The 5 Best Cheap Blenders - Fall 2021 Reviews

The best cheap personal blender that we've tested is the Magic Bullet Mini. It's small, compact, and won't take up very much room on your kitchen counter or in a cupboard. The 13-ounce main jar comes with a lip ring and to-go lid, so you can drink directly from it or take it with you on the go.

It has a simple, easy-to-use design and makes a good, uniformly-textured smoothie in less than two minutes. While you may need to shake the jar to ensure all the ingredients are incorporated, it does a good job processing fibrous greens like kale. It's easy to clean if you've been working with liquid ingredients since a quick rinse with water takes care of most debris. There's also an eight-ounce additional jar, which is a bit small for smoothies, but it's a good size for whipping up dips and dressings.

Unfortunately, it's not a very versatile blender since it can't hot blend or crush ice. It takes more than 10 minutes to make poor, sticky almond butter, so it's not well-suited for that purpose. That said, if you want something cheap and compact to use for your morning smoothie, it's a solid choice.

The NutriBullet Immersion Blender is the best cheap immersion blender that we've tested. This affordable model has a decent build quality and a variable speed dial that allows you to fine-tune the blending speed. It comes with a whisk attachment that's advertised for making foods like whipped cream.

You can use it to blend hot ingredients like cooked vegetables for soups, sauces, and purees, and it can incorporate raw kale into a good, well-blended smoothie. You can also use it to make passable almond butter and crushed ice with an okay texture. When you're working with liquid ingredients, it's very easy to clean with a quick rinse.

Unfortunately, it's not dishwasher-safe and doesn't come with a jar or beaker you can use for blending. Also, if you use it to crush ice, the ice tends to build up under the blades, especially if you make multiple batches. That said, it's a great choice for making soups and is even one of the best blenders we've tested.

The best blender in the budget category that we've tested is the KitchenAid K150. This full-size blender comes in a few different colors and has a great build quality, with a sturdy feel and metal gears on the motor base. The 48-ounce main jar comes with a two-part lid, which allows you to add ingredients without stopping the machine.

It has a dial with three speed settings and a dedicated pulse/ice crush mode, which you can use to make bar quality ice in about two minutes. You can use it to process hot ingredients for soups or sauces and produces smooth, spreadable almond butter. It's also easy to clean by hand after making something like a smoothie since running the blender with warm water and soap in the jar is enough to get it mostly clean. You can also put the jar, lid, and blade assembly in your dishwasher.

Unfortunately, while it makes okay smoothies, it struggles to fully process raw kale, so they're a bit grainy and foamy. Also, the jar's non-removable, upward-pointing blades can be difficult to clean after making something sticky like almond butter. Otherwise, this simply designed blender is a great choice for multi-purpose use at an affordable price.