Hamilton Beach Wavepower 52184

I bought this on sale, since my other blender burnt after a very honorable 15 years of service. yeah, 15 years that was a sunbeam. They aren't very good anymore, I bought another sumbeam after my positive experience and was shocked to see that the base BROKE, it actually snapped off. i'm not kidding, the base snapped off. (not the true base, but a shroud that made it look better) the end of a good era. This was my next purchase, the box has 'wave action" grafittied everywhere, just more company jargon for some minor feature right? (i once had a pizza pan that had dimples in it. they called it something like "the crust rise system"....). well not this time! It REALLY does swish the fluid around! That alone is worth buying the blender for. Just buying it because the label isnt lying! Well not entirely the waves only work if the mixture isnt too thick, if it is air gets under the mass and the blades spin wildly with minimal blending. It is VERY good however when you keep thickness reasonable. That was seriously reassuring to have a feature that actually worked, but the 12 speed doesnt. As you cycle through the 6 keys you notice the speed difference is so miniscule you may as well just use the high and low keys. That makes it a two speed blender in reality, with a pulse. The pulse is good i can mash a tray of ice cubes in less than a minute but the motor is manufatured poorly. When you leave it on longer than 3 minutes oil burns in the motor releasing fumes similar to bad breath. yuck! i'm still breaking it in so i suspect it will burn itself out in time. (the oil, not the motor hopefully!). The blender on a whole is light too, see it depends on how you take to light products, they're good because its easy to move around and it dosent crush your table legs but to make something light you have to strip away pieces and chunks. Those pieces and chunks are a sign of quality, so there goes the quality. Still, it is a good buy, because it really does swish liquid around. it really does! that is the best part about this blender. it does as it says (except for the speeds.)