blender is well worth the manufacturer's list price, but it is a steal with the Amazon.com discount (I got 40% off!) and amazonprime shipping! Read more

I purchased this blender after reading countless reviews on this and other blenders and this one came out on top consistently - and with good reason. I've had my blender for about 3 weeks and have been making frozen blended drinks and smoothies (everyday) with one or two batches of soup and salad dressing. First, what works well are the blending blades, combined with high speed. I have no problem blending ice cubes so they are smooth. The instructions suggest adding liquid items first and then the ice, which I do and I haven't had a problem. It's very easy to clean; as per the suggested instructions, after making smoothies I add warm water, a drop of dish detergent and blend it for a few seconds; rinse and you're finished. In between batches of different foods, i.e. smoothie/soup, I will wash the entire unit more thoroughly. The 2 speeds (on/pulse) are perfect for everything the average person needs it for, personally I think any other blender that boasts 8-12 different speeds is simply an advertising gimick and completely unnecessary. The unit is a great size and doesn't take much space on the counter. The base is narrow and comes in lots of great colors and finishes so you should find one that goes with the rest of your appliances. For things that are left to be desired: the flimsy, plastic lid seems out of place on the rest of the well-manufactured unit. I don't like the middle plug on the lid. It's not very functional to add ingredients in mid-blend, nor would you want to. The unit blends at such high speeds I think it would be a mess if you attempted to open the plug. And that brings me to my 2nd concern; it's great that it blends at such high speeds (without the high speed, it wouldn't do as great a job of crushing ice) but if the lid is not securely place and held on with your hand, it will spew the contents all over the place. And the motor is loud but I can't fault the machine, it does such a good job of blending that it isn't on for very long. Read more