How to take care of a blender so that it lasts for decades

In yesterday's comments, Valarie S. made a good point, that "older" often means "sturdier", in regards to household goods, appliances, tools and equipment. I have found this to be the case, as well. And this line of thinking has kept me from replacing appliances, simply because I want the newer and prettier model.

a tale of two blenders that last, and last, and last

My parents had an Oster blender, wedding gift c.1957, which continued to perform well for their entire marriage. There was nothing fancy about their blender. The switch had two functions to choose from, "on" and "off". But did it ever work. It chopped ice, made shakes (back in the 60s and 70s, we didn't call them smoothies, but called them shakes), pureed vegetables and more. That thing was built to last!

In 1981, my sister gave me an Osterizer blender. And guess what? It still does smoothie-duty almost every morning. In 33 years, I've replaced the gasket a half a dozen times, and I've sharpened the blades a few times. When my blender was given to me, my dad told me what I needed to do to take good care of it. And it's lasted, and lasted, and lasted. I've used it on ice, to puree soups, to make smoothies, and even to make peanut and sunflower seed butters. I'd say, for near daily use, it's held up well. 33 years and going strong.

One of the things that really impresses me is how much of this blender is heavy-duty metal, and how little of it is plastic. This was standard for appliance design in the past. Not always the case today.


Making your older appliances stand the test of time does require some work.

• On a blender, replacing the gasket will not only give you a better seal between the jug and blade assembly, but the rubber gasket becomes ever-so-slightly pitted, and can harbor bacteria as a result. Cost to replace the gasket, about $1.50.

• Taking the jug and blade assembly apart regularly, to clean it thoroughly, is not just good kitchen hygiene, but it will prolong the life of your gasket, and give you a chance to check the blade for nicks. Cost to clean the blade assembly, nothing but warm, soapy water and a rag.

• After washing the blender jar, don't place it back on the base unit until the bottom of the blender is totally dry. Placing a wet blender jar on the base unit can cause corrosion of the square drive pin and plate (the place where the underside of the jar connects with the motor base assembly). Cost to leave it to dry, nothing but patience. But should you find your square drive pin and plate (on Oster models) have corroded, no worries. You can order those Oster parts for under $7.

• When it seems that your blade isn't chopping as well as it did when the blender was new, there's a good chance that the blades need sharpening. I use a sharpening steel and a small knife sharpening stone to gently hone the edge of the blades. This gives me like-new processing results once again. Cost to sharpen the blades, free if you have a steel or stone. (Here are some good instructions on sharpening your blender blade.)

• When I reach the point where the blades can't be sharpened another time, then replacing the blade unit will be a good, and cost-effective option.  Cost to replace the blade assembly, about $10.

When I was searching online for a gasket last week, I found that not only could I order blades, the jar nuts (that plastic cap-like piece that holds the blade), the glass jars and the lids, but I could also order parts for the base unit of the blender that I have, should those wear out someday. Good to know.

A company like Oster is well-known for the quality of their products. In fact, their motto is "Legendary performance. Designed to last." And that they do. Their blenders have been around for many decades, and they strive to keep parts available for even some of their older models.

I've gotten over 30 years of use out my Oster blender, and I expect I can get another decade, at least. No need for the newer, fancier models.

Maintaining the older appliances in my home is definitely well worth it.

Frugality isn't all how-to and do

This past week's posts have been filled with how-tos. And frankly I'm about exhausted by all the how-tos. But I wanted to get them out there, for anyone else needing the information.

A lot of what we read on these frugal living blogs is how to do something you normally do, but for less. This information is all helpful. But in reality, most of our frugal living is not activity-oriented.

When I think of all the things that I don't do, that wind up saving us money, the list looks something like this:


1) I sometimes don't get around to replacing a burned-out light bulb for a long while. (Sorry, girls, that bathroom light bulb will eventually get changed out.)


2) Some weeks, cooking is not-so-creative and meals look like this -- breakfast: oatmeal, lunch: peanut butter on bread, dinner: a huge pot of soup that winds up feeding the 5 of us for 3 different dinners.


3) I keep myself out of stores, and save, save, save -- no coupons required when you're not shopping.


4) Old and worn towels take up life in the rag pile. I don't even cut them up. Large towels are great for wiping down the car, after a wash. Medium size towels make great mop-heads for my Swiffer. And the washcloths and fingertip towels are the perfect size for cleaning up kitchen spills.


5) I probably only get one or two professional haircuts per year, some years, not at all. The in-between times, I take a small pair of scissors and trim up every few weeks. And this takes me less time than driving to a salon -- about 10 minutes. (A note, I have thick and curly hair. A self-haircut doesn't show ragged edges on my type of hair.) 


6) In summer, we sometimes skip a week of mowing the back lawn. Our mower is rechargeable electric, so this does result in less electricity used.


7) We stick with our ancient technology gadgets, like our phone. It's tethered to the wall, no portable phone for our house. We've had this phone for about 25 years, and it still works, so why replace it.


8) We've accepted hand-me-downs for probably 75% of our furniture. We didn't have to do anything to fill our house, but open the front door.


9) In the flower gardens, I plant almost all perennials or flowering evergreens. Plant once, and they come back year after year. Plus, I've learned to embrace the color green.



You see, what we don't do easily saves us as much money as what we do do. Maybe it sounds like we're lazy. But I like to think that we're just very busy, and don't have time to do everything.


How about you? Do you think that you save more money in the doing, or in the not-doing?