I like my kitchen kitted out, but I don't like to pay a lot. This blender is an exception, whilst only about £30 its the combined price of the Argos value food processor and hand blender which get the lions share of use in my kitchen, whereas this blender gets minimal use.

Luckily, this blender wasn't bought be me - something my girlfriend brought with her from an old house. She also has an older version of this blender, that still works but was replaced with this newer version - after the base got a little crack in it and generally got warn out.


------SABICHI 94414 BLENDER------


Firstly, I'm not a fan of blenders. This made its way into my kitchen via my girlfriend and I wouldn't have bought a blender - let alone this blender, its nothing personal Sabichi but I find blenders generally a bit useless. Instead, I find a food processor, hand blender, good set of knives and electric whisk cover pretty much all of my needs in the kitchen, with a blender like this having only minimal use.

So, onto this blender. On first look its very nice, its got a bit of a retro look while also looking a bit flashy. Its cream in color has a 1.5lt capacity - and with a quite small base unit its not too cumbersome. Conversely to the older Sabichi model I have that has a flimsy jug, looks a bit chunky and with a big base unit it struggles to fit neatly into most of my kitchen cupboards of cubbyholes. The 94414 separates into 2 halves and fits away quite nicely which is welcome in the quite tiny kitchen I have.

One problem with the older blender, when I used it rather than wash this one out, was the jug has to be clicked in to the base in a certain way that is not clearly marked - meaning you have to mess around a bit until its in place. The 94414 however doesn't suffer this so much with clear markings in the front of jug and base that need to be lined up in order for it to work. The older model was two switches that had to be interlocked, but were not marked out - resulting in my first (and only) use with the older blender in my spending 15 minutes assuming it was broken - so a clearly marked point where it locks together is a good upgrade.

When you do have it locked together, it will set on a kitchen worktop safely with its sturdy, rubber feet. This is not only nice, but essential as the last thing you want it a blender that won't stay in place.

The jug clicks into the base with the handle on the right hand side, luckily I'm right handed, but my left handed girlfriend finds this a bit of a pain in that you need a fairly steady hand on the jug handle - in fact, again its essential. Whilst not a fault of this blender in particular, but in blenders like this in general - its one reason why the simple hand blender gets more use in our kitchen - being a utensil that can be used in the same way by left and right handed people.

On the front of the base is a snazzy looking function area, a bit of a weird feature as the older blender and many others just have simple switch - this however is a small turn switch and above that is a dial with a hand that points to the power level. Where is adds to generally quite nice look, its a bit pointless and seems like they spent extra time design a feature it doesn't need. Nevertheless, the dial indicates it has 4 speeds with the first being a gentle blend and on full power its quite a violent blitz. Four speeds means this has a good range, you can gentle breakdown, say, fruit - and then crank it up to really blend it.

Next to the dial controlling the speed of the blades is a simple pulse button - that is used independently of the speed dial. Hit this and it whurrs then stops, then wurrs then stops and so on. This is a pretty handy feature - if not something all blenders of this type have. Whilst I don't use this feature much, its handy to test how something will blend. As an example, I stupidly tried to blend chilled chocolate in a blender a few years ago - after a few minutes whurring without it actually breaking it up, I had damaged the blades. If I pulsed it instead it would have been a bit more easy on the blades, also it allows the contents to settle then blend it again, meaning you get more of a consistent blend.

The jug has a lid which is thankfully tight enough and stays in places whilst in use. This might seem like a given but again a blender I had in the past had a lid that was forever coming loose when being used - quite annoying. The jug not old holds the blades and the contents - but, you guessed it - is also a jug. Again, this might seem like a given but I've had blenders that didn't pour very well meaning it often spilled and leaked when transfer the contents from the jug. One top of the lid is another nice, but usual for blenders, feature with a small (about twice the size of a £2 coin) hole that can be open or closed with a small plastic cap. This is there so you can add to jug whilst its on without taking the lid off which would not only make a mess, but due to a safety feature turn the blender off.


----------THE GOOD--------

This is a nice looking, simple to use blender. When I asked my girlfriend why she bought another by the same brand she told me the older blender was pretty good and due to that she trusted the brand. That's right, it is pretty good as far as blenders go - its sturdy, a lot of weight in the base so it doesn't move and a fair sized jug. As with the older one, its easy to clean - as long as you don't handle the blades you can't really go wrong. To clean it without handling the blades I just soak this in hot water for half and hour or so then rinse out, and it usually comes out nice and clean. It doesn't leak when being used and is not too noisy - although noise is something that's never really bothered me, I've never used a blender I would call unbearable. This blender also comes with a small attachment which assists the blender in chopping up, smashing and pulverizing smaller items such as herbs and spices. Unfortunately as I don't use this blender a lot, I don't us this attachments a lot - but it falls into the good category as the most effective aspect of this blender - which brings me on to the bad...

------THE BAD-----

Unfortunately, there is more negative to say about the blender than positive - as generally speaking its useless. Its not this blenders fault, this does what its supposed to - and it does the best it can, but for the price you pay for a blender, use is limited. Firstly, it doesn't blend very well at all, rather its whizzes things around and those things lucky enough to get near the blade will get chopped up. For example if your making a paste in this, some ingredients will gets blended, others will not get close enough to the blade to get touched, put too much in and it will sit at the top, not enough and it will not give enough purchase against the blade to get blended. Its a problem with all blenders, thats why I use the combination of a food mixer and hand blender in the kitchen as blenders need just the right amount in the jug to blend anything like close to OK. I found with this blender every 30 seconds I was turning it off to scrape the stuff I was mixing from the sides back to the bottom to try and help it blend.

Its poor at making pastes, mixes, and not really any good for soups - its only really does a goodish job making smoothies. And thats smoothies, not juices - this has no feature to extract pips of lumps like some blenders have in order to make juices, its just OK a pulverizing fruit. Even then the blender needs help in that you have to keep adding liquid via the hole in the top to ensure the fruit is getting well mixed - otherwise it will just mix what is near the blade.

Also, as with the older blender - this blender gets quite hot and gives off a slightly worrying smell of heating electronics but where as the older one did it right away this one is only after prolonged use - something however this rarely gets.

------WORTH IT?-----

I would say no. If you wan't a blender that can do the job I mentioned above, you can't go wrong with this but I would suggest spending a little extra and picking up a smoothie maker and get something that does the job well. Otherwise, I would suggest a food processor and hand blender make a much better team in the kitchen and make this a pretty much redundant appliance. With a hand blender you can focus the blending where you like, with a food processor you get a much more focused and consitant blitz - neither of these things this blender does. And when you consider you can buy a good food processor and hand blender for the same price as this, it makes little sense to pick this up - as if you anything like me, it will just take up precious kitchen space. If I'm to be honest, this blender is about to make it way to kitchen appliance heaven (a box in the spare room) without anything even like a respectable innings.