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See why.The Best Midpriced Blenders
From burnt-out motors to cracked pitchers and smoothies that aren’t smooth, most midpriced blenders are a bust. Luckily, we found one you can count on.
By Published July 1, 2017
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See Everything We Tested
What You Need To Know
Five years ago we set out to find a reasonably priced blender that could stand up to the constant, heavy-duty use that many of us demand of this appliance. Of course we wanted it to be able to carry out routine tasks such as pureeing soups and sauces to a smooth consistency, but we also wanted it to reliably handle jobs such as blitzing ice into snow for frozen cocktails or pulverizing fibrous ingredients into smoothies—not just occasionally but daily. We’ve seen such regular, strenuous use cause many blender malfunctions over the years, from cracked jars to burnt-out motors, so once we found a midpriced winner, we didn’t stop there. We subjected it to a long-term durability test, making more than 400 smoothies in a single copy of our favorite, The Hemisphere Control from Breville, using a challenging combo of raw kale and frozen fruit. The Breville passed this test with flying colors. Furthermore, the six copies we purchased to use in the test kitchen have held up well over the years.
As satisfied as we are with this machine, it’s our job to periodically scour the marketplace to make sure nothing new has come along that might topple the current champ. With that in mind, we went shopping for midpriced blenders, capping the price at about $300.00. We passed over models costing less than $100.00, since we’ve learned that these don’t blend as well or last as long with regular use, so you actually end up spending more money over time on replacements. We found six contenders to pit against the Breville and put them through a range of tests: pureeing kale, orange juice, and frozen pineapple into smoothies; crushing ice; emulsifying eggs and oil into mayonnaise; and grinding almonds into almond butter. Though we normally reserve this last task for a food processor, the almond butter test would highlight a machine’s ability to take on thick, viscous mixtures. We also evaluated each blender on how easy it was to operate, fill, pour from, and clean. In addition, we assessed how noisy these appliances were and examined each for wear and tear.
Blade Business
Given that in our last testing five out of 10 models performed so miserably that we couldn’t recommend them at all, we weren’t surprised to find stark differences among the models in the new lineup. Four utterly failed at emulsifying the mayonnaise, and only one was successful in turning almonds into a completely smooth butter. Others managed to make a passably smooth almond butter, but most also required us to repeatedly stop and start the machine for scrape-downs (the best required only three scrape-downs).
Our smoothie evaluation was particularly telling. For this test, we first ...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Noise: 3 stars out of 3.
- Smoothie: 3 stars out of 3.
- Mayonnaise: 3 stars out of 3.
- Crushed Ice: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Almond Butter: 3 stars out of 3.
This new blender from Breville improves upon its predecessor in a few key ways. It’s more powerful, so it can get smoothies and almond butter even smoother, and it has a dedicated “green smoothie” button that completely blends fibrous ingredients into a silky smooth drink. It’s reasonably quiet and reasonably compact, and combined its ingredients efficiently with minimal pauses to scrape down the sides. Like the previous model, it still automatically stops every 60 seconds, which can be a little annoying during longer blends, but this wasn’t that big of an issue. Its timer makes tracking recipe stages very easy.
Recommended
- Noise: 3 stars out of 3.
- Smoothie: 2 stars out of 3.
- Mayonnaise: 3 stars out of 3.
- Crushed Ice: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Almond Butter: 2.5 stars out of 3.
The least-expensive model in our lineup, this blender had a narrow jar that combined food well, but it was relatively low-powered, so its smoothies had large flecks of kale scattered throughout. While this blender had a smaller footprint and was easy to move and store, its jar was sometimes hard to twist off, and its partially downturned blade was hard to clean.
Recommended with reservations
- Noise: 3 stars out of 3.
- Smoothie: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Mayonnaise: 0 stars out of 3.
- Crushed Ice: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Almond Butter: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This blender made smoothies that were slightly aerated but impressively fine-textured, and we liked its intuitive controls. The downside: It had a wide jar and a very fast low speed, so it produced a lot of splatter, couldn’t make mayonnaise, and required many midblend scrape-downs.
- Noise: 3 stars out of 3.
- Smoothie: 2 stars out of 3.
- Mayonnaise: 1 stars out of 3.
- Crushed Ice: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Almond Butter: 2 stars out of 3.
This smaller, low-powered blender made reasonably fine smoothies, but it couldn’t dependably make mayonnaise. Its buttons were slightly hard to press, and its heavy, 4-pound glass jar was taxing to pour from. The blade can be detached from the jar for cleaning, but we found this more frustrating than helpful since food got stuck in the seam where the blade attached.
Not Recommended
- Noise: 3 stars out of 3.
- Smoothie: 2 stars out of 3.
- Mayonnaise: 0 stars out of 3.
- Crushed Ice: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Almond Butter: 3 stars out of 3.
This blender created a raucous vortex, so its smoothies were extremely aerated albeit smooth. Its lid opens via a spout on the side, so when we drizzled in oil while it was running to make mayonnaise, the oil ran down the side of the jar. This required some scraping down and, even then, resulted in a mayo that didn’t emulsify. Its lid and jar had lots of chambers that collected water and food particles. Its six-pronged removable blade felt dangerous. Suction cups on its base made it a bear to move.
- Noise: 1 stars out of 3.
- Smoothie: 2 stars out of 3.
- Mayonnaise: 0 stars out of 3.
- Crushed Ice: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Almond Butter: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This blender made coarser almond butter and, despite its large motor, didn’t get smoothies as smooth as other blenders did. Its vortex was too chaotic to properly emulsify mayonnaise, and it required an excessive amount of scraping down—we had to stop it 15 times while making almond butter. It was also extremely loud.
- Noise: 1 stars out of 3.
- Smoothie: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Mayonnaise: 0 stars out of 3.
- Crushed Ice: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Almond Butter: 2 stars out of 3.
This blender has only two speeds: low and high. At 14,190 rpm, its low speed was more than seven times faster than some of the other blenders’ lowest speeds, and food moved chaotically inside its jar, so it required lots of scrape-downs. It couldn’t make mayonnaise, and it was quite loud. Its smoothies were smooth but overly aerated.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Hannah Crowley
Hannah is an executive editor for ATK Reviews and cohost of Gear Heads on YouTube.
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