How we test blenders

Every year, we put a wide range of blenders to the test, using popular and tricky-to-blend foods. From making great soups and smoothies to tackling tough tasks such as making pesto and crushing ice, our tests help Which? members spend their money wisely.

Unlike free-to-access websites that tend to get the appliances they review free of charge from manufacturers or their PR representatives, we buy all the appliances we test ourselves, so you can have complete trust in our verdict. 

Our Which? score is calculated purely on the measurements and ratings we generate in our lab, meaning there's no room for bias when giving an overall rating.

See our round-up of the best blenders to help you choose a model to suit you.

Video: what makes a Best Buy jug blender?

Watch this video to discover more about our methodical testing and why our blender tests are different.

What are Which? Best Buy, Don't Buy and Great Value blenders?

A quick guide to the recommendations you'll see on our blender reviews.

Best Buy blenders

Best Buys are given to blenders that impress the most in our tests. Blenders that score 83% or more are Best Buys and come with a firm overall recommendation, although you should still read our reviews to check for any weaknesses that might impact your buying decision.

Best Buy blenders typically excel where it really matters. They effortlessly blend soft and tough ingredients, they’re easy to use, quick and not too noisy.

Don't Buy blenders

Blenders that score 45% or below are Don’t Buys to avoid.

Don't Buy blenders disappoint in crucial areas. They might struggle with tough ingredients, aren’t easy to use or clean or are louder than most.

Great Value blenders

How much buyers are willing to spend on a blender varies and that’s where our Great Value recommendation comes in. These models do pretty well in our tests – scoring 60% or more  – while also being at least 20% cheaper than the average price of the blenders we’ve tested.

Great Value models are the ones to go for if you’re looking for a bargain. Some Great Value blenders also score well enough to be Best Buys.

Our testing criteria

Below are the key blender testing categories and how we evaluate each one.

Performance

Key question: Can the blender make decent soup and smoothies?

You'd hope that every blender can do what it says and blend food. But that's not always the case, so our unique blending tests check to make sure there are no lingering lumps. We make three types of smoothie with each blender, and our smoothie recipes include ingredients such as frozen and fresh fruit, ginger, leafy greens, nuts, dairy and ice.

For soup, we cook up a classic vegetable soup of carrot and coriander, but with some added celery to make it a little more difficult. We then wait for the cooked mixture to cool before blending it, as most blenders warn against blending hot food in them. After blending the cooled soup, we strain it through a fine mesh sieve and inspect to see what's escaped unblended, so that you don't end up with, for example, stringy celery in your soup. A Best Buy blender will whizz everything to a smooth, even consistency.

Key question: What's it like with tougher ingredients, such as veg and nuts? 

Not all blenders do a good job of blending tough, dry or fibrous ingredients such as herbs, nuts, seeds and raw veg. Our fruit and veg smoothie challenges blenders with frozen berries, whole almonds, leafy spinach and fibrous ginger to see if they can blitz complex mixes into tasty drinks.

To really sort the versatile blenders from the one-trick ponies, we challenge each blender to make pesto: combining garlic, basil, pine nuts, cheese and olive oil to make a smooth paste. We see significant differences between blenders in this test - some manage fine with more liquid smoothie mixtures, but struggle to blend drier ingredients.

Key question: Can it crush ice?

Crushing ice in a consistent way is a task many blenders struggle with, and we got really good results from only a handful of blenders. A good blender, whether a jug blender or mini blender, will transform the cubes into even, fine crystals while poor blenders may leave you with large, uneven chunks or an over-processed mush.

Blenders are generally better at processing ice as part of a liquid mix - such as a smoothie - rather than on its own. If you're keen on making crushed ice, make sure you check our blender reviews to find the best ice-crushing blenders.