Oster My Blend Smoothie Blender with Travel Sport Bottle, 250-Watt Personal Blender, Light Powder Blue

EDIT: 5 years later! Still going strong! This is just what I needed! It was pretty annoying having to use and then clean a full sized blender when I was only making a single portion of smoothie. This takes up significantly less space and makes making a single serving a breeze. It doesn't have any buttons, all you do is line it up, and then twist to make it blend, so you do need to be holding it while it blends. Since you're making so little though, it's not really annoying at all. I love being able to twist, blend, take it off the blender, shake it a few times and then put it back on, lets me get a nice even blend. I've read all the reviews here, and it seems like the best way to increase the lifespan of this blender is to realize its limits. It's not going to make super thick, milkshake consistency smoothies. It probably won't be able to handle huge chunks of frozen fruit. But if you give it a break and cut your fruit pretty small before freezing it, then it blends perfectly. I slice my bananas pretty thin and then freeze them, maybe just half inch slices or so- and it handles them with no issues. But I think a whole frozen strawberry would be too much for it. Another thing I read in the reviews is to never let it run too long at once. If you take my advice and make your frozen fruit thin and easy to handle, this won't be an issue. But if you use huge chunks and keep it running it will burn out this poor little blender pretty dang fast. It's a small blender with a small engine, be easy on it. Another thing I read is that it's best to, when done blending, unplug the machine before taking the cup off the blending engine. So you put it on the blender, twist, let it blend, unplug, take it off the blender. This means the engine isn't fighting you to keep the blades spinning, giving it a little more lifespan. It's a blender, so it makes blender noises, but I don't consider it loud. Since it blends pretty fast (if you take my advice above) it shouldn't bother anyone in the morning. And if you have multiple people who like smoothies, you can buy multiple cups (in multiple colors!) so everyone can have their own. That's amazing. They don't have to clean out a huge clunky blender container just so they can have whatever smoothie THEY want. Personally, I don't drink from the cup lid supplied, I just take it off and sip, or use a straw. It's mostly there to keep everything in. And the picture is a little weird, the lid goes where the blades are, so the bottle itself only has one opening. Don't know why they have the lid on top like that. Overall, it's a great little blender. Would recommend if you have kids and you want them to eat healthier. It's pretty safe, since you can't reach your hand into the blades while it's blending. Teach them the limits of the machine and it'll work great for them. My go to smoothie is frozen banana, almond milk, peanut butter and cocoa powder. Makes a nice, slightly sweet but not too sweet smoothie that rounds out at about 300 calories at most. Gives you things like potassium, iron, and protein, so it's a nice beginner smoothie for people who aren't a huge fan of fruit, like myself. If this blender dies on me, I'll get back to you with how long it lasted with the measures I have taken. Hope this review was useful to someone!

Chronicles of my blender experience: I've owned a blender for as long as I can remember. I love smoothies and shakes. And I tend to cling to a blender when I've gorged on food 9 times too many and need to focus on clean eating for a while (i.e. diet). I've always had a giant one enough to make smoothies for 4-6 as it's used for the family. It's always been a hassle to clean around the blade. And taking a smoothie with me requires an extra step of pouring it into another bottle. If I just want to make a small smoothie for myself, it seemed like a lot of work. So I bought another individual small blenders a few years ago. The product was so underwhelming that I forgot the brand. It looked like my big blender but miniature size and I can make an individual smoothie with it. It died on me within a few months. I then went try the BlenderBottle, which was a craze at the time and I see everyone with one. Personally, I didn't like it. It's just a plastic bottle with a metal ball. The bottle wasn't high quality and always felt flimsy to me. The metal ball was no magic ball and didn't do anything in terms of blending. Even a simple powder and almond milk tasted super clumpy. So in a week, it was demoted to obscurity... I don't even remember where it went. Maybe storage in the garage. I've went back to my big blender since then but don't use it as much as I want to. I recently stumbled upon this blender and decided to purchase. I've had this blender for about 10 days so far and now can't see myself without it. It's super convenient and perfect for those needing a smoothie or shake on the go. And the blade is small and easy to clean. It takes me a few minutes to make a smoothie and I'm out the door.It's also the perfect blender for one. I like that there are individual bottles for sale so the whole family can have individual bottles to use. Since I received mine, I've been using it to make a smoothie right before I head out the door. It's also perfect for going to the gym. I like the shape of this as it's thin and tall and saves me space on the kitchen counter. It sits nicely nice to my giant blender and doesn't take up much space. The bottle also looks durable and easy to carry around. Highly recommended!

About two months ago my wife purchased a competitors smoothie maker. My 18-year-old daughter uses it five out of seven days weekly. I have been on this ability for the last five years and really look forward to new and exciting things to break up my morning routine. So after about two weeks of having to share the smoothie maker with my daughter and wife. I did the only thing 50-year-old man can do. I researched, read reviews, cost considerations, and the most important features for me were, power (of course) ease of clean up, brand name reputation. I craved, my very own so I didn't have to share. (Jokingly) First thing that struck me right away was I didn't have to poor my smoothie, from the machine, to a glass, travel bottle, to consume it. My daughter can now endure, cleaning the machine, the blades, the drink container. Let's not forget it's not an exact science. Her end result is generally either, too much smoothie for her container, or not quite enough. My turn, My OSTER, My Blend, My Personal, Best Designed, SMOOTHIE Creator. Blender base is, compact, attractive, & very powerful. Perfect design implementation, to blend, & enjoy my smoothie, from the same 20 ounce travel container. I have yet to have the not quite enough nor have I had too much smoothie for my container. Also I have never had to search for a container to consume my smoothie from. I simply rinse blade base, Exchange the sports bottle top. I am all finished with my smoothie, with my Sport bottle container, nothing left to clean or put away. Meanwhile my daughter has to clean the two part plastic unit and the four blade system with the competition. And then try to find somewhere to store beast the beast. The Oster my blend personal smoothie maker what's 35% less than what my wife paid for hers. At the same time I purchased an extra sports bottle. On sale, it's still in the box I haven't even had occasion to use it yet. I also called the customer service 800-number searching for smoothie recipes and was informed about the 12 month warranty. My experience was excellent customer service personnel. I AM, very very pleased definitely recommend the family I would buy a second one in a heartbeat

UPDATE: I'm changing my review from 5 stars to 4 stars because the pieces of kale don't get particularly small and I have to chew them. Otherwise, everything I wrote before stands, especially if you are making protein powder smoothies. This is one of those products that seriously makes my life better. I am just starting with protein shakes and those shaker bottle products do not come close to cutting it for me. I was shocked at how much better just plain powder + water shakes are with this blender. I was also surprised how well it blends frozen berries, possibly better than my full size blender. Even though I am just starting with the protein shakes, I frequently made green smoothies with a full size blender but didn't like several aspects of how cumbersome that was. I was really confused about how it works before I bought it though. I realized that's because the picture is nonsense. It will never look like that on the blender. The lid and the piece that have the blades are interchangeable. What you do is fill the bottle, then put on the piece with the blades on top, turn it over, blend it, remove the bottle from the blender, turn it back over, take off the piece with the blades, and replace it with the actual lid. So when the bottle is on the blender it is upside down. The process seems like a lot of steps but it is super easy. If it helps it to make sense, when the bottle is on the blender, it will just be the bottom of the bottle on top where the lid shows in the picture. I guess they just want to show what the lid looks like on the bottle. It solves many problems of traditional blenders for smoothies. 1) Because you mix it directly into the bottle, you do not lose all the smoothie that would stick to the sides of a regular blender when you pour it into a cup. 2) You can get extra bottles so if you only run your dishwasher every couple of days, you can just get a couple more bottles so you always have a clean one. The extras are cheap and worth it. 3) It takes up substantially less room on the counter. 4) There are not a bunch of settings you have to choose between. 5) It does a really good job of blending smoothies because that's what it's made for. 6) It seems like the smaller blades & the smaller bottle might do a better job of chopping things into very tiny, drinkable pieces, compared to a full size blender. 7) You actually do not even need to push any buttons so it's a more efficient process. 8) The bottle is the portion size you need for one smoothie so you do not need to calculate how much liquid to add. 9) The bottles fit in a dishwasher just like cups, instead of finding a bigger spot like you would need to with the full size blender. 10) You don't spill between the bigger container and the glass you are pouring it into. (I am really bad at that part.) This is my new, "OMG, you should totally buy this!" purchase so feel free to ask any questions about it. P.S. In case you are wondering, the lids do have a little bit of color on them that is the same as the bottle color. So if you are getting extra bottles,

This blender does exactly what I need it to do. It easily blends fruit, frozen or fresh, and ice into a simple quick drink. If you just want to hear about the blender, you can stop here. Regarding the other reviews, there are some things I want to clarify: 1. There is no pulse button on this blender. To start it, you just push the bottle into the base. Others complained that the teeth are torn up because the blender starts before it is in position. A quick examination of the base tells you exactly how it works. The buttons that start the blender are in the back of the base slot. In order to start the blender without the teeth touching, you would need to tip the bottle so the back goes in first. Quick fix: Tip the bottle towards you when you put it in! Been doing this from Day 1, and after about 30 uses, the teeth still look as good as new, with zero wear or scratches. 2. One reviewer complained about the shape of the top of the bottle. This had me worried, because pictures made this look like a possible problem. However, after using the bottle, the ONLY way this could be a problem is if the bottle never touches your mouth. If you want to waterfall your smoothies, then yes.. this bottle is probably not for you. However, for the rest of us normal people, you shouldn't have any trouble. Just don't spit up your drink all over the place, and you'll be just fine. Side note: I don't use the dishwasher everyday, so I realized cleaning would be a pain. To clean the bottle, wash it out after using it, and get a bottle brush. I got a cheap one from Wal-mart that spins when you push it into a bottle. Works great for days I don't want to run the dishwasher.

This is a great personal blender, for the price! Remember it's not a fancy/expensive item so yea, if you put too much ice or frozen fruit and not enough liquid you're going to have to stop and give it a couple of shakes. I like to do that to make sure my smoothies come out really smooth and give the cheap little motor a break. When I have let it run for longer than 30 seconds at a time, I do smell burnt plastic that isn't my favorite but I can live with it. Overall, I've been really happy with how quick it works (I'm always in a rush & running late in the morning) and how fast & easy clean up is. I usually just rinse the blade off under hot water and leave it out for the next day. After I'm done with my smoothie I put some warm water and a few drops of soap in it and shake it up then let it sit for a while. Later, I rinse it with cool water and poof, I'm ready for the next day. Don't worry, I do give it a real wash every few days, but that just takes a sec too. The lid did hit me on the nose a couple of times but then I realized if you fully extend it back, it snaps into place. The only downside is my fingers don't fit in the carrying loop when it's snapped that way but usually by then I'm sitting in my car so I'm not carrying it around anyway. Basically you get what you pay for, which in this case I think is a deal.

I ordered this blender so I could make protein shakes on the go and wanted something that could also double as a water bottle. The blender works great. It chops ice with no issue and makes a smooth consistency shake/smoothie. The opening is also easy to fit under the ice dispenser of the fridge. A couple of issues I did have. It would be nice if the container was graduated with ounces/ml markings to help measure out contents for the protein shake. The first couple of times you use it, you may want to use a measuring cup to get a general idea of how much of an ingredient to add. The container comes with 2 heads. One for blending and one for a lid while drinking. The picture shown for this on Amazin is a bit misleading. I assumed the blade head was on the bottom and the drink lid was on the top,but that was not the case, you have to switch from a blade head to the drink lid. This makes it more difficult to clean and transport. Also when adding powders, they tend to clump at the bottom and it is difficult to get the mix to fully blend, but since the unit is fully sealed, you can vigorously shake it and work some of the powder out. More about the lid, If your shake/smoothy is thick, it is difficult to get the contents out of the container. If you make the the shake/smoothy a little runny, or once it melts a little, it isn't to bad You may want to also invest in a reusable straw if you like your drink thick. It would also be nice if they included a travel bag with the unit and a carrying container for the blade head. I like to carry the unit to work, so I am also using a small lunch bag and Tupperware container to carry the blade head. I would say my biggest complain with the product and what took a star away was using the container as a water bottle. If you take a sip and there is any excess water on the lid, it will drain out of the back of the lid rather than back into the container. I have become extra careful when I take a sip. In all, the product is OK, but a couple of improvements would make this an outstanding product.

So far (less than 24 hours), I LOOOOVE this product! I have a Ninja with a 72-ounce pitcher, but it was such a pain to use it for single-serve items for my eating plan, and additionally, it doesn't mix smaller amounts as well as it does huge amounts. This product is easy to use and easy to clean up. First, I threw in about 2/3 cup of frozen fruit and a cup of hot-ish tea that had some herbs I needed to take, but didn't want to drink it as tea. It came out pretty smooth, although I didn't mix it as long as needed, because I was nervous about burning up the motor. Next, I mixed my daughter's carnation shake in it, which isn't really necessary, but gave it a frothy texture that she enjoys. Then, after rinsing it, I tossed in half a banana, a couple of ice cubes, one cup of milk, and a scoop of protein powder. It mixed up beautifully with no chunks, and rinsed easily with hot water. I can tell I'm going to use this often. I think my son will like it for his protein recovery drinks, too. That's why I bought pink -- so he won't leave the house with it! Pros: Easy use (just twist and shout!); easy cleanup; no unnecessary parts cons: Needs more markings than just for 20 ounces. I plan to mark with a sharpie in 4 oz increments, to make food journalling easier; a bit nerve-wracking, throwing a bunch of liquid into something then turning it upside down, but so far, it has been trustworthy. Update December 15, 2016: Well, it has finally died. For the past several weeks, I've noticed that the blender sometimes does not engage between the blades and the base, giving off a strange sound and a smoky smell. However, I could always re-adjust it, press harder, and get it to work for my smoothie. This morning, after several tries, it became clear that the base will no longer engage the blade. The rubber gears have sheared to the point that they don't catch the corresponding gears in the blade mechanism, so this little guy is going in the trash. I have to say, though, that I'm still quite impressed overall with this purchase. Some days I used it 3-4 times in a single day, though other days were missed completely. I traveled with this blender several times, and it was super easy to use ,pack, and clean up, even in a hotel room. It was harder to keep the fruits frozen than it was to use and transport this thing! I'm glad I got it, and for the price, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Hope this helps your decision. :-)