Disappointed w/Blendtec Help!

[gentleshepherd]

I am so upset! I thought I would be thrilled and wowed with my blendtec and I am not. I wonder if I expected too much or am doing something wrong.:help:

Examples:

Coconut water and meat and almond milk ice cubes . . .I am left with little cubes in my smoothie. It broke them apart some but not totally. I used the speed up buttons and the smoothie cycle.

Our smoothies in the morning, if I put frozen strawberries they never quite get blended, there is always a stray chunk or two.

I tried to make the macadamia dip that was floating around the forums awhile ago, macadamia and red pepper basically, I had to stop and scrape over and over again. Could be the adrenal fatigue, but I was nearly in tears. I wondered if the 3 qt. was bigger and there was not enough ingredients in it to work properly. :dontknow:

for $400 I so expected it to blow me away! My bosch did just as good of a job, just a smaller blender than the 3 qt. So, is it me, or is there something wrong here??:thinkingabout:
Please help

[MoTappin]

I have a Blendtec and I haven't had any of the problems you describe. When using frozen strawberries, I do run a little warm water over them first to soften them just a bit, but I certainly don't thaw them. I have the 1,000 watt model that came attached to my Mix-n-Blend.

[MoTappin]

My advice would be to call Blendtec. I had some questions on my mixer and they were extremely helpful and nice to me.

[gentleshepherd]

Thanks MoTappin, I will have to call them. Your blender size must be smaller, right? Maybe that is why you don't have the problem with things like the dip recipe??? I don't know. My bosch blender would have blended the frozen strawberries.

[MoTappin]

Mine holds 2 qts. Plenty for me, without being too big. I can still make smoothies for me and the kids with no problem.

Oh, and it will do frozen strawberries, but it does them faster if I soften them up a bit with warm water, so that's what I do. I love how it does ice for sno cones. :)

[MoTappin]

I have noticed that if it's not very full, it doesn't perform as well. So maybe that is the issue.

[gentleshepherd]

What do you do for ice for snow cones?

[MoTappin]

It's been a while, but I think the ice crusher cycle is what I've used. Or maybe a combination of that and the manual cycle. Comes out great!

[MoTappin]

Hmm...you might try a little ice crusher cycle on your frozen strawberry smoothies.

[cschusan]

I have the 2 quart blendtec and the only trouble I have with the smoothies using frozen fruit is if I don't have enough liquid then it turns out more like ice cream. It took me awhile to figure it out. Do you blend the greens and water first and then add the frozen strawberries?

[gillmings]

Well, that's frustrating! I think the pitcher size is the problem. If you're making a small amount, you're going to need a smaller pitcher. I think you may need the smaller pitcher for some things and the larger pitcher for other things. That's an issue I never thought about and maybe I don't want a larger pitcher after all! LOL

Also, for the frozen berries, I just use the smoothie cycle a couple of times, then hold down the "pulse" button and listen for tiny "thumps" from berry chunks. When I don't hear any for a couple seconds, I know it's done. I only have to do that with strawberries, particularly because I buy the large ones to save money. There's a bit of a learning curve to knowing how long it takes to get every chunk without having warm smoothie. And it works so well because the velocity of the blades bouncing the solids off the sides and back into the blades is what blends it up and with the bigger pitcher that's a greater distance to travel, I would think.

Can't help you with the ice, as I don't use any.