Truly Dishwasher Safe Bullet Blender
April 19, 2023 9:37 PM Subscribe
I need a bullet blender that is well and truly dishwasher safe. As in, the blade attachment and cups need to be able to withstand a high temp sanitize cycle in my dishwasher. Please only recommend a blender you have experience with, I don’t really trust what manufacturers have to say about this matter. If I could buy a starbucks blender that goes through the sanitizer every day, I would. Alas, I am struggling to find a consumer product that will hold up. (I am willing to compromise on the bullet style if you can vouch 100% for a full size that is completely dishwasher on sanitize heat setting safe.)
We have an older Vitamix. The goblet is stainless steel. I'd run it through the dishwasher without a second thought.
I don't know if they still make these from metal. (I just checked on their site. They do, and they're $250 just for the goblet.) Ours came from a yard sale and cost fifty dollars.
I've been told by several people that a Vitamix will change your life. Mine hasn't, but it's a good blender and I'm happy I bought it. My kids have made enough smoothies in it to fill a small swimming pool.
You can also find old blenders at thrift shops with a glass goblet and a plastic base that comes off, and I'd put one of these in a dishwasher. I'm sure I have. Expect to pay at least ten bucks.
posted by AugustusCrunch at 1:06 AM on April 20, 2023
I don't know if they still make these from metal. (I just checked on their site. They do, and they're $250 just for the goblet.) Ours came from a yard sale and cost fifty dollars.
I've been told by several people that a Vitamix will change your life. Mine hasn't, but it's a good blender and I'm happy I bought it. My kids have made enough smoothies in it to fill a small swimming pool.
You can also find old blenders at thrift shops with a glass goblet and a plastic base that comes off, and I'd put one of these in a dishwasher. I'm sure I have. Expect to pay at least ten bucks.
posted by AugustusCrunch at 1:06 AM on April 20, 2023
Best answer: You know, I realized I ought to check the restaurant supply place and a blender rated for a commercial dishwasher can be had for $130. The mention of a professional kitchen made me go “wait a minute, I have bought professional kitchen appliances before. I should check…”
posted by Bottlecap at 1:51 AM on April 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Bottlecap at 1:51 AM on April 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
I have this old Osterizer, right down to the color.
It doesn’t have the wattage of the contemporary imitation (400 vs 1000) but its heavier construction gives it the angular momentum to cut through anything you’re likely to put in a shake, albeit more slowly — yet also more quietly, and with a big reduction in the high frequency noise which is most damaging to your hearing.
And the thing about Osterizers is that the base has rhe same screw thread as standard Mason jars, and you can use a 4, 8, or 12oz. straight up and down mason jars as substitutes for bullet jars. Osterizer also made very thick 8oz glass jars which are still widely available used.
However, these blenders were designed to be used with a rubber ring between the blade unit and the jar, and that will eventually deteriorate under heating.
Yet the immediately previous generation did not have a rubber ring, and the seal was achieved by putting a ground glass finish on the lower rim of the jar. Which is how I do it with my Mason jars too, by grinding them against a sheet of 250 grit wet dry sandpaper wet and face up on a flat sheet of glas.
It takes about 5-10 minutes per jar.
You would need to place the blade unit blades up in your dishwasher, and after 150 or so uses you might want to relubricate the blades to maintain optimal performance, which you can do by loosening the prominent nut on the spinning shaft. Food safe bearing grease is a specialty item, however.
If I were you though, I’d probably just buy newer style blades without nuts when I saw them in thrift stores attached to jars.
Lots of units this old have seen pretty heavy use, to be sure, but I chose this one for the link because it looks almost untouched to me.
One last thing. Unless your ingredients are partially frozen when you start, they will heat up a lot as they blend, and that will make them expand. And since liquids are essentially incompressible, that will generate big forces inside the jar and probably cause leaks or breakage unless you’ve left an airspace of ~10% in the jar before blending.
posted by jamjam at 2:05 AM on April 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
It doesn’t have the wattage of the contemporary imitation (400 vs 1000) but its heavier construction gives it the angular momentum to cut through anything you’re likely to put in a shake, albeit more slowly — yet also more quietly, and with a big reduction in the high frequency noise which is most damaging to your hearing.
And the thing about Osterizers is that the base has rhe same screw thread as standard Mason jars, and you can use a 4, 8, or 12oz. straight up and down mason jars as substitutes for bullet jars. Osterizer also made very thick 8oz glass jars which are still widely available used.
However, these blenders were designed to be used with a rubber ring between the blade unit and the jar, and that will eventually deteriorate under heating.
Yet the immediately previous generation did not have a rubber ring, and the seal was achieved by putting a ground glass finish on the lower rim of the jar. Which is how I do it with my Mason jars too, by grinding them against a sheet of 250 grit wet dry sandpaper wet and face up on a flat sheet of glas.
It takes about 5-10 minutes per jar.
You would need to place the blade unit blades up in your dishwasher, and after 150 or so uses you might want to relubricate the blades to maintain optimal performance, which you can do by loosening the prominent nut on the spinning shaft. Food safe bearing grease is a specialty item, however.
If I were you though, I’d probably just buy newer style blades without nuts when I saw them in thrift stores attached to jars.
Lots of units this old have seen pretty heavy use, to be sure, but I chose this one for the link because it looks almost untouched to me.
One last thing. Unless your ingredients are partially frozen when you start, they will heat up a lot as they blend, and that will make them expand. And since liquids are essentially incompressible, that will generate big forces inside the jar and probably cause leaks or breakage unless you’ve left an airspace of ~10% in the jar before blending.
posted by jamjam at 2:05 AM on April 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
A Thermomix would work, because the main body is steel and all non-steel components are high temperature plastics (because the machine itself generates heat). Down-side; price and the fact that they’re huge, with many more features than you seem to need, but still …
posted by aramaic at 6:47 AM on April 20, 2023
posted by aramaic at 6:47 AM on April 20, 2023
I have this, which is four pieces: rubber washer that presses into blade, blade that screws into cup, cup, and motorized base. I have put the cup and the blade into my dishwasher, after removing the rubber washer, which you don't want to put through the dishwasher because the heat could cause it to change size and it could fall into the dishwasher blades.
posted by dobbs at 8:01 AM on April 20, 2023
posted by dobbs at 8:01 AM on April 20, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 12:42 AM on April 20, 2023 [1 favorite]