Panasonic All-in-One Hot & Cold Blender

I was very excited to buy this. I previously had a chinese blender which ended in tragedy after 3 months (you can check my other review) and this is such a world of difference. First and foremost, it is safe and quiet. It is also sturdy with a heavy glass jug and flat heavy base rather than many other blenders which are tall and look like they could easily topple. It is thoughtfully made - the menu is intuitive and easily navigable. The manual comes with suggested recipes and exact dimensions of food to cut to, and volumes provided. Mind you, the Chinese blender was one of the few that came with an English menu but still a Chinese manual (and I can read Chinese) but with such sketchy details that you were kinda left to your own discretion.

Being left to your own discretion however can also be a good thing. I enjoyed my Chinese blender far more because I was able to formulate my own recipes. This blender is very strict with ingredients and dimensions, almost like a Thermomix but at ¼ the price. It has 10 programs but try as I might to search online, I couldn't uncover the differences between them and thus don't dare to improvise without knowing the limitations of the machine and thus compromising safety. I even sent off an enquiry to Panasonic but haven't heard back and frankly don't expect to - they would be giving away proprietary information or opening themselves up to potential liability.

So without giving away proprietary information, I can state that except for ice blending/milk shake mode, the rest all involve cooking. If you follow the menu ingredients listed in the manual strictly, you are almost guaranteed not to scorch the bottom or overflow. There is also a manual mode which no Chinese blender seems to have (and I have investigated quite a few!) so you can manually set the temperature and blade speed. This blender is also capable of cooking/cutting meat and ice that many Chinese blenders are not rated for (these are actual specifications that you have to check before buying) because their motors aren't strong enough and can lead to cascading tragedy.

A note on safety - precisely because it has strict recommendations for volume, while it states 1.75l for cold and 1.4l for hot, the maximum capacity for soy and nut milks is only 1.2l. That equates to 2 not-hungry adults or 1 very hungry adult. However you can use the manual/bespoke mode and fill more at your own risk and discretion. Even the cleaning cycle tells you not to fill beyond 1l. All these have been tested and have accounted for the centrifugal force to ensure safe operation within truly modest limits.

In short - I trust this enough to leave it unsupervised on a 12 hr timer even though the manual again nags you to always be present during operation! However it is seriously crimping my creativity and I am not having any fun with it. It comes at a significant premium over Chinese models but you are paying for peace of mind and proper documented transparency.