We Tested 10 Top-Rated Blenders at Every Price. Here's What We Found

Whether you’re making breakfast smoothies or weeknight soups, a reliable blender can go a long way toward making healthy eating easier. But with a plethora of models on the market, it’s hard to know exactly which one you should buy. To help you choose the best blender for your kitchen, we called on Cooking Light test kitchen professional (and resident blender expert) Adam Hickman.

First, we sourced top-rated blenders from Vitamix, Breville, Cuisinart, KitchenAid, Oster, Calphalon, and Instant Pot (yes, there is an Instant Pot blender). We covered a variety of price points, from high-end ($300 or more) to budget-friendly ($100 and under).

Being a highly-touted blender is one thing, but we wanted to know how well these blenders would hold up to real use. So Adam put each blender through a rigorous testing process that included grinding nut butters and blending soups and smoothies. While doing so, he considered the following metrics:

• Power (How efficiently does the blender grind nuts into nut butter, blend frozen fruit etc.?
• Functionality (If the blender has a variety of different settings, do they actually work? Are there more settings than actually needed?)
• Noise level (Are you going to need hearing protection while using it?)
• Clean up (Are there a lot of tiny parts, or hard-to-get-at areas?
• Overall value (Is the price point of the blender worth the investment?)

After all was said and done, we had more nut butter and soup than we knew what to do with, and a solid idea of which blenders are worth your hard-earned bucks—and which you can safely skip. When it comes to buying a blender, consider the features that are most important to you. Does having various presets, like a soup or smoothie cycle, matter to you? Or, do you just want to turn the damn thing on and liquify whatever's in the bowl? Use our guide to 2019’s best blenders to decide which one is right for you.

The Breville Super Q is our top choice for serious cooks looking to add a commercial-grade blender to their arsenal. This blender truly has it all: an adjustable dial featuring 12 speed settings, a variety of useful presets (fruit smoothies, green smoothies, soups, ice crush, and frozen desserts), and a slick design. The large, tapered blender bowl makes for easy pouring and filling. You also get a 24-ounce cup that’s great for blending single-serve smoothies.

During testing, Adam found the Breville much easier to use than the Vitamix blender, which he critiqued for its tough-to-decipher presets. Another bonus: the motor is pleasantly quiet—in fact, it was the softest out of any blender Adam tested.

KitchenAid’s High Performance Series Blender does everything a blender needs to do, plus you don’t need an instruction manual to figure it out. The buttons and switches are straightforward, and it only took Adam a few minutes to figure out how to use them. It doesn’t offer preset functions like other blenders do, but the speed dial gives you full control of your food with a quick and easy startup. The bowl and blade are one piece, making for easy cleaning.

One concern Adam had with this blender was its “monster” size, specifically the heavy and bulky base. However, if you have the kitchen space and are looking for a simple interface, powerful motor, and overall great value for the price point, this is the blender for you.

Take it from Adam himself: KitchenAid Classics have been the go-to blenders of the Cooking Light test kitchen for years, and they never die on us. Our test kitchens are seriously hard on equipment, with professionals making dozens of recipes every day for brands all across our parent company, so that's saying something. With five different speed settings, an ice and a pulse option, this blender is basic—but it’s affordable and effortless to operate. You won’t get enough power from the motor to grind nuts, but you will get well-blended smoothies and silky pureed soups.

The Oster Pro 1200 Plus is easy to operate, it blends soups evenly, and it features a blade that spins in two different directions while making smoothies (which is admittedly pretty cool). Adam especially liked the glass bowl—a nice throwback to older blenders—that doesn’t stain or hold flavors the way plastic can. You also get a separate single-serve bowl, a nice feature for a budget blender. Cleaning is the one downside for this blender, as it has numerous parts and a gasket that can be lost easily.

In fact, Adam much preferred this blender over the Oster Versa, the company’s higher-end product. He questioned the overall longevity and quality of the Versa, and he found the Pro to be much better value for its price point.

While it lacks some basic features, the Instant Pot Ace more than makes up for that with extra options that no other blender can offer. Mainly, its ability to actually cook the food with a heating element—it can heat liquid to boiling and the glass bowl makes that process super safe. The digital interface is nice, but just like the regular Instant Pot, it takes some practice to figure out whether it’s actually operating correctly.

The motor is powerful and works quite well for smoothies, but it’s not strong enough to grind nuts. The unique cooking element is pretty impressive—Adam was able to successfully boil and puree cubed butternut squash into a smooth soup. He did note that the bowl tends the shake and wiggle a bit during blending, however.