Best Blender for Smoothies

The best blender for smoothies is not necessarily the most expensive. Compare blenders, check blender reviews and you can find a perfectly good blender for a reasonable price.

My first few smoothie experiments were conducted using a food processor. The results were drinkable but had to be chewed a fair bit on the way through. I quickly invested in a cheap personal smoothie maker from Aldi for about $25. (All prices quoted are in Australian dollars.) That gave me much better results but wasn’t easy to clean and the threads on the plastic base wore quickly.

My next investment was an Aldi $40 blender. (You may see a pattern in my shopping habits emerging here...) This would have been fine for irregular use, but by now I was making smoothies every morning and wanted a blender that would accept ingredients unchopped, do its job quickly and be extremely easy to clean. I needed to save time in my family’s busy morning and not leave myself any more mess than necessary to clean up. I took it back for a full refund.

Also, by this point in time I’d come across sales pitches for the Vitamix blender on raw foodie forums, and had become convinced that I needed one. My partner was certainly not convinced that we needed to spend $1050 on a blender when Aldi had a perfectly good one for 40 bucks. For me, the tantalising descriptions of smoother than smooth smoothies, easy operation and clean-up and the damn sexiness of the thing had me sold.

However, after strong encouragement from my partner, I investigated further. Instead of buying the very BEST blender, I would buy an EXCELLENT blender. My excellent blender is a 2000W Sunbeam Cafe Series PB9600 that we bought for $269, about 25% the cost of a Vitamix blender. Am I happy with it? Yes! It’s a powerful blender that produces smoothness out of whole silverbeet, bok choy or kale leaves, makes creamy nutmilks and doubles as a food processor. It’s easy to clean – I just half-fill it with water and a squirt of dishwashing detergent, let it whiz 10 seconds then give the sides a quick final rinse in the sink. The only drawback is that it’s loud – we all cover our ears for thirty seconds while it’s blending.

Do I need a Vitamix blender?

In my opinion, no. I drink at least a litre of green smoothie daily, and it’s smooth and creamy every time. I do have an excellent blender, and it wasn’t cheap, but it was quarter of the price of a Vitamix blender. Perhaps there’s value in the Vitamix blender’s 3 year warranty, but if you simply don’t have the money up front, sturdy, quality blenders are available for much less. My Sunbeam PB9600 has a 12 month replacement guarantee and a 5 year motor guarantee.

Also in my favour is the fact that I’ve never tried a Vitamix smoothie. Maybe it is a supreme product, but seeing as I’m perfectly happy with my current smoothies it’s probably better that I don’t know. I suspect that any difference isn’t that great.

By the way, I am not trying to sell you a Sunbeam, and I am not a Sunbeam affiliate. You should always do your own research. However, positive rival blender reviews that I found on the internet saved us $750, so I’m paying it forward. For me, the Sunbeam is the best blender because it hit the sweet spot in terms of value for money.

Blender reviews

If you don’t have a daily smoothie habit (yet!) and need to consider your budget, even cheaper blender models can do the job adequately well.

Sunbeam MultiblenderPro
My parents have a Sunbeam MultiblenderPro (800W) which they purchased for $69 on special. They drink green smoothies about 3 times a week and they claim that the smoothies from their Sunbeam blender are just as smooth. Time will tell how soon their cheap blender needs to be replaced, but it has a 12 month warranty.

If you'd like to add a blender review, please email me at trina@growingraw.com, or use the form on the Contact Me page.

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