The Smeg HBF02 is an immersion blender with a 50s-style aesthetic, similar to the manufacturer's full-size blender, the Smeg BLF01. Its food processing bowl is convenient for recipes like nut butter, and it also comes with whisk and potato masher attachments. However, despite its high-end price, it has poor build quality. The motor body doesn't connect securely with the attachments, and the blending arm can easily detach during regular use.
Our Verdict
The Smeg HBF02 is decent for multi-purpose use. Its chopper bowl is fantastic for making almond butter and crushed ice. It makes decent smoothies, although it doesn't fully liquify ingredients like kale. There's also a whisk attachment, which helps stir salad dressing or make whipped cream, as well as a potato masher. Unfortunately, the blending arm's connection with the motor body is very loose and easily falls off, so it's not as well-suited for blending directly in a pot or pan as most immersion blenders.
- Easy to clean.
- Makes decent crushed ice.
- Can hot blend.
- Poor build quality.
- Doesn't fully process fibrous ingredients.
The Smeg HBF02 is adequate for single-serve smoothies. It can crush ice and comes with a beaker to blend single-serves. It's also easy to clean by hand. However, it makes a grainy puree with fibrous ingredients, so if your recipe has something like kale, it won't be completely smooth.
- Makes decent crushed ice.
- Poor build quality.
- Doesn't fully process fibrous ingredients.
The Smeg HBF02 is alright for multiple servings of smoothies. The beaker can hold 48oz, and the blending arm can crush ice cubes, unlike some immersion blenders. However, it doesn't make a completely smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like leafy greens, especially if you're working with a larger volume of ingredients. It can also be tiring to use for bigger batches since you need to move the blending arm around the whole time, and the handle can be tiring to hold.
- Makes decent crushed ice.
- 48oz beaker capacity.
- Poor build quality.
- Doesn't fully process fibrous ingredients.
The Smeg HBF02 is decent for crushing ice. It's not difficult to use for an immersion blender, and it makes decently uniform crushed ice. However, like most immersion blenders, it can't handle many ice cubes at once and isn't as convenient as most full-size blenders. It doesn't have a sturdy build quality, which isn't ideal for tough tasks like crushing ice.
- Makes decent crushed ice.
- Poor build quality.
The Smeg HBF02 is excellent for soups. Since it's an immersion blender, its design makes it well-suited for making soups, and you can use it to blend hot ingredients directly in a pot or pan. It makes a fairly smooth blend with fibrous vegetables if you work in smaller batches. Unfortunately, it struggles more with bigger batches, resulting in a much grainier puree. It also has a disappointing build quality.
- Easy to clean.
- Can hot blend.
- Comes with whisk, masher, and food processing attachments.
- Poor build quality.
- Doesn't fully process fibrous ingredients.
The Smeg HBF02 is great for professional use. You can use the blending arm to process hot ingredients directly in a pot or pan. It also comes with a chopping bowl that's convenient to use for thicker recipes like nut butter, which makes it quite versatile for an immersion blender. It's quiet when it's running. However, it doesn't have a good build quality, which is particularly disappointing if you need a blender for daily use. It doesn't make the smoothest blend with fibrous ingredients, so it's not ideal for recipes with a lot of leafy greens or broccoli.
- Easy to clean.
- Can hot blend.
- Comes with whisk, masher, and food processing attachments.
- Poor build quality.
Changelog
- Updated Apr 20, 2023: Updated text to match Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Apr 14, 2023: Double-checked the build quality score. The chopper attachment was originally used for performance tests because of the flimsy connection between the blending arm and the motor body. The blending arm was used for Test Bench 1.0 retests, but the same issue exists, and there was no change to the build quality score.
- Updated Sep 06, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Feb 07, 2022: Review published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Smeg ΗBF02 comes in a few different colors: 'Cream', 'Black', 'Pastel Blue', 'Red', and 'White'. We tested it in 'Black', and you can see the label for the unit we tested here. The variant we tested comes with several accessories, including a food processing bowl, whisk, and potato masher, but the blender is also sold on its own as the Smeg ΗBF01.
If you come across another variant, please let us know in the discussions, and we'll update our review.
Popular Blender Comparisons
The Smeg ΗBF02 is an immersion blender with a blending arm that you can use to process hot ingredients directly in a pot or pan. It has several accessories, including a chopping bowl and blade, a whisk, and a potato masher. The chopping bowl is helpful for recipes like nut butter and hummus. However, other immersion blenders are better for processing fibrous ingredients for smooth soups and sauces, like the KitchenAid Variable Speed Corded Hand Blender and the Breville Control Grip (which includes a similar chopping bowl). This blender has a retro aesthetic you might prefer, but unfortunately, it doesn't feel well-built.
For more options, check out our lists of the best immersion blenders, the best blenders for smoothies, and the best blenders.
The Braun MultiQuick 9 is better than the Smeg HBF02 for most purposes. The Braun is significantly sturdier and does a better job of processing fibrous ingredients, which is important for pureed soups and smoothies. The Smeg comes with a food processing bowl that makes it better-suited for recipes like nut butter, but it doesn't have a good build quality.
The Breville Control Grip is better for making soups than the Smeg HBF02. The Breville has a much better build quality and makes a smoother blend with common additions like leafy greens or broccoli. However, the Smeg is much quieter when it's running, and it's very good at crushing ice for an immersion blender, which is nice if you want to use it for smoothies with ice cubes or to whip up crushed ice for cocktails.
The Bamix Mono M133 and the Smeg HBF02 have different strengths, and you may prefer either, depending on what you're looking for. The Bamix has a significantly better build quality, and its design is better suited for blending hot ingredients directly in a pot or pan. The Smeg isn't very well-built, but it comes with a food processing attachment that makes it much better for making thick mixes like nut butter.
Test Results
The Smeg HBF02's blending arm will be long enough to reach the bottom of most pots and pans. When using the chopper attachment, it's not as tall but has a bulkier shape. You can detach the motor base from the blending arm or chopper attachment for easier storage.
These are the dimensions of the blender with the chopper bowl attached:
- Height: 39.5 cm
- Width: 12..8 cm
- Depth:12.8 cm
- Weight: 1.15kg
The Smeg HBF02 has poor build quality. The motor body doesn't connect securely to the blending arm. It's very easy to accidentally detach the two pieces when using the blender. If there's a small amount of resistance when you try to rotate the blending arm counter-clockwise, the arm can twist and come off, as you can see in this video. All the attachments have the same issue, including the chopper attachment, which can easily come undocked from the chopping bowl when you're using it. You can see a video of that happening here. Also, the design of the speed dial makes it hard to tell what speed setting you're using, and the motor body isn't comfortable to hold, especially if you have smaller hands.
There are a few positives. The blender and its accessories don't look cheap, and the buttons on the motor body provide good clicky feedback. The speed dial doesn't have the best design visually, but it also clicks every time you adjust the speed, which is nice.
The beaker has a 48oz capacity, so it can hold more than most immersion blender beakers. You can also use the blender in your own container, like a pot or pan. The chopper bowl is meant for food processing jobs like slicing vegetables or making nut butter and holds 34oz.
The beaker, lid, and chopper bowl are made of plastic. The whisk, potato masher, and chopper bowl are dishwasher-safe. You should only wash the chopper lid with a damp cloth, according to the manual, which doesn't specify if you can put the beaker and lid in the dishwasher.
The Smeg HBF02's blending arm has sharp blades in an s shape, which tends to be a better design for grabbing onto big chunks like ice cubes. There's also a separate chopping blade (for slicing vegetables like onions and carrots) included for use with the chopping bowl.
The Smeg HBF02 has a lid for the 48-ounce beaker that seals with friction. Unfortunately, the center part isn't removable, so it's not a two-part lid, and you need to remove it to add ingredients mid-blend.
The Smeg HBF02's power cord is long and will easily reach an outlet near your counter. There's a plastic wrap to help store it when it's not in use.
- Smeg ΗBF02 motor body
- Blending arm and blades
- 48-ounce beaker and lid
- Chopper bowl with non-slip silicone base
- Gearbox for chopper bowl
- Blades for chopper bowl
- Potato masher attachment
- Whisk attachment
- Whisk holder
- Manual
It does a passable job of blending small batches of fibrous ingredients. Like most immersion blenders, it takes several minutes of blending for the best results. You also need to move the blending arm around constantly, which is a bit tiring. The final result has lots of small visible grains left over, but it's uniformly blended and adequate for smoothies or soups.
It's disappointing for bigger batches of fibrous ingredients. If you're blending a larger volume of ingredients in a deep pot, it takes a long time to get the best results. It's a tiring process because you need to move the blending arm up and down and around pretty much the whole time. At best, it makes a very grainy puree with fibrous ingredients like kale or broccoli.
It's a passable ice crusher, which is rare for immersion blenders. There's room under the blade bell for ice cubes, and the blades can grab onto them without too much trouble. It still takes a long time and quite a bit of effort to make crushed ice since you need to move the blending arm constantly, but ultimately it makes decently uniform crushed ice.
It's great for nut butter using the chopper bowl. Because the chopper bowl's lid fits with the blending arm, there's no manipulation required, making it less tiring to use. You still need to hold onto the motor body, but it's easier to use for nut butter than immersion blenders that only come with regular blending blades. It also produces extremely smooth, almost liquified nut butter.
It's a quiet immersion blender, so the noise isn't extremely irritating if you need to blend for a few minutes.
It has a fairly wide range of speed settings, so it's possible to slowly ramp up the speed or make small adjustments. However, the maximum and minimum speed depend on the blending mode and attachment. The very fastest blending speed (14800 RPM) is achieved with pulse mode and the blending arm. The fastest speed for manual blending is somewhat slower at 14000 RPM. Meanwhile, the chopping attachment has a much slower maximum speed (3600 rpm) using pulse mode as well as with regular blending (3400 rpm). Its lowest speed is also much slower (1900 rpm).
The Smeg HBF02 has a speed dial on top of the motor body. There are five different speed settings indicated with silver dots (with the biggest dot for the maximum speed setting). However, there are increments between each dot, meaning you can make small adjustments to the blending speed. You can see the dial in action here. Unfortunately, it can be hard to tell what speed you've selected from the front of the motor base.
There's also a button that you can hold down for pulse mode, which is pretty unusual for an immersion blender and helpful for processing big or hard ingredients.
It's very easy to clean. After making something sticky with the chopper attachment, you can run the blender with soap and water in the bowl to remove debris from the blades. You have to wipe the bottom of the bowl, the blades, and the chopper lid with a sponge, but it's an easy process since the blades are removable and the bowl is wide enough to fit your hand into.