The Best Blenders for Every Kitchen Task

The Bottom Line: The Best Blender

Any blender can make smoothies and soups, but there is a vast difference in the smoothness of your food depending on the blender you pick. If you’re looking for a great all-around blender, we love the Breville Fresh and Furious (view at Amazon). Not only does it make fabulous frozen drinks, but it comes at a reasonable price, as well. In the mood for a splurge? The Vitamix 5200 (view at Amazon) was our favorite Vitamix that we tested.

Choosing a Blender

Design

Blenders are designed with tall blender jars to maximize smoothness when pureeing food. That means there are fixed blades at the bottom of the blender that whirl to pulverize your food and a tall blender jar to continuously move the ingredients to the bottom of the jar so you don’t have to constantly stop and scrape down the sides. Blender jars often have openings in the lids, too, so you can add and/or stream ingredients in during the blending process. Ideally, the bases of blenders should be smooth with the fewest amount of crevices to make cleaning easy.

Capacity

Blender jars can range in size from 20 ounces up to 72 ounces, depending on the type of blender. The smaller blender jars are attached to personal-size blenders meant for making one to two portions, while the bigger blender jars can puree larger portions. The ideal size for a blender jar depends on what you’re using it for, though we’ve found that anything 50 ounces or more is best for the majority of our cooking tasks. 

Functions 

Basic blenders have low, medium and high settings, but higher-end models can range from several different presets (such as for smoothies and crushing ice) to a numerical system from 1 to 10 that allows for more precise blending. Others have additional functions, such as pulsing, extra-high speeds and timing presets.

Performance and Durability

The biggest difference between blenders lies in their strength. The more amount of watts of power, the stronger the blender. Basic blenders typically have 500 to 750 watts of power while high-power blenders have over 1000 watts. The difference is noticeable, and if you desire the smoothest results, opt for a blender that is in the 1000-watt or more category.

Also, the higher the power, the more durable the machine needs to be. With the more expensive blenders, we found the bases and blender jars to be made of heavier-duty materials, which extends the durability of the blender. And since a blender often crunches through thick soups, frozen fruit, and ice, the durability of a blender is important.

Ease of Cleaning

Blenders tend to be very easy to clean, often requiring a quick whirl of some soap and warm water. See below: What is the best way to clean a blender? But keep in mind that some blender jars come apart and have several pieces, while others have built-in blades and only have a few parts. (We’re in the “fewer parts are better” camp.)

Value

As with many kitchen products, the phrase “you get what you pay for” rings true with blenders. That said, there are many blenders that work extremely well without requiring you to take out a second mortgage. It really comes down to how often you use the blender. If it’s occasionally, there is no reason to spend a lot. If it’s every day, then opt for a more high-end one that will last a while.

Our Blender Tests

For each of the 23 blenders that we tested, we performed a series of six tests. We made homemade almond milk, blueberry kale smoothies, frozen margaritas, homemade mayonnaise and pureed butternut squash soup in the blenders to see how they handled ingredients of various textures. We also conducted a sound volume test to see how loud each blender is during use. To do this, we filled the blender with 8 ounces of water and 16 ounces of ice, then used a decibel meter to record the sound of the water and ice blending at low, medium and high speeds. We also weighed in on the design, ease of use, ease of cleaning, performance, convenience, value and overall quality of each blender to make the best overall choices at every budget.

We Also Considered

Vitamix 7500 (view at Amazon): While this model didn’t fare quite as well in our testing as the Vitamix 5200, we do like that this Vitamix 7500 is a bit shorter and more capable of being stored on a countertop underneath cabinets. The blender jar is shorter and squatter than the 5200, but it can still hold the same amount (64 oz). 

Vitamix Propel 510 (view at Amazon): The Propel 510 has all the benefits of a Vitamix—power, speed and design—but with a smaller blender jar (48 oz versus the standard 64 oz) and steep price tag, we decided to pass on this one.

NutriBullet Full Size Blender (view at Amazon): The Nutribullet performed very well in the almond milk, smoothie, margarita and soup tests, but it failed when making mayonnaise. With its low price though, this was a top contender for the best budget category and is a great choice for anyone looking for a mid-priced blender.

Ninja BL610 Professional Blender (view at Amazon): While the price is fair, we found this blender to be mediocre at best, especially because it did a poor job with the smoothie and the soup. Additionally, it was the only blender that was difficult to clean—a hard pass for us.

Common Questions

What is the best way to clean a blender? 

While many of the blender jars are dishwasher safe, we found the best and easiest way to clean a blender is to put a little dish soap and water into the blender jar and turn it on. The soap and power from the blender should clean out all the little crevices where anything may be stuck. Some blenders have auto-clean functions and will simply adjust the speed for you. For those that are manual, start on a lower speed and increase to high. Then, simply give it a good rinse. If you prefer to clean the blender jar in the dishwasher, be sure to check the instruction manual to make sure it’s dishwasher-safe. 

Can you sharpen blender blades?

With heavy use, blender blades can dull over time, though we’ve found it takes a while for this to happen. However, you can sharpen the blades either by using a sharpening steel or bringing them to a professional knife sharpener. Or, better yet, you can use eggshells to do the trick—here’s how. 

Can blenders make juice?

The only difference between a juicer and a blender is that a juicer separates the fibrous pulp from the juice while a blender does not. You can simply strain the juice from the pulp after blending it using cheesecloth or a very fine-mesh strainer. Just don’t throw out the pulp, as it contains all the healthy fiber! 

Are blenders and food processors the same thing?

Blenders and food processors are both great for pulverizing food, but they do have subtle differences. First, blenders have fixed blades while food processors have interchangeable blades. This means blenders can only whirl food into something smooth, while food processors can chop, shred, slice and more. Also, blenders tend to have long, tall jars while food processors have wider, squatter bowls. The taller jars allow for the liquid to go up and down and mix more evenly. If you tend to make foods that need to be whirled into something smooth, go for a blender. For chopping, shredding, dicing or slicing, opt for a food processor.  

What are the different types of blenders?

Depending on the type of blending you want to do, there’s a blender that fits your needs. Standard blenders are countertop blenders, i.e. the ones that sit on your countertop and have a large enough capacity to make smoothies for at least two to four people. Personal blenders are designed to blend up a single-serve portion of a smoothie, and the blender jar can often be used as a serving jar as well. Immersion blenders, also known as stick blenders, are meant for blending directly in a pot of soup and are best for doing larger portions that would require batches in your countertop blender. Often, home cooks will have both a countertop blender and an immersion blender—but if you have to pick one all-purpose blender, we recommend you go with the versatile countertop blender. 

Our Trusted Expertise

Breana Lai Killeen, M.P.H, RD, is a Chinese and Jewish chef and dietitian with over 15 years of experience creating editorial and digital content for top food and kitchen brands. For 10 years, Breana was a food editor turned test kitchen and editorial operations manager for EatingWell magazine. Breana has developed and edited over 2500 recipes, including over 100 smoothie and pureed soup recipes, so she’s pretty particular when it comes to her blenders. 

This article was edited by Kayleigh Drake, a former full-time baker and contributor to EatingWell and other publications such as Food & Wine, The Spruce Eats and Simply Recipes. It was reviewed by Brierley Horton, M.S., RD, Senior Commerce Editor, who has 15 years of experience reporting, writing, and editing nutrition and health content. An earlier version of this article was written by Megan Steintrager.