Blenders Reviews

The true measure of a blender is its performance over time. After reading more than a dozen professional blender reviews and hundreds of owner-written blender reviews at Amazon.com, Epinions and Cooking.com, we learned that some otherwise highly rated blenders broke down after months of use. (Note that this report covers full-size blenders. For handheld blenders --also called immersion blenders or stick blenders --see our separate hand blenders report.)

For its most recent test of blenders, Consumer Reports tried to simulate heavy blender use by repeatedly crushing ice cubes without water at high speed. Most of the 31 blenders survived, but several failed. In addition to the punishing ice-crushing test, editors whipped up icy drinks and smoothies, pureed vegetables and grated cheese. Cook's Illustrated has tested both inexpensive (under $50) and pricier (over $100) blenders. Editors put both sets of blenders through rigorous tests, including a 45-second peanut butter challenge and a race to crush 15 ice cubes in five one-second pulses. We also read blender reviews in The Wall Street Journal and Good Housekeeping, which were helpful but not as thorough or comprehensive.

We found disparate reviews for many blenders. Often, a blender will perform well in professional testing, but user ratings can dampen enthusiasm. Despite high ratings in three recent professional reviews, reliability has often been a problem for the Braun PowerMax MX2050 (*est. $50). The PowerMax failed Consumer Reports' March 2004 tests due to problems with its gear-teeth assembly, but by July 2005, the magazine was reporting that the problem had been corrected. Owner-written reviews, however, still sometimes cite durability trouble. To be fair, we read similar mixed ratings for several blenders, many of which cost a lot more than the $50 Braun PowerMax.

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

The low-priced Braun PowerMax MX2050 receives a lot of attention in professional reviews, but it gets some mixed ratings from owners posting to Amazon.com and Epinions. The Cuisinart SmartPower also gets mixed reviews, with owners posting to Epinions indicating that the blade can break. In general, we found mixed reviews for most blenders in the $40 to $100 price range. We found the most consistent reviews for the Oster Classic Beehive blender and Vita-Mix 5000. The KitchenAid KSB5 also gets good reviews all around, although it’s nobody’s favorite; at Amazon.com owners say it's an average performer overall, but they praise its heavy weight and designer colors. The Cuisinart CBT-100 gets one great review and one tepid review.