Oster My Blend Personal Blender In-depth Review
We have tested out many personal blenders with promising features and positive reviews, and in our hands-on tests with low-powered models, like the Oster BLSTPB-WBL, they mostly proved not to be the all-arounder that they may seem to be on paper.
Overall Verdict
The Oster BLSTPB-WBL’s real strengths lie in its price, practicality, and elegant styling. Sporting a 250-watt motor, it’s apparently unable to deliver the excellent heavy blending performance that a higher-powered blender does. When it comes to processing softer plant-based food, however, it can be used as a convenient tool to increase the amount of nutrients in your diet.
For its overall construction, this Oster is built to the price, with standard quality materials. It’s engineered sportily and sturdily and features greater aesthetics than its rivals. The trade-off is the blending jar, which is so tall and narrow that it was always a problem getting our hands inside for cleaning.
Things We Like
- It is affordable but better than its competitors at blending frozen fruits.
- The light-duty motor works consistently for basic tasks like making smoothies, protein shakes, whole-food sauces, and more.
- Its usability allows for an enjoyable blending experience.
- There is a built-in, resettable fuse, which will revive the motor in 15 minutes if it overheats.
Things We Don’t Like
- The blending jar is somewhat difficult to clean due to its narrow design.
- The small circumference of the jar’s opening makes adding powders and fruits quite messy.
- This blender is not ideal for quick fibrous meals.
We like the look of this Oster, which is an attractive combination of an array of colors and a sporty design, creating a distinctively aesthetic appearance. Not to mention the emphasis on durability in its relatively solid construction. In the end, however, its power rating was not sufficient for our culinary creations and we also couldn’t get comfortable with its shortcomings.
Key Specs
Where to Buy? Price at publication $33.17
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3.9Performance: Limited Versatility
As a low-powered portable blender, this Oster was just moderately capable of making protein shakes and frozen fruit smoothies. We wondered if it would somehow be more efficient than its rivals and provide us with fluffy crushed ice or a quick extraction of leafy greens, but it turned out that such tasks were far beyond its strength.
5.2Protein Shake
The consistency of the Oster’s protein shake was about average and much in line with other low-powered blenders, such as the Black+Decker FusionBlade. After letting it pass through a mesh strainer, we found a small amount of dried berries remaining partially intact and this made the shake somewhat gritty. The oatmeal and almonds were mostly turned into liquid form, however. So overall, the beverage was still drinkable enough to help an athlete or gym enthusiast increase their muscle mass without feeling uncomfortable.
Despite being second to none within its market segment, this blender abjectly surrendered to its higher-priced counterparts in terms of blending time. To manage an acceptable result, it took up to nearly three minutes, which was about one minute slower on average. For this reason, we only gave it a 5.2/10, in comparison to other personal blenders in our Protein Shake test.
6.0Frozen Fruit Smoothie
The Oster BLSTPB-WBL did fairly well in this test, producing a result that was roughly the same as that of a higher-powered blender. So if you tend to focus on frozen smoothies, this device should be worth your consideration. Spinning at speed, we can assure you its blades will yield a silky frozen smoothie without a particularly intense struggle. Just make sure to give your blending cup a good shake once you notice any food getting stuck in the blades and prevent them from turning.
However, you might be wondering why it only got a 6/10 if its smoothie came out that good. Again, it was because of its longer-than-average blending time.
In particular, after a course of testing trials, we found that a good blender for making icy beverages has to process all the frozen ingredients as fast as possible so they don’t have time to thaw and dilute the overall consistency. As such, the completion time of the Oster meant its smoothie was thinner and less ice-cream-like than faster models, namely the Ninja Fit or the NutriBullet.
FailedFibrous Greens
With the Oster, it was definitely an undertaking to extract high-fiber food into liquid form in a short period of time (20 seconds). By our cutoff point, we drained the final mixture with a mesh strainer and ended up with a substantial amount of coarse pulp. This suggested that the test was just one-third completed.
Perhaps, if we allowed this blender a longer runtime, we would eventually get a smoother outcome. However, one noticeable point was that some personal blenders we tested could do this trick perfectly following the same time frame. (For example, the Nutri Ninja Auto-IQ). As such, the performance of this Oster means more than just a slower extraction — it also has some implications for its overall efficiency in comparison with the expensive, high-end ones.
FailedCrushed Ice Cubes
The weak motor power didn’t allow the Oster BLSTPB-WBL to crush ice so the final outcome came out almost pristine but this is a common occurrence of this type of personal blender. If you want fluffy, snow-like crushed ice or desire to incorporate ice into your smoothies, we recommend more powerful blenders, like the Ninja Fit.
6.6Design: Eye-Catching with Standard Quality
The overall design is thoughtful and well-made for the price. It is developed with extra features that some people might find useful. Not only that, but attention to detail on all parts and surfaces also makes the Oster BLSTPB-WBL a personal blender of hi-tech and refinement.
In the Box
- Motor Base
- Extractor Blade
- Recipe book & user guide
- Blending Cup
Dimensions
The Oster BLSTPB-WBL is 5.5 inches wide and14.5 inches tall with the blending jar attached. It’s not so bulky, but a bit taller compared to most single-serve blenders. Despite that, we believe it would fit nicely in a tiny kitchen or easily tuck away in any cabinet when it’s not in use.
7.0Build Quality
The overall build quality is more than acceptable. The whole construction is made out of plastic, except for the blending blade, which is the standard in most budget-friendly personal blenders. We can’t say for sure if such a material makes this blender less durable than the ones reinforced with stainless steel, but it surely means that your machine isn’t as steady, resulting in the fact that it will be shaky when tackling heavy-duty blends.
7.0Blades
The blade assembly looks solid, adding extra value to the overall product. That being said, it comes with dull prongs made of stainless steel, not sharp, which are typically more ideal for processing dry ingredients rather than wet mixtures.
Motor Base
The motor peaks around 250 watts, which is sufficient to handle simple combinations of soft ingredients. In general, such a low-powered motor can only run continuously for one minute. Longer than that will result in an overloaded motor and cause it to be permanently damaged. More often than not, you can determine the maximum continuous runtime of your blender by checking its user manual.
So far, however, we haven’t found any information about the Oster’s motor in this regard. As such, it’s uncertain if this blender has a specific maximum runtime, especially when it’s packed with a built-in thermal resettable fuse to prevent damage in the case of extreme overload. Despite that, we still recommend not running it continuously for longer than 1 minute per interval.
Another nice extra feature that you won’t find in other blenders' motor bases is the handle, which gives it much better mobility.
5.0Blending Cup
Included in this set is a 20-oz blending cup with lid. We found the lid is easy to attach to the cup, but a little bit on the firm side to unscrew. It seals the cup so tightly that you can take your favorite beverages with you wherever you’ll go without leakage. You may also appreciate its flip-top spout, which allows you to take a sip straight from the cup easily and mess-free.
The cup, on the other hand, is not as practical. We like its beautiful and ergonomic design—which makes it feel good in our hands and ensures convenient handling—but there was always a problem getting our hands inside for cleaning due to its narrow structure.
Speed and Controls
As a standard personal blender, the Oster BLSTPB-WBL comes with only one speed, but you can get pulse mode by pressing and releasing the cup in short intervals.
7.0Usability
Using the Oster BLSTPB-WBL is not much of an issue but requires a bit of a learning curve at first. The most frustrating part is locking the cup with the blade attached in the motor base. Still, once you get the swing of things, it won’t challenge you anymore. Cleaning, on the other hand, will definitely be a problem if you don’t have a bottle brush available.
6.5Hands-Free Operation
The Oster BLSTPB-WBL allows you to lock the blending cup in place so you won’t need to continuously press it down to the motor base for activation. However, this doesn’t mean that it will get the job done without your hands involved in the blending process. If your beverage is packed with tough ingredients which are too hard for the blade to power through, thus causing it to get jammed, sometimes you’ll need to stop the blender and give its cup a good shake to even out the blend.
7.5Assembly
There’s minimal assembly required since this blender has only three parts. First and foremost, you’ll need to fasten the blade assembly on the open end of the blending cup, then turn the whole piece upside down to place it in the base. For the proper result, make sure to line up the arrows on the blade assembly to the arrows on the base. Blending begins as soon as you press the cup down, but you can also lock the cup for hands-free operation by turning it clockwise in the base, though it can take quite some time to figure out how things work.
8.0Cleanability
All the parts, except for the motor base, are dishwasher safe, so simply add them to the top rack and you’ll have more time to spare for other activities. Hand washing is also nothing short of frustrating and worrisome. Make sure you have cleaning brushes handy for removing food tailings in the hard-to-reach spots of the long, narrow cup and the blade’s backsides.
About your guide
Tina Pham is a staff writer and reviewer, with five years of experience in the industry. As a passionate amateur home cook, she loves to discover practical cooking solutions, and has made it her mission to bring her findings to every kitchen. Her ultimate goal is making cooking more of a pleasure for all.
Lap is Head of the Research, Testing, and Review Team (RTR Team) at HealthyKitchen101.com, where he directs and supervises the testing of kitchen gadgets and appliances.
Tuyet Pham is an award-winning Saigonese chef passionate about delicious and healthful foods. At HealthyKitchen101, she develops recipes and collaborates with our Research, Testing, and Review lab to evaluate the performance of cooking appliances. Her assessments add a strong authoritative voice to our product scoring process.