Oster Versa Professional Power Blender | 1400 Watts | Stainless Steel Blade | Low Profile Jar | Perfect for Smoothies, Soups, Black

It blends well for a much lower cost than the other brand.

The time had come to replace my trusted Omniblend V (still working, but I relocated to a different country and couldn't ship everything). Choosing a new blender wasn't an easy task and I went through a lot of reviews, here and elsewhere. Ultimately, the Oster Versa 1400 sounded like the best option. It is said to be as efficient as its Vitamix competitor that is twice the price, and if the BlendTec seemed to mix slightly smoother smoothies, the difference wouldn't be obvious to all but the most hardcore users, and it costs way more.So I took the plunge. I have to say the first thing I noticed is how good and flattering the Versa 1400 looks, and its commands are simple and convenient. It doesn't offer a timer but there are three pre-programmed cycles for smoothies, soups and dips/spreads, which will stop when complete. The build feels solid and well finished, in particular the jug and its lid: the plastic is thick and pleasant to the touch, and great attention has been paid to details, like the steam vents in the lid (no more holding it into place when blending warm dishwashing water to clean it after use), the neat Versa detailing, the shiny dial or the discreet button lighting.I've been using my Versa for a couple of weeks now, and I have to say it is making the best, creamiest smoothies I could expect. I've tried blending usually hard-to-blend seeds (flax, chia) and seedy fruits (raspberries, mixed berries) as well as fibrous vegs and frozen ingredients, and I'm happy to report that the Versa 1400 blends them all into oblivion. I've occasionally found a small remnant of formerly frozen fruit (mangos, peaches), but to be honest this happens even with professional blenders, even in shop-bought smoothies (ever got one stuck inside your straw?). So top marks there nonetheless. It's also a lot faster, taking about half the time I used to need with my Omniblend V. The only point where I would have given the latter the advantage is regarding the noise, which seems to be substantially louder. But since you require much less time, I suppose it is an acceptable trade-off.What's more, it is the first blender I own that pulls off nut butters flawlessly (almonds so far). It will also produce a smooth hummus (and certainly most dips), which my Omniblend V was terrible at (to the point I had purchased a separate smaller Cuisinart chopper/blender for that sole purpose). My only gripe with both nut butters and dips is that it's not too easy to get them out of the jar.For the practical side, I love the stubby jar that can live on the base unit even on my counter top, still fitting below the upper cupboards. The jar is a breeze to clean -- as with most blenders, throw in warm water with a drop of dishwasher liquid, blend and rinse. I find it takes me a few seconds to fit the jug properly into the base unit's safety mechanism, but I suppose it's a feature worth having. As many others have reported, there is one detail that surprisingly misses the spot, and that's the 3-sided tamper. Given how well thought-out the rest seems to be, it makes this choice even more surprising as it is not as convenient as a cylindrical one.One final consideration, which for me makes the Versa 1400 a no-brainer: its price. Shipping for about as much as the Omniblend and for much less than a Vitamix or a Blendtec, it still manages to deliver the same level of service as the latter two. Sure, the Ninjas and the NutriBullets start from much cheaper, but they're really in a different category. So if you want to play with the big boys, but can't afford the high price they command or like me you like getting the best value for your money (unless you really, really want a big brand for show, why pay more, seriously?), then the Versa 1400 is just what you need.

Sturdy. Affordable.

For some time, we have been considering adding the consumption of green smoothies to our diet, but have been reluctant to have one of the name brand, high end blenders as they are very expensive to "try something" with. We have shopped and almost fell in the Ninja camp, but read and saw enough negative information to steer away. When we first saw the Oster Versa, it was an online merchant other than Amazon, but it did have a few very positive reviews. As I am a very dedicated researcher before buying, I really dug into this one. I found very few negative comments, and the price was quite affordable so I decided to use my Prime membership and purchased it from Amazon. For those of you who don't have Prime, my experience with the program has been all positive. We are very likely to extend, even with the price increase.As almost always, with Prime, the product arrived on time, well packaged and in great condition. We couldn't wait to try it and the second day it was in our kitchen, we got started. Operation was simple, and efficient. We built our first smoothie using the preprogrammed cycle and it was almost perfect out of the chute. The first taste revealed a bit of unprocessed kale, which disappeared with one brief use of the manual cycle, maybe and additional 15 seconds at half speed. Very smooth!We have used the blender nearly every day since, for about two months. All joy. Plenty of power, not too hard to clean, easy to use, and great smoothies once you get the hang of it. We do stick reasonably close to the suggested 60/40 ration of fruits to vegetables and find it very good. If we stray too far from that we find the smoothies may be more healthful, but less likely to be palatable. The risk is, of course, if they aren't good, that you tend to drift away from doing them. After nearly three months of use, we recommend this blender with no reservations. Of course, durability remains to be demonstrated, but with the warranty for seven years, we are not too worried about that.

Update 2: 3 years still working(I just super glued the jar back together) My senior dog wont each much now and one of the few things she will eat is pork ribblets but she seems to have tender teeth and chewing can stop her. So stuck them in the blender. Cut them up fine, bones and all, though these are nice thin bones.Update 1: dropped the jar and it broke. Replacement is nearly half the blender price. That's absurd.This is a very powerful blender. It is big and loud and heavy but if you fixed that it'd not blend well and to me the point was to get a good blender, not a quiet and light one. I have some special needs. I blend raw meat for a special pet that needs to eat it that way. With these meat smoothies you can really see if a blender is any good or not. When a blender is not up to the task the end result is lumpy and stringy from the sinew. The sinew also gets wrapped around the blades and stuck instead of blended.Not so with this. It blended up the meat smoothie very nicely. It came out like a fine fluffy pudding. Adding a bit more water makes it a bit more drink like and a bit less pudding like. Nothing wrapped around the blades all liquid. I doubt anyone else will be blending raw meat but it's a great test of the machine. Actually the smoothie setting works nicely for this but I run it twice.I did blend some cooked mango in it to make a sauce. They were a bit old and so even after blending there were some hard hair like bits but I didn't blend it very long either. I just ran it through a strainer and had a great sauce. I'm guessing the fibrous strings would have blended more if I ran it longer or used the smoothie setting. I did not realize they were in there till later or I'd have tried blending it more.The top goes on the base easily. Just set it down and give it a light wiggle and it sets right in. Try to set it exactly on the sensor in back and it does go well. A little side to side once set down and it goes right on.The container(jar) is huge. Much bigger than I am used to but I always used to have too much to blend for the old blender size so this is great.I personally like the knob adjuster for speed and on off. A separate on off switch would be redundant and you can't really turn it on by accident this way.Container is very strong and sturdy.I will try powdering some chia and flax seeds in it next. (this worked great but you may need to use the plunger(I'm not sure if that's the right term) to get it all down to the blades they tend to stick together when blended.