Blender Product Features to Consider

What blender product features should you look for when reviewing and considering different blenders? Below is a discussion of the common features on these appliances and ideas on how to evaluate them.

Number of Watts

What will you primarily use your blender for? Making ice based drinks, smoothies or shakes? Countertop blenders typically have power ranges between 300 and 500 watts, although some have 1,000 watts or more. Higher wattage can be useful when mixing several heavy ingredients or if using it mostly for chopping ice. Immersion blenders are typically not as powerful as countertop models and are more suited for mixing powdered drinks or stirring and mixing ingredients in cookware. Immersion or hand held models should typically have at least 200 of watts of power.

Number of speeds

Blender speeds can range from 3 to 10 or more. Three speeds, slow, medium and fast, along with a pulse option, seems sufficient. A blender's motor is not as finely tuned or calibrated so as to distinguish between 10 or more speeds.

Speed Controls

The speed of the motor is managed by controls on the countertop blender housing unit. Controls can be dials, push buttons, switches or touchpads. Push buttons, switches and dials are easy to use. Newer models may have programmable touchpad settings.

Pulse setting

A button, or blade speed option, which, only when engaged, moves the blender blades, and blends the ingredients in short bursts.

A Large, Wide Container With Visible Markings

Container sizes can range from 32 to 64 ounces. A wide container makes it easier to load ingredients into the blender. Large visible markings on the outside of the container can help you measure ingredients as they are added to the ingredient mix.

A Removable Blade

This makes the cleaning process easy as the blade can be separated for hand cleaning while the container can be washed by hand or put in a dishwater.