I’m a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering kitchen and entertaining. I’ve covered everything from chef’s knives to stand mixers, and I’ve had my hands on every blender worth testing since 2014. I also have a breadth of cooking and entertaining knowledge from decades of working in restaurants and magazine test kitchens. This guide builds on the work of Christine Cyr Clisset, now an editorial director at Wirecutter.

For this guide:

• I’ve spent hundreds of hours researching countless blenders, and tested over 40 models (both full-sized and personal).
• Over the years we’ve spoken to experts, including Lisa McManus, executive editor of equipment testing at America’s Test Kitchen
• I’ve read various editorial reviews on the subject, as well as customer reviews on Amazon and other online retailers.

Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

A countertop blender delivers the silkiest smoothies, daiquiris, soups, and sauces of any type of blender you can buy. It’s more versatile than a personal blender (which is intended primarily for making smoothies) because it holds more and can handle hot liquids.

This style is also more powerful than an immersion blender. An immersion blender is great for pureeing soups directly in the pot or making a quick mayo, but it doesn’t yield the velvety textures you get from a good countertop blender.

How much you should spend on a blender depends on what you’ll use it for. If you want a kitchen workhorse—a machine that can tackle everything from hot soups and sauces to thick frozen concoctions on a daily basis without burning out—our top pick, the Vitamix 5200, is the best choice.

If you don’t want to pay over $400 for the Vitamix 5200, and you don’t use a blender more than a few times a week, consider one of our middle-of-the-road picks—the Oster Versa or the Cleanblend. These blenders are ideal for people who don’t blend every day but who still want something with enough power to make a thick smoothie or the occasional motor-taxing spread, like hummus or nut butter.

Finally, we recommend our budget pick, the KitchenAid K150, for folks who blend only the occasional smoothie or batch of margaritas.

Since 2012, we’ve researched or tested almost every decent household blender available, from budget models starting at $40 to powerful, high-performance models topping out at $700. In all of this testing, we’ve found these criteria to be the most important:

A tall, tapered jar and a strong motor. These are the two factors most responsible for creating a vortex that pulls food down around the blade, allowing the blender to process tough items like kale or frozen berries quickly without burning out.

The main downside to a tall blender jar is that the fully assembled blender might be too tall to fit under low-hanging cabinets. Blenders with wide, short jars are better for countertop storage, but you’re sacrificing performance for that convenience.

High-quality plastic jars. All of our picks have jars made of BPA-free Tritan plastic, which is very durable. Many lower-end blenders don’t advertise the material their jars are made from, but many are likely polycarbonate, which is slightly more brittle than Tritan. Both materials will crack if heated too high, which is why these jars should not go in the dishwasher.

We understand that some folks prefer metal or glass jars. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a powerful blender with a glass jar because the combination can be dangerous. If you accidentally left something like a metal spoon in the blender and turned it on, the glass could shatter.

Stainless steel jars are durable but opaque, and we like to monitor the progress of purees and emulsifications from all sides—not just through the lid. However, if you want to avoid plastic, Vitamix, which makes our top pick, sells a 48-ounce stainless steel blending jar separately. We tested it, and it worked well—but it’ll usually cost you another $200.

Good value and durability for the price. For many home cooks, the holy grail seems to be a $50 or $100 blender that performs like a $500 Vitamix. But that isn’t realistic. Starting at around $200 and up, high-end blenders—often called high-performance blenders—offer more power, and they produce much smoother textures. High-performance blenders also tackle tasks you’d never want to try in a budget-priced blender, such as making peanut butter or milling grains.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with opting for an affordable midrange blender to make the occasional daiquiri or smoothie. So we’ve tested blenders in a wide price range, with the understanding that, for the most part, you get what you pay for.

A good warranty. The most common complaint we’ve seen regarding cheap blenders is that their motors burn out easily and their jars crack or leak. But even higher-end blenders can encounter burnout from excessive stress. That is why a long warranty is important, especially if you’re paying a lot for a blender. Our high-performance blender picks all come with warranties of five to seven years.

A simple interface, with an on/off switch, a pulse button, and a variable-speed dial. Preset programs for making smoothies, mixing soups, or crushing ice can be great if you want to multitask in the kitchen while blending. But we’ve also found that these functions rarely deliver purees as smooth as when we control the speed and time with the manual setting.

A well-fitting tamper to cut down on blending time. With a tamper (a small plastic bat that fits safely in your machine while it’s running), you can burst air pockets and push food toward the blade without having to stop the machine.

The only time using a tamper wouldn’t be helpful is with a cheaper blender. These models don’t come with tampers because they have weaker motors, and forcing frozen and thick mixtures into the blades is too much stress for them to handle without burning out.

We judged each model on how well it performed everyday tasks, such as making smoothies, as well as on more challenging ones, like whipping up mayonnaise.

In each blender, we made a thick smoothie packed with frozen bananas and berries, kale, and coconut water. We looked at each model’s ability to create a consistent vortex without taxing the motor or requiring additional liquid. We tasted the smoothies, and we strained them through a fine-mesh sieve to see how well the blenders had pulverized tough greens and berry seeds.

A blender can be a useful tool for making emulsified sauces, such as mayonnaise, hollandaise, vinaigrettes, and Caesar dressing. So we tested each model’s ability to emulsify mayonnaise made with one egg yolk.

To see how the motors handled dense purees, we processed raw peanuts into peanut butter. With our finalists, we made rounds of piña coladas, to see how well the machines blended ice into slush.

Additionally, we noted how noisy each model was, whether any of them produced a burning smell while the motor ran, whether the jars were difficult to attach to the bases, and how easy it was to use the control panels.

The Vitamix 5200 offers the best performance you can get in a home blender. This model has been one of our favorite blenders since 2014, and it’s the classic Vitamix that has remained the standard for pro chefs and blender enthusiasts. It produced the most consistently good results across all of the tests, and this blender was the most delightful to use.

The Vitamix 5200 consistently blended more gracefully than any other blender. The combination of the jar’s shape and the motor strength created a vortex that pulled ingredients down into the blades with ease.

It also made some of the smoothest smoothies in our tests. Though the prize for the absolute smoothest drinks went to the Cleanblend Blender, the difference between drinks made in the Cleanblend and the Vitamix was marginal. The smoothie made in the Vitamix had just a few more whole raspberry seeds.

The Vitamix 5200 excelled at nut butters and mayo. This blender was the only model we tested that smoothly blended peanuts and almonds into butter. Other picks, including the Cleanblend and the Oster, spit bits of mayo up the sides of the jar and out the lid’s center hole. But the Vitamix kept the mixture moving smoothly and evenly around the base of the blade.

It had the best range of speeds. The Vitamix 5200’s low is really low, and this blender produces a noticeable shift as you advance through each number. This range of speeds made the Vitamix the best blender we tested for hot liquids: You can start at a lazy swirl and gradually increase the speed so that hot liquid is less likely to shoot up toward the lid. By comparison, on its lowest setting, the Cleanblend has a forceful start, which increases the chances of a painful eruption of hot soup.

The Vitamix 5200’s tamper helps it blend really fast. A tamper is essential for breaking up air pockets and pushing ingredients down toward the blade while the machine is running. By keeping the ingredients moving with the tamper, we were able to whip up a smoothie in less than 60 seconds.

When we used models that didn’t have a tamper, we often needed to stop the blender to burst air pockets or scrape ingredients down the sides of the jar with a spatula. In some cases, we also had to add more water to the smoothie to get all of the ingredients to move around the blades. So it took longer to blend a smoothie in those machines—often with more-watery results.

Its Tritan-plastic jar is sturdy and comfortable to hold. And in the five years we used ours in Wirecutter’s test kitchen, it also remained clear and free of cracks.

It’s easy to clean. Just blend 8 ounces of hot tap water with a couple drops of dish soap for about 30 seconds, and then rinse out the jar.

And it’s quieter than others we tested. No high-powered blender could be described as quiet, but we found the Vitamix’s noise to be quieter than the roar of our runner-up, the Oster Versa.

The Vitamix 5200 is equipped with an automatic-shutoff feature. Should its motor overheat, this keeps it from burning out. In our experience, this blender should be able to handle a lot before it gets to that point. But if yours does shut off, it’s best to let the machine rest for an hour before you try to use it again.

It’s backed by a seven-year warranty. This softens the blow of spending $400 on a blender. According to Vitamix’s customer service, the approximate time between filing a claim and receiving your blender back in working order (or a certified refurb) is six to 10 days. For an additional fee, you can buy a three-year extended warranty for the 5200.

Attachments for the Vitamix 5200

In 2022, we tested some attachments that are available (as separate purchases) for the Vitamix 5200: the Vitamix Personal Cup Adapter and a 48-ounce stainless steel blending pitcher.

We tested the Personal Cup Adapter package (which includes two 20-ounce double-walled blending cups with lids and an adapter fitted with blades) against our personal blender picks.

The Vitamix Personal Cup Adapter works just as well as the personal blenders we recommend. In our tests, it performed on a par with both models at pureeing vibrant kale pesto, silky date shakes, and thick smoothies.

The trade-off is that the tapered cup is small, with a capacity that’s 12 ounces less than the Nutribullet’s. And the bottom is quite narrow, so if you want to maximize the Personal Cup Adapter’s blending capacity, you need to be strategic about filling the cup (tiny fruit first, chunkier fruit later). By comparison, the Nutribullet has wide cylindrical blending containers that can accommodate large chunks of fruit and ice, no matter how you load them.

If you already own a 5200, it’s convenient to get the adapter instead of another standalone personal blender. But you have to weigh that convenience against the cost: Compared with our recommendations in our standalone personal blender guide, the Vitamix adapter is more expensive than our top pick.

If you’re looking for an alternative to a plastic jar, consider the Vitamix 48-ounce stainless steel blending pitcher. The advantages to stainless steel are that it doesn’t stain or retain smells. But the 48-ounce stainless steel blending pitcher has less capacity than the full-size, 64-ounce plastic container that comes with the 5200. And like other low-profile blending containers, the stainless steel jar also works best when it’s at least one-quarter full. That said, in our tests it easily blended a thick, 24-ounce berry-kale smoothie, with few seeds left whole.

How the Vitamix 5200 has held up

Senior editor Marguerite Preston has used her Vitamix 5200 on a weekly basis since 2019, and she says it’s held up great. Her family uses it mainly to make smoothies, herb-based sauces, and the occasional batch of oatmeal-banana pancakes.

We also used a Vitamix 5200 in our test kitchen for five years and had nothing but excellent results. It finally did burn out, but only after we put it through strenuous use over the course of many tests for this guide and others. Still, it easily outlasted the Oster Versa, and it made many more (and better) batches of nut butter and extra-thick smoothies before we pushed it to its limit. Since our Vitamix was still under warranty when it burned out, we contacted customer service, and the representatives promptly replaced it.

I’ve also used a Vitamix at home for years, and it’s still my favorite household blender, period. I long-term tested our runner-up pick, the Oster Versa, for six months and noticed some glaring differences: The Vitamix can handle more without its motor straining, and the Vitamix’s tamper is much better than the Oster’s (which is really hard to get down in there).

Christine Cyr Clisset, deputy editor and author of a previous version of this guide, said she finally bought herself a refurbished Vitamix 5200 after years of long-term testing various Wirecutter blender picks. Christine said the first five (or so) times she used her 5200, she noticed a slight burning smell while making her morning smoothies.

During a call with customer service, she learned that when you’re blending a thick smoothie, Vitamix recommends that you start the blender at the lowest variable speed setting, and then immediately turn the dial to 10—while vigorously tamping at the same time. Christine had been starting on low and then very gradually increasing the speed, likely stressing the motor. She reports that the burning smell has subsided since she’s followed the advice from Vitamix.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

For many people, the biggest issue with the Vitamix 5200 is its steep price. This blender is normally at least twice the price of our runner-up, the Oster Versa. But after years of testing and using the Vitamix 5200, we find that it’s more durable and overall more effective than any other blender we’ve tried.

You can save some money on a Vitamix if you opt for a certified-refurbished model. A certified reconditioned Vitamix comes with a five-year warranty (with an option to extend coverage three more years, for an additional $75).

At more than 20 inches tall, the Vitamix 5200 is a big appliance. It’s too tall to fit under some kitchen cabinets. If size is an issue, and you’re willing to give up some of the functionality you get from a tall, tapered jar, Vitamix makes other blenders (as mentioned below) that have a shorter profile.

The Vitamix 5200 doesn’t come with any presets, just a variable-speed dial. However, even though it’s nice to be able to press a button and have your blender run through a smoothie-making program, this is not really essential. You’ll probably stick close to your blender anyway, in order to use the tamper to get things moving, and it’s not hard to adjust the dial if you feel the need to. With this blender, it’s also easy to get good results without any presets.

We don’t think you can beat the value of the Oster Versa Pro Series Blender. This machine isn’t quite as powerful as the Vitamix 5200, but it is about half the price. And it beat most of the other blenders in its price range at making silky smoothies, purees, and blended cocktails.

Smoothies made in the Oster Versa were much smoother than those made in other lower-priced blenders. But it doesn’t achieve the absolute smoothest drink textures you’d get from the Vitamix or the Cleanblend—it left whole raspberry seeds in smoothies and made a slightly grainy piña colada.

This blender made a decent nut butter and velvety puree, but it struggled with mayonnaise. Compared with nut butter made in the pricier Vitamix, the nut butter made in the Oster Versa was slightly crunchier, and it required at least two cups’ worth of nuts to blend properly. And when we made mayonnaise in this blender, we were able to make an emulsification only once out of four tries.

We found the Oster Versa easier to control than the similarly priced CleanBlend, thanks to its wide range of speeds. The Oster Versa’s low speed is sane enough that you can start pureeing a batch of soup without having hot liquid shoot up the sides of the jar. The Cleanblend, despite its variable-speed dial, seems to have only two settings: high and higher.

Unlike our other picks, this blender has manual speed controls and preset programs for soup, dip, and smoothies. So the Oster Versa is more versatile than the pricier Vitamix 5200, which has only a manual variable-speed dial. To get presets with a Vitamix blender, you need to spend even more.

This blender’s tamper is a little too short and oddly shaped. Compared with the smooth, cylindrical tampers of the Vitamix and Cleanblend models, the Oster Versa’s tamper has three flat pieces of plastic that meet in the middle. Even so, it still sufficiently bursts air bubbles and helps move things like peanuts around the blades, so it’s better than no tamper at all.

Like other high-performance models, this blender is beefy. Its base takes up 8 by 9 inches of counter space. But at 17½ inches tall, the Oster Versa fits better under most kitchen cabinets than the Vitamix or the Cleanblend, both of which are over 19 inches tall.

Like the Vitamix 5200, the Oster Versa shuts off if the motor is in danger of overheating. If this happens, you should allow the blender to cool for 45 minutes before you run it again. Doing this reduces the risk of permanent motor burnout.

Should it burn out, the Oster Versa comes with a limited seven-year warranty. This covers “defects in material and workmanship,” including the motor and the Tritan jar. The policy is about the same as the coverage from Vitamix, which offers a seven-year warranty on the 5200. In our experience, Oster’s customer service is courteous, and it quickly addresses any issues with a blender while it’s under warranty.

Know that the Oster Versa won’t deliver the longevity and performance of a Vitamix 5200. The Oster Versa’s hardware feels a little cheaper (which is understandable since it costs a good bit less than the Vitamix). And the Oster Versa’s biggest flaw is its durability: We found through personal experience that it can burn out after two to three years of moderate to frequent use. But Oster honors its seven-year warranty and is quick to send a replacement (we got ours in about a week).

How the Oster Versa has held up

For three years, we used the Versa to make smoothies and soup twice a week on average. And during that time, it never quit on us—though we occasionally detected a faint burning smell from the motor when we were blending thick smoothies. But the motor permanently died when we formally tested the three-year-old Versa again for our 2017 update: When we were one minute into blending the nut butter, the machine’s overload protection cut the motor. We should’ve let the motor rest for 45 minutes before restarting, but we let it cool for only 10 minutes before our second attempt—and that’s when the motor burned out completely. However, our blender was still under warranty, and Oster quickly sent a replacement.

If you can live with less-nuanced controls (read: you don’t blend hot liquids often), and you’re willing to take a chance on a shorter warranty, the 1,800-watt Cleanblend Blender costs about the same as the Oster Versa and produces finer purees.

The Cleanblend Blender made the smoothest smoothies and silkiest piña coladas of all of our picks, including the Vitamix 5200. When we strained the Cleanblend’s kale-and-berry smoothie, hardly any raspberry seeds remained in our fine-mesh sieve.

But it’s not great for making soup. This blender kicks into high gear even at the lowest setting. In our soup test, it sent hot liquid shooting up to the lid.

And mayo made in this blender was noticeably warm. That’s because the blender’s motor seems to produce a lot of heat. The Cleanblend was better at making mayonnaise than the Oster Versa, though.

So far in our long-term tests, the Cleanblend Blender’s motor has outlasted the Oster Versa’s. In our 2017 testing, our four-year-old Cleanblend and Vitamix blenders both powered through two rounds of nut butter without quitting. The same test fried our three-year-old Oster Versa. That said, Oster offers a seven-year warranty on the Versa Pro Series Blender, but Cleanblend offers only a five-year total warranty.

Cleanblend will extend the warranty to a total of 10 years, for an extra $75. This is a great value when you consider that the blender, including a decade of coverage, still costs about $150 less than a Vitamix 5200. You’re not going to get the all-around great performance of a Vitamix for less than half the cost, but the Cleanblend is still a good value.

However, Cleanblend’s customer service is reachable only by email or a form on its website. So that might not inspire confidence in some people. Both Vitamix and Oster have a customer service phone number that connects you to a representative.

This blender’s base takes up about the same amount of counter space as our other high-performance picks. (Our budget pick, the KitchenAid K150, is smaller.) And at 19 inches high to the top of the lid, the Cleanblend has just slightly more clearance under most kitchen cabinets than the Vitamix (which measures closer to 20 inches).

How the Cleanblend Blender has held up

Senior staff writer Michael Sullivan has used an older version of this blender in his home since 2017, and he said he’s never had an issue with it. He pulls it out about six times a month to make smoothies, sauces, soup, or occasionally emulsifications like mayonnaise. He has even crushed ice in it a few times, and he said so far it has never stalled.

Wirecutter writer Sabrina Imbler used the Cleanblend in their home for more than a year. They used it three to four times a week and never experienced stalling or burnout. Sabrina told us: “[My] only minor complaint is that sometimes the blender rattles a bit on top of the base, which makes me a little wary, but otherwise it’s great. I only use it for smoothies and mixed drinks, never any kind of nuts, but it pulverizes ice pretty quickly. It’s also the perfect size for two smoothies. I really like that it’s a dial as opposed to number buttons—easier to [crank] up if my stuff isn’t blending fast.”

If you blend only the occasional smoothie, daiquiri, or soup, you don’t need an expensive, high-powered blender. The KitchenAid K150 3 Speed Ice Crushing Blender will serve your needs.

The KitchenAid K150 performed okay when making smoothies and frozen drinks. As is true with most blenders around this price, with the K150 you need to add more liquid to get a continuous vortex; otherwise, you have to stop it a couple of times to break up air pockets. Overall, we were satisfied with the drinks we made in the K150. The piña colada was a little icy but not offensive. And the smoothie was what we’d expect from a good $100 blender: very drinkable, with whole berry seeds and tiny flecks of kale.

The K150 safely blends hot liquids, including pureed soups. That’s because when you turn the machine on, its blades automatically start slowly and ramp up to the set speed.

We were pleasantly surprised that the K150 could make a small batch of mayonnaise from one egg yolk and half a cup of oil. We didn’t think the jar’s wide, square base and relatively short blade span would emulsify such a small volume.

As the name indicates, this blender crushes ice. We’re not talking professional-grade, fluffy shaved ice, of course. But this blender will do the trick if you want to make a few snow cones on a hot summer day.

The K150 is lightweight and compact. This blender is perfect for those who want to store their blender in a cabinet. And it has a low profile (15 inches), so it can easily fit in the standard clearance (18 inches) between kitchen countertops and upper cabinets. But at 48 ounces, the pitcher is on the small side, and it lacks the comfy rubber-clad handle found on our other picks.

The KitchenAid K150 comes with a one-year warranty. It excludes accidents, drops, misuse, and abuse.

If you find that your blender is having a difficult time processing ingredients, don’t be afraid to be aggressive (within reason) with the tamper in order to get the mixture moving around the blades. Also, make sure the blender jar is at least 25% full. When you’re making a smoothie, the general blender-loading protocol is as follows: greens first, then raw fruits and veggies, frozen food, ice, and liquid last.

To limit the risk of hot liquids shooting out the top of a blending jar, always start on a low setting and slowly increase the speed (in general, presets do this automatically). Never fill the jar past the hot-liquid fill line. And for good measure, to limit the risk of the lid popping off, place a dish towel over it and use your hand to firmly hold down the lid while you blend.

It’s best to avoid putting blender components in the dishwasher. You’ll extend the life of the jar, lid, and tamper by hand-washing them with warm water and mild dish soap. If that seems like a pain, don’t worry. We have some tips on how to quickly clean your blender bits so you can get on with your day.

If you’re looking for a powerful and attractive blender: The KitchenAid Pro Line Series Blender is a good choice for the aesthetically minded cook. This stylish behemoth is meant to live on the countertop. And that’s a good thing because it weighs 22 pounds, so you won’t want to be lifting it in and out of cupboards. In our tests this blender created silky-smooth textures (albeit not quite as easily as the Vitamix 5200), but it wasn’t great at emulsification. After a few years of long-term testing the KitchenAid Pro Line blender, deputy editor Christine Cyr Clisset said she really liked it. Christine said she used the Pro Line every day to make smoothies and found the preset blending programs useful on busy weekday mornings. (She did admit, however, that she added enough liquid to her smoothies so that they blended without her needing to use a tamper.)

If you need speed and strength from your blender: The Braun TriForce Power Blender is a beast. When we tested it against other high-powered picks, the Braun TriForce yielded super-silky smoothies in record time—just under a minute. But we thought it blended almost too well—the smoothies we made were liquified and lacked the creaminess and sorbet-like body we got from smoothies made in our picks. This machine was so powerful that it shot bits of food through the hole in the lid. And in the five seconds it took to remove the tamper and replace the lid cap, it sprayed our countertop and backsplash with smoothie mixture. All that power does mean you can make a good nut butter, though. We like this blender’s backlit control panel, which includes a variable speed dial, six blend settings, and a pulse button. We think this model is good for the price—even if it is a little too powerful.

If you’re looking for a fairly powerful budget option: We’re impressed with the performance and price of the Nutribullet Full Size Blender. Like the Braun TriForce blender, this Nutribullet model tends to blend the body and creaminess out of a smoothie, yielding a more-liquified (yet admittedly smoother) smoothie than we got from our budget pick, the KitchenAid K150. The Nutribullet also emulsified mayonnaise on the first try. It failed our nut butter test, but we have yet to find a $100 blender that can pulverize nuts into a paste. Even though we’re impressed with the Nutribullet’s performance-to-price ratio, we found the KitchenAid K150 to be a much more elegant machine—in both performance and looks.

Although we favor the Vitamix 5200 for its tall, tapered pitcher and simple functionality, we understand that some seeking this brand’s quality and blending power may have other priorities. If you strongly prefer presets, or you need a shorter jar that will fit your space, consider looking at other models.

Over the years, we’ve tested our way through much of Vitamix’s product line. Here’s what we think about the models we’ve looked at so far:

Compared with our top pick, the Vitamix 5300 has the same 64-ounce capacity and speed-control dial, but it lacks the 5200’s ultra-high-speed switch. We found that the 5300’s low-profile jar failed to maintain a vortex as well as the 5200’s narrow, tapered one. Also, for smaller volumes (2 cups and under), the 5300’s tamper didn’t reach down quite far enough to burst air pockets. The 5300 is part of Vitamix’s C-Series, which includes the 5200. So if you already own the 5300 and want to try the 5200’s tapered jar, you can currently purchase the jar for $150.

The Vitamix Explorian E320 is nearly identical to the 5300. A Vitamix customer service rep told us that the two blenders had the same motor base, jar, tamper, and functionality. The main difference between the two is that the 5300 has a small on/off switch located just below the control panel. On top of that, the E320 is available only as part of a package with two personal cups and an adapter.

Vitamix added the Explorian Series E310 variable-speed blender to its lineup in 2017. We decided not to test this model because we didn’t think it was a good value. Although it’s typically about three-quarters the price of the Vitamix 5200, the cost difference is directly proportional to the E310’s smaller blending jar (48 ounces versus the 5200’s 64 ounces) and shorter warranty (five years versus the 5200’s seven years).

We’ve also tested three of the four Vitamix Ascent Series blenders (2300, 2500, and 3500), and these models come with the low-profile pitcher. The Ascent blenders are the upper echelon of the Vitamix line, with updated features including digital control panels and built-in timers. Like all of the low-profile Vitamix blenders we tested, these Ascent models aren’t as graceful or effective as the 5200 at blending smaller volumes (though you can buy extra attachments for that).

The Vitamix Ascent 2300 blender has most of the same core controls and blending power as the 5300, but the 2300 features an updated control panel that includes a digital display with a count-up timer (which could be helpful for those who strictly follow recipes). The Ascent 2500 has the additional feature of three blending programs (smoothies, hot soup, and frozen desserts).

The Ascent 3500 has a couple of upgrades that set it apart from the 2000 models; these upgrades include a programmable countdown timer (which will stop the blender when the time is up) and five preset blending functions (the most of any Vitamix). Apart from those features, the 3500 performs similarly to other Ascent models.

We also tested the Ascent Blending Cup and Bowl Starter Kit (which you have to buy separately); it can blend and chop small amounts, and it’s meant to take the place of a separate personal blender. The Ascent models are equipped with what Vitamix calls Self Detect technology. Basically, the blender base recognizes the type of blending container and adjusts to the appropriate speed control.

Both the cup and the bowl work as intended—eventually. During our tests, it sometimes took us a few tries to get the 3500 blender base to recognize the cup or bowl. After the 3500 eventually complied, we were able to blend a thick smoothie in the cup and chop garlic in the bowl—both pieces performed well. But compared with personal blenders, the Vitamix blending cup is narrow and small, so you have to chop up large chunks of fruit to maximize its 20-ounce capacity.

The Zwilling Enfinigy Power Blender didn’t make it past our first round of tests. To get a decent, 20-ounce smoothie, it took us over two minutes of blending and vigorous tamping—enough to make my hand sore for two days after testing. The jar is too wide and the tamper too stumpy to accommodate smaller volumes—and we don’t even consider 20 fluid ounces to be “small.”

The KitchenAid K400 blender is more powerful than the KitchenAid K150, our budget pick—but not enough to warrant the price jump. And in our tests, the K400 wasn’t nearly as good at blending fibrous kale as the less-pricey Oster Versa and Cleanblend blenders.

We tested an older but similar version of the Blendtec Designer 650. While it killed it when making smoothies and blended drinks, its lack of a tamper limits its usefulness: It failed to make peanut butter (a tamper would have helped), and the preset speed for soup was frightening, with hot liquid flying wildly around the jar.

We tested the Blendtec Total Blender for our 2012 review but found that it couldn’t compete with the Vitamix we tested at the time. The lid felt flimsy, and the panel controls seemed cheap.

In our tests, the powerful Breville Super Q threw a smoothie up the sides and into the lid (and even onto my face, when I opened the cap to add more liquid). This blender pulverizes tough foods, but the Vitamix 5200 also does that—for less money and with less drama inside the jar.

The Cuisinart CBT-1500 Hurricane blender struggled in our tests. Making thick smoothies and peanut butter involved adding more liquid, a lot of starting and stopping, and banging the jar on the counter. Without the Turbo button of the Hurricane Pro (more on that just below), this model is just another middle-of-the-road blender.

The Cuisinart CBT-2000 Hurricane Pro performed similarly to the Cuisinart CBT-1500 Hurricane blender, except it didn’t make mayonnaise as well (we achieved emulsification on the third try only). We did find the Turbo button useful for creating a fine puree. But again, without a tamper to burst air pockets, this blender needed a lot of tending to produce uniform, smooth purees.

The Ninja Master Prep Professional did a decent job of making smoothies, mixing bean spread, and blending margaritas. But due to its design, this model is terrible for making mayonnaise (the motor is top-mounted, so you can’t drizzle anything into the jar). The stacked blades are also dangerously sharp, so they’re difficult to clean.

The Ninja Professional Blender 1000 didn’t perform well. The green smoothies we made had a weird, confetti-like texture. And our mayo was especially loose, which meant the blender was whipping in too much air. Every time we ran this model, we detected a strong, burning-motor smell.

The Waring Commercial Xtreme made notably smooth smoothies, and it felt substantial. But ultimately it didn’t perform better than our picks from Vitamix, Oster, or Cleanblend. If we were willing to pay this much for a blender, we’d go for a reconditioned Vitamix 5200 instead.

This article was edited by Marilyn Ong.