What Are the Different Types of Blenders?
Blenders have been sitting on kitchen counters for generations, making everything from crepe batter to milkshakes, and they’re still quite popular. Some different types of blenders today take the place of a food processor, and some use heat so you can make soups. Today, there are more choices than ever, with options that prove that blenders are pretty essential in every kitchen and indeed every home.
What type of blender is best?
For whipping up shakes or smoothies, the quality of your blender is vital to achieving the right texture. Blenders vary in blades, speed, and functions, which can be confusing if you’re not sure what you need. To help you learn more about your choices, we’ve rounded up some blender types below so that you can find the right blender for your needs.
So how many types of blenders are there? While the names of blenders can vary, we have provided a list of 7 different variations of blenders.
7 Different Types of Blenders
1. Single Serve Blender
A single-serve blender is intended to serve only one person. In other words, the content of this kind of blender is for a single serving. This is because this blender typically has a compact structure, with smaller blades than regular-sized blenders and smaller cups or jugs. It has all the features of a standard blender, but only one serving per blend is intended to be produced, hence the name.
Best Used For:
These types of blenders allow you to take the smoothie with you to the office, gym, or on a trip. Depending on the models you choose, you can blend and drink from the same cup, which is convenient and saves a lot of cleaning time and space. These types of blenders are powerful enough to crush ice and frozen fruit and compact enough to take up only a tiny space on your countertop. In this category, we’re in love with the Ninja Fit.
Cleaning: These types of blenders are easy to clean because they are often available in smaller sizes and also don’t have many components, so you can wash them in a minute.
Our Pick: Ninja Fit
Pros
Due to the compact nature of the blender, storing it could be very easy.
It Is Easy to Clean
This type of blender has very easy controls, and they are well placed so you can easily turn it on and off.
It Helps You Limit Waste – Because of its small nature, putting food in a single-serve blender ensures that it is not in excess and that the blended or ground quantity is just the one you need
Lightweight and portable
Cons
Not good for large groups, since it only makes about one 12-ounce serving
Can’t be used to blend hot liquids or food, like soup or sauces
2. Kitchen Blender
Kitchen blenders have a tall polycarbonate or steel container with a tight-fitting lid and one blade, which are removable for efficient cleaning. Most of these types of blenders have a variable speed feature in order to be able to deal adequately with a variety of ingredients. With variable speed settings, you have more control over the accuracy of the result.
A kitchen blender is suitable for processing fruit juice, soups, pesto, pate and smooth sauces, and some frozen ingredients.
Best Used For:
A countertop kitchen blender will come in handy for bulk blending or thicker mixtures. These types of blenders typically come with variable speeds from chopping action to liquid puree, meaning you can add almost any ingredient and get a smooth blend from it.
Cleaning: While these have more parts to clean, they’re also more versatile and have a larger capacity. They take a bit of time to clean due to the additional parts.
Our Pick: Ninja Professional Blender 1000
Pros
Large capacity
Cheap models are still very useful for pureeing blending and making smoothies
More powerful models can blend chop, churn cream, crush, emulsify, grind, mix, puree and even cook
Cons
Takes up counter space
Only the dearer models can crush and grind hard items effectively
Difficult to clean
Noisy
3. Commercial Blender
While standard blenders are helpful for your morning smoothie, restaurants, bar, cafes, hotels, and food trucks need the best commercial blender to make sure they can deal with the demand from their customers while still ensuring excellent quality and smooth, delicious beverages with no bits or chunks in sight. Commercial Kitchen Blenders are more potent than their domestic counterparts, with some models having up to a 1500W output and large capacity jars.
Best Used For:
Commercial blenders are designed to quickly and efficiently blend drinks and other items in a professional setting. Professionals use these types of blenders for smoothies along with frozen cocktails and other beverages. Thanks to the blending ability of these types of blenders, they have a wide range of applications and can do anything the previous blenders could do. As the sauce is typically thicker and more challenging to produce for certain blenders, one of the particular uses of commercial blenders is to make a sauce. They are essential if you run a food service that sells smoothies and serves dips to customers.
Learn how to make your own smoothies here!
Cleaning: The simplest to clean are jugs or containers with detachable blades. Look at the lids to remove and clean them if they have fiddly seals.
Our Pick: Blendtec Designer 625 Blender
Pros
These types of blenders are known for their strength, and they can grind and blend almost anything with their sharp blades and powerful motor. Of all the various types, they are easily the best type of blender.
Cooks soup in the blender
Heavy-duty commercial specs
They have a large capacity
Durable: Alongside that powerful motor, is a strongly built blender. These blender types are made to be as durable and strong as possible.
Cons
Premium price
Not the quietest blender: More power means more noise
Take up much space
Can be bulky and difficult to move around
4. Thermal Blender
A thermal blender cooks and blends at the same time to produce the most delicious freshly cooked recipes. These types of blenders can handle a number of cooking and blending functions, essentially combining the tasks of multiple kitchen tools into one accessory.
Best Used For:
Thermal blenders see the most use in bakeries. The cake batter is hard to make with a hand mixer, but a stand mixer can easily help with that. Since many desserts make use of cake batter and heavy dough, the power and control of these types of blenders make them attractive for bakers.
Cleaning: Cleaning a thermal blender is very simple and straightforward. Struggling to clean away stubborn food residue still lurking in the jug? Simply put a little water in the jug, close and lock the lid, then activate the cleaning function of the blender. This innovative function uses the heating ability of the thermal blender and pulsating water motions to loosen lingering residue easily. Once that’s done, remove the jug and dispose of the water. You can opt to clean manually for a more thorough finish, with suitable cleaning brushes usually included along with thermal types of blenders for this purpose.
Our Pick: Bellini Kitchen Master by Cedarlane
Pros
Versatile – Alongside that power, the thermal mixer can also be fitted with various attachments and options to better suit your need.
Easy to dismantle for cleaning
Allows for blending of heated products as well as cold products
Cons
Loud noise when operational
Can be fiddly and time-consuming to set up and clean
Tend to be limited to baking tasks
5. Hand Blender
Hand-held blenders are great for simple, easy blending and chopping-such as puréeing food, making soups, or making dips. Unlike bulkier food processors and jug blenders, they are compact and easy to store.
These types of blenders are designed to blend smoothies and shakes into single servings that can be taken on the go in the same jar or container you mixed in. And they are also strong enough to pulse and puree small batches of dips, sauces, and batters, much like regular blenders.
Best Used For:
Handheld stick blenders excel at puréeing, chopping and blending. You may directly blend or chop food in a bowl or saucepan using one of these types of blenders. Therefore, if you want to be able to process different quantities of food but do not have the space for a larger gadget, they may be a good choice.
Cleaning: Since they have fewer parts, hand blenders are generally straightforward to use and clean.
Our Pick: KitchenAid KHBBV53BM Cordless Hand Blender
Pros
Portable
Small enough to fit in a drawer
Some come with a wide range of attachments
Straightforward cleaning process
Cons
Hand blenders can often develop problems related to the switch.
Can be tiring to hold
May struggle with heavier or larger loads
Some splatter food Can have short maximum running times
6. Immersion Blender
These hand-held blenders are equipped with the motor on one end and blades on the other. They are often referred to as Stick Blenders. Without having to move it to and from a blender, they can do big jobs like mixing smoothies and pureeing soups directly in the pot, and they can also handle small jobs like making a dressing or whipping cream.
Best Used For:
As these types of blenders are designed to work with hot liquids, soup and hot liquids are typically a perfect starting point when using immersion blenders. They can also be used to make smoothies or beverages free of seeds, but they lack the strength of full-size blenders, so maybe the texture won’t be the best.
Cleaning: It is very easy to clean immersion blenders as they do not have any jars and can be used directly in a bowl or pot. As such, all you need to do is clean their blades and rinse them, and you’ll be done. You’ll want to consider a dishwasher safe, removable shaft on the immersion blenders. This way, during washing, you won’t need to worry about getting the blender’s motor wet. Plus, they remove the need for hand-cleaning the area around the blades.
Our Pick: Waring WSB33X 7″ Light Duty Quick Stik Immersion Blender
Pros
You can use it to blend ingredients in different containers.
Various attachments are available to increase functionality, including;
- whisks (to incorporate air into soufflé or to mix creamy mashed potatoes)
- beaters (to whip heavy cream or egg whites)
- ricers (to handle cooked vegetables and fruit).
Cons
Can be uncomfortable to hold for big prep jobs
Can have short maximum running times
Takes long to fully blend
7. Frozen Drink Blender
If you like ice slushies or margaritas, a blender that can crush ice into a fine texture is needed for the perfect frozen drink. Although some blenders struggle with ice since it can get caught under the blades, frozen drink blenders can make fine snow-like ice with a crush that is evenly processed. Any of these types of blenders should also be able to break down into a cold, silky smoothie of frozen fruit and veggies.
Best Used For:
Frozen drink blenders are suitable in the kitchen or commercially to crush ice cubes or break down frozen fruits and vegetables. These are the best types of blenders for making frozen drinks, especially if you do a lot of entertaining.
Cleaning: Easy to remove the detachable parts and wash/clean.
Pros
Powerful motors that easily crushes ice and frozen fruit
Ease of use and controls
can be stored on a wall (with a suitable bracket), or in a store room, freeing up valuable worktop space.
Easy cleanup
Cons
May wear quickly if overused for ice crushing
Users have complained about the blender noise: it’s loud
A bit pricey
Choosing From the Different Types of Blenders
Summers are all about blending and drinking; fantastic results cannot be achieved without choosing the best of these types of blender for your needs. Here we have the seven different types of blenders you’re likely to come across. They all have their benefits, with some being more difficult to use compared to others. Learning more about these blenders will undoubtedly improve your cooking experience.
