OK, so I thought I would run another batch of freeze drying yesterday. As some of you may remember, I currently use a blender to convert the ice cubes of pre-frozen material into a snow like powder. Well, when running the blender, less of the ice melts if you pre-chill the blender container in the freezer for an hour or so. However, evidently, that makes the polycarbonate they make these blender containers out of sort of brittle. Go here to see what happens then…

So, after I destroyed all three polycarbonate blender containers, I called United Restaurant Supply and asked if they had any blenders with stainless steel containers. They did, so I went down and bought two. I came home, I pre-chilled the stainless steel containers, I put them both on their base units, I fired them up with about 4 ice cubes in each, and one managed to snap its drive shaft in the container and the other managed to chew up the rubber drive pieces that interconnect the blender motor and the blender container.

1 day, about a total of 3 ice cube trays worth of product blended. Three blenders, two of them stainless steel commercial models, destroyed. What a bitch. I have to wait until after Christmas to find out of I can take the blenders back for either a refund or exchange (refund preferred) or send them off to a factory repair center to get them fixed.

I did, however, come up with a plan to keep this from happening again. I want to get an ice crusher and use it to pre-crush the ice cubes before they ever go in the blender. I have a feeling that the smaller chunks won’t be so hard on the equipment and it will be able to hold up under that kind of load.