OSTER 6640 Cube 10 Speed Blender

This blender has a 450 watt motor and comes in several different *speed* options. You can choose from 8-speed, 10-speed, 12-speed, and 14-speed. I picked the 10-speed as it seemed to be a good compromise between power and price. I use my blender to mix various smoothies and Frapucinos. My grandson loves Mango Smoothies, I love my Mocha Fraps. A higher number of speeds isn't extremely as important to me, as long as I can crush ice and mix the drinks. The blender I had been using was beginning to show it's age, bits of black from the motor wheel were shredding off, it was looking like a fire waiting to happen so I had to ditch it. My sweet son in law knows how phobic I am about my daily frap so he went out and picked up this Oster 6640 for me. He's a food maven so he was careful in selecting a model that woudl suit me. I told him not to go crazy just a simple crush the ice, blend style would do. He really didn't want to tell me the price but said it was under $20.00

This Oster 6640 has a scratch resistant plastic jar with a nice sized handle. It's an easy clean design with no inside ridges. The top has a clear plastic feeder tube cap fitting and is a flexible soft white tight fitting lid once you maneuver it into place. The base is white with easy to read rectangular buttons in black and white. It's fairly light weight, certainly not heavy like the blender I grew up with. My jar is dishwasher safe. They warn against putting the base in water. The Oster offers a sealing ring for a tight fit, ice crush blade pulverizers for those smoothies. I take crushed ice from my fridge door. The motor has an all metal drive so it's very durable. There is a convenient storage area for the cord in the base of the blender. You get a high/low and pulse switch for precise blending.

There is an ice crushing function for smoothies or margaritas over on the right where it says pulse in red. Easy clean button under the grate button. High settings: Grate,Blend,Grind, Liquefy,Ice Crush.Low settings: Stir, Puree, Chop, Whip, Mix.

Assembly: 2 step process. Install the rubber flange with the blades on the bottom of the jar with jar upside down, screw the black cup slowly over that (about 2 1/2 turns) that''s it.

Your operating panel will show:3 gray buttons and 5 black buttons, 8 buttons in al but some do double duty.One button also has red writing. You get a total of 10 speeds with a 450 watt motor.The grey writing under the black buttons is barely readable so that's an issue I have with the design. There is a pulse button on end with red lettering, nicely visible. The Oster has a 6 cup break resistant cup with Litres and Cups embossed on the outside for easy measuring. That they are embossed guarentees they won't rub off in time.

A few warnings:
Do not immerse the cord, plug or motor base in water
Don't let the cord hang over the edge of a table or touch hot surfaces
Do not leave unattended
Always operate with the cover on
Operate on a flat surface
Unplug when not in use (this is supposed to save electricity as well according to my daughter)
Supervise when children are around.
The blender will not mash potatoes or whip egg whites, dough or grind raw meat.
Store your blender with the lid off
Don't remove the lid while the machine is running, use your feeder cap to add ingredients.
Cut all firm fruits and vegetables, meats, fish, seafood into 3/4" pieces.
If you need to use an extension cord be sure it's at least 120/127 volt.
Unplug your blender when putting the motor parts together. It has a warranty but you must send the item back to the manufacturer.

To use:
Place ingredients in jar
Put lid with feeder cap on in jar
Plug your cord in
Push your high or low button
Press your speed and blend your ingredients
Press Off to stop
Put liquids in your jar first
Crush 6 ice cubes or 2 C at a time

In the 8 button version you get, easy clean, precise, chop, grate, grind, liquefy and ice crush.

Another complaint I have is that it tends to shimmy on some of the speeds, "walking" on the counter. Also, the cover doesn't fit tightly unless you fidget with it. I would suggest not walking away when it's running. If it's not a good fit the liquid creeps up into the edges on higher speeds like whip. You do have high and low control on the speeds.

Creamy Mint Cookie Smoothie
Serves 1

Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
1 cup low fat vanilla frozen yogurt
6 chocolate-covered chocolate-mint cookies
6 ice cubes

Directions:
1. Place ingredients in order given above into your Oster 6640 blender
2. Cover jar with lid. Press POWER, press SMOOTHIE. then press START/STOP.
3. Pour into tall glass to serve.

So far it's done a beautiful job of wipping up my frappucino to the consistency I love, the kids smoothies come out looking like a pro did them, so I'm quite happy with it.