The 6 Best Blenders - Fall 2024

The best blender that we've tested is the Vitamix A3500. This full-size blender can do it all, so you can prepare basically any blend in its 64oz jar. It quickly processes fibrous ingredients into an extremely smooth blend. Unlike many full-size blenders, it'll blend a very smooth personal smoothie or a big batch of soup in about a minute without any stirring or stopping. It's also very easy to use for ice-crushing with its 'Frozen Drinks' program. It makes a very smooth blend with thick recipes like nut butter, although you must stop and scrape the jar once. It's very sturdy and offers a wide range of speed settings and blending programs, including 'Hot Soups,' which heats up ingredients as they blend. It's also decently quiet, which helps set it apart from cheaper Vitamix models. It's easy to clean by hand, and its jar and lid are dishwasher-safe.

If you make a lot of nut butter, hummus, and other thicker recipes, you might prefer a blender from Vitamix's new Ascent-X line. The Vitamix Ascent X2 is the entry-level model in the new lineup, but it's only a little cheaper than the A3500. It comes with a 48oz jar, which helps make it very easy to use for thick mixtures. However, it blends fibrous ingredients much more slowly. This model has four onboard blending programs but lacks the A3500's programmable timer. You can also buy an additional 48oz jar for your Vitamix A3500, but of course that represents an additional cost. 

The Vitamix Explorian E310 is a good option if you want something more affordable. It has a much simpler design, with no automatic blending programs or screen. However, its 48oz jar offers some advantages. It's just as good as the Vitamix A3500 for blending small batches of ingredients like single-serve smoothies. It's a little slower at blending big batches but still makes a nearly perfectly smooth puree with fibrous additions like fruit and leafy greens for big batches of soups or smoothies. It makes snow-like crushed ice, and its smaller jar helps it process recipes like nut butter or hummus faster and without any stopping and scraping.

However, it's noticeably louder than the A3500 or Vitamix Ascent X2. Its lack of blending programs and a digital display means you have to monitor it and stop it yourself. That said, it still offers a wide range of speed settings and a fantastic build quality. Its jar and 2-part lid are dishwasher-safe and easy to clean by hand.

The best mid-range blender that we've tested is the Breville the Fresh & Furious. You'll notice some downsides in this price range versus higher-end options. This blender isn't as well-built as the Vitamix Explorian E310, especially the buttons on the motor base, which feel a bit flimsy. It has a 2-part lid for its 50oz jar but no tamper, making stirring ingredients less convenient. However, you don't have to compromise much where it matters most, as it has a fantastic performance for all kinds of recipes.

While it blends fibrous ingredients slowly compared with previous picks, it makes an equally smooth blend with small and big batches of ingredients like kale, broccoli, and fruits. It's very easy to use for recipes like nut butter. It also makes snow-like crushed ice, although it works best if you stick with smaller batches of about six ice cubes. Unfortunately though, it can't hot blend.

If you want a mid-range blender for hot soups, you might prefer the Braun TriForce Power Pro JB9041BK. This very well-built blender can process hot ingredients in its main jar and comes with a personal jar for smoothies. It can crush more ice at once. It makes a less smooth blend with big batches of fibrous ingredients and is very loud, but otherwise, it's a very good alternative.

The best budget blender we've tested is the Calphalon ActiveSense. As you might expect, this cheaper blender isn't as well-built as the previous picks. While its jars feel sturdy, it has some flimsy-feeling components, like wiggly buttons on the motor base. However, it comes with a personal jar in addition to its 64oz main jar, which helps it perform well for recipes like single-serve smoothies, which is an issue for some cheaper blenders that only come with a larger pitcher. There's a resealable lid included for the personal jar, so you can blend a smoothie or protein shake and bring it with you.

It smoothly blends fibrous ingredients in small or big batches, leaving behind just a few more unprocessed bits compared with previous picks. It's fantastic for ice-crushing and does an okay job of processing recipes like nut butter or hummus, although it's a somewhat slow process. It can also process hot ingredients for recipes like soup or sauce.

If you're looking for a budget-friendly blender, our list of the best budget blenders has more recommendations.

The Black+Decker Quiet Blender with Cyclone Glass Jar is worth considering if you want a good blender for well under $100. This inexpensive blender stands out for its 48oz pitcher made of glass, which is more scratch and odor-resistant compared with plastic. There's also a plastic personal jar included that helps with blending smaller volumes of ingredients for single-serve smoothies. This blender delivers a solid overall performance, and it's best for recipes like smoothies or soups since you can use either jar to make a mostly smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like fruit and leafy greens.

However, other aspects of its design and performance leave something to be desired. Aside from the glass jar, it doesn't feel very well-built, with the main jar lid feeling particularly flimsy. If you make something like nut butter or hummus, ingredients tend to get flung to the sides of the jar, forcing you to use a spatula to scrape everything back toward the blades. It can only handle about six ice cubes at once and leaves behind some unprocessed chunks when crushing ice. If you plan to crush a lot of ice or make frozen drinks like slushies, consider the Ninja Professional Blender 1000 instead. It's not as versatile since it doesn't blend fibrous ingredients as smoothly and can't be used for hot blending, but it has no problem crushing a batch of 12 ice cubes into snow-like crushed ice.

No blender is exactly 'quiet,' but the roar of some super loud models makes them much less appealing to use. The Wolf Gourmet Pro-Performance is quieter than the quietest Vitamix blender we've tested (the Vitamix A3500) and offers a comparable performance. It comes with a 64oz main jar, a 2-part lid, and a tamper to help stir your recipes. An 'emulsion cup' also fits into the lid's center opening and helps you gradually add liquid ingredients, like melted butter for hollandaise sauce, which is an unusual feature. It's fantastic at processing fibrous ingredients like kale, broccoli, and fruit for smoothie, soup, and sauce recipes.

However, compared to the Vitamix blender, it makes less uniform crushed ice and less smooth nut butter. It blends fibrous ingredients more slowly. While it's very quiet for a blender, it's not as quiet as the Black+Decker Quiet Blender with Cyclone Glass Jar, so if you're okay with a cheaper, less powerful, and less versatile blender, you might prefer that one. It has a few blending programs but lacks high-end features like a timer or stopwatch. Wolf doesn't currently sell blender accessories besides replacement parts, so you can't buy differently-sized jars, which is disappointing for such a pricey blender.

If you're looking for a quieter blender in a different price range, check out our full list of the best quiet blenders.