When you are out shopping for a new kitchen blender there are many features you’ll run across. The container jar capacity, the engine's power, and the number of different speeds are some of the most essential features to look at. Be sure to check consumer reviews and various reports on the quality of the blender. Checking the value and price of the blender is also a good thing to do. But there are several other lesser known but equally important kitchen blender features that you will want to consider.

Parts That Are Safe To Put In The Dishwasher

Cleaning the blender container and other parts in a dishwasher can be a tremendous timesaver. Another bonus to this is that the water pressure and heat can kill many disease causing agents like bacteria and E. Coli.

Containers made of polycarbonate, glass, and plastic are generally dishwasher safe. Although not all are. You'll find dishwasher safe containers on most all of the best blenders with top ratings, like Oster and KitchenAid. The blender blades and the top of the blender jar are dishwasher safe in many cases as well. Make sure you check your owner's manual though before putting anything into the dishwasher just to be safe

A Warranty to Cover Breakage and Repair

A small home appliance with a lot of moving parts can be prone to breakage. Therefore it's important to get a good warranty with your blender. You can expect a higher quality blender to serve you up delicious smoothies for many years. You pretty much get what you pay for with blenders. Many of these blenders run $400 or more. If one of these is not in your budget though, and you opt for a less expensive brand, you may have some potential problems down the road.

At least a one year warranty is therefore critical. You can even find some very high quality manufacturers that will offer warranties in the 5 to 7 year range. Most warranties will have provisions to replace the blender if there are engine failures or cracks and leaking issues. The Montel Williams HealthMaster Blender even offers a 100 year warranty on their blender motor.

When looking at warranties, you should also look at a couple consumer reviews as well. If these owners had any blender problems and had to return the machine you can see what kind of response they received from customer service. It's a real plus if the owner had a great experience dealing with customer service in getting a blender part or the whole blender replaced.

A Fully Automated Timer

Many of the latest blender will have awesome auto-timers on their control panels. The blender engine will start and stop as needed according to the timer and the type of ingredients in the jar. It will then beep to let you know it’s done, similar to a microwave oven. This feature is a huge time saver because you are free to go off and do other things while your smoothie is blending. There is no need to have to check the ingredients and see if they are finished blending yet.

Coupled with the timer you often find a variety of preprogrammed settings. For example, you press the smoothie button and the blender will start and stop the blending cycle when the smoothie is fully blended. Getting ingredients blended appropriately is pretty much idiot proof. Each blending cycle is different for each type of ingredient. You don't want your salsa blended up like your smoothie do you?

You will definitely be happy with your blender and save a lot of time in the kitchen with these three fantastic features.