Hamilton Beach Helps Blend Away Your Troubles

Blenders are a common appliance in most kitchens and they can come in very handy for creating drinks, chopping dry foods, and combining different food items together into a smooth mixture. The blender I use nowadays is one that has suited my limited needs well. It is the Hamilton Beach Model 50199R Blendmaster Ultra; a blender with enough power to create a multitude of beverages and other food combinations.

Facts About This Product:

This blender has dimensions of approx. 12 inches in height; 10 inches in width; and 8 inches in depth. The pitcher is marked with a maximum capacity of 56 oz and the cap on the top of the lid- with a capacity of about two ounces- can be used as a measuring device for small amounts of food.

There are a total of 10 speeds with this blender: Grate, Ice Breaker, Beat, Blend, and Liquefy are labeled under the high speed setting; Stir, Aerate, Puree, Crumb, and Chop are labeled under the low speed setting.

This device blends food by means of a four- pronged blade (two blades turned upward, two blades turned downward) at the base of the jar. A total of 400 watts are available to power this blender. And the total weight of the entire unit is only about 5.5 pounds.

Customer Service:

If you want to learn more about this product the place to go is the web site, hamiltonbeach.com. Questions and answers, links to make a purchase, and other facts and figures about this blender can be found in the web site. If you need to speak with a rep, the number is 800-851-8900.

Final Thoughts:

Hamilton Beach’s 50199R Blendmaster is a stylish, modern device for creating great drinks and other foods in your kitchen. This blender offers a tall, smooth design that not only looks good on your kitchen counter, it also takes up less space than many traditional blenders.

One of the many things I like about this blender is its shape and design. Its base is small- like I mentioned above- and that means it fits easily into tight quarters. But besides that, it also has a stylish look, thanks to its slim design and its smooth pitcher. On most older styles of blenders, the jar was marked on the side with indentations showing the different levels of ounces. It was also common on older models to find long grooves and various other marks. The pitcher on this model is different. It is smooth and slick, with an appearance that is similar to an actual serving pitcher. You can’t really tell by looking at the small picture here in Epinions, but it does have a more attractive, more modern look than older models.

This blender offers a good amount of power for an appliance so relatively small and inexpensive. Using one of the pulse settings,“Grate” or “Ice Breaker” in high speed mode, this little machine packs a punch. It quickly liquefies whatever is placed inside the jar in a very short amount of time. I typically use mine for making fruit drinks. It quickly turns pieces of solid fruit into a smooth, drinkable mixture.

The lid of the pitcher helps mixologists with its multi- use features. The middle can be popped off for adding ingredients so that you don’t need to remove the entire lid. And there are three positions that can be used for different purposes. The lid is shaped like a triangle and by moving the lid around to its three different positions, you can strain, pour, or close it off completely when blending.

I use the higher speeds most frequently with this blender because 1. Most of what I blend is beverages and high speeds are necessary and 2. The slower speeds tend to make me impatient. They still get the job done, but why use slow when you can get it done more quickly with one of the higher speeds? It makes sense to use the high- speed pulse settings when you can. One thing to note about this blender is that, while it does a good job with liquids, it doesn’t always chop up very well when you are dealing with dry ingredients. For example, I have used this device for chopping up bread and, like with most blenders, I usually have to lift off the pitcher, shake the bread around a little bit, and then hit the power a few more times to get everything chopped up the way I like it. Actually, this blender still does a good job. It just requires a little more time than blending liquids. Oh, and it does a better job then most blenders when it comes to crushing ice. Some blenders perform this task so poorly they aren’t worth the bother. But Hamilton Beach got it right with this blender. It breaks up ice with little effort.

The pitcher or jar included with this blender is made of high- grade plastic. This offers some advantages and also some disadvantages. On the positive side, the fact that the pitcher is plastic means it is lightweight. You can really feel a difference (if you’re used to using blenders with glass pitchers) when you lift the jar off the base. It is light as a feather, making it easier to handle. Plastic construction also means it is less likely to break. On the downside, the fact that it is plastic means you cannot place it in a dishwasher and you have to be careful about the temperature of the foods you place inside the jar for blending. When you wash, you need to do so by hand, to avoid damage and to be completely safe.

The pitcher on this unit is easy to use because it just “sits” on the base. It doesn’t lock in or anything like that. It just sits there. This makes it easy to use, but it also makes it a little less secure. I generally trust that the pitcher will not fall off when I’m blending, but I typically hold the top of it down when I’m about to turn on the power. I’m sure it won’t fall off because I trust that the people at Hamilton Beach have designed it and tested it to minimize this type of problem. But with the pitcher being so light, I feel safer if I hold it down while it blends.

The cord of this blender stores underneath the unit. It isn’t retractable and there is no compartment to push the cord inside. Instead, there is a place on the base where the cord can be wound, to get it out of your way. This is better than nothing, but I would like it better if there was a storage compartment to keep the cord completely protected and out of view.

To help get you started down the path of blender enjoyment, Hamilton Beach includes a recipe booklet with this blender that has some tasty drink recipes. The blender also comes with a three- year limited warranty against defects.

Overall, this blender has proven itself to be a solid piece of kitchen equipment. I have considered replacing the jar (Hamilton Beach sells glass jars) to something more heavy- duty but I still like what this blender offers and what it is capable of doing. It has come in very handy for my limited needs (I use it about once every two weeks), producing great- tasting fruit drinks with the press of a button.