Oster Master Series Blender with Texture Select Settings Blender Review

It's on the small side for a full-size blender. It's not very heavy, which is nice if you plan to store it on a shelf or in a cupboard.

The Oster Master Series Blender is well-built. The motor base is made of plastic, but the gears on the base and jar are metal. The jar's base is easy to screw on and feels sturdy. The buttons are well-labeled and covered in plastic, so they're easy to wipe clean. There's a locking lever on the motor base meant to prevent you from accidentally detaching the blade assembly from the jar while it's on the motor base, but it feels flimsy. Aside from gravity, there's also nothing locking the jar onto the base, and it wobbles a bit while the blender is running.

The jar's 48oz capacity is on the small side for a full-size blender but still big enough for multiple servings of smoothies or soup. There's also a 24oz personal jar for single-serves.

The main jar is made of glass, like the Oster Pro 1200's. Like that blender, the lid and other jar are made of plastic. The glass jar can go in the dishwasher, but unfortunately, the manual doesn't say if the personal jar is dishwasher-safe.

It comes with one blade assembly that works with both jars. Its six blades are sharp enough that you'll probably want to use a brush to clean them. To remove the blades from the main jar, twist off the blade collar (Threaded Jar Bottom) and remove the gasket (or 'Sealing rings'). The blades can go on the top rack of a dishwasher, while the gasket can go in the utensil basket, according to the manual. Unfortunately, the manual doesn't say if the blade collar is dishwasher-safe.

There's a 2-part lid for the main jar. You can remove the filler cap when pouring in more ingredients or blending hot ingredients. The cap holds 2oz, so you can also use it as a small measuring cup.

Also included is a resealable lid for the personal jar, so you can bring a smoothie with you on the go. However, its plastic hinge makes a loud cracking sound when you flip it open, making it feel cheap.

The power cord is long enough to reach a nearby outlet, but the blender doesn't have a place to wrap it up when it's not in use.

• Oster Master Series Blender with Texture Select Settings
• 48oz glass jar (6-Cup Dishwasher Safe Boroclass Glass Jar)
• 24oz personal blender (Blend-N-Go Smoothie Cup)
• Blades
• Blade collar (Threaded Jar Bottom with Locking Lever)
• 2-part lid for the main jar with 2oz filler cap
• To-go lid for personal jar ('Smoothie Cup Drinking Lid')

The Oster Master Series Blender is good for small batches of fibrous ingredients. If you use the 'Texture Select' setting 'Thin' and the 'Smoothie' blending program, it runs for about a minute and a half and produces mediocre results. However, running the blender on high speed for another minute results in a much smoother blend. You still get some grains in the final result, but they're small and uniform.

It's decent for processing fibrous ingredients at full capacity. Once again, using the 'Thin' texture setting and the 'Smoothie' blending program, the blender runs for about a minute and a half, resulting in a disappointing, grainy blend. However, if you run it for several more minutes and stop the blender a few times to scrape the walls, it does a good job of processing fibrous elements, so it can make a big batch of kale smoothies with a pretty smooth texture.

It's great for crushed ice. Like the Oster Pro 1200, it can't handle a full batch of about 12 ice cubes at once. Using that much ice jams the blades, and not all the ice cubes get crushed. However, with six at once, it quickly makes snow-like crushed ice using the 'Pulse' button. There are only a few small chunks left over.

It's good for nut butter. It's not the easiest process since you have to manually adjust the speed and stop the blender a few times to remove the lid and scrape the jar's walls with a spoon or spatula. Still, it's not overly tedious, and after several minutes of blending, it produces mostly smooth, very spreadable nut butter.

It's quite loud, so the noise can become irritating if you're standing near it. The Black+Decker Quiet Blender with Cyclone Glass jar has similar features and is much quieter when running.

It has a fairly narrow range of blending speeds. Its maximum speed is slower than the Oster Pro 1200 and Black+Decker Quiet Blender with Cyclone Glass Jar's, which can affect a blender's ability to blend fibrous ingredients.

The Oster Master Series Blender has simple, well-labeled controls. There are three manual speed settings: low, medium, and high. There's also a separate button for pulse mode, which is useful for breaking up bigger chunks like ice cubes. There are two 'Food Modes' or blending programs: 'Smoothie' and 'Food Chop.' You can modify them with three thickness options: 'Thin,' 'Medium,' and 'Thick.' When finished, these programs will stop the blender automatically, which you might find more convenient than watching the blender and stopping it manually. However, when blending fibrous ingredients with the 'Thin Smoothie' combination setting selected, you need to add some manual blending time at the end to get the best results.

It's very easy to clean. The blades are removable from the jar, so you don't have to reach into the bottom of the jar to clean them. They're quite sharp, so you probably want to use a brush to clean them. There are also quite a few parts to the blender once it's disassembled, like the gasket and blade collar. Overall, it doesn't take too long and isn't too difficult to clean.