Blenders

For this report, Consumer Reports' team of testers spent hours crushing ice, preparing frozen drinks, blending smoothies and pureeing vegetables in 31 blenders. Editors conclude that more money doesn't… necessarily buy you a better blender. In addition to blender ratings, there's a sidebar article here on multifunction and stick blenders. While blender reviews at Cook's Illustrated are more in-depth and detailed, no other reviewer tests as many models as Consumer Reports.

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Amazon.com is an excellent source for owner-written ratings of blenders. Since many blenders get hundreds of reviews, Amazon.com can even be a better, more updated source than Consumer Reports in some… cases. This is where we've catalogued the most ongoing problems with the Braun PowerMax MX2050 blender, whose plastic teeth frequently break, according to reports. Owners appreciate the Oster 2-Speed Beehive Chrome Blender's ice-crushing ability and retro styling, though several report that the motor is loud.

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Good Housekeeping's editors test 16 blenders and provide brief reviews of the four top performers. However, they don't detail their testing procedures or reveal which blenders did not make the cut. The… Braun Power Max MX2050 is a no-frills blender, but it performed the best in testing, is relatively quiet and has the largest capacity of the top four. The Cuisinart Smart Power 7-Speed Electronic Blender, The Oster 10-Speed blender and the Hamilton Beach Wave Station Plus are the other picks. We'd rate this review more highly if editors revealed how they tested, as well as which blenders didn't make the cut (and why).

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Editors of the U.K.-based Which? magazine test 19 blenders for quality and durability. They prepare mayonnaise, purees, shakes and smoothies in each blender. Most of the blenders here are not available in… the United States, but the KitchenAid Ultra Power 5-Speed blender is rated a best buy. Editors say the KitchenAid's soft-start and pulse features make a "curious combination, as you have to select the function you want to pulse on," but they also say that the Ultra Power is easy to use and does an excellent job at all liquefying tasks.

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There are blender reviews scattered across at least three areas on the About.com website, but the two reviews here are the only write-ups in which it appears the blenders were actually tested. Colleen… Graham tests the Waring Pro Bar Blender in the context of making drinks. For that purpose, she says it's a champ, but with only two speed options, it isn't really appropriate for general use. The TailGator blender, which runs on a gas engine, is also a lot of fun. (Note that About.com and ConsumerSearch are owned by the same parent company, but are not editorially affiliated.)

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This short blog post talks about the Blendtec blender, which is the editors' choice for use in their test kitchen, after having gone through a dozen Hamilton Beach blenders due to the rigors of testing… recipes. Parisi notes that their goal in the test kitchen is to use "residential" equipment, not industrial, with the exception of the Blendtec. She also notes that Blendtec now has a line of residential blenders.

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Similar to other consumer-review sites, Buzzillions allows owners to submit reviews of products they own. A nice feature is the ability to filter the reviews by top-rated, pros, price, best uses, etc. For… blenders, there are only a handful of reviews for several models, and immersion blenders and specialty machines like "margarita makers" are mixed in with full-sized blenders. As of this writing, the Breville ikon, Waring Professional and KitchenAid 5-Speed blenders were among the top-rated choices by users.

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