Dueling Blenders: Breville or Waring Pro

[Marlene]

In doing some research for a new blender, I've narrowed it down to two different brands.

Waring Pro

or

Breville

The Breville seems to have more power, 500 watts as opposed to the Waring Pro's 390 watts, but the glass jar is wider I think than is practicable.

I'm going to use it mostly for thicker sauces and soups. Maybe a ceasar salad dressing or two.

I've never heard of Breville before. Anyone?

yes, yes, I know I can get a Vita Mix. But for $400 US, I can get one of these and a new toaster!

Marlene

[Ducky]

I have recently bought a number of Breville appliances for our recreational property - as this brand has started turning up here. I have bought a rice cooker, small food processor and panini toaster. All items seem to be very well made. They come from Australia - and came highly recommended by my cook shop. We have been very pleased with these items to date.

(Interestingly I bought these items to replace some Cusinart items which were extremely poorly made and self disintegrated shortly after purchase. The new slick looking stainless steel Cuisinart products all hail from China, and all seem to be singularly shoddy. Has anyone else had this experience?)

That said, I have never gone wrong with Waring Pro - which is one of my favourite bullet-proof brands.

This probably doesn't makie your choice any easier.

[Marlene]

Breville seems to have just started turning up here as well. I notice that WS has a 500 watt 700 anniversary blender, but I don't know yet whether they carry it in Canada. And yes, I'm buying this to replace the uniquely crappy Cuisnart blender I currently own.

[carp]

I’m a big fan of waring blenders (or blendors as they like to call them). I bought their 70th anniversary model after making margaritas using my grandmother’s 30+ year old blender. Grandma’s blender is still in top shape. Part of the lid has been missing for 20 years, but thanks to the permanent blade assembly, she hasn’t lost anything important. The motor still runs like a champ and I was very impressed with how it crushed through the ice to make our margaritas. It crushes ice much better than my old cuisnart smart-power blender, it’s a lot less noisy, it’s more than 20 times older and yet it looks a lot better(most of the white plastic parts on the cuisinart have permanent tomato and chili pepper stains).

I think you have a good point about the shape of the canister. I think the Waring's slender shape feeds directly into the blade while the food in the slightly wider canisters seems to collect in the shoulder around the blade. The cuisinart I have, the smart power duet, is a terrible blender, for this and many other reasons. Not that you were thinking about buying one, but I just feel a need to say, at every opportunity, that cuisinart blenders are pure garbage that I wouldn’t sell to my enemies (the food processor attachment is not too bad… but the whole thing is of vastly inferior manufacture and design to their food processors).

The 70th anniversary waring looks great, features 500w, and sells for about $150 at Williams-Sonoma. Grandma’s blender looked like it could easily pull another 30 years of duty and if my blender is still cranking out margaritas in 2035, I hope she’s also there to share them with me.

[Blondelle]

One of the nice things about Waring is that they have the parts available from most of their older models. It would be worth a call to see if they still have the top part you need. Would be a nice surprise for your grandmother ;-).

I’m a big fan of waring blenders (or blendors as they like to call them). I bought their 70th anniversary model after making margaritas using my grandmother’s 30+ year old blender. Grandma’s blender is still in top shape. Part of the lid has been missing for 20 years, but thanks to the permanent blade assembly, she hasn’t lost anything important. The motor still runs like a champ and I was very impressed with how it crushed through the ice to make our margaritas. It crushes ice much better than my old cuisnart smart-power blender, it’s a lot less noisy, it’s more than 20 times older and yet it looks a lot better(most of the white plastic parts on the cuisinart have permanent tomato and chili pepper stains).

I think you have a good point about the shape of the canister. I think the Waring's slender shape feeds directly into the blade while the food in the slightly wider canisters seems to collect in the shoulder around the blade. The cuisinart I have, the smart power duet, is a terrible blender, for this and many other reasons. Not that you were thinking about buying one, but I just feel a need to say, at every opportunity, that cuisinart blenders are pure garbage that I wouldn’t sell to my enemies (the food processor attachment is not too bad… but the whole thing is of vastly inferior manufacture and design to their food processors).

The 70th anniversary waring looks great, features 500w, and sells for about $150 at Williams-Sonoma. Grandma’s blender looked like it could easily pull another 30 years of duty and if my blender is still cranking out margaritas in 2035, I hope she’s also there to share them with me.

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[irodguy]

I have never had an issue with Waring. You can purchase the professional bar mixers from Acemart for 120$ or so.

[Marlene]

I'm still dithering on this one. And with summer coming, I'd like to settle on one soon! I can't find the Waring pro 70th anniversary model in Canada, at least I haven't yet. I can get the other Waring Pro with the 390 watt motor which is lower than the Breville 500 watt motor. I'm still concerned about the width of the jar on the Breville. The 390 watt Waring will probably do all I ask of it an more. I suppose if I really want a separate drink mixer I could get the Breville too, or the Breville Bar Mixer with the stainless steel jar!

Breville Bar Mixer

Or there is a 580 watt Breville BarMaster at Canadian Tire of all places:

Breville Bar Master

I have way too many choices to make here.

[mrbigjas]

marlene, i don't know if the waring 70th anniversary is in their 'pro' line or not:

here it is--it says it's a williams-sonoma exclusive, so i don't know how that works in canada--do they have w-s stores there?

it says it has a 500-watt motor. but i don't know if the 'pro' designation has to do with the durability of other parts, or the motor itself, or whatever.

[JAZ]

Something to keep in mind is that wattage is only part of the power equation. A well designed motor can use less wattage and deliver the same performance as a higher-wattage machine with a poorly designed motor. (At least that's what the KitchenAid rep explained to us.)

I love my Waring. I've had it for 10 years and I would never consider getting anything else.

[Mayhaw Man]

Something to keep in mind is that wattage is only part of the power equation. A well designed motor can use less wattage and deliver the same performance as a higher-wattage machine with a poorly designed motor. (At least that's what the KitchenAid rep explained to us.)

I love my Waring. I've had it for 10 years and I would never consider getting anything else.

←

Last year I purchased the 70th anniversary model out of fear that my boys, The Smoothie Kings, would burn up the motor in the 50 year old model that I recieved in the kitchen bounty that was my late grandmother's estate.

The thing ran like a champ and I was a very happy camper, until one of the boys managed to smoke the motor. I called the service number, they were very polite and gave me a return authorization and off it went.

About two weeks later I recieved not a repaired model, but a brand new unit. It is working like a champ. In fact, it probably gets used 5 or 6 days a week this time of year, as the boys like to make various kinds of smoothies for breakfast. They are not gentle lads, and the thing gets some pretty rough treatment. After a year or so it is still going strong. The only thing that I would change is that I will eventually go to the stainless bowl for it, as the big, heavy glass one is bound to end up in shards at some point.

Long story short, I would buy another Waring in a minute. They are great machines.

[merrybaker]

Buy it from a store that'll take it back without a fuss if you don't like it. That way, you can try the Breville and find out if your misgivings are justified. It's worth paying a few dollars more to have the "full satisfaction guaranteed" option, I think.

Edited May 23, 2005 by merrybaker (log)

[Genny]

I can only second (or third, or fourth) what others have said about the Waring Pro. I did research on the eG threads and with other online sources and decided to go with the Waring Pro. I love it. It is powerful and super easy to clean up as well. The blade assembly is removable and the cup can go in the dishwasher if I want.

We recently learned that if William Sonoma carries a product, you can return it to them with no quesions asked for full replacement if necessary. This is why we will buy from them!

[Marlene]

I'm pretty much sold. I'll call the WS here and see if they carry the 500 watt one. Otherwise, I'll press on and pick up the 390 watt version!

[akwa]

i would shop a used vita on ebay

an unplugged vita will still outperform either imho

[Marlene]

So the only difference as far as I can tell between the Waring Pro 390 watt at WS and the Waring Pro 390 watt at Golda's Kitchen is the WS model has a pulse button. So how often do you use your pulse button?

[Marlene]

So I have the Waring Pro now, and I love it. But why have one blender when you can have two? We picked this up today:

The Breville Blend Master. 580 watts, 48 ounce pitcher, 3 speed plus pulse and a really cool six way blade assembly:

The blender is very solid. The cap is rubber and pretty sturdy, as is the glass jar and motor base. Those blades intrique me as I've only ever seen a 4 way blade on any blender. The plug has an O ring so you can easily grasp it to pull it out of the socket.

We also picked up some strawberries to make daquiris with, so I'll let you know how it works.

[Marlene]

I didn't take pictures, but the daiquiris were outstanding. The blender has this interesting upwards vortex that I haven't seen in other blenders. Don has claimed this as "his" blender. We have an interesting chilled coffee drink recipe to try tomorrow. I'll try to remember to take pictures.

[Genny]

Wow Marlene, that is one beauty of a blender! Very sexy. Thanks for the report. Any ratings on its longevity?

How is your new Waring now that all the pieces fit together correctly?

[Marlene]

I'm very pleased with both blenders. The Waring Pro is a great blender, although with the built in blades it's not as intuitive to clean as you'd think.

The Breville made short work of our daquiri's the other night and a banana smoothie for the lad. Breville has only recently started appearing here in Ontario, so I haven't seen any ratings for it just yet. But yeah, it sure looks good.