Don > wrote:

:So, here's my question: why so few blenders use the metal to metal
:drive system as does Waring, Oster, and VitaMix. Is it a patent
:question? One would think that since the patents on the Waring and
:Oster designs should have expired long ago, this wouldn't be the
:reason. Or, is it simply cost?

I don't know about blenders in particular, but in many cases it's
costs. The selection process for these things is, in many cases,
going to the store, and buying the cheapest one. So if it costs 16
cents more to make a widget that lasts forever than it does to make
one that lasts a year, they'll make the widget that lasts a year,
because that's what people buy. You might also look up what those
blenders from the 60s cost when they were new, and work out what that
is in today's dollars. I recently saw a Sears tool catalog from the
early 60s. The prices were astoundingly high. The lowest priced
circular saw, for instance, cost more in 196mumble than it did in
2008. Not in inflated dollars, mind you, but in actual ones. the
price in 196x was about $45. Sears had one for less than $40 when I
looked at the website. I've no doubt that the one from the 60s is a
much better tool, and is probably still working. I suspect if you
spent what fraction of a week's pay $40 represented on a tool then on
one today, you'd get one as good.