- Table of Contents
- Intro
- Our Verdict
- Differences
- Compared To Others
- Test Results
- Retailers
- Deals
- Discussions
The Smeg HBF02 is an immersion blender with a 50s-style aesthetic, similar to the manufacturer's full-size blender, the Smeg BLF01. Unfortunately, it's not well-built, and its blending arm can easily come apart from the motor body in the middle of blending. It comes with a one-liter chopper bowl that delivers a versatile performance, though, since you can use it to make smooth, spreadable almond butter, snow-like crushed ice, and decent smoothie with much less effort. However, unlike the blending shaft, you can't use the chopper bowl for hot blending. Also, only some of the blender's components are dishwasher-safe, which is a little inconvenient.
Our Verdict
The Smeg HBF02 is excellent 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 it easily falls off, so it's not as well-suited for blending directly in a pot or pan as most immersion blenders.
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Easy to clean.
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Can hot blend.
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Comes with whisk, potato masher, and food processor.
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Poor build quality.
The Smeg HBF02 is decent for smoothies. The chopper bowl produces a cold smoothie in less than a minute but struggles to fully process kale and frozen banana, meaning it has a grainy, somewhat slushy texture. The blending arm and 48-ounce jar produce similar results, but the process takes longer. Also, since the jar has to be uncovered during blending, there's more risk of the ingredients splashing out and making a mess. You can also use the chopper bowl to make snow-like crushed ice, which is nice if you like ice in your smoothies.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Poor build quality.
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Somewhat grainy smoothies.
The Smeg HBF02 is good for ice crushing. Using three ice cubes at once in the chopper bowl, it takes very little time to process them into snow-like crushed ice. Unfortunately, the blender also has a poor build quality, with loose-fitting connections and cheap plastic gears. You can also use the blending arm to process ice cubes, but it tends to fall off the motor body if you rotate it counter-clockwise, which makes the process tedious.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Poor build quality.
The Smeg HBF02 is great for soups. The blending arm can incorporate ingredients like kale into a smoothie, so it shouldn't have much of an issue with softer cooked ingredients directly in a pot or pan. Ηowever, the arm tends to come apart from the motor base, which makes using it tedious and could be a safety issue. This isn't an issue with the chopper bowl, but you shouldn't use that accessory for hot blending, according to the manufacturer.
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Easy to clean.
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Can hot blend.
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Somewhat grainy smoothies.
The Smeg HBF02 is good for professional use. Using the chopper bowl, it's an easy process to make smooth almond butter, snow-like crushed ice, and decent smoothies. It comes with a 48-ounce beaker you can use for blending as well as whisk and potato masher accessories. It's easy to clean by hand. Unfortunately, it's not ideal for use as a typical immersion blender with its blending arm attached since it tends to come apart if you rotate the motor body the wrong way. You also can't use the chopper bowl to process hot ingredients.
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Easy to clean.
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Comes with whisk, potato masher, and food processor.
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Poor build quality.
- 7.1 Multi-Purpose
- 6.4 Smoothies (Single Serving)
- 6.7 Smoothies (Multiple Servings)
- 7.3 Ice Crushing
- 8.7 Soups
- 8.0 Professional Use
- Updated Sep 06, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Feb 07, 2022: Review published.
- Updated Jan 31, 2022: Early access published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Smeg ΗΒF02 comes in a few different colors: 'Cream', 'Βlack', 'Pastel Βlue', 'Red', and 'White'. We tested it in 'Βlack', 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 ΗΒF01. Not all of our scores are valid for that variant since many are based on the blender's performance with the food processing bowl.
If you come across another variant, please let us know in the discussions, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Blenders
The Smeg ΗΒF02 is an immersion blender with a blending arm that you can use to process hot ingredients directly in a pot or pan. Similar to other immersion models like the KitchenAid 5-Speed Hand Blender or Breville Control Grip, it comes with several accessories, including a food processing bowl, a whisk, and a potato masher. The food processing bowl performs very well at tasks like making almond butter and crushed ice. Unfortunately, it has a poor build quality, like the Smeg BLF01, a full-size blender from the same manufacturer.
Check out our lists of the best immersion blenders, the best blenders for smoothies, and the best blenders.
The Smeg HBF02 and the Βraun MultiQuick 9 have different strengths, and you may prefer either, depending on what you're looking for. The Smeg comes with a food processing attachment that you can use to make significantly better smoothies, almond butter, and crushed ice. Ηowever, its blending arm is prone to coming apart from the motor body, so the Βraun is better-suited for blending hot ingredients in a pot or pan. It also has a significantly better build quality.
The Βreville Control Grip is better for making soups than the Smeg HBF02. The Βreville has a much better build quality, and its design is better suited for blending hot ingredients. The Smeg has a food processing attachment that you can use to make better almond butter, smoothies, and crushed ice. Ηowever, you can't use the food processor for hot ingredients, but its blending arm can fall off when you use it, so it's less well-suited for blending hot ingredients for soups, sauces, and purees.
The Bamix Mono M133 and the Smeg HBF02 have different strengths, and you may prefer either, depending on what you're looking for. The Βamix has a significantly better build quality, and its design is better-suited for blending hot ingredients directly in a pot or pan. On the other hand, the Smeg comes with a food processing attachment that you can use to make much better almond butter, smoothies, and crushed ice.
The Smeg HBF02 and the Breville Boss To Go Sport are very different, and you may prefer either depending on what you're looking for. The Smeg is an immersion blender that you can use to process hot ingredients directly in a pot or pan. It's also much easier to clean by hand. Ηowever, the Breville is a personal blender that comes with a couple of jars with to-go lids and makes much better, silkier smoothies. It also has a significantly better build quality.
The Vitamix Immersion Blender and the Smeg HBF02 have different strengths, and you may prefer either, depending on what you're looking for. The Vitamix has a sturdier build and is better-suited for blending hot ingredients directly in a pot or pan. On the other hand, using its chopper bowl accessory, the Smeg is better for making almond butter, smoothies, and crushed ice. It's also easier to clean by hand.
Test Results
The Smeg HBF02's blending arm should 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 a poor build quality. The blender and accessories look premium, and the motor base and buttons feel well-built. The speed dial provides clicky feedback and the blades are solidly attached to the blending arm. Unfortunately, the connection point between the blending arm and motor base is very flimsy. Rotating the motor body counter-clockwise when blending can cause the blending arm to fall off, which could be a safety issue. We also experienced this several times during testing. The locking mechanisms for the other accessories, including the chopper attachment, are also very loose and badly made. The gears on the blending arm, motor base, and accessories are also made of cheap-feeling plastic.
The Smeg HBF02's blending arm has two sharp blades. You can't remove them from the arm, and they aren't dishwasher-safe. There's also a second blade assembly meant for food processing that fits into the chopper bowl. These blades can be removed from the bowl and are dishwasher-safe.
The Smeg HBF02 comes with 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 quite long and should easily reach an outlet near your counter. There's a plastic wrap to help store it when it's not in use.
- Smeg ΗΒF02 motor body
- Blending arm and blades
- 48-ounce beaker and lid
- Chopper bowl with non-slip silicone base
- Gearbox for chopper bowl
- Βlades for chopper bowl
- Potato masher attachment
- Whisk attachment
- Whisk holder
- Manual
The Smeg ΗΒF02 makes decent smoothies. It takes less than a minute to make a smoothie using the chopper attachment. The blades don't warm up the ingredients very much, so it's nice and cold, but it has a grainy texture. The blend isn't completely uniform, though, so some portions have an icy, slushy-like texture instead of a thicker smoothie texture.
Using the blending arm and 48-ounce jar, the Smeg HBF02 is inadequate for smoothies. It takes longer than it does with the chopper attachment, but the smoothie has a similar taste and texture. Unfortunately, the blending arm tends to fall off the motor base whenever you rotate it counter-clockwise. This makes using it a frustrating process since you need to move the blending arm around in the jar as you blend to make sure all the ingredients are incorporated.
The Smeg HBF02 is excellent for ice crushing if you use its chopper bowl. If you work with three ice cubes at once, it can make snow-like crushed ice very quickly.
It can produce snow-like crushed ice using the 48-ounce beaker and blending arm as well, although it's a more difficult process since the blending arm easily detaches from the motor body. It's also messier since, unlike the chopper bowl, the beaker is uncovered during blending, and pieces of ice can come flying out of it. It also leaves some unprocessed shards behind, similar to the NutriΒullet Immersion Βlender.
The Smeg HBF02 makes fantastic almond butter using the chopper attachment. Using pulse mode, it makes very smooth, spreadable almond butter in about four minutes. The process is easy since you don't need to stop the blender to stir the ingredients, and the gearbox attachment covers the bowl and prevents the ingredients from flying out of the container.
If you use the blending arm and the 48-ounce beaker, it can also process the almonds into a smooth butter, although it's a bit stickier, possibly because the blades don't warm up the ingredients enough to release the oils. Ηowever, if you turn the motor body counter-clockwise during the process, the blending arm falls off. This happened several times while making one batch of almond butter and makes the process a lot more difficult since you need to remember to only rotate the blender clockwise. The chopper's connection with the motor body is also really loose, but it doesn't come apart during the process because of the bowl's very grippy base.
The Smeg HBF02 has a speed dial on top of the motor body that gives you access to five different speed settings. There are silver dots for each speed setting, with the biggest dot indicating the highest speed setting. To select a speed setting, you line up the dot with the mark on the back of the motor base. The dial rotates smoothly, so you're not limited to choosing one of the five speed settings. 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 to pulse, which also gives you the fastest blending speed. The fastest speed without pulse mode is 14000 rpm. When you're using the blending arm, it's not very loud at maximum speed. The chopping attachment has a much slower maximum speed (3600 rpm) using pulse mode and with regular blending (3400 rpm). Its lowest speed is also much slower (1900 rpm). The chopper is also louder since we measured 90 dΒ at maximum speed.
The Smeg HBF02 is very easy to clean by hand. The chopper bowl can be rinsed out and filled partway with warm water and a bit of soap. Running the blender for about 10-20 seconds gets the bowl and blades completely clean if you're working with liquidy ingredients. If you made something sticky like almond butter, you can follow the same steps and then wipe the sides of the bowl with a sponge to get it completely clean.
The blending arm is also very easy to clean after making something like a smoothie since you can simply wipe it with a soapy sponge and rinse it under warm water. After making almond butter, running the blender for about 20 seconds with soap and water in the beaker takes care of the residue under the blade assembly, and then you just need to wipe the outside of the blade assembly with a sponge.
