PowerMax Jug Blender

The jug attaches to the power base through 6 small plastic brackets which are attached to the bottom of the blade assembly. The brackets fit into a black ring on the power base.

Within the first month, 2 of the plastic brackets broke off. Now this month, 2 more brackets have broken. Ever since the first bracket broke, we have tried to be particularly careful about making sure that the jug is on the base correctly before starting the blender, but it doesn't seem to be helping. Braun has agreed to replace the blade assembly, but the service representative had "no idea" why the brackets were breaking off. He suggested that we thaw the frozen fruit before making the smoothies, but this would be time consuming and would change the consistency of the smoothie.

If the next blade does no better, we're going to end up trashing this blender and buying a different brand. What a waste of money!

I researched extensively to decide that this blender was the very best one. I'm really disappointed.


useless for my purposes   March 22, 2002
 18 out of 34 found this review helpful

i cook a lot of indian food, and many recipes call for pureeing various spices, chilis, and other vegetables into a paste. this is what i bought this blender to do. much as i love my food processor, it doesn't really turn out a smooth puree, especially with small amounts of material.

this blender has failed completely to puree anything. i even tried to make hummus, and all the machine did was thow the ingredients onto the side of the jug and spin the blades uselessly. maybe it would puree a very liquid vegetable soup, but that's not what i bought it to do.


Very powerful and fast blender, one minor complaint   January 21, 2002
 285 out of 289 found this review helpful

I had an old Osterizer blender with 12 push-buttons, none of which matched the speed of this Braun powerhouse. I bought this to make protein shakes, which includes crushing a couple ice cubes, and so far, it has produced uniformly smooth shakes, with no lumps of unblended powder or pieces of uncrushed ice. The blades circulate the mixture quickly and thoroughly, and clean-up is simple; removing the bottom allows easy access to the (heavy) glass jar, or you can put some water and detergent in the jar and use the pulse setting.

One minor design flaw caused me to downgrade from 5 stars to 4. The lid has a removable center part for adding items while blending, which is a good idea. But even when this piece is fully closed and in place, there are openings at the edges. This is not a problem for the shakes I make, but the first time I used the pulse setting to clean the blender, I had soapy water all over. The easiest work-around is to put a kitchen towel on the lid when cleaning, but I do not know why Braun's designers left openings in an otherwise tightly-fitting lid. Even the old Osterizer with its removable center part sealed completely. If not for that, a 5-star product!


The Braun Blender - A Great Machine   January 3, 2002
 16 out of 16 found this review helpful

I've never owned a blender before and love the convenience of it. I hadn't used it much until recently for a housewarming cocktail party - what a smash!! The blender roared through very thick ice and fruit to make smooth beautiful fruity cocktails. I'm hooked! My friends love me now that I make them alcoholic cocktails, milkshakes, fruit smoothies etc when they come to visit me. The removable meaure in the lid is handy to measure liquors, but a word of caution, do not overfill the machine as your drink will come out of the same screw-in measure thing in the lid of the unit. The lower controls before pulse (speeds 1-5) are pretty powerful so most ingredients only need a few seconds on the desired chop speed. The blender is easy to clean on pulse-mode, and a wipe of the bottom section to ensure all spillage is caught.

Happy Drinking!!