Which Blenders?
Discover which Blenders are best and which Blenders are right for you.
What Blenders
Learn about what Blenders can do, the key features of Blenders and what to look for when buying Blenders.
Best Blenders
Find the best Blenders by popularity, price and functionality -- browse by the most popular brands and featured stores for Blenders.
Also known as a liquidizer, the kitchen blender has become one of the most important and useful appliances in the kitchen. Blenders are primarily used to mix certain ingredients to be used in cooking, or they can be used to puree certain types of food. They can also be used to liquidize fruits and vegetables in order to make some delicious fruit juice drinks.
Blenders are made from various different materials including glass, stainless steel, plastic and porcelain, with the glass ones being most common.
Jug Blenders and Smoothie Makers
Versatile and very easy to use, smoothie makers and jug-shaped food blenders (commonly known as just ‘blenders’) are useful for many jobs in the kitchen, including tasks such as blending soups and sauces, shakes and smoothie drinks, as well as pureeing things like baby food.
Blenders and smoothie makers come with a small motor unit and a jug with a lid, featuring a small blade at the bottom that spins and ‘blends’ the ingredients placed within. Some models can be programmed for specific blending tasks, such as chopping herbs or nuts and grinding coffee. Depending on the model, blenders can also perform other tasks such as filtering fruit to make smoother sauces for cooking. The price of a blender can vary considerably, depending on its speed and power, its capacity and the material it is made from.
Electric Hand Blenders
Much smaller than a regular kitchen blender, an electric hand blender is nonetheless a very useful tool to have around the kitchen. Hand blenders are designed to be easy to use, clean and store. They are ideal for quick and simple tasks such as pureeing and blending small amounts of food. An example of this convenience is that, rather than taking soup out of your hot saucepan to blend it, this job can be done while the soup remains where it is without having to transfer it to a jug based blender.
Food Mixers and Stand Mixers
Useful for a variety of difficult tasks involved in food preparation, a food mixer or stand mixer makes it easy for anyone to prepare and cook some delicious home-made meals. Most food mixer models come with a dough hook and beater, as well as a whisk, so that you can make bread and cakes with them.
Food mixers are very handy as they remove all the stress and hard work involved in mixing dough. Not only do they make your life easier, they can also improve your cooking, due to the variable speed settings that allow for complete control of the kneading process.
Hand Mixers
Hand mixers are compact appliances that can be used for whisking and mixing food. Almost all hand mixers come with twin beaters as standard, enabling lots of air to be folded into your cake mix, producing an ideal light and fluffy textured mix that is just perfect for cakes, mousses and other kinds of dessert. Some models will also include kneading tools, so that you can make dough effortlessly.
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There are dozens of types of blenders available, with many of them being designed for specific purposes such as making fruit shakes, while others are designed more with versatility of use in mind. No matter what the blender is intended for, many of them come with a range of features, the most important of which are outlined here.
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Controls |
Number of Speeds |
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There are a range of control options available when it comes to choosing a blender. Some models feature touchpad controls, while others have push buttons as standard. Touchpad controls allow for much easier cleaning, but they can be more difficult to use, with some brands requiring the button to be pressed twice for certain functions. Another kind of control is the dial setting, which is again very easy to clean, if not slightly cumbersome to use since it requires that you dial through each setting until you find your desired choice.
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Most blenders vary in the number of speed settings they offer. Smaller, basic models usually come with standard three speed settings, this being the minimum, while more advanced models can have up to 16 different speeds for a variety of different, specialized tasks.
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Pulse Setting |
Attached Blade |
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This feature is designed to assist you in fine-tuning the exact blending time that is required. With a pulse setting, there is no lagging time from when you press the button to when the machine stops or starts spinning. Instead, the action is instantaneous.
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While attached (non-removable) blades are stronger and offer more durability and a longer life, the downside is that they make the blender a lot more difficult to clean.
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Wide Mouth Jug
A wide mouth container or jug is ideal as it makes loading the blender much more convenient and faster.
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The most important thing that you need to consider when it comes to buying a kitchen blender is the tasks that you are buying it for.
From the huge variety of blenders out there, you need to decide which functions you cannot do without. Do you need your blender to process tough foods or is it simply for blending soup? If it’s just for soup, then a low-powered model should be fine. If however, you are looking for a blender with which you can make ice cold fruit smoothies, you will need to find a model that can crush ice effectively.
One of the key indicators of how well a blender will perform can be seen from its wattage. Most blenders range from around 300 to 550 watts. A higher-powered blender can make ice drinks into smoothies a lot faster than lower-powered models and produces a much smoother drink. High power models are also much better at blending tough vegetables such as onions.
If you are going to be doing anything more than blending soup you’ll need something slightly bigger than a hand blender. Jar blenders are easily the most popular kind of blender sold today, and they come in a range of different sizes and capacities. If you want to be making drinks for more than one person at a time, you will need a blender that has at least a one litre capacity.
Because the jar capacity will vary according to model, choose one that suits your needs best of all. Blender jars can come in a variety of materials, though most of them are plastic or glass. More expensive brands usually employ glass jars for their models. For ease of pouring, especially if you are using your blender for drinks, choose a model that has a nicely curved spout, as this will make your job much easier and less messy. Some kinds of blenders, usually food blenders, have no spout at all (they are designed for food) and so you will be required to pour from the corner of the jar.
- Before you rush out and buy a blender, consider what you need it for. If your primary reason is to make drinks, then a jug blender is probably going to suit your needs best. If on the other hand, you want a blender for pureeing foods such as baby food, a hand blender is best. For tougher jobs like mixing dough, a food mixer is the only choice.
- For making ice cold drinks, you need to get a blender with a good, ice-crushing blade. Cheaper models that are not designed for this purpose will not be able to cope with the task and risks breaking down.
- Power rating is an important factor. If you intend to blend tough vegetables such as carrots and onions, you will need a blender with at least 300-400 watts power.
Popular Blender Brands
| Kenwood Blender Kenwood - A major brand that make a wide range of mid-cost models. Most of their products are push button or dial operated. |
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| Breville Blender Breville - Breville produce a range of both hand held mixers and blenders, as well as regular jug blenders. Most of their models are at the medium range price scale. |
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| Dualit Blender Dualit - They offer multi-function machines that can either blend or mix dough, soups and ice creams effectively. Dualit models are generally offered at mid-to-high end prices. |
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| KitchenAid Blender KitchenAid - KitchenAid are one of the best brands on the market, with products that are made from die-cast metal. They offer a wide range of sturdy, multi-function blenders and mixers. One of the more expensive brands available, but they come with a very reliable reputation. |
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| Meyer Blender Meyer - At the low price range, Meyer are a good choice for affordable, fruit juice blenders. However, many Meyer models may be unsuitable for mixing heavier foods. |
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| Morphy Richards Blender Morphy Richards - Another dependable low cost brand, Morphy Richards produce a variety of hand blenders, juice blenders and food mixers. |
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| Philips Blender Philips - Good quality mixers are available from this reliable brand at a very affordable cost. Philips offer a huge variety of models for different applications, including hand mixers and jug blenders. |
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| Russell Hobbs Blender Russell Hobbs - This medium to low price range brand offer a range of mixers suitable for mixing juice drinks and soups, as well as softer foods. |
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| Salton Europe Blender Salton Europe - This low cost brand offers some decent basic hand blenders and jug blenders that are very dependable for simple tasks. |
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Blending - The process of slicing and mixing ingredients into a smooth, running liquid form.
Emulsifying - The process of mixing two or more liquids that normally will not mix easily.
Wattage - A measure of the power rating of a food blender. Generally, the highest powered models are approximately up to 1000 watts, while the lowest powered models, suitable only for blending soft fruits, which usualy start at 100-200 watts.
Whisk - A small attachment, usually a twin wire or metal loop form, which is used for ‘whipping’ foods, i.e. mixing air into them.