How To Repair Your Blender

Blenders break, and it’s not always apparent as to why.

Not to worry; we’re going to give you a rundown on how to diagnose and fix just about every issue you could run into with your blender, save for disassembling an entire motor (don’t worry, there’s a solution for that, too).

This brief overview will steel you for anything that may happen to your blender.

If your warranty has expired or you bought a high-quality blender secondhand, then it’s important to take matters into your own hands and fix things upright. Let’s get to work.

Problem: Leaking Pitcher

Diagnosis

When you blend anything in the pitcher, the blades spin and the mixture swirls around, but you’re left with a bit of moisture or pitcher contents around the base of the pitcher.

This will be apparent when you detach the pitcher from the base, and contents will be around the rubber gasket.

Fix

It’s not as bad as you think. There are two ways to fix this. First of all, unscrew the seal (a plastic cap that houses the blades) from the bottom of the pitcher.

The seal should have two parts on the interior: a base for the blades, and a rubber gasket that creates a seal from the blade base to the bottom of the pitcher ring.

Now, there’s a possibility that this was just loose, to begin with, and you needed to screw it on nice and tight. If you’d like, try that and just blend something to see if that was the issue.

It’s likely a gasket problem, so you can either flip the gasket over and reapply it to the blade base, or inspect it to see if there’s degradation or damage.

You’ll notice little tears or slits in the edges of the gasket, and if you place it flat on a table, it might seem slightly warped around the edges. If it’s not sitting flat, it’s either broken or on its way out.

If you don’t plan on replacing the gasket immediately, flatten it out with the base of your palm and see if it can be straightened out.

If so, place it back around the blade base upside-down, and reapply the seal. Closely monitor how the gasket reacts when you twist the seal.

You should be able to see it through the bottom of the pitcher. If all looks well, fill the pitcher up with water and leave it on a paper towel so you can detect if the leak continues or not.

Problem: Motor’s on, Blades Aren’t

Diagnosis

There’s a whirring sound that kicks on, like an air conditioner, but you can’t hear or see the steel blades moving at all.

The motor isn’t connecting with the blades. This is an internal issue that will require disassembling the motor house.

Fix

Grab your screwdriver and appropriately take the motor housing apart. If you’re still under warranty, inspect the agreement to see if this would void it.

If that’s the case, ship it out, because finding out the motor died completely and ruining the warranty would be a tragedy.

Once it’s opened, inspect the motor for gunk or any food waste. Sometimes it can leak down through the gasket and get stuck in the housing.

Clear all the debris off, and make sure the unit is unplugged. You’re looking for something called a drive stud.

These look different on each blender and every brand builds them a tad bit differently, so consult your manual to see the anatomy of your blender.

Once you locate it, you need to check if it’s loose.

Tap it gently with the tip of your screwdriver to inspect it. If it’s loose, tighten it up to the point that it can’t move at all, even when you shake the whole thing.

Once it’s secured in place, the blades and motors should connect. Lightly reassemble the blender (just in case you have to go back in), and test it out.

Sometimes the vibrations from the blender’s operation can slowly loosen the drive stud over time—this is no big deal, just a simple fix for a basic problem.

Problem: Automatic Start

Diagnosis

You plug in the blender, and without prompting it through buttons or switches, the blender starts spinning all on its own.

If you touch the switches or knobs and nothing happens, you would have to unplug it to get it to stop. There’s a problem with the wiring.

Fix

An automatic startup is a dangerous problem, especially if you weren’t expecting it after already filling the pitcher up.

You’ll have to take the motor housing apart and check the wires; something isn’t right.

One of the wires that go from the user interface is being supplied with a current, even though there’s nothing that’s actually being done. You could do one of two things:

• Purchase replacement buttons and wires from your blender manufacturer’s website. Replacing all the wires from the panel to the motor/main power cable, as well as the buttons, should remove every single problem.
• Purchase the wires yourself and replace them, but leave the original buttons intact. This is the most likely (and quickest) solution that will handle everything.

Since it’s an electrical problem one way or another, you could also see what your warranty covers and send it out to be repaired.

There’s a chance that the wiring is faulty, and they may have to replace the unit. This will have no forbearance on your motor or its quality.

Problem: Zero Feedback

Diagnosis

You’ve checked the outlet, make sure the buttons work, but you’re getting absolutely nothing from your blender.

It’s like it’s dead; no motor sounds, no lighting up, but you’re positive that it’s hooked up properly. This could either be a big problem or a simple solution.

Fix

You’ll need a multimeter to properly diagnose the issue.

You need to see where the electrical current stops. If the current is passing through the motor, but the wires that come from the panel or user interface are dead, you know where the problem persists.

A multimeter will either give you that spot of good news, or it could indicate that the main 120 V power cable is dead, or even worse: the motor.

We’re not going to direct you to take the motor apart and try to fix that—it gets complicated with a high chance of failure, simply because it’s a complex piece of machinery that many people aren’t familiar with.

Reassembly alone is a hassle and a nightmare. When you run into this problem, you just have to ship it back to the manufacturer and have them deal with it.

If it’s the motor or the main power cable, they’ll be better equipped to handle it.

Problem: Blades Spinning Slowly

Diagnosis

The motor is on, it’s whirring just fine, but the blades are spinning so slowly that it’s not crushing anything in the pitcher.

Fix

This is likely a cleaning issue. If you’ve been using your blender a lot as of recently, you need to disassemble the seal on the pitcher and really clear it out.

Berry seeds and other tough foods are able to get stuck in crevices that we don’t even know are there, and jam up the motor.

It might be a very small amount, but when the RPM of the motor is battling against food particles that just won’t break, there’s only so much that it can do.

Clean out the blades with a high amount of water pressure, preferably from the hose that’s attached to your sink.

Use a soft plastic bristle brush to scrub out the area between the blades, and on the rest of the pole that connects to the base.

Run the blender again to test it out, and maybe throw some ice in so you can see how it deals with the resistance from food. If the problem persists, your motor might be on the way out.

About Blender Warranties

Inspect your warranty thoroughly: does it cover the problem that matches your diagnosis?

There’s a chance that you’ll be able to designate something like a manufacturer defect, so long as you haven’t torn the thing apart in order to find it.

There are warranties that strictly cover manufacturing defects, and then there are those (like Vitamix warranties) that cover a much broader scope for seven to ten years.

It’s important to have a good warranty if you’ve invested a pretty penny in your blender.

You’re a Blender Repair Pro

Or at least you will be when you take these into action.

Disassemble your blender, get things sorted, and have a sense of accomplishment after you’ve restored it to its former glory.

There’s nothing like fixing your own appliances, and hey, reward yourself with a freshly made smoothie—you’ve earned it.