If you can choose only one blender, which one would you pick?
What are the best blenders on the market? Can one blender do it all? What do the blender reviews say?
Choosing the best blender should not be that difficult. The most expensive ones are actually not the best.
Why do we need a blender?
What are the things we want the blender to do?
Do we want to do smoothies, milk shakes, frozen drinks, juices, purees, salads, salsas, batter, dough … etc?
Some blenders are not suitable at certain functions, like crushing ice or juicing or making dough.
If these are important to you then you need to ensure that the blender you purchase can do that.
Features to consider when buying a blender
- Power
- Ease of cleaning
- Pulse and Speed
- Durability
Normally the more powerful the motor is, the more performance it has. A weak motor gets strained and can eventually burnt up, depending how intensive it is being used.
The worst thing after using a blender is the clean up. Blenders with removable blade are easier to clean. They might however be more sensitive to leakage. It is best to soak the container and the blade immediately after use to prevent hardening of any left over.
Some blenders have pulse function. It just gives short powerful bursts to chop or grind the product in small pieces. This is quite practical when handling tough materials.
Blenders with 3 speeds give you the option of running it slow, fast or very fast, which is good for different types of products.
Blenders should be able to last for years. The motor is one of the weak point and may burn out if put under too much strain.
Gaskets may also get damaged and leakage may occur. If the body and parts are made of plastic they may crack or break.
Stainless steel is the best material but then it is not transparent. Glass containers are inert and are better than plastic ones.
The Best Blenders
If price is not an issue then the Vitamix blender would be the best blender. It is a versatile blender which can do almost everything.
It has one of the most powerful motor for a blender – 1,380 W (2 hp).
The Vitamix blender will homogenize whole fruits and vegetables, pulverize ice into snow and grind wheat into flour.
The Vitamix blender will last for a long time. It comes with a seven-year warranty.
Complaint about the blender is that it can be quite noisy at high speed.
The Wall Street Journal found the Kitchenaid 5-speed blender to stand out both in performance and features.
They especially like its pulsating “crush ice” mode which gives a very smooth margarita.
The Kitchenaid blender comes with a polycarbonate pitcher, which is shatter-resistant. Its teardrop-shaped design makes for mess-free pouring.
Consumer Reports evaluated 33 blenders and Vitamix 5000 came out with the highest rating (85/100).
The Vitamix 5000 is similar to the 5200.
The Vitamix 5200 has a BPA-free jar, a soft-grip handle and a new cooler-running motor.
The Blendtec Total Blender TB-611-BHM was the runner up with a rating of 79/100. Its motor is more powerful than that of Vita Mix with 1,500 watts.
It is a powerful multifunction machine that will chew up everything from tennis balls to an iPhone pepper.
The Blendtec blender is noisier than the Vita Mix.
The Braun PowerMax MX2050 was awarded the Best Buy by Consumer Reports.
It ranks among the tops for smoothies and for crushing ice.
There are however complaints about the durability of the Braun blender.
Both Oster Counterforms BVLBO7-L and Oster Fusion BRLY07-Z received high recommendations from Consumer Reports.
They excelled at making smoothies and icy drinks.
At maximum speed the Oster blenders are quite noisy.
Consumer Reports Blenders Rating
From the blenders rating you can see which blenders you should avoid buying.
The Good Housekeeping research institute tested 16 blenders and picked the Braun PowerMax MX2050 ($50) as the Best Overall blender.
It turns out perfect smoothies and fruit drinks. It’s the quietest and has the largest capacity (seven cups).
The Breville Ikon Die-Cast Blender came out on top of the abusive lab test of Popular Mechanics.
Consumersearch summarized the blender reviews and awarded the Oster Beehive Blender as the best general-use blender and the 12-speed Oster 6684 as the best budget blender.
Both are good at making smoothies and purees. They do not do so well with ice drinks.
If you need a blender mainly for pulverizing ice, the Breville ikon Hemisphere BBL600XL would be your best bet.
The magic bullet blender is good at making smoothies and purees but has problems with grinding ice.
Consumer Reports did not rate it very high (59/100).
Good Housekeeping found the Magic Bullet’s ability to chop, blend and grind not very good.
Cook’s Illustrated put the Magic Bullet blender through a series of tests, and it failed at nearly every one.
There are complaints that the blender motor does not last very long and would burn out after a while.
The plastic parts would also break and it is not possible to replace them. A new base has to be purchased.
The primary advantage of the Magic bullet blender is its convenience and the ease to clean it.
Just Tell Me What To Buy
If you simply want the best blender, buy the Vitamix 5200.
You will be able to do almost everything with it and it will last.
If you want a less expensive one, choose the Braun PowerMax MX2050 blender.
Just be careful when using it. It is prone to damage.
For convenience you can buy a Magic Bullet blender and probably you will use it more often than any other blenders.
Avoid using it to grind ice and do not use it too long.
We hope you will be able to enjoy your blender.
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For more details on the blender reviews
The Wall Street Journal
Good Housekeeping
Popular Mechanics
Consumer Report
Consumersearch
Link to this post:
November 16th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Thanks, I’ll bookmark this for later, I also found some useful information on http://www.kitchenappliancereviews.org
November 17th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Zune and iPod: Most people compare the Zune to the Touch, but after seeing how slim and surprisingly small and light it is, I consider it to be a rather unique hybrid that combines qualities of both the Touch and the Nano. It’s very colorful and lovely OLED screen is slightly smaller than the touch screen, but the player itself feels quite a bit smaller and lighter. It weighs about 2/3 as much, and is noticeably smaller in width and height, while being just a hair thicker.