I purchased this Cuisinart SB-5600 blender in late October. After owning a KitchenAid for several years with no luck on getting it to blend properly, I was again on the search for the perfect blender. This particular blender has a 600 watt high-torque motor with what they call "cyclonic blending action" that is supposed to help with very smooth results. It has pre-programmed rubberized push button controls on the side with LED indicators. To use this machine, you must push the "on" button, then select the power button that you wish to blend on.

I do think it does provide the "cyclonic" action, but if there is not enough liquid in the jar, it will tend to stop mixing until you stop, open the lid and mix the contents. Overall, compared to the KitchenAid blender I owned, it outperformed KitchenAid.

The blender is extremely easy to clean, and we were using it every morning for smoothies. Once we were done with the smoothies, I put a drop of liquid dish soap in it, a little bit of hot water and blended it for approx 50 seconds. I then rinsed thoroughly and put back onto the base. The Cuisinart SB-5600 blender also has extremely sharp blades compared to the KitchenAid. The KitchenAid blender's blades are dull to the touch. I believe the sharper blades does make a difference with the blending tasks. Be careful when you handle the blades to clean as I'm sure you could get cut very easily with them.

The only cons with this machine so far is that while it has the nice buttons on the side, I'm worried that my kids will eventually end up spilling juice (or whatever) onto the buttons and that will end up ruining the control pad or shorting out the machine. They are not completely sealed around the edges like on some other control pads that have no gaps in them. It is also somewhat bulky compared to other blenders if you are intending on storing it on the counter. But if you won't store it on the counter, then it won't get the use that it was intended for. The other con again, is that it does get "stuck" like other blenders if it does not have enough liquid in it.

It does have a nice large 60 oz jar so you can make ample amounts of smoothies in it. The only thing is that it might be somewhat difficult for smaller people to use because of the weight of the jar. I do hope Cuisinart will come out with a blender like the Vita-mix that has a push tamper in it so that ice and frozen fruit can be pushed down into the blades for more thorough blending of ingredients.

Other than that, it's not a Vita-Mix, but it does make a nice smoothy most of the time compared to KitchenAid.

The only color I believe this machine comes in is black/stainless steel, but to me, the color doesn't really matter as much as quality of engineering and performance as advertised.





Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 129.99