The KitchenAid 5-Speed Diamond Blender is a well-built full-size blender that comes in several colors to help match it with your kitchen decor. It comes with one jar with a 60oz capacity and a 2-part lid. It performs well for recipes like smoothies, soups, and thicker mixtures like nut butter. While it makes bar-quality ice with its 'Crush Ice' program, it has a limited capacity for ice since the manufacturer recommends adding a maximum of six ice cubes at once. Unlike the KitchenAid K400, it has five speed presets instead of a speed dial, so your options for adjusting the blend speed are more limited.
Our Verdict
The KitchenAid Diamond Blender is excellent for multi-purpose use. It has a big capacity for multiple servings and works well for most recipes. It smoothly processes fibrous ingredients in soups and smoothies and easily crushes ice cubes. It's easy to use for nut butter or hummus as well. It's well-built and on the quiet side for a blender. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a speed dial, so you can't fine-tune the blend speed. It's convenient overall, but some blenders process ingredients more quickly.
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Can hot blend.
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Makes bar-quality crushed ice.
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Limited speed settings.
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No single-serve jars.
The KitchenAid Diamond Blender is fantastic for single-serve smoothies. Even though it only comes with a 60oz jar, it makes an extremely smooth puree with small batches of fibrous ingredients, so it's well-suited for single-serve smoothies with kale or blueberries. It takes a little longer than some blenders, but overall it's very easy to use for smoothies. It's well-built, quiet for a blender, and easy to clean by hand.
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Makes bar-quality crushed ice.
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Smoothly blends fibrous ingredients.
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No single-serve jars.
The KitchenAid Diamond Blender is excellent for multiple servings of smoothies. Its 60oz jar is suitable for blending multiple batches at once. The blender smoothly blends fibrous fruits and vegetables and easily crushes ice cubes. It's well-built and easy to clean by hand or in the dishwasher. However, some blenders can process big batches more quickly. It doesn't have automatic blending programs, so you must stop the blender automatically.
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Makes bar-quality crushed ice.
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Large jar capacity.
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Smoothly blends fibrous ingredients.
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Processes ingredients somewhat slowly.
The KitchenAid Diamond Blender is excellent for crushing ice. It's well-built and has a 'Crush Ice' blending program, so you don't need to manually press the pulse button. It quickly produces bar-quality crushed ice for cocktails or frozen drinks like slushies. However, the manufacturer recommends blending a maximum of six ice cubes at once, and many full-size blenders can handle a bigger batch.
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Makes bar-quality crushed ice.
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Small capacity for ice.
The KitchenAid Diamond Blender is fantastic for soups. You can use the 60oz jar to process hot ingredients directly from the pot. It smoothly blends big batches of fibrous ingredients, important for well-blended kale or broccoli soup. It's also easy to clean by hand when you're done blending. However, blending a big batch takes a few minutes, so it's not the fastest blender. It has no automatic blending programs for soups, so you need to stop it manually when it's done.
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Can hot blend.
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Large jar capacity.
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Smoothly blends fibrous ingredients.
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Processes ingredients somewhat slowly.
The KitchenAid Diamond Blender is very good for professional use. It can easily process almonds into smooth nut butter and produce bar-quality ice quickly. However, it has a harder time breaking down fibrous fruits and veggies. It's easy to clean the jar if you made runny or liquidy foods like smoothies, but the fact that you can't remove the blade makes cleaning after something more consistent, like nut butter, more difficult. On the upside, the jar can hold a lot of liquid.
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Makes bar-quality crushed ice.
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Large jar capacity.
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Limited speed settings.
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Processes ingredients somewhat slowly.
- 8.9 Multi-Purpose
- 9.0 Smoothies (Single Serving)
- 8.9 Smoothies (Multiple Servings)
- 8.6 Ice Crushing
- 9.2 Soups
- 8.7 Professional Use
- Updated May 24, 2023: Updated text to match Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Sep 06, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Sep 24, 2020: We have updated the 'Smoothie (Other Jar)' test score.
- Updated Sep 08, 2020: Review published.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The KitchenAid 5-Speed Diamond Blender comes in several color variants that you can purchase to match your style. While we tested this blender's 'Metallic Chrome' variant, we expect other colors to perform similarly.
If you encounter another variant, please let us know in the forums below, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Blenders
The KitchenAid 5-Speed Diamond Blender is a full-sized blender that comes in various colorful variants to better match your kitchen decor. It comes with a 60oz jar and performs well for most recipes, including smoothies, soups, ice crushing, and nut butter. However, it has limited speed presets and doesn't have a speed dial, unlike the KitchenAid K400. Other full-size blenders like the Vitamix Explorian E310 can process ingredients like leafy greens and ice more quickly.
If you're looking for other blenders, check out the best blenders for smoothies, the best blenders for crushing ice, and the best blenders.
The KitchenAid K400 and the KitchenAid Diamond have different strengths. The K400 has a better build quality and makes a smoother puree with big batches of fibrous ingredients like multiple servings of a kale smoothie. It makes more uniform crushed ice. On the other hand, the Diamond is much easier to use for recipes like nut butter. It's also easier to clean.
The KitchenAid Diamond is better than the KitchenAid K150 for most purposes. The Diamond makes a silkier blend with fibrous ingredients like kale and is easier to use for tough tasks like making nut butter. Its main jar has a bigger capacity and is easier to clean by hand.
The Ninja Foodi Cold & Hot Blender and the KitchenAid Diamond have different strengths. The Ninja is better built and has a bigger capacity, and you can use it to heat cool ingredients. It's a better ice crusher as well. On the other hand, the KitchenAid makes a smoother blend of fibrous ingredients, so it can make a silkier smoothie or soup. It's also much easier to use for thicker mixtures like nut butter. It's also quieter when it's running. The jar and lid are dishwasher-safe and easier to clean by hand.
The Vitamix Explorian E310 is a better full-size blender than the KitchenAid Diamond. The Vitamix has a significantly better build quality and overall performance, and it gives you more control over the blending speed. However, the KitchenAid is quieter when running and has a bigger 60-ounce capacity.
The Vitamix 5200 is a better full-size blender than the KitchenAid Diamond. The Vitamix has a significantly better build quality and makes better nut butter, smoother blends with fibrous ingredients, and crushed ice with better consistency. It's also easier to clean.
The Breville The Q is a better blender for most uses than the KitchenAid Diamond. The Breville is sturdier, comes with a tamper, and performs better for most recipes, including smoothies and nut butter. It can heat room-temperature ingredients. However, the KitchenAid also offers versatile performance, and it's quieter.
The KitchenAid Diamond is better for most uses than the NutriBullet Smart Touch Blender Combo. The KitchenAid does a much better job of tough tasks like making nut butter and crushing ice. It's easier to clean by hand and quieter when running. On the other hand, the NutriBullet comes with personal jars for single-serves, so you may prefer it if you use your blender for smoothies or protein shakes.
The KitchenAid Diamond is better than the Ninja Blender Duo with Auto-iQ BL642. The KitchenAid makes a smoother blend with fibrous ingredients, whether working with small or big batches. It's also easier to use for thick blends like nut butter, and its blade design makes it easier to clean by hand. On the other hand, the Ninja comes with at least two personal jars for single-serve smoothies in addition to its 72-ounce pitcher. It also feels better built.
The KitchenAid Diamond is better than the Oster Pro 1200. The KitchenAid has a much better build quality, it's quieter when running, and its main jar has a bigger capacity. The Oster comes with a 24-ounce personal jar, but the KitchenAid does a better job of processing small batches of fibrous ingredients for something like a kale smoothie.
Test Results
The KitchenAid 5-Speed Diamond Blender is a somewhat tall full-size blender. However, it doesn't take up that much room on your counter, and you can keep it out on the table or place it into a cupboard without a problem.
This blender has good build quality. It has a sturdy base with easy-to-clean buttons. The uniquely diamond-shaped jar also feels like it's made of good-quality plastic. However, its design and irremovable blade assemblies make it harder to empty when your food is ready. The jar's lid also doesn't stay in place, either. Other parts of the blender don't feel very solid, like the locking mechanism, and the buttons don't feel very responsive.
The jar has a 60oz capacity, so it's suitable for blending multiple batches simultaneously.
The jar and 2-part lid are made of plastic. The jar can be cleaned on the bottom rack of your dishwasher, and both parts of the 2-part lid can go on the top rack.
The KitchenAid 5-Speed Diamond Blender has sharp blades attached to the jar's bottom. They point in different directions to help create a vortex and stop ingredients from getting stuck under the blades. You can't remove them, but the jar and blades are dishwasher-safe.
This uniquely shaped lid helps to keep food and liquid from spilling out of the jar. It uses friction to form a seal but doesn't always stay in place.
This blender has a cable long enough to reach a power outlet on your counter. You can also store the cable away when you're not using it.
It's fantastic for small batches of fibrous ingredients. It takes longer than some blenders to process the ingredients, and they can splash up the sides of the jar when you're blending small volumes, so you need to scrape the sides of the jar for the best results. However, in the end, it makes a virtually perfectly smooth blend with ingredients like kale.
It's fantastic for processing fibrous ingredients. While many full-size blenders can process the ingredients more quickly, including the KitchenAid K150, blending big batches of ingredients like kale is easy. It produces a smooth puree with just a few tiny grains left over.
It's excellent for crushing ice. The manufacturer recommends adding no more than six ice cubes at once to the jar, which isn't great for a full-size blender. However, the 'Crush' program crushes ice cubes into snow-like crushed ice in about 30 seconds, so making a few batches isn't inconvenient.
It's superb for nut butter. After starting at a lower speed (preset 2), you can blend on high for most of the process, and the blender does most of the work. The mixture can get pushed to the sides of the jar after the nuts are crushed initially, so you need to tap the sides of the jar and jiggle it a bit to keep everything moving. There can be pockets of dry ingredients left over after a few minutes of blending, so stir the butter and then run the blender for another minute. Still, it's an easy, relatively quick process, and the result is very smooth, spreadable nut butter.
It's quite quiet for a full-size blender. Like basically all blenders, it's still loud, but the noise is less irritating than louder blenders like the KitchenAid K400 or Vitamix 5200.
This blender has several preset speeds. After pressing the power button to turn the blender on, its light indicator flashes to let you know when it's ready. You can then select one of its five speeds, which run in a continuous blend mode. If you want to pulse, press the pulse button, then select one of its five preset speeds. This mode runs for as long as you hold the preset button down.
On top of its five preset speeds, this blender has a crushed ice setting. However, that's about it, and it doesn't have a self-clean program, which is more commonly found on higher-end models.
It's easy to clean. Running the blender with soap and water in the jar helps to remove residue from the blades and sides of the jar. You need to use a brush to clean the blades afterward, but it's relatively easy to reach them. You also need to scrub the 2-part lid and the jar's walls, but it's not a very long or difficult process.