Oster 4093 Classic Beehive Blender, Silver
by Oster
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List Price: Our Price: $47.95 You Save: $22.04 (31%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Oster 4093 Classic Beehive Blender, Silver
Customer Review: Check the fuse before you give up on this! -- Blender works great - with some flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
Out of the box this blender worked great - it has a very powerful motor that has handled anything we have thrown at it without any trouble. It has a simple design that looks good too.
After a few weeks the blender simply stopped working - no smoke, smell, etc. (like we have read in other reviews). We almost gave up on it, but I decided to open it up, and behold there is a fuse inside that was burned out. I went down to Home Depot, bought a $2 fuse and a $2 in-line fuse holder (so I wouldn't have to solder it) and voîla - works like new. If you know someone who knows even a little about electronics, it sure beats buying a new blender.
Points off for not making the fuse more user-changable
Points off for being extremely loud (but that goes with the power)
The lid could be better, but I think other criticisms of it here are overblown
All in all - a powerful, stylish blender with some shortcomings. 2 out of 3 aint bad (especially since most other blenders we've tried would be lucky to get 1 out of 3 right)
Customer Review: Coolest looking Blender ever
Summary: 4 Stars
I love that this blender looks so classy, and I also like the controls consist of one switch. I don't need a thousand speeds to make perfect margaritas and smoothies. The downside is that the blender is really, really loud. Then again how many quiet blenders are there? Pound for pound a great purchase, just don't count on sneaky margaritas.Customer Review: DO NOT BUY THIS BLENDER..
Summary: 1 Stars
I have been cooking for years, and used a huge variety of blenders. This is the worst blender I have ever used... Here is why:
1) The lid. The lid doesn't fasten down tight enough to make a water-seal. If you blend with more than the jug half full, even with the lid on, and your hand on the lid - when the thing starts up, you WILL get liquid shooting up out of the lid. Terrible.
2) The removable middle area to the lid isn't held securely in place. Because the lid doesn't fit tightly enough, you HAVE to put your hand on the lid, to get a better seal. Any pressure at all (and I mean even light pressure) will push the middle removable section INTO THE JUG OF THE BLENDER. And yes, I did have this removable section placed in securely, and correctly. This happended the second time I used it. The result was the lid falling into the blender jug, when the blender was running, which diced up the plastic removable section that fell in... The result - a sauce with a bunch of plastic in..
Now for the good points:
1) It is powerfull, and crushes ice wonderfully.
2) The fact that it very finely chopped up the removable lid section is testament to how powerfull this thing is!
3) This is most likely a great blender, if you only fill it 1/4 full, and don't use a liquid to start with (my problems came about when I was blending a spanish broth)... I am sure it would work great for smoothies, made of frozen fruit and ice.
All in all, find another blender.. The lid is a complete design joke...
Customer Review: Damaged
Summary: 3 Stars
The product looks great, and I'm sure will work fine - but just wanted to give users a heads up that is came with the a broken part (the circular plastic peice that inserts into the lid). Would be such a hassle to send this huge thing back - luckily, I called Oster and they're just goign to send me the piece for free.
Just wanted to let people know...I buy everything online, but after this I'm thinking this type of product might not be the best thing to get online...I would have been really annoyed if I had to figure out shipping back this huge box back bc of a damaged item.
Customer Review: Design Flaw dooms blender to short life span!
Summary: 1 Stars
We did a lot of research on medium priced consumer blenders before first choosing the Oster Beehive Classic, and later when that broke, another from the same series that was marketed as a PROFESSIONAL version.
Oster claims that these machines feature an "All Metal Drive" which implied to us that the parts that take all the torque and stress from grinding would be made of metal and not the usual hard rubber or plastic found in other brands. (This claim is totally FALSE as we later discovered first hand!)
One of the repeated negatives reported by others about this and ALL Oster Beehive Style blenders was a problem with the drive axle shearing off between the motor base and the four sided metal spindle that mates to the bottom of the blade assembly on the jar. This problem is actually documented by one unhappy owner with photos on the Oster BPST02-B page here on Amazon. Turns out the Oster BPST02-B is the exact same design as this one even though it is marketed as a PROFESSIONAL version.
Oster BPST02-B Professional Series Blender, Black
The component that sheared off on both of the Oster blenders we tried was not METAL as Oster claims, but a hard rubber material that is obviously not strong enough to handle the stress of moving the blades through frozen fruit or ice cubes on a daily basis.
See for yourself! Rubber drive coupling for Oster blenders & Kitchen Centers.
Both blenders failed while making what I would consider a very simple and relatively non-demanding smoothie recipe. The ingredients consisted of one frozen bananna cut into 2 inch chunks, 1 cup of milk with protein powder and a handful of ice cubes. The milk and powder were first blended. The machine was stopped and the chunks of frozen bananna were added. We used the PULSE feature to grind up the bananna into a puree before finally adding the ice cubes. We again used the PULSE feature followed by the full speed setting to blend the smoothie to completion. This worked GREAT for the first several days with the end results being a PERFECT SMOOTHIE! Absolutely no complaints on the blenders results WHEN THEY WORKED!
On my SIXTH use of this model blender, when I added the frozen bananna chunks and hit PULSE, I heard a CLANG and noticed that the blades were not turning! I removed the jar from the motor base to discover that the drive axle had completely sheared off the motor base and was lying there next to the other half that connects to the motor!
OMG I said to my self!! This is the EXACT PROBLEM that I had read about in other reviews dating back as far as 4 years ago!! I had given this thing the benefit of the doubt and figured those reports must have been isolated incidents or pilot error. With SO MANY 5 star reviews, how could this thing be a dud?
EASY!
When you consider that most people on this site review a product the day they take it out of the box, there is no way to know how long the thing worked for them before it broke! And unfortunately, most people never bother to follow up their worthless 5 star review with an update on what they REALLY THINK 3 months down the road! ;o)
The Beehive is a great blender before it breaks, so yeah! It is impressive on DAY ONE! ;o)
We returned the busted classic blender to Amazon for a refund and resumed our search for a blender that would last. After trying several other brands and not being satisfied with their blending performance or build quality, we decided to give Oster one more chance because their blender did impress us the most when it worked. I was very dubious about this since I was pretty sure this design flaw would doom the BPST02-B too.
Oster BPST02-B Professional Series Blender, Black
BOY WAS I RIGHT ABOUT THAT! Less than 1 week after we began using it, the PROFESSIONAL VERSION ALSO BROKE with the SAME DRIVE FAILURE!
At this point, after trying TWO different models from the same series there is no doubt in my mind that this product suffers from a serious design flaw that will eventually bring down EVERY SINGLE UNIT PRODUCED!
Amazing how a product this unreliable has not been recalled! Truly amazing!
So... after spending WAY TOO MUCH TIME on this, we are officially DONE with Oster forever! And if you value your time and your sanity, you will stear clear of anything made by Oster that uses this "All Metal Drive" system!
What did we finally end up with?
After more research we decided to have a look at what Cuisinart had to offer and settled on the newly released CBT-700.
If you are looking for a decent blender that will work as advertised, you should definitely give this one a try.
Cuisinart CBT-700 Die-Cast 700-Watt Blender
So far we have been pleased with the performance and the quality of the design. It has already outlasted both the Oster blenders in terms of how many separate blender jobs we have run on it.
See our review on the product page!