The 4 Best Glass Jar Blenders - Spring 2024 Reviews

The best glass jar blender we've tested is the Ninja Foodi Cold & Hot Blender. This model differs from most Ninja blenders for a few reasons: its 56oz main jar is made of glass, but it also has a heating element built into its base. This allows it to heat and cook ingredients as they blend, despite its lower blending speed compared to Vitamix blenders, which heat ingredients with friction from the blades. It's fantastic for processing fibrous ingredients that are common in soups and smoothies, like kale and broccoli. It doesn't take very long to make a very smooth blend with just a few grains left over.

It has no problem powering through ice cubes to make snow-like crushed ice that you can add to cocktails or use for blended drinks like slushies. It can produce fantastic results for thicker mixtures like nut butter but might require you to stop the machine to stir the ingredients and scrape the walls. There are only three manual speed settings, so you can't fine-tune the speed to suit a recipe, but it has several blending programs for different recipes. The blender is more difficult to clean than most full-size blenders since you can't immerse the jar in water because of the heating element. That means you must be careful when cleaning it by hand in the sink, but you can always run the blender with warm water and soap in the jar first to help dislodge sticky ingredients.

The Oster Pro 1200 is the best glass blender we've tested if you're looking for a less expensive option. This model is our best budget blender overall, but since glass blenders tend to be cheaper, its price puts it in the middle of the market for glass blenders. It comes with a 48oz glass jar and a 24oz personal jar, but only the main jar is made of glass. It can't heat ingredients but can blend hot ingredients fresh from the stove or oven for soups and sauces. It makes a smooth blend with fibrous ingredients with almost no grains left over and has a few dedicated blending programs for different recipes, including smoothies.

Like the previous pick, you only have three speed options for manual blending. Using it for thicker recipes like nut butter and hummus requires some hands-on work: you must stop the blender partway through to stir and scrape the ingredients toward the blades. It can only handle about six ice cubes at once, which is half the Ninja's capacity, and tends to leave small unprocessed chunks. It doesn't feel as well-built overall.

The Black+Decker Quiet Blender with Cyclone Glass Jar is a solid option for a budget-friendly price. This blender is similar to the Oster Pro 1200 in many ways. It comes with a 48oz glass main jar and a plastic personal jar. It doesn't blend fibrous ingredients quite as smoothly as the Oster, so you'll notice a few more grains left over in smoothies and soups, but it can still make very well-blended purees with fruits and leafy greens. It can also make very smooth, spreadable nut butter, although, like the Oster, it takes a few minutes, and you have to stop the blender to stir partway through.

However, it's not as good at crushing ice. It has a lower motor power than the Oster, and even if you only use six ice cubes at once, ice tends to build up under the blades, and it doesn't fully crush all the ice cubes. However, adding liquid to the jar makes ice easier to process. Plus, true to its name, this blender is quieter than the previous picks on the list. Its removable blades make it very easy to clean by hand.

The Hamilton Beach Wave Crusher Multi-Function is one of the cheapest full-size blenders we've tested. As you might expect from a blender that costs less than $50, the lower price tag comes with some compromises in terms of performance. The glass jar feels thick and sturdy, but the rest of the blender is made of flimsy plastic. Its motor isn't very powerful, and this model isn't good for tougher blending tasks like ice crushing or nut butter.

That said, if you just want a blender for smoothies and other liquid recipes like soups, it's good at blending fibrous ingredients. It makes a less smooth blend than the previous picks, so you'll notice more grains left over in recipes like kale smoothies and broccoli soup, but the unprocessed pieces are small and uniform. You can also use it to hot blend, although the manufacturer says not to add more than 25oz of hot food to the 40oz jar. Unfortunately, it has no automatic blending programs, so you'll have to stop it manually.