Does blender motor thermal protection really work?

[bbmiller]

Hello
I recently bought a Hamilton Beach blender which was said to have a motor with 750 W peak power and also said on the bottom of it for noncommercial use only. It made me some great smoothies, but only a few before I burned out by having it work on a thick mixture for too long. As I only had the blender for less than a week the store I bought it from agreed to give me a full refund. This store, other stores and Internet site have goodbyes on blenders at this time. However I noticed there are only a few popularly priced blenders which is said to have feature of thermal protection of the motor. These are the Black & Decker blenders and the blender called "Wolfgang Puck 3-in-1 Blender Food Processor and Juicer" there are others however they are commercial models costing hundreds of dollars. So what do you think do you think the thermal protection features of these lenders would work? Would it be better to go a little more horsepower or better brand? I do not mind coming back here with a repair question on the blender if it only turns out to be a replace the fuse or where do I press the circuit breaker question. But if most of them require replacing the motor for what looks like a dead blender, I believe that would be more than would be worthwhile for a popularly priced a blender. So please tell me what you think.

[buckytom]

just an fyi: protection circuits for motors are usually not a replaceable fuse but more of a thermistor type of breaker. when the coils of the motor gets too hot, the breaker "pops" until it cools off.

otherwise, you'd end up burning up the coils in the motor.

my mom's brand new knife sharpener/can opener (circa 1975) looked like it would do a great job on my hockey skates if i took the cover off the sharpener.

knife sharpeners are supposed to be momenatry. my skates took a few minutes, then poof! i let the smoke out of the coils.

mom wasn't happy, but i did end up with a career repairing electronics, lol.

[bbmiller]

Originally Posted by buckytom

just an fyi: protection circuits for motors are usually not a replaceable fuse but more of a thermistor type of breaker. when the coils of the motor gets too hot, the breaker "pops" until it cools off.

otherwise, you'd end up burning up the coils in the motor.

my mom's brand new knife sharpener/can opener (circa 1975) looked like it would do a great job on my hockey skates if i took the cover off the sharpener.

knife sharpeners are supposed to be momenatry. my skates took a few minutes, then poof! i let the smoke out of the coils.

mom wasn't happy, but i did end up with a career repairing electronics, lol.

Do you think there could be brand of blenders which has thermal motor protection you mentioned above and don't bother to tell us? Do you think this type of thermal protection, for motors, in the case of blenders would be fast enough to prevent motor burnout?

[buckytom]

i can't answer the first question with authority, but i would imagine if a manufacturer was bothering to put the circuitry in the device, they'd advertise the fact.

as far as it working to prevent motor burnout, i'd say yes it works.

they operate by "tripping" a breaker at a certain temperature that is well below the threshhold of the heat capacity of the coils in the motor. if designed properly, that is.

i've found many devices with motor protection have the threshhold set far too low so that it becomes a pain in the butt. in order to protect the motor under bigger loads, it cuts out far too easily and you end up having to sit around until it cools off. there's no reset button for thermal protection. well, logically, there shouldn't be. heat dissipation can be handled different ways, but electric motors are pretty simple machines. if they get hot, they die.

[roadfix]

It hasn't happened to me yet but I constantly hear KitchenAid mixer owners complain about their mixers stopping when kneading low hydration pizza dough. After cooling down they're ready to go again. I must assume most stand mixers do this.

I don't think it's a feature that need advertising, just like most any other appliance with a breaker switch. It's a basic safety feature by default.