The 10 Best Blenders - May 2017

Blender Buying Guide

Blenders are kitchen appliances which use high-speed rotating blades to cut and puree foods into liquids. They can be used in both food prep (i.e - reducing tomatoes to a puree for sauce) or for making smoothies and juices from fruits and vegetables.

There are two main types of blenders on the market - handheld/immersion and tabletop:

Handheld/immersion blenders: these appliances consist of a ‘wand’ with blades on one end, which is held and lowered directly into the food to be blended (hence the name 'immersion blender', since they are immersed in the food). Because they don’t have a bowl, they are far smaller and easier to store, and are usually cheaper. However, because they are lowered directly into the ingredients, they lack the splash guards of tabletop blenders. Therefore greater care has to be taken when using them, so you don’t end up covering your kitchen in tomato sauce! Because they are smaller and lack several safety features (such as guards) they tend to be less powerful than tabletop models.

Tabletop blenders: unlike handheld models, tabletop blenders have their own separate bowl into which the ingredients are poured and blended. They have a splash guard that is placed over the top to prevent accidents and stop liquid being fired everywhere. These models of blenders tend to be more powerful and capable of reducing harder ingredients to liquid, but come at a cost: tabletop blenders take up more room than their handheld brethren, and are often more expensive. They also generate more cleaning, since the bowl and the blades will have to be cleaned every time its used.

Capacity

This attribute only applies to tabletop blenders, but is an important consideration - the bowl capacity will determine how much food/liquid can be blended at one time. Blended capacities vary considerably - some models have large bowls/jugs that can hold several litres of liquid at a time, while others can only hold a single serving of liquid - enough for a single smoothie or juice, but impractical for larger kitchen use. Which brings us to...

Juicers/Smoothie Makers/Nutribullets

Juicers, smoothie makers and Nutribullets are a special subset of blenders that specialise in blending fruit and veg into single-serving liquids. They are extremely good for this purpose, often coming bundled with a special cup to make transferring/transporting the smoothies as easy as possible. Some even use the cup itself as the blending jug, blending the ingredients directly into the cup for efficiency.

While they excel in this specific function, customers should be wary of buying them for larger kitchen use - because of their single-serving capacity, they wouldn’t be efficient when cooking for families, and you may end up having to blend ingredients in batches. Moreover, because the are generally made to blend soft fruit and veg, the power level and blades are not as powerful as less specialised models. This means that using a smoothie maker for general kitchen use may end up breaking the blades or overtaxing the motor, leading to a broken appliance.

Lastly, because these appliances (especially Nutribullets) are aimed at the healthy eating and exercise crowd, they tend to be more expensive than standard blenders, even though they may have a smaller capacity or fewer features. So when choosing a blender, think carefully what you’re going to use it for, and maybe look towards a standard kitchen blender if you intend to make anything apart from smoothies and juices.

Power Level

All our blenders have a power rating, measured in Watts (W). The higher the power level, the more efficient the appliances will be at blending. This in turn leads to smoother liquids, fewer chunks, and better results!

Many of the models on our site also have multiple speed settings. Often this can little more than low or high, but is crucial for getting the best results from harder ingredients, or crushing ice to make cocktails and frozen smoothies.

Easy-to-Clean

Finally, given that blending is inherently a rather messy business, you will have to clean your blender after every use. Therefore it may be helpful to check that your chosen model is marked as easy-to-clean, meaning that it has been designed for stress-free cleaning. Some models are even safe to put in the dishwasher, making them extremely easy to clean and take care of.