Waring WPB05BC Professional Quality Bar Blender, Brushed Chrome

Waring Blendors are The Best!
My Grandmother had a Waring Blendor. My Mother had a Waring Blendor. Why did I have to BUY one instead of "borrowing" one of theirs? Because they gave them away to get "lighter", i.e., cheap, plastic blenders, back in the early eighties. Big mistake. My grandmother died before she had to replace hers, but my mother is on her third cheap blender now. I expect my Waring Blendor to last the rest of my life. Fortunately, I was able to get my grandmother's Waring Blendor Cookbook from the forties. The current model still has the powerful motor, heavy glass container, super-duper cord and top-quality switch that my grandmother's had, sixty-odd years ago.

I also picked up one at Goodwill to have an extra pitcher to make two kinds of frozen drinks when I have a party. It is about forty years old but still works great, and it was obviously used quite a bit. (I only wish I had found it before I bought a new one!) The container still fits the base on the current model.

Makes...

Disintegrates if used for ice drink
I'm not sure what's going on here, cuz half these reviews seem to say it works great. I decided to make a daquiri using the simple recipe of a Bacardi mixer, rum and ice. I've done this in an el cheapo Osterizer by pre-crushing the ice with an ice crusher. The selling point for this was that I could just put in the ice cubes and skip the extra step.

I heard the same loud noise, and the same funky smells, as other reviewers. Further, looking at the rubber-covered wheel on the base which is supposed to drive the blades, the rubber was peeled and disintegrated, and moreover, there were small chips of metal all over the place. After one use.

I have difficulty believing that this is just a fluke, especially with these other reviews.

I wouldn't call this product "Professional" at all, and I'm surprised that Waring is still trying to sell it.

Bad design/cheap materials
We're a small restaurant (16 seats), serving dinner 4 nights a week, and we use the blender for soups, Caesar dressing, etc., once or twice a week, but never use ice in it or anything like that. We've had two of this same model now, and had the same problem with both of them. The black collar, the part of the base where you set the container, is plastic, and on both blenders has broken. The first time it lasted almost a year, and we figured that wasn't too bad -- especially when you compare the cost to a true commercial/professional blender, which are $300+. Also, we really like the blender in terms of function, so we picked up another one. This time, the exact same thing happene, except that the collar cracked within 2 weeks!!

My other complaint is that I found Waring Customer Service to be disinterested & unhelpful -- especially because I contacted them about buying a new model, not about problems with the one we had. I saw a model on their website but no purchasing info...

Click to Editorial Reviews