A blender is a staple piece of kitchen kit, whether you’re a fair-weather home cook or seasoned enthusiast.
But the fact of the matter is the best blenders come with hefty price tags, easily reaching the £200 mark. Regardless of the longer-term price per use you might get out of it, that’s a fair whack of an upfront investment for what is undoubtedly a kitchen essential.
That’s why, in a bid to find the gadgets that land in that sweet spot between expensive food processors and labour-intensive stick blenders, I’ve put several cheap blenders through their paces. Cheap is not usually a word with a good reputation, but in this case I’ve used it to mean affordable and still worthwhile, rather than throwaway tat.
Whizzing up smoothies, soups, sauces and dips at home, I paid special attention not only to the texture of the results but also how practical each was in terms of ease of use, cleaning and storage.
My top performing affordable blender after testing was the Russell Hobbs Desire Jug Blender (£59.99 at Amazon) but my full rundown of need-to-know products is below.
Quick list – the best cheap blenders
1. Russell Hobbs Desire Matte Jug Blender
Best overall
+ Capacity is great for family life
+ Power levels to work through ingredients
+ Easy to use and importantly, easy to clean!
– Not all dishwasher safe parts
Read more below
2. Nutribullet 600 Series
Best for smoothies
+ Perfect for blitzing drinks
+ 20,000 rotations per minute
+ Convenient design
– Not as good to achieve coarse textures
Read more below
3. Ninja Nutri Slim Blender and Smoothie Maker
Best for single portions
+ A great small size
+ Straightforward to use
+ Still packs a fair amount of power
– Only good for single batches
Read more below
4. Tefal Blendforce II BL435840
Best for hot blends
+ Good speed range
+ Fine capacity
+ Six blades
– Pricest option on the list
Read more below
Best compact
+ Great space-saving design
+ Good to clean
+ The (very cheap) price!
– Small capacity
Read more below
6. Philips 3000 Series Blender
Best under £30
+ Grab it for a steal of a price
+ Big blending jug
+ Makes good smoothies
– Not a great deal of power
Read more below
Best cheap blender overall
The large and robust glass jug makes this blender as great for soups as smoothies, I found – especially as it can handle large batches easily. It has really decent power for its relatively modest price tag too, with a 650W motor and durable-feeling stainless steel blades.
This one was really easy to clean – while the blade isn’t dishwasher safe (most other parts are) it does unscrew from the base, which was really helpful not only for washing, but also for collecting any food that had clung to it. Simple to use, it has two speed settings and a pulse function which are controlled by a dial. It saw to my smoothie with little effort, and a handy opening in the lid allowed us to add more liquid to the mix when things were looking too thick.
Best cheap blender for smoothies
Perhaps the best known smoothie-making brand out there, Nutribullet has a huge range of blenders. The 600 series remains one of the best value options because its motor-to-cup ratio offers identical torque to newer, more expensive iterations, without forcing consumers to pay for redundant speed presets.
The no-frills appliance is sleek and compact (although it’s not the smallest on this list) and is button-free. It only has one function – to blend at a speed of 20,000 rpm – but safe to say it carries out its sole duty effectively. I whizzed up ice and frozen ingredients easily, pouring out velvety smooth mixtures in less than a minute.
The blades are specially designed to extract all the goodness from each ingredient for smoothies (not leaving chunks behind in the cup), but because they’re so low to the base, I struggled to scrape out thicker mixtures like pesto from underneath them. That said, it still did a decent job on those nuts and herbs.
Best cheap blender for single portions
I loved how compact this blender is. It’s very unimposing to keep out on the worktop but will likely find a home for itself in even a crowded cupboard. Don’t mistake small for feeble, though: the 700W motor has real brawn. It comes with two blending cups – each with a single serve capacity, give or take – so if you’re usually whizzing up drinks or blending sauces pour une then it’s ideal.
So intuitive is this blender to use that I was drinking my first smoothie before I’d even thought to look at the instructions. There are no buttons here: just push the cup down into the base to blend. This did mean I couldn’t get on with anything else while I was blending, but as the blades are sharp and motor punchy, it only took a few seconds to get smooth results. Plus, this makes pulsing easy, if you’re going for a chunkier texture.
Best cheap blender for hot blending
This blender’s thick glass jug is quite heavy but feels very robust. Large enough to hold several portions of food or drink, it’s designed be used with hot and cold ingredients without danger of cracking. Plus, it’s dishwasher safe, along with the blades and lid. So there was no need to be concerned when I was pouring in hot stock and veg to make soup.
Given the generous capacity of this two-speed blender, it’s still relatively petit and looks sleek too. I was impressed with the noise levels and lack of vibration when it was blending – there was no movement at all in the base as the blades rotated. That said, it didn’t work quite as well with thicker mixtures as it did with smoothies – my large batch of hummus took some encouragement and I needed to scrape the sides of the jug down a few times, but I was happy with the final texture. The blade component can be unscrewed from the bottom of the jug too, which helps with cleaning. This is one of the chunkiest appliances on this list, which is something to consider if you struggle for space in your kitchen.
Best cheap compact blender
If you’re not keen to commit to a chunky investment or aren’t sure how much you’ll realistically use your blender, this Breville model is a great way to test the waters. At just £23, you get more than you pay for here, I think.
I was impressed at just how small the blender is, and found it really easy to use. There’s one button which needs to be held down to blend, and while that makes it a bit more hands-on to use with than some other models, it does the job pretty quickly. Fruit and ice cubes were blended into a smooth consistency with no complaints from the relatively small 350W motor, and given that none of the blades sit flush with the base, thicker mixtures were easy to scrape out, too.
Best cheap blender under £30
For £30, you can’t really go wrong with this no-frills, hardworking blender. It might not have the most powerful motor of all the options on this list, but it turned frozen fruit into a silky smoothie with no visible effort. The unit stays pretty still while the blades are running, and although the motor is less powerful than others on this list, I didn’t notice a stark difference in terms of blending time or noise.
I found this blender, like the others on this list, works best for liquids but can still be used for more dense mixtures too. I used it to pulse some lemony mushy peas for my Friday night fish and chips and it did a good job – although it was tricky to collect the food from underneath the blades, as they sit very close to the base. It has one of the largest footprints of the blenders on this list, but that’s a fair trade-off for the wallet-friendly price tag, I think.
How I tested the best cheap blenders
As part of our commitment to how we test at Ideal Home, I assessed these blenders by using them at home over the course of several weeks. They were put to the test with fruit and vegetable smoothies – which is one of the most common uses for compact and affordable blenders like these – as well as coarser substances like hummus and pesto. Everything that was dishwasher safe was flung in my machine for a cycle or two as well, to make sure it emerged in good nick.
During testing, I considered factors such as each blender’s size, looks, ease of use, and efficacy. You can read more about exactly who tested these blenders below.
FAQs
How to choose the best cheap blender
Although all of these blenders rep solid value for money, there are a few things to consider when choosing which one to fork out for.
Cost per use
Firstly, it makes sense that the more you’ll use it, the more of an investment it’s worth. So if you’ll be employing its service on the regular, don’t be put off by a slighly higher price tag – think about the cost per use to get the best value. The more costly models often have the more powerful and robust motors.
Intended uses
What you intend to use it for is another key question. Are you all about the smoothies? And are you whizzing them up just for you, or for the whole family? For drinks, the more compact blenders will do the job perfectly – there’s no need for multiple functions or to find room for a hefty appliance. But if you want to make silky smooth soups in big batches, or chunky sauces and dressings, you might want a model with larger blending jugs and multiple speeds.
Size
It’s also important to think about the size of your blender. Worktop space often comes at a premium, but if your kit won’t fit in a cupboard or is used so regularly it’d be going in and out like it’s doing the Hokey Cokey, that’s where it’ll end up living. So consider whether you can make space somewhere for a larger appliance, or if a smaller model would better suit.
Is it worth investing in a cheap blender?
At Ideal Home, we very much believe you get what you pay for when it comes to kitchen appliances. That being said, we know that not everyone’s budget is big and buying a cheap blender might be the only option available.
In short, I think that a cheap blender will be perfectly serviceable if you want to produce liquids without being too fussed on getting a very specific texture. Very expensive blender brands such as Vitamix can give very specific control over the finished product while blenders around the £50 mark cannot.
What a cheap blender should be able to do is break down soft non-coarse foods (like bananas and avocados) with a liquid. But if it’s blitzing up something as delicate as a nut butter you’re after, you will need to spend more.
Are you tempted to invest in any of the best cheap blenders for your kitchen? With these picks, you can spend less and still get quality.
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