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Oster VERSA 1400-watt Blender Review — Best Vitamix Alternative

q? encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00EO1AQUU&Format= SL300 &ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=kitchen0a03 20&language=en USOster VERSA 1400-watt Blender Review: ir?t=kitchen0a03 20&language=en US&l=li3&o=1&a=B00EO1AQUUOster VERSA 1400-watt Blender comes in two mod­els, one with a new­ly designed low-pro­file con­tain­er BLSTVB-RV0-000. The ear­li­er ver­sion with the old design had a high-pro­file con­tain­er BLSTVB-000–000. Both mod­els have absolute­ly the same para­me­ters, with only a slight dif­fer­ence in exte­ri­or fin­ish and the size and shape of the containers.

The Oster VERSA 1400-watt Pro­fes­sion­al Blender is a high-pow­er machine that boasts 12 amps and near­ly 2 HP. It is the first Oster heavy-duty blender that makes soup or nut but­ter from fric­tion eas­i­ly. With a rea­son­able price of under $200, it can com­pete with the best high-end blenders on the market.

Would you like to look at alter­na­tive options? Check here our articles:

 Blender.

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Table of Contents

Functionality and Versatility

This gad­get han­dles tough tasks like those the high-pow­er, heavy-duty machines usu­al­ly perform.

Smooth­ie: This Oster Ver­sa machine pul­ver­izes soft fruits and veg­eta­bles into very fine smooth­ies eas­i­ly. It also makes almost per­fect qual­i­ty drinks from tough and leafy veg­eta­bles like car­rots or kale stems. When nuts are added to smooth­ies, you may need an extra cycle to get rid of the tiny pieces and achieve a smooth con­sis­ten­cy. This machine han­dles seed­ed grapes, apples, and pears with no traces in the final drinks. It also process­es well-frozen ingre­di­ents and crush­es ice cubes in the smoothies.

Nut milk: It can blend nut or coconut milk, but you will need a strain­er to sieve liq­uid to get rid of the traces of fiber.

Shakes: Pro­tein shakes require a slow ini­tial speed to blend prop­er­ly, but this blender’s vari­able-speed func­tion allows you to mix per­fect shakes with­out lumps or unmixed lots stack­ing on the walls of the pitcher.

Crush­ing Ice and Frozen desserts: These machines eas­i­ly process any frozen ingre­di­ents or ice cubes with added liq­uid in smooth­ies. It also crush­es ice cubes well but han­dles it eas­i­er if you process at least 4 cups of cubes; use pulse and high speed for this pur­pose. This Oster Ver­sa will make per­fect frozen yogurt desserts, sor­bets, and ice creams. It also han­dles with­out effort frozen mar­gar­i­tas or frappes. You can find a few very nice ice cream and frozen dessert recipes in the cook­book includ­ed in the blender set.

Puree­ing: This Ver­sa blender turns well-cooked and uncooked ingre­di­ents into a puree using the dips, spreads pre-set pro­gram, or the man­u­al con­trol dial knob. The plunger is a great help to get rid of air pock­ets when deal­ing with puree­ing. This machine can make per­fect-qual­i­ty hum­mus, spreads, dips, or baby food. How­ev­er, small quan­ti­ties are a bit chal­leng­ing for this gad­get, as it deals bet­ter with big­ger batch­es of ingredients.

Chop­ping: It will do an every­day veg­etable chop­ping, minc­ing onion, gar­lic, gin­ger, and oth­ers very well using low speeds that are real­ly low. So it makes per­fect sal­sa, sal­ad dress­ing, mix­es, and even thick sauces. But it does not do well at pro­cess­ing mayonnaise.

Hot soup: This gad­get is pow­er­ful enough to heat liq­uids at 28 RPMs with blade fric­tion to steam­ing tem­per­a­ture. It also has a pre-set soup pro­gram so you can fill the ingre­di­ents, push the but­ton, and in 5 min­utes, you will get steam­ing hot soup.

Nut but­ter: Although mak­ing nut but­ter is a chal­leng­ing task for any pow­er­ful blender, this Oster Ver­sa makes smooth­ly tex­tured nut but­ter with­out any extra liq­uid or oil added. The ini­tial amount of dry nuts is 4 cups min­i­mum, and you must make sure to start with the pulse but­ton, grad­u­al­ly increas­ing the speed to the high­est lev­el. The only prob­lem that can occur is that the ingre­di­ents may quick­ly heat up, and you will need a lot of tam­per help, and you might have to stop the blender from cool­ing the mixture.

Grind­ing and milling: This machine will grind cof­fee beans, cacao nibs, any herbs (large batch­es only), chia seeds, or flax seeds pret­ty well. Although it was not designed or test­ed by the man­u­fac­tur­er to mill any grains, it is able to turn corn, dry peas, wheat grain, and oth­ers into decent pow­der. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the cook­book that comes with the blender does not include any milling or grind­ing recipes.

Dough: Although this gad­get is quite ver­sa­tile and pow­er­ful, it can­not knead the dough.

Over time, you will learn the prop­er way to use the vari­able speed knob for best results; this blender low speed is real­ly low, allow­ing enough flex­i­bil­i­ty over pro­cess­ing food. For exam­ple, the low speed will push big chunks to the bot­tom, and the high speed will pul­ver­ize and liq­ue­fy ingre­di­ents after play­ing with the low speed. This machine, like any oth­er high-pow­ered blender, is able to do a lot of things if you know how to use it the right way.

Speed Settings and Programs

oster versa 1400 control panelThe Oster Ver­sa comes with an eight (8) vari­able speed dial knob, a pulse mode, and three (3) pre-set pro­grams — Smooth­ies, Dips/Spreads, and Soup. The dial knob should be turned to the pre-set pro­gram posi­tion to acti­vate the pre-set pro­grams, and then you can choose the desired set­ting but­ton on the con­trol pan­el. The pre-set pro­grams are timed and will run until the end of the pre-set cycle. So if you intend to use vari­able speeds, just move the dial nob to the desired speed posi­tion, and it will run until you turn it to the off position.

Soup, Dip/Spread, and Smooth­ies pre-set pro­grams run respec­tive­ly for 5 min 20 sec­onds, 40 sec­onds, and 30 sec­onds. Pre­sets are not only timed but they are also pro­grammed for dif­fer­ent speeds and usu­al­ly start on low and then switch to high speed. The pulse set­ting will run until you hold it.

All of the 8 vari­able speeds with the low speed that is tru­ly low, 3 pre-set pro­grams, and the pulse mode allows the user a lot of flex­i­bil­i­ty with the blender to pre­pare cook­book-pro­vid­ed recipes or cre­ate their own recipes with the desired consistency.

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Ease of Using and Cleaning

Set­ting up: This blender has a jar with an in-built blade; thus, it is has­sle-free when assem­bling or dis­sem­bling before and after use. The sin­gle-piece pitch­er con­nects eas­i­ly and quick­ly to the base unit; you just pop it on, and it is ready to oper­ate. There is a sen­sor on the top of the unit base, and the blender will not start until the jar is placed the right way. In order to start run­ning, you have to turn the dial knob to the pre­pro­grammed posi­tion or any vari­able speed position.

Tam­per: This is the first Oster mod­el that comes with a tam­per. The high-pow­ered mod­els often require help with stub­born ingre­di­ents that need to be pushed down for bet­ter cir­cu­la­tion. The tam­per is often need­ed when pro­cess­ing thick ingre­di­ents like frozen desserts or nut but­ter. You should not use the tam­per for longer than 30 con­sec­u­tive sec­onds because you can over­load the motor. Con­sumers com­plain that some blenders come with a long tam­per that touch­es the blades, and you have to con­tact cus­tomer ser­vice to replace or just short­en the tam­per yourself.

Clean­ing: All blenders with inbuilt blades are easy to clean. This is, in fact, a self-clean­ing gad­get, and you fill it with 2–3 cups of water, add a few drops of soap and run it for 30–60 sec­onds on high speed. Some­times it may be enough just to rinse the con­tain­er with water if watery ingre­di­ents were blend­ed before. This gad­get is not proofed for dish­wash­ing, but the self-clean­ing option makes the clean­ing task very easy.

Base Unit and Motor Power

This Oster is equipped with a high pow­er 1400 Watt at peak motor and an all stain­less-steel spline pow­er trans­fer from the motor base to a jar that ensures dura­bil­i­ty for this gad­get. With this pow­er, the motor can rotate the blade at a speed of 250 mph or 28,000 RPMs, allow­ing the user to heat blend­ed liq­uids inside the pitch­er with fric­tion to a boil­ing temperature.

The Oster Ver­sa con­struc­tion qual­i­ty is rather top-notch, and although the base unit hous­ing is plas­tic, it feels sol­id and stur­dy. In addi­tion, the gad­get has rub­ber­ized feet and does not trav­el or slip over the counter dur­ing oper­a­tion, even at top speed. This machine also has cord stor­age, and the cord can be hid­den when not in use.

The motor has inbuilt sen­sors to pro­tect the machine from over­heat­ing and over­load. If you run the machine for too long, and it could be over­heat­ed, it will auto­mat­i­cal­ly shut off. How­ev­er, you have to wait for 30–45 min­utes to run it again after turn­ing the exter­nal reset­tle fuse under the base unit. The sen­sor also will trip if very thick food is processed, and to avoid shut­ting off when you notice the machine start­ing to halt, you have to remove some food or use the tam­per. The over­heat­ing and over­load­ing shut-off sys­tem pro­tects the motor from untime­ly dam­age and extends its lifespan.

Containers

 

Oster VERSA 1400-watt Pro­fes­sion­al is avail­able in two mod­els – Oster VERSA BLSTVB-000–000 1400-watt Pro­fes­sion­al with the new­ly designed low-pro­file con­tain­er and Oster VERSA BLSTVB-RV0-000 1400-watt Pro­fes­sion­al with the old­er design high pro­file con­tain­er. Both pitch­ers have the same 64-ounce (2000 ml) capac­i­ty and are made of Tri­tan copoly­ester, the BPA-free pre­mi­um qual­i­ty poly­car­bon­ate. The pitch­ers come with mea­sure­ment marks. Both jars have an inbuilt blade assem­bly that is sealed well and bet­ter proofed from leak­ing than remov­able blade jars.

Both con­tain­ers have a very secure plas­tic lid with a plug for ease of adding ingre­di­ents dur­ing blend­ing. The lid plug also can be used as a mea­sur­ing cup with a capac­i­ty of 2 oz. or 60 ml. The low-pro­file jar is 9 3/8” tall, has a wide bot­tom, and has a mod­ern sleek design with an inno­v­a­tive soft-grip han­dle. The high-pro­file jar has an old­er design; it is 12 1/4” tall and is not as sleek as the low-pro­file design. How­ev­er, the tall con­tain­er is pre­ferred by those con­sumers who intend to process small batch­es of food.

Oster VERSA Blender Blades

This blender, like most high-pow­ered and high-torque machines, comes with an inbuilt blade assem­bly. The 6‑pronged blade and dri­v­e­line are made of tough stain­less steel. The blades are very sharp by design. The all-met­al blade assem­bly ensures good seal­ing, elim­i­nates any leaks and strength­ens the dura­bil­i­ty of this gadget’s mechan­i­cal system.

Special Features

Col­ors: Oster VERSA BLSTVB-RV0-000 1400-watt Pro­fes­sion­al with the low pro­file pitch­er comes in black col­or with red trim­ming, while Oster VERSA BLSTVB-000–000 1400-watt Pro­fes­sion­al with the high pro­file con­tain­er is all in black.

Refur­bished: There are no refur­bished mod­els cur­rent­ly avail­able in this gadget.

Using in oth­er coun­tries: The blender sold in the USA comes with 110–120 volt­age and is cov­ered under war­ran­ty for the USA and Cana­da. A Euro­pean 220 V mod­el sold in Ama­zon UK could be used in coun­tries with a 220 volt­age sys­tem. Some cus­tomers use the USA 100 volt­age blenders using a pow­er trans­former. How­ev­er, the man­u­fac­tur­ers do not back the machine used via trans­form­ers with any warranty.

Noise

Oster blenders are known to be quite loud, and this high-pow­er mod­el is no excep­tion. The stan­dard advice to reduce noise out­put from loud gad­gets is to use a rub­ber place­ment under­neath the machine that will reduce the noise out­put considerably.

Warranty and Customer Service

These Oster VERSA BLSTVB-RV0-000/ BLSTVB-000–000 mod­els come with a 7‑year Lim­it­ed War­ran­ty. The lim­it­ed war­ran­ty cus­tomer may be charged for ship­ping costs and some repair costs. For exam­ple, if your jar starts leak­ing, it will be replaced at no extra charge, but you will be charged the full cost and the ship­ping fee if you break the jar. The Oster Ver­sa war­ran­ty is not trans­ferrable, and it starts from the date of pur­chase. It is also not cov­ered if you pur­chase via non-autho­rized deal­ers. Oster has a very high­ly regard­ed cus­tomer ser­vice that is always ready to help customers.

Besides, this machine comes with a 30-day mon­ey-back guarantee.

Optional accessories

Oster VERSA BLSTVB-RV0-000/ BLSTVB-000–000 machines are not com­pat­i­ble with any oth­er Oster attach­ment or acces­sories; that is a draw­back because most of the Oster mod­els come with inter­change­able acces­sories. How­ev­er, both the low-pro­file jar mod­el and the high-pro­file jar mod­el of the Oster 1400-watt Pro­fes­sion­al blender have com­pat­i­ble con­tain­ers. So, if you own a blender with a low-pro­file jug, you can use it with the high-pro­file jar and vice ver­sa. The tall ver­sion comes under the #  156658–000-000, while the short ver­sion # is 172873–000-000.

Set Includes

Oster VERSA BLSTVB-RV0-000 1400-watt set includes:

  • The 1400-watt motor base unit,
  • 64 oz. Tri­tan plas­tic pitch­er with an inbuilt blade,
  • lid with mea­sur­ing cup plug,
  • tam­per,
  • two col­or­ful cook­books — Gourmet Cui­sine, and Fresh and Fit Recipes.

The recipes include Smooth­ies, Sen­si­ble Sips, Sus­tain­ing Soups, Nutri­tious But­ters, Sat­is­fy­ing Spreads, Trim­mer Treats, and Baby Food cat­e­gories. The high-pro­file ver­sion BLSTVB-000–000 includes only one recipe book.

Dimensions

This machine has quite a large foot­print of approx­i­mate­ly 9.3 inch­es x 10.3 inch­es and will require some space on your counter. The total height of the blender with base and low pro­file pitch­er on the top along with lid is about 17.6 inch­es, so it will fit under most kitchen cab­i­nets, but make your own mea­sure­ments to ensure it fits yours. The high-pro­file pitch­er is 20.5 inch­es tall and will def­i­nite­ly not fit under any kitchen cab­i­nets. The ship­ping weight of the pack­age is 13.2 pounds.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • It is a ver­sa­tile blender that han­dles recipes rang­ing from frozen desserts to hot soups;
  • Oster Ver­sa most tasks qual­i­ty per­for­mance is very high and could be eas­i­ly com­pared to the qual­i­ty of Vita­mix blend­ing; it out­puts the green smooth­ies at the 85% qual­i­ty of well-known high-end blenders;
  • This machine is durable and comes with an all-met­al, stur­dy motor dri­ve cou­pling and a con­sid­er­able sev­en (7) years lim­it­ed warranty.
  • Oster Ver­sa is sta­ble and does not trav­el over the counter;
  • It comes with pre-set pro­grams and eight (8) vari­able speeds that allow you to exper­i­ment with a wide range of recipes;
  • Inbuilt blades make it very easy to use and clean this machine;

Cons:

  • No oth­er Oster attach­ments and extra acces­sories are com­pat­i­ble with this model;
  • The Tri­tan copoly­ester pitch­er is not very thick and could break if exposed to high stress.

Oster VERSA Blender Consumer Reviews

Many cus­tomers praise the blender as a good val­ue for the mon­ey gad­get and would high­ly rec­om­mend it to oth­er customers.

Price

Oster VERSA 1400-watt Blender price is very com­pet­i­tive and fluc­tu­ates with dif­fer­ent retail­ers; how­ev­er, it will most like­ly stay between $100 and $200. Besides, Ama­zon is one of the best in keep­ing the price low. Keep in mind that the Oster offers anoth­er Ver­sa blender that comes with an 1100 watts motor that is priced up to 25% less than Oster Ver­sa 1400 watts.

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Summary

Oster VERSA BLSTVB-RV0-000/BLSTVB-000–000 1400-watt Pro­fes­sion­al is a very good blender. It does a great job on smooth­ies; it is pow­er­ful enough to per­form typ­i­cal high-end blender tasks such as heat­ing liq­uid by fric­tion and mak­ing frozen desserts. The long war­ran­ty and all-met­al mechan­i­cal sys­tem also ensure that the con­struc­tion qual­i­ty of the machine is top-notch.

This blender is often com­pared to the best high-end machines like Vita­mix and Blendtec, and it is able to per­form almost all of the tasks these blenders do with a qual­i­ty very com­pa­ra­ble to Vita­mix and Blendtec (80–90%). On an absolute basis, the Vita­mix is a bet­ter-built machine, but the Ver­sa is a good val­ue for the mon­ey. Although the Oster Ver­sa is not a total clone of Vita­mix, it has bor­rowed many of the nice design fea­tures from it. So with the Oster Ver­sa, you will get quite an ade­quate sub­sti­tute for a high-pow­ered, com­mer­cial-type blender while pay­ing no more than half the price for it.

Alter­na­tive­ly, check here our articles: 

Posted in Oster Review

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11 Comments

  1. freddy paipa

    hel­lo
    Im freddy
    I need to replace the com­plete jar for my Oster Ver­sa 1400
    please let me know where can I foundit

    • lucy

      Hi Fred­dy.
      You can find the replace­ment parts from the Oster web­site or con­tact their cus­tomer service.

  2. Rodrigo Goller

    An update — we had this prod­uct and it worked quite well until I dripped the jar and broke it. Oster does not have jars avail­able so now I’m stuck with a great base but no way to use the blender.

  3. Tan Hak Boon

    I bought Oster MOd­el BLSTVB‑S . THe recipes that comes with it are in Chi­nese. Where can I get the Eng­lish version?

    • lucy

      Dear Tan Hak,
      You can con­tact Oster blenders cus­tomer ser­vice and ask them to send you the appro­pri­ate copy of the recipe book or find the recipes online.

  4. Mark J Goldfarb

    I have an Oster Versa,with the tall jar. The inner blade func­tions, but the out­er blade has ceased to spin. It appears that they are part of a pres­sure fit, but became detached. The machine is well-with­in the 7‑yr. ltd war­ran­ty. Is there a rec­om­mend­ed way to repair this by reat­tach­ing the blades short of weld­ing? If not, will you send me a replace­ment jar under the ltd. war­ran­ty? I see a replace­ment is not avail­able online.

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