The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender is a battery-powered immersion blender with a charging stand, a 24-ounce beaker, and a whisk attachment. The blending arm is detachable for easier cleaning, and it's dishwasher-safe. The motor body is grooved to make it easier to hold when you're blending.
Our Verdict
The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender isn't intended for multi-purpose use. Since it's an immersion blender, it's mainly intended for blending hot ingredients directly in a pot or pan for recipes like soups and sauces. However, it doesn't make a very smooth blend with stubborn ingredients like kale or broccoli. Like most immersion blenders, it's not good for more difficult blends like nut butter or crushed ice. However, it comes with a 24-ounce beaker, so you can easily make a small batch of dip or sauce, as well as a whisk attachment for emulsions like hollandaise sauce.
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Whisk included.
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Dishwasher-safe and easy to clean by hand.
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Hot blends.
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Doesn't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients.
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Can't crush ice.
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Not well-suited for tough blends like nut butter.
The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender is disappointing for single-serve smoothies. Since it's an immersion blender, you need to hold onto the blender while it's running, so personal and full-size blenders are usually more convenient for smoothies. It also struggles to fully blend fibrous elements in blueberry skins or kale, which results in a grainy drink. The beaker is a good size for a personal smoothie, and the blender is easy to clean when you're done with it.
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Comes with a 24-ounce beaker.
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Dishwasher-safe and easy to clean by hand.
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Doesn't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients.
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Can't crush ice.
The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender isn't good for multiple servings of smoothies. You can blend in any container because it's an immersion blender, meaning it can process big batches, but it doesn't fully blend common smoothie ingredients like leafy greens and fruits, which results in grainy smoothies. The included beaker has a 24-ounce capacity, so you need a bigger container of your own if you want to make multiple servings. It fails to crush ice cubes, so it can't process ice cubes or big chunks of frozen fruit in the recipe.
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Dishwasher-safe and easy to clean by hand.
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Doesn't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients.
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Can't crush ice.
Like many immersion blenders we've tested, the Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender's blades can't get a grip on ice cubes and cannot make crushed ice.
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Dishwasher-safe and easy to clean by hand.
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Can't crush ice.
The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender is excellent for soups. The blending arm is meant for blending in a pot or pan, so it's easy to use to puree a soup or sauce once the ingredients are cooked. It's very easy to clean the blending arm by hand, and it's dishwasher-safe. However, it struggles with fibrous elements, so recipes with kale or broccoli won't be completely smooth. Softer, cooked ingredients are easier to blend, however.
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Dishwasher-safe and easy to clean by hand.
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Hot blends.
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Doesn't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients.
The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender is alright for professional use. The motor body has grooves that make it quite comfortable to hold, even if you're blending for a few minutes. It's also cordless, which is nice if outlets are in short supply near your stove. However, it doesn't smoothly blend tough ingredients like kale or broccoli. Like most immersion blenders, it's not very versatile, and unfortunately, its accessories, like the whisk and charging stand, feel more cheaply made than the blender itself. Since it's battery-powered, it's easy to move around the kitchen with it, but your blending time is limited by the battery life.
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Dishwasher-safe and easy to clean by hand.
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Hot blends.
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Doesn't smoothly blend fibrous ingredients.
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Can't crush ice.
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Not well-suited for tough blends like nut butter.
- 5.6 Multi-Purpose
- 5.1 Smoothies (Single Serving)
- 5.9 Smoothies (Multiple Servings)
- 4.9 Ice Crushing
- 8.6 Soups
- 6.6 Professional Use
- Updated Feb 23, 2023: Review published.
- Updated Feb 21, 2023: Early access published.
- Updated Feb 17, 2023: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Feb 06, 2023: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Jan 16, 2023: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
- Updated Jan 06, 2023: The product has won our suggestion poll, so we'll buy and test it soon.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Blender comes in one variant currently only available at Bed Bath & Beyond. You can see the label for the unit we tested here. If you come across another variant or yours is different, please let us know in the discussions, and we'll update the review.
Compared To Other Blenders
The Cruz Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender is battery-powered, like the Cuisinart EvolutionX RHB-100 and the Cuisinart Smart Stick Cordless Hand Blender. Its design is a bit different since it comes with a charging stand instead of a cable that plugs into the motor body directly. It makes the unit less compact when it's charging, but it holds the blender upright on your counter. This model doesn't make the smoothest blend with fibrous ingredients, so it's not ideal if you want the smoothest broccoli or kale soups. However, its motor body design is comfortable to hold onto, and it comes with a beaker for blending and a whisk attachment for whipping cream or making salad dressing.
If you're looking for other blenders, try our recommendations for the best immersion blenders, the best blenders, and the best budget and cheap blenders.
The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender is better than the Cuisinart Smart Stick Cordless Hand Blender. It makes a smoother blend with bigger batches of fibrous ingredients, which is helpful when you're blending in a deep pot, and the blender is a little lighter. The motor body's design makes it easier to hold onto. It's also a bit more able to handle thick mixes like nut butter, although neither blender is ideal for that. On the other hand, the Cuisinart has five speed settings instead of just one, which is nice if you want to start at a low speed to reduce splatter.
The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender is battery-powered, and the Braun MultiQuick 5 is a conventional plug-in immersion blender. The Braun is better for most uses since it makes a smoother puree with fibrous fruits and vegetables. It's also quieter and sturdier. However, you might like the Crux if you want to be able to easily move around your kitchen, since it's cordless, and it also has a smaller motor body that can be more comfortable to hold.
The KitchenAid KHBBV53 and the Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender have different strengths. Both are battery-powered, but the KitchenAid can produce a smoother puree with fibrous ingredients like broccoli or kale. It's quieter, easier to clean, and does a passable job with thicker recipes like nut butter. However, it's not very well-built and the Crux feels much sturdier. The Crux also comes with a whisk attachment for making things like salad dressing or hollandaise sauce.
The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender is a better battery-powered immersion blender than the Cuisinart EvolutionX RHB-100 for most purposes. The Crux has a much better build quality, it's quieter, and its blending arm is dishwasher-safe. It's more comfortable to use since the Cuisinart's power button makes it awkward to hold. However, the Cuisinart makes a much smoother blend with stubborn ingredients like leafy greens, so you may still prefer it if you want to make smoother soups and smoothies.
Test Results
The Crux Artisan Series Immersion Blender has a charging stand that holds the blender up so you can store it on your counter. If you want to store it in a drawer without the stand, it has similar dimensions to other immersion blenders. The blender itself is also quite a bit lighter than some other battery-powered models we've tested, including the KitchenAid KHBBV53 and the Cuisinart Smart Stick Cordless Hand Blender, which is nice since you need to hold it constantly while you're blending.
Here are the blender dimensions without the charging stand:
- Height: 15.8" (40.2 cm)
- Width: 2.8" (7 cm)
- Weight: 1.5 lbs (0.7 kg)
The motor body handle is grooved to make it more comfortable to hold. The power and unlock buttons are near each other, so it's not hard for people with smaller hands to start the blender. The mechanism that connects the motor body with the blending arm is made of plastic, but it's easy to attach and detach the arm, and overall the blender itself feels well-built. However, the charging base, whisk, and jar are made of generic plastic that doesn't feel as sturdy as the blender itself, which brings down its overall build quality.
The beaker has a 24-ounce capacity, but you can also use the blend directly in a pot, pan, or another container, so you're not limited by the size.
The jar is made of plastic and is dishwasher-safe along with the storage lid. This information isn't in the manual, but you can find it on the manufacturer's website. You can see a screenshot of the details here.
The blade assembly has two very sharp blades. The blending arm can go on the top rack of your dishwasher.
There's a lid for the beaker so you can store any leftovers. It's easy to put on and remove.
Since it's cordless, the Crux Artisan Series Immersion Blender doesn't have a power cord, and unlike most other battery-powered immersion blenders, you don't plug the charging cable into the motor body. Instead, it comes with a stand that has a built-in charging cable, and you charge the blender by docking it on the stand. The manufacturer advertises that a full charge provides 15 minutes of continuous blending. Most of the cord, except the A/C adapter, can be hidden away under the charging stand.
- Motor base
- Blending shaft
- Blade cover
- Whisk attachment
- 24-ounce beaker
- Beaker lid
- Instruction and recipe booklet
- Charging base with built-in cable
The Crux Artisan Series Cordless Immersion Blender isn't very good for processing small batches of fibrous ingredients. Since it's an immersion blender, you need to hold the blender for the whole process, and it doesn't fully liquify the ingredients. If you use something like raw kale in a smoothie, it will have grains and leafy bits left over. Other cordless models like the Cuisinart EvolutionX RHB-100 make a smoother puree. That said, most immersion blenders we've tested don't fully blend fibrous vegetables and will have an easier time with softer ingredients.
If you're working with a bigger batch, the results are similar. It doesn't completely process fibrous ingredients, meaning it can't make a smooth puree with something like kale. Bits of kale can also get stuck on the blade bell. Like with smaller batches, some vegetables, like cooked carrots or potatoes, are easier to process smoothly.
It's not suitable for crushing ice. Like a lot of immersion blenders, the blade bell makes it hard for the blades to reach the ice cubes and grab onto them. It fails to crush even a few ice cubes at once.
It's not good for making nut butter. It's hard to use an immersion blender for thick mixtures since you need to hold the blender constantly and move it up and down to keep the ingredients moving, which can be tiring. However, this model has a comfortable grip that makes it a little easier to use. It unevenly processes the nuts, so you end up with partially smooth, spreadable nut butter with unprocessed chunks. Still, it's a better result than you can get with the Cuisinart EvolutionX RHB-100.
It's not particularly loud for a hand blender, but the noise can get irritating if you're blending for a while. There are quieter battery-powered immersion blenders, like the KitchenAid KHBBV53.
The manufacturer doesn't indicate the blender's motor's power, but they advertise that it uses an 8.4V lithium battery. There's only one speed setting, unlike variable-speed immersion blenders like the Cuisinart Smart Stick Cordless Hand Blender.
The safety button (with a lock icon) on top of the motor body needs to be pressed at the same time as the power button for the motor to start. Since it's cordless and doesn't need to be plugged in to run, this acts as a safety feature to make it harder to start unintentionally. After the blender is running, you can release the safety button and just hold the power button to blend. You can simulate a pulse mode by pressing and releasing the power and unlock buttons.
It's very easy to clean. Running the blender in the beaker with soap and water can help remove sticky residue. You also need to wipe the outside of the blade bell and scrub the blades—this part can be a bit tricky because the blades are very sharp, so you need to use a brush to avoid cutting yourself.