Braun MX 2050 PowerMax 5-Speed Blender

Pros: Great for blending difficult ingredients. The price is right.
Cons: None found so far.

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Pros: Large glass jar with good mixing results, powerful motor
Cons: coupling between jar and motor base breaks easily, form of glass jar improvable

Reading the positive review at EPINIONS, I decided to go with the Braun MX2050 as replacement for my current Cusinart mixer. I am a freak of Smoothies and blended frozen drinks, and the Cusinart I had before did a very bad job there. Let's take a close ...

Pros: Very good, works great, reliable
Cons: None after 7 years.

We purchased this blender about 7 years ago and it is still going strong. Only recently have I had to have the base gearing replaced, and now also I will need to purchase a replacement for the cutting blade. And not because of the cutting blade itself, ...

Pros: Cheap, works reliably. Good power, makes frozen smoothies well. 
Cons: Two plastic gears - one easy to replace, the other way harder.

I had a Viking blender before this - piece of garbage that I threw in the trash. And who wants to spend $300+ on a Vita-Mix? This one is rated well and has plenty enought power to make smoothies with ice and frozen fruit.Pitcher is a good size ...

Pros: Grinds ice in a moment! Top pick of Consumer Reports!
Cons: Nothing obvious; a personal choice not to dishwash rubber cap & gasket.

My husband and I have been struggling with our nice looking blender with the retro chrome beehive base, because it just couldn't crush ice. I love ice cream drinks (like a "Grasshopper") but it was really annoying to come across these chunks of ice in ...

Pros: It's powerful motor makes smooth smoothies, but...
Cons: Gear in jar broke within three months; contents splash through vent holes in lid.

I bought the Braun Powermax MX2050 Blender because we make 2-4 fruit smoothies every day, the basis of which are frozen bananas, not ice. This has destroyed a couple of blenders pretty quickly. From experience I trust the Braun brand, so went with this ...

Pros: crushes ice well, cord coils into base, large capacity jug, powerful motor
Cons: blade driving gears are made of plastic and broke, blades not positioned properly

Purchased this blender on the recommendation of the salesperson who claimed it could solve my ice crushing problems with my old blender. I make alot of frozen drinks and smoothies and found that it required a decent blade and power to do it properly. ...

Pros: Cost-efficient. Works well with light jobs.
Cons: Not for heavy, daily, sustained use.

I bought this blender on the recommendation of Cook's Illustrated - I wanted a blender that could power through ice for mixed drinks! And... at first, I thought it was about worthless... I would put ice and mixers in and blend and it seemed like it took ...

Pros: Fantastic, powerful blender
Cons: comes only in white

This is a fantastic blender! I have put off buying a blender for years because the last one I had (inherited from my mother-in-law) never worked very well. Recently, I was reading a copy of Cooking Pleasures magazine and read their review of 5 blenders...

Pros: great power mixes smoothie ingredients well
Cons: defective part on bottom of blade

I had done quite a bit of research before buying my Braun Power Max about a month ago. I guess I sho ...

Pros: it looks nice and performs well when it actually works
Cons: breaks down, cheaply built

I purchased this blender through a rewards program thinking it would be a great product, after all I have purchased Braun products before and have been very satisfied with Braun quality and performance. The Blender performed really well while it worked. ...

Pros: Every feature great other than the drive gear. PLEASE FIX!
Cons: Drive gear failed in two months of every-other-day light use.

Me too. I bought the Braun MX2050 PowerMax blender two months ago (Dec 17, 2005) based on the Consumer Reports that the problem with the plastic drive gear had been fixed. No luck. A mere two months of use every couple of days making breakfast smoothies with frozen fruit and liquid and one of the teeth of the plastic gear broke off in its housing, then the whole gear just disintegrated. Looking at all the reports on Amazon it seems this continues to be a common problem. I'm sending a note to Consumer Reports and Braun, but steer clear. This fatal flaw is a real pity, too, because every other element of the blender is very nice. Ironically, I'd bought it to replace a "cheapie" Osterizer blender that had worked flawlessly for 25 years. Gave the old one to the college guys next door who are happily blending smoothies, margaritas, daquiris, crushing ice etc., unlike me with my two-month-old up-to-date Braun :-).

Pros: Great for a while
Cons: Breaks too easily for me

When I purchased my first PowerMax 2050, I was praising consumer reports for their article that guided me to buy the Braun over the $500 Vita-Mix blender. The Braun was so much better than our $12 Wal-Mart blender.

My wife and I used it to make smoothies nearly every day for about six months. Then one day it broke as other reviewers have described. I don't see any damage, but the blades doesn't spin under pressure. They spins water and soap, but that's about it. Clearly the jug and blades functioned fine as I bought a replacement and the old jug worked fine on it. It seems like a friction gear inside the motor has given out (and seems like it could be replaced).

We've now had the second blender less than two months and the same catastrophe has happened with it.

While I dearly loved this blender when it worked, I will not buy another one.

Pros: Does a good job before it breaks. Very fine customer service.
Cons: The plastic gearing system should be redesigned or replaced.

I bought this blender because of its top rating by "a leading consumer magazine." My wife and I wanted to use it to make smoothies from frozen fruits and juices.

The machine worked flawlessly for a few months, but the plastic gears that kicked the pitcher to the base then broke.

I contacted Braun and they send me a new blade-gear unit.
this broke again after a month or so.

I again contacted Braun and they again send me a new blade-gear unit. Deja vu all over again.

I am now in the market for a new blender without a plastic gear mechanism. I guess I would rate the blender as a 0 and the customer service as a 5.

Pros: Powerful motor and easy to clean.
Cons: Plastic gear assembly a serious flaw!

Like many others, I bought the Braun MX2050 based on good ratings from Consumer Reports and cooksillustrated.com. I had read on the CR website that the blender had previously had problems but that Braun had made improvements that resulted in a more durable blender. I noted that the blender I received was manufactured in the Czech Republic, the manufacturing location of the supposedly "improved" design. I used the blender to make smoothies using frozen fruit. Since the blender is reported to make easy work of crushing ice, I didn't think there would be any problem putting frozen fruit in the jar. Within a week, the plastic gear at the base of the jar broke. I returned the blender and got another one. This time, the plastic gear assembly broke nearly in half on the second use. The problems with the gear assembly really are a shame since this is otherwise an very good blender.