Why You Can Trust CNET Hamilton Beach Smoothie Smart Blender review: This $40 model keeps it simple
No it isn't a miracle worker, but this $40 blender by Hamilton Beach can get the job done, as long as the job is simple.
When you picture a blender, you probably imagine something that looks a lot like this:
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
That's the $39 Hamilton Beach Smoothie Smart Blender -- and it's an excellent option for all of your basic blending needs. More and more often, though, all kinds of fancy-pants blenders that boast ginormous capacities, powerful motors that sound like helicopters in flight, and special features like touch screens and single-serving attachments are popping up in stores.
So we tested this $39 model against the $149 KitchenAid 5-Speed Diamond Blender, the $199 Cuisinart PowerEdge 1000 Watt Blender, the $199 Breville Hemisphere Control Blender, the $199 Ninja Ultima Blender, the $454 Blendtec Designer Series Wildside Blender, and the $529 Vitamix 7500 Blender to see what you might be missing if you opt for a budget model over a significantly more expensive one.
I found out that it's very difficult to definitively recommend one over any of the others. More than design, usability, features, and performance, this decision has a lot to do with you: how often you plan to use a blender and what you plan to make in that blender. And since none of them spontaneously burst into flames during testing, there weren't any true duds (except perhaps the Cuisinart, but I'll discuss that more later).
In light of that, here's my recommendation: Get the Hamilton Beach if you typically use a blender to make basic things like salad dressing, smoothies, and puréed soups. It can also make more complex recipes like pesto, but it will take a bit more effort (and patience) on your part. It won't require much counter space, if that's a concern, but it also can't hold as much food as some of the other blenders. It will disappoint if you want a high-powered blender-food processor hybrid that can decimate an entire block of cheese in seconds. But don't forget that it's over $100 less than any of the other models, so I still think it's quite an impressive little blender.
Design, usability, and features
This blender has a height of 14.5 inches, an 8.5-inch depth, and a 7-inch width. It has a 48-ounce glass pitcher and black and brushed silver finish. The overall design is very simple, but it's sturdily built and it looks much nicer than its $40 price tag would suggest.
Its design simplicity plays directly into its usability. This blender couldn't be easier to operate. The lid has a spout so you don't have to remove the whole top when you're pouring a smoothie (or any other blended thing) into a container. The jar has a sizable handle to make lifting and pouring as manageable as possible. And it fits nicely into the base after each use.
The buttons, too, are incredibly streamlined. For your $40 you get a mix/milkshake, a pulse/ice crush, a puree/icy drink, and a smoothie setting. There's nothing superfluous here at all, just good old-fashioned blender settings, nicely arranged for effortless reading and operation. As you know, blenders aren't typically a very feature-rich appliance. They plug in, they turn on and off, and they blend things. This Hamilton Beach model is no exception -- the presets are pretty much all it has to offer in the features department. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's lacking, though.
Performance
So, how did the Hamilton Beach actually do during testing? You already know that it can't shred a block of cheese, but it can do some other things pretty darn well.
Ice
Since a lot of blenders come with an ice crush setting, this seemed like an important test to conduct. So I tossed ice cubes, ice cubes in water, and bagged ice into the Hamilton Beach for three different measures of ice crushing performance. The user manual suggests crushing cubed ice right after it's removed from the freezer and to make sure that no pieces are stuck together. This definitely helped the process along, but it still took a lot of pulsing to get the ice to a uniformly crushed state.
The ice cubes in water got to the desired consistency much faster, and the blender blades barely made a dent in the bagged ice. That's probably because it was a frozen solid block, rather than uniform cubed pieces (something to think about if you're planning to make delicious icy beverages en masse). All of the blenders responded in pretty much the same way, although some of the more expensive models got there sooner.
Smoothies
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Every blender made passable smoothies. The Hamilton Beach scored the lowest at 96.41 percent. That means that it had a couple of small chunks of strawberry left over after I ran the auto smoothie setting. If you blended it a bit longer, though, you would have a perfect smoothie. But, if you do want perfect smoothies every time, the Vitamix, Blendtec, and Breville placed in the top three.
Pesto
I also made spinach pesto in the Hamilton Beach blender. To start, I added the spinach, walnuts, garlic cloves, cheese, and olive oil and then pulsed it 15 times. Each time it took about 60 pulses to get to a reasonable pesto consistency, but it was still a bit on the chunky side. Between every 15 pulses, I mixed the ingredients with a spatula to make sure that it blended the pesto evenly. It only took the Ninja 15 pulses to get a totally smooth, uniform sauce. So, while some of the more expensive models can act as food processors, the Hamilton Beach can't really compete on that level.
Almonds
The more powerful blenders, like the Ninja, the Blendtec, and the Vitamix all claim to be able to make nut butters. This is a more challenging, less common use for a blender, but it was definitely worth testing on all seven models. First, I tried to make almond flour -- a precursor to almond butter. Then, if the Hamilton Beach was successful, I would try to make almond butter.
True to form, the three most powerful models all did incredibly well, producing perfect almond flour and smooth almond butter in under 10 minutes. The Hamilton Beach made great almond flour with no fuss, while the Cuisinart was unable to produce anything but the chunkiest flour with large bits of almonds still intact. So in this case, the Hamilton Beach actually outperformed a $200 model. Overall, though, it couldn't make the transition to almond butter (and neither could the Cuisinart).
Whipped cream
If you don't have a mixer and want to make whipped cream, a blender is a surprisingly acceptable method. Each one made passable whipped cream, but the Hamilton Beach's was the "loosest." Typically you look for stiffness in whipped cream, so that's not a great result, but it still tasted great, so I'm not really complaining.
Pancake batter
I judge successfully blended pancake batter based on how much unblended batter gunk was on the bottom of the pitcher after each test. At first, the Hamilton Beach appeared to do extremely well, but when I poured out the contents, there was some pancake mix stuck to the bottom. This could easily be remedied with a spatula and a slightly longer blend time, but if it requires that much effort, why not just mix it manually from the start?
Most of the other blenders responded in much the same way. The Breville left less batter gunk than the Hamilton Beach, and the Blendtec has a dedicated "batter" preset that worked flawlessly. Basically all of these blenders can make batter, but you might have to use a spatula with the Hamilton Beach before it's perfect. Who's getting hungry?
Cheese
I chucked an 8-ounce block of cheddar into the Hamilton Beach to see what would happen. I know that most of you don't plan to shred entire blocks of cheese in a blender, but I wanted to test its power and overall badassness. Unfortunately, it did not get very far on this test.
For the first few moments after the blades turned on it chopped some of the cheese into smaller bits. After that, though, the rest of the block got wedged in the bottom and the motor just wasn't powerful enough to cut through the cheese. Instead, the remaining cheese hunk rested comfortably inside the pitcher, while the blades rotated wildly without getting close.
Both the KitchenAid and Breville blenders won this test by a long shot. I didn't expect any of this cheese to be edible, as the more powerful blenders like the Ninja, the Blendtec, and the Vitamix completely pulverized the cheese into very tiny bits that began to melt as the blender warmed up and ended up caked to the bottom of the container. The KitchenAid and the Breville actually turned the block into larger, more edible shredded-cheese-esque pieces.
Conclusion
I was pretty impressed with this $40 pint-size blender. It was definitely the underdog starting out given that the next closest in price is the $149 KitchenAid. As a result, I didn't have incredibly high expectations for the Hamilton Beach. But I am glad to be wrong.
No, it didn't outperform any blenders per se, but it did perform on par with the $200 Cuisinart, and given the value of the Hamilton Beach, I consider that a huge success. I would definitely recommend this $40 blender over the $200 Cuisinart if you're looking for the most basic of blendering. That includes pureeing soups, making batter, whipped cream, smoothies, and so on. These simple and relatively basic recipes with "softer" ingredients will do just fine. It might take longer than some of the other models, but if you use your blender only occasionally or don't mind waiting an extra minute or two, this is a very good option.
If you plan to use a blender more often and expect to blend some more "challenging" things, consider either the Breville or the KitchenAid. Both cost $200 and both did very well on most tests. But, if you use your blender all the time, prepare food for a lot of people, or simply want a top-of-the-line machine, consider the Ninja. It has a lot of features and it's huge, so you better want it to be a fixture on your counter because that thing is hard to budge. And if you plan to start a small catering company or other enterprise, consider the more commercial-capable and extremely powerful Blendtec or Vitamix.
So, it really depends on your cooking needs and, of course, your budget. And if budget is a large factor, the cute, durable, and mostly capable Hamilton Beach is a solid blender. But that's about it.