How to Choose the Best Food Blender

Are your finding a good blender to make healthy protein shakes or smoothies? How about some dressing, nut butters, smoothie bowls or soups?

I understand that for newcomers, the blender world is like a hot mess – there is an avalanche of models, sizes, colors with various additional functions and features but funnily, they look quite the same. It’s freakily overwhelmed, right?

That’s why I’m here to give you a hand to pick the right blender more quickly, easily and even interestingly – after all, guys, you just need a useful (and durable) appliance to stay a healthier life.

You can take tonic or other medical method to boost your health, though. It’s better to go after the natural way, like drinking juices or smoothies.

If you have heard about Kriscarr and her stories about how juicing helps her to fight against cancer, it’s a good motivation to equip yourself, your house and your kitchen a good blender alongside with a juicer.

I have researched, experienced and reviewed many brands out there, about kitchen appliances – including blenders from various reliable and well-known brands.

The result?

I come up with top must-considered features which are also the secret to choose the best machine along with some good brands to go to. Also, I will list out some FAQs that you guys asked me the most to give the best answers.

Now, let’s get started!

Things to consider

The very first common reason that makes newcomers confused of which blender to go to is they don’t know what they need on the machine. Or, you have already clarified yours, but don’t know which type perfectly suits them.

Okay now, if you are in case No.1, take 5 minutes to think about it.

Do you want to use it for making smoothies only or for versatile tasks like making almond milk, soup, butter hummus and so on?

With smoothie, do you go for soft or hard ingredients, or both?

What is your budget?

How much space is available to store a blender?

The reason you should determine your purposes and needs is there are up to 4 different types of blenders that come up with different strength and weakness alongside with different prices and sizes.

Once you have already known which type is perfect for your demands, it’s much easier to zoom in on that model.

Types

Those four types are Traditional Countertop Blenders, Hand Blenders, High-performance Blenders and Personal Bullet Blenders.

Take a look at this blender type table below to get ideas on what can be done.

For example, if you suppose to have the blender done your smoothie recipes with soft ingredients like berries, mango, avocado, etc. just for you, take a look at the table and you’ll quickly see that the Hand Blenders are the best bet to go for.

Take note that soft ingredients here don’t include the leafy veggies. In fact, they are amazingly the hardest task in blending, which just the personal bullet or the high-performance blenders can handle.

In comparison, the high-performance blenders are the most versatile. It can finish different tasks perfectly from making smoothies, ice cream, butter, protein shakes to crushing ice. The biggest disadvantage is its expensive price. So, if your budget is tight, a personal bullet blender is a more “affordable” choice for “smooth” smoothies.

Once you have picked the right machine for your needs, move to the next step – diving deeply into it and see my highly-recommended models.

The table, on the other hand, also gives you the best answer for the most common question:

Which types of blenders are good for smoothies? 

As you can see, all blenders can take that job, particularly the smoothie recipes from soft ingredients. It’s just whether or not they can handle the tougher ones like roots, carrots, raw pumpkin and so on.

Others

Single serve blenders

It’s frustrating to know that there is a sea of blenders designed for more than one serving because some will be wasted if you live alone.

That’s why the best single serve blender will be your new best friend. Not only they help to save more ingredients, but also make your blending process much easier and quicker.

Battery operated blenders

It’s sure a perfect and healthy BBQ or camping trip if there are some cups of smoothies serving with food, right? But how to do that while your blender’s power source is electricity?

That’s when you need to consider a battery-operated blender. But kindly keep in mind that, their motor as well as capacity won’t be as powerful as the electric ones.

Juicer-Blender Combo

As mentioned above, two essential tools that every juicier should have are a blender and a juicer. However, with a cramped kitchen, this might be a better option – the juice-blender combo.

This model is convenient because obviously, you get a 2-in-1 machine to play the role of a blender and a juicer. However, it’s a tradeoff between multifunction and maintenance. I mean that the more versatile the machine, the more complicated parts it will have. So, you need to accept that it might take more time on cleanup step than other models.

Now, after finding out the best type of blender to go to, here are some more must-consider features you should keep in mind:

Number of people to serve + blender’s size + available storage space

These are three close-related features that I highly advise you to consider together.

Remember this basic rule of thumb:

The number of people to serve matters the size of the blender. And, the size of the blender matters the storage space.

From that point, you need to consider carefully these three features. If looking for a family-sized blender, pay closer attention to its height, whether it’s up to 17-inch tall or not. If it’s smaller, consider if your kitchen countertop has available space for it or not. On the contrary, if it’s taller than 17 inches, find some space in your kitchen cabinet.

Maintenance

Despite the basic rule of thumb that “the more function of the machine, the more difficult to clean it”, you also need to consider some other features. For example: Is the blender dishwasher-friendly?

Power

This feature affects directly to how smooth of the smoothies you make, especially with ice or frozen fruits.

If you prefer really smooth drinks, choose either the high-performance or the personal bullet blenders with 800-watt motor power and up.

However, there are still some other features affecting the smoothness of the drink, like the jar and blade. If you go to those stores specialized in blenders and juicers, chances are that you will hear the sellers only mentioning about the wattage, the power of the machine rather than two others.

Why?

Because comparing wattage is much easier to show up then talking about jar or blade. So, take note this and next time, kindly ask them to give you the blade and jar comparisons between different models.

But for the best result, you should consult other customers’ feedback and ratings as sometimes, numbers are just numbers, they don’t make a count.

Material

I mean the material of the jars. Basically, there are three kinds: stainless steel, plastic and glass.

To get an overview of their strength and weakness, take a look at this table:

Price + Durability + How often you will use the blender

Like the above combo, these three features should be considered together.

If you intend to use the machine usually, and the ingredients are tough, such as ice or hard roots and fruits, you need to consider a super durable blender.

Just imagine that after a year experiencing, will a poor-quality machine survive based on such highly intensive working?

Besides, the higher its durability, usually, the higher its price is. So, consider your budget as well.

However, if your budget is on the table but you still intend to use it rare, I still recommend you to choose the high quality one because it might be a good motivation to boost you try your best to use the machine. And as the result, it’s good for your health. Why not?

Blending controls

The more blending speeds, the more control you will get on this machine. However, don’t go for the way too much. 5 speeds with a pulse button is ideal because this Pulse function will take the role of blending frozen fruits or ice more significantly.

Additional accessories

Actually, there’s nothing much on extra accessories for a blender, except for the tamper which takes the role of moving the ingredients more better. However, in my experience, you can use the Pulse button to take that job. Same effect!

Guarantee

Last up is warranty. No matter which brands you are going to go to, pick the one that offers you a good warranty to cover any faults derived from manufacturing process. Such this insurance policy will save you a bunch of expensive repair cost if your machine is broken down.

If you go for a high-end blender, their warranty should be at least 5 years and more. With the lower range, 1 one warranty is perfect.

Best brands for food blender

Actually, there are some good blender brands but based on my experience, they don’t really good at all types of blender. For example, speaking of the Personal Bullet Blenders, I find the best option is Ninja Blender (in high-end range) and next is Nutribullet (in low-medium range).

At the first glance, their outer performance is quite similar as each other. However, when bringing them into work, you will easily and quickly realize the difference. Even the material of Ninja Blenders is much better and durable and the Nutribullet.

In terms of other large-sized blenders, I vote these 8 brands: Black decker, Kitchenaid, Blendtec, Cuisinart, Vitamix, Oster, Breville and Hamilton Beach.

Amongst them, Cuisinart is a high recommendation for those who are looking for a versatile, multifunctional and powerful machine to help you out all blending and juicing tasks from the easiest to the hardest.

In other words, they are the best workhorse in your kitchen.

FAQs

Which should I buy – a food processor, a blender or a juicer?

To get the best answer, first up, you need to find out your purpose and needs because each kind of machine comes up with different roles, benefits as well as it limitations.

For example, if you need something heavy in dicing, shredding or chopping veggies as well as cake batters and doughs, the best food processor is a great choice.

However, to have smooth smoothies, a full-size blender is perfect to go to (especially the high-performance models). Besides, it also works greatly in purees and beverages than other machines.

Lastly, the best juicer performs perfectly in extracting fruits and veggies’ juice. And each type of juicer will lead to different ability to keep the nutrients in them. Be aware of that you can’t take the pulp.

A blender, though it can make juice as well, the texture won’t be as fine as the juicer. In fact, might it be a little bit chunky while you drink. But in generally, this is a better option if you rarely make a juice rather than smoothie or other recipes.

My small tip if you are going to use a blender for juicing is by a strainer as well to get a finer drink.

How many watts do you need in a blender?

Obviously, you will need a powerful blender. In the previous section, I have already told you to go for an 800-watt blender to have smooth smoothies.

Or at least 700 wattages. If you can afford more, a 100-watt blender is perfect. However, if you intend to blend ice cubes or truly hard ingredients, go for the higher power of motor.

In fact, from the mid-range to higher range, there are many good options to consider, such as speaking of the high end, the Blendtec kicks butt with 1500 watts while the Vitamix utilizes 1380 watts. In terms of mid-range blenders, the Waring Pro MegaMix HPB300 use 745 watts and 700 watts while the Kitchen Aid 5 Speed comes up with the same power.

The best workhorse will belong to the Sunbeam PB9600, it can chew everything through 2000 watts. However, it’s, again, a tradeoff between powerful motor and noise.

How Do I Make My Blender Quieter?

Actually, I have a separate article about this issue, you can consult here.

Now, it’s time for you to choose the perfect blender model. This is an important step but I believe that after considering those features above, especially the type of blender, it’s much easier to choose and pick the best machine.

Actually, I have already finished the leg work and now, your job is to hand-picked the most suitable from your favorite brand. Take a peek here:

• Best hand blenders 2018
• Best mini blender 2018
• Best smoothie blender 2018
• Best baby food blender 2018