Save your money, time, and sanity!

In deference to the previous reviewers comments, I make no claims about this blender's ability to make pina coladas, or any other frozen drink for that matter. My sole purpose in buying this blender was to make baby food, as a replacement for a Cuisinart that my mother-in-law ever so skillfully murdered.

I went to the store in search of something that was going to be able to compete with my Cuisinart SmartPower Duet (the one that's got a single base, yet can be a blender or a food processor). I left my mother in law alone with un-pureed baby food for too long, and she decided to puree the potatoes (of all things) herself- sans any liquids. Needless to say, she fried it good. Being the day before Memorial Day, having guests coming over for a party, and an entire refrigerator full of un-pureed baby food taking up all that precious space, I decided that we needed to replace my Cuisinart- PRONTO.

I digress.

So I'm standing at the store, amid 14 varieties of blenders each claiming to be superior to the one next to it (funny- no Cuisinart to be seen...). 2 speeds, 20 speeds... I didn't really care. The only thing running through my head at that specific moment was, "Can it make baby food?"

My husband claimed that the blender with the higher power motors would be able to puree my daughter's food in the shortest amount of time... I naively bought it. The Hamilton Beach claimed a 750 watt motor. WOW... that must REALLY work, considering my old Cuisinart was only a 350!! And with WAVE technology- oooooh....

The final selling point was the price- only $39.99!! About half the price I paid for my recently slaughtered Cuisinart. I bought it, rushed home, washed all the pieces, actually READ the directions, and started to work on my baby foods.

First up- nice mushy acorn squash. Now the directions claim that all I have to do is put the food in there with a little water, milk, or juice, press the desired consistency, and blend for 10 seconds. So I give it a try... put the pulp in there... add a little liquid... press "puree". Huh. It's spinning... the water is actually frothing. But why isn't it grabbing the chunks of squash?!? Turn it off... open the lid... use a spoon to push the chunks down. Well, the manual says I shouldn't NEED to use a spoon or a spatula because of the WAVE technology. Maybe this once is just a fluke. Try again. You've got to be kidding me. After about 6 attempts at trying to get the blades to snag a piece of squash, I'm getting more than mildly frustrated. Here comes my husband, to "show" me how the blender works. He's about as successful with it as I am. He's just slightly more patient. 20 minutes and about 50 spoon-prods later... NO JOKE... my acorn squash is pureed. Great. I've still got pears, apples, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, and of course my mother in law's miserably failed attempt at the white potatoes to go.

My husband came up with the brilliant idea to start with the liquid and slowly add pieces of food- this worked only slightly better than the original method. As soon as the food came anywhere near the consistency of baby food, the blades simply began to spin freely because the food was not liquid enough for it to fall back towards the blades to make the "wave" technology work. It took 2 hours to finally make all of her food. I am lucky that my wonderful husband was patient enough to put up with the beast long enough to puree all of her food, because I was ready to chuck the thing out a window after the first failed attempt.

So I guess I'm spoiled by my Cuisinart... I will be going out on Tuesday to re-purchase my Cuisinart SmartPower Duet, seeing as it purees everything I put into it in record time- even meats.

Heck, I doubt that this Hamilton Beach would effectively puree pudding.