MEMPHIS, TN -
(WMC TV) - Consumer Reports tested more than 50 blenders.
Along with the usual Cuisinarts and KitchenAids, testers evaluated Food Network star Sandra Lee's $45 blender, the $60 Ninja and the $130 blender from Bon Appétit.
On the high end, a Blendtec and two Vitamix blenders ($600) were also sized up.
Blenders are one of those appliances that can do a bunch of different tasks, but
performance varies, so Consumer Reports really put them through their paces. Testers
crushed ice and ran the blenders for 20 seconds to see how uniform and snow-like the
end results are. They also puréed soup and made piña coladas.
The Bon Appétit blender didn't deliver on frozen drinks. Even worse was Sandra
Lee's blender. It could barely crush ice, and there were whole ice cubes left in the piña
coladas. Sandra Lee's blender had the lowest overall score out of every tested model.
As for the $450 and $600 Vitamix blenders, both did an excellent job in all of Consumer
Reports' tests. Vitamix has one of the more active online communities and people are
really passionate about the blenders, but you don't need to spend that much to get a
really great blender.
For far less, the super-versatile $60 Ninja Master Prep Professional aced the tests,
too—puréeing smooth soups and mixing up a great icy drink. Consumer Reports also
recommended the $100 KitchenAid model number KSB565. Though it wasn't as good at
puréeing as the Ninja blender, it offers a glass container instead of plastic, five speeds and sleek touch pad controls.
Copyright WMC-TV. All rights reserved.
