Blender assembly

Abstract

A blending appliance includes a housing with a jar receiving area defined between an upper housing and a support base. A blender jar includes a base portion and a receptacle portion, and is configured to be laterally received within the jar receiving area of the housing. A magnetic coupling system includes an upper magnetic coupler disposed in the base portion of the blender jar and a lower magnetic coupler disposed in the support base of the housing. The upper and lower magnetic couplers are magnetically coupled to one another for driving a blade assembly disposed in the receptacle portion of the blender jar. A brake mechanism is disposed on the upper magnetic coupler and is configured to stop rotation of the upper magnetic coupler when the blender jar is removed from the jar receiving area.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A blending appliance, comprising:
 a housing having an upper housing portion spaced vertically from a support base to define a jar receiving area therebetween;   a blender jar configured for lateral reception in the jar receiving area and having a blade assembly powered by a motor disposed within the housing;   a controller disposed within the housing, wherein the controller includes one or more preprogrammed blending sequences for controlling the motor; and   a user interface disposed on the upper housing and electronically coupled to the controller, wherein the user interface includes a plurality of function settings for selection by a user.   
     
     
         2 . The blending appliance of  claim 1 , wherein the user interface includes a rotatable dial having the plurality of function settings disposed thereon and a progressive speed indicator scale for adjusting a speed of the motor of the blending appliance. 
     
     
         3 . The blending appliance of  claim 2 , wherein the plurality of function settings correlate to the preprogrammed blending sequences stored in the controller. 
     
     
         4 . The blending appliance of  claim 1 , including:
 a speaker electronically coupled to the controller for playing select audio files stored in the controller.   
     
     
         5 . The blending appliance of  claim 4 , wherein the select audio files stored in the controller are selected from the group consisting of a user manual, a recipe, a care and maintenance manual and a function status indication. 
     
     
         6 . The blending appliance of  claim 5 , including:
 a wireless receiver coupled to the controller for wirelessly loading remote files to the controller.   
     
     
         7 . The blending appliance of  claim 5 , including:
 a USB port electronically coupled to the controller for loading files to the controller from a portable electronic device.