Magimix 11613 Le Blender, Red Finish

This is a blender absolutely built to last. In this respect it matches other items by the same manufacturer that have had a long and useful life in our kitchen. Those who have experienced the 'professional' food processor will understand that - ours has given frequent and faultless service for nearly 30 years now and shows no sign of faltering. This blender feels and performs in the same way.Initially this was specifically bought to produce smooth foods following from a severe accident that required a liquid, or liquidised diet, for 12 weeks followed by a gradual return to normal eating. In these respects it out-performed the food processor as intended and the ‘smoothy’ auto option was totally effective. The soup option would clearly be equally successful but, as the results would still need heating, our Morphy Richards soup maker, giving fully cooked soups in only 20 minutes or so, has made it our preferred choice. However, the excellent Magimix recipe book supplied with the blender and with many tempting and imaginative soup ideas has proved to be an excellent 'extra' feature. it is robustly made and well bound and, like the blender, should last for years.The working options are easy to follow and there are effective auto choices. Alternatively it is easy to choose alternative speed settings with the same dial and to use a pulse option to control the precise length of blend. This is similar to the choices available on the food processor. There is an auto cleaning process which involves simply putting warm water with a few drops of Fairy Liquid or similar cleaner and blending for 30 seconds. This is suitable for most situations. More thorough cleaning is easily achieved with some dismantling.There is one item well worth adding to the blender as an additional purchase at about £40 and that is the Mill / Grinder attachment. This has a different cutting mechanism designed to cope with the more arduous tasks of grinding nuts, raw meat and similar foods. It is very similar in concept and blade design to the sturdy Moulinex coffee grinder - and and indeed one of its specified uses is as a coffee grinder.All in all this, despite its higher price than many alternatives, this superb blender is unlikely to break down in normal usage and will repay the investment with extended reliability. It comes with a 3 year guarantee but I would not expect to need this in practice.This is a highly recommended piece of kitchen equipment in every way.

I am not really experienced with using blenders, but when I read the negative comments on other brands like Philips that quickly broke down, I decided to trust the reviews of the other users about this great blender and ordered one. And so far I don't regret it!I started out with a raw food diet and wanted to have a good blender to make my green smoothies. In the raw food scene online, everyone is praising (hyping) the Vitamix blenders. Not only do I think they are absolutely hideous to look at, they are ridiculously expensive here in Europe. I mean 600 to 650 euro for a blender? Come on!!! Then they are talking about horsepowers which does not make sense at all. I prefer to compare the power consumption of the motor because usually the higher the power consumption, the stronger the motor is. Also important is the rotation speed of the blades. With a max of 15000 rpm, this machine is fit for the job. The faster the blades spin, the finer the contents will be blended.Now be warned, if you are living outside of the UK, you will receive this blender with the default huge power plug (what were they thinking when they made this the standard in the UK? :) ) Unfortunately countries like Portugal and The Netherlands have to use the UK amazon site as other sites often don't ship to these countries. Now with a device like this, it is not a problem. You buy a converter plug and there is no problem in using it. With a cellphone for example, where the plug is also the power adapter, the converter plug makes it extra big and clumsy to carry around. Since I am not planning on traveling with my blender, it is not a problem. (you could also put on another plug, but I don't know what this does to the warranty.)Now I inspected the coupling between the bowl and the motor. On the bowl side, it is made of metal, on the motor side it looks like some kind of rubber. It however looks sturdy and I trust the quality is fine.I went to the electronics store today here in Portugal and checked many blenders from Moulinex, Philips, Braun and some unknown brands to the rest of the world. NONE of them had metal couplings, it was all plastic and when I look at the Philips ones for instance, I can imagine why it breaks down so fast.The cutting blades on this blender are quite sturdy and made of thick metal. The ones from Philips and other brands looked like they were made from a recycled tin can. Besides that, most models have only a 500 to 600 watt motor. This might be just fine, but once you do a raw diet, this is a device you are actually going to use every day (instead of using it as a dust catcher). I can imagine that if you are using a 600 watt motor, that a tough blend job takes much more toll on the motor than with a 1200 watt one.In instruction videos for green smoothies, you often see people turning the speed dial. They even warn you that you have to make sure you set back the speed dial to low when starting up the blender and then turn up the speed. This because else the substances will get splashed all around causing the lid to be smudged as well. Not that this is a big thing but it is nicer if not.Now with this blender you don't have to take care of this at all. Just press start and you will see that the electronic control will automatically start slower and then speed up the motor. I love the automatic smoothie setting. It starts blending at a higher speed (after a slow start up of course) and then it varies the speed to make sure that all ingredients will have a chance to drop to the bottom and get blended as well. Then it will speed up again and automatically stop when the smoothie is finished.Now, of course I don't know how long this machine will last. I have no Idea how the quality of the Vitamix is compared to this one. I do know that the motor feels quite heavy, usually indicating high quality materials being used. I think that the glass bowl is a lot better than the plastic ones of other brands, but maybe I am wrong.I can easily see this machine working for 10 years without a hitch. Maybe I am wrong but I will tell you in 10 years from now :p. I don't know how long the Vitamix will work. They claim it will last a life time, but if that were true, they would offer a lifetime warranty but they don't.Now if you are doubting to buy this blender because it is expensive.. DON'T it seems to be a great blender. If you are doubting because actually you want a Vitamix... well don't buy this one and spend you hard earned money on the overpriced Vitamix.Now like my fellow reviewers said: Buy the blender.. you will not regret it!!!If you have further questions, please let me know.Cheers

five stars just ain't enough for this blender.If you're anyway a regular blender user, then you cannot afford to buy anything less,and you certainly need not spend anything more.This machine does everything it says on the box, and more.I was looking for a good blender, solid design, and simple to operate,no bells and whistles, or complicated electronic programs with telephone-book sized manuals,just a simple two speed on/off would have done.I was a little apprehensive buying this machine for that reason,but the multiple speed selection and the few pre-programmed settings are an absolute gift,and completely self explanatory.the slow start works brilliantly, and completely cuts out the dreaded initial "explosion".The machine is very solidly constructed, yet not heavy in use, and quiet.It is easily and quickly cleaned, and the glass jug is the perfect size,it fits comfortably under a standard sized kitchen tap, and still plenty big.On the scale of things,I find the slightly sticky lid not an issue at all.I'm just sorry I did not realize at the time of purchase that this machine can also be supplied with a handy mill attachment.I only discovered that when it arrived. To purchase one of those mills separately turned out not to be possible.The only way to obtain one, was to buy it as spare parts, which I did, but ended up paying well over the odds for.Definitely something to consider before purchase; the "set" is also available on Amazon.