KitchenAid make beautiful products we are a huge fan of their designs which to us give a retro feel with a modern touch. All their products come in a huge range of glorious colours and this blender is no exception.
As well as looking great it gives you great value for money. It has a large 60-ounce pitcher and offers fairly high performance considering it’s price point. If you are looking for a stylish blender that will complete most standard kitchen blending tasks then you can’t go wrong with this one. It’s great.
Of course there are more high powered blenders out there but the extra power is reflected in the higher price. When we first received this blender to review we didn’t really expect that much performance purely because of the price it was being sold at but we were completely wrong. This blender is on par or even exceeds blenders that are twice the price.
Design and Features
The firs thing anyone always comments on with KitchenAid products is the design. If you are into vintage design then you are probably already a big KitchenAid fan. It looks like something your Gran would have used when you were a child but modern at the same time. We get this feeling with most KitchenAid products. Their design team really do a great job.
Because it has a vintage design it has a tall pitcher. Most modern blenders opt for a short but wide pitcher. What we noticed in our tests was that the narrower pitcher actually made for better performance as the food was always in contact with the blades. Other models were wider pitchers often got larger chunks stuck on the side well away from the blades meaning we had to stop and stir the ingredients. No such problem here.
The KitchenAid has a primary lid and an inner lid. Both can be removed during use to add extra ingredients. Removing the inner lid leaves a nice gap for adding larger pieces but it’s not so large that you will get splattered and as the blade is further away from you because of the tall pitcher, mess really isn’t an issue.
The control panel is really simple to use. Of course there is no modern LED screen on this design. KitchenAid like to keep things simple and more mechanical. It has buttons for mix, puree, chop and liquefy. It also has an ice crushing setting. As well as this you get 5 power buttons that let you choose the power of the pulse. Depending on what you are making this comes in quite useful. Some recipes require a gentler touch which you can get by reducing the power.
As I mentioned earlier there are a whole host of fantastic colours to choose from. There are 15 colours in total. So there is absolutely no chance you won’t find one that matches your other appliances or your kitchen in general.
There are no other brands that we can think of that offer this wide a range of colour options. This is another reason we love KitcehnAid.
Usability
As we mentioned the control panel is very easy to use. You will find all KitchenAid products are like this. Simple to use with minimal but power functionality. At the end of the day most appliances these days come with a whole host of settings that we never use. KitchenAid have given you everything you ever will need and kept it simple.
The pitcher locks into position easily. The blender will try to engage if the pitcher isn’t perfectly locked into position but it doesn’t cause any damage it just makes a strange noise.
One of our biggest annoyances with most blenders is cleaning them. I use my blender every day to make a protein shake but if it wasn’t easy to clean I’d just use a shaker bottle. This blender has 3 parts to clean that all separate from each other. The blade, the pitcher and the lid. It comes apart easily. My tip is to clean it straight away. Rinse the parts under the tap and then let them dry on the drainer and reassemble it later when it is dry. At least that is what I do for a milk shake or protein shake.
Performance
We expected the performance of this blender to be quite low purely because of what it costs. We should have known better. We have owned a KitchenAid food mixer for a few years and that thing is a beast when it comes to performance.
This blender will perform admirably with every you throw at it. One of the best tests on performance for a blender is it’s ability to vrush ice. For some reason manufacturers think we are all obsessed with crushing ice. I’m not but maybe I’m alone in this. It is always prominent on the packaging for blenders. Few do it very well. Most lack the power to crush ice properly. The KitchenAid does a fine job.
If it crushes ice then you already know it’s going to blend most foods quite well. For smoothies and protein shakes it is flawless.
As we mentioned earlier it has some lower power settings which are great for whipping cream etc. Quite a few more expensive blenders have forgotten about lower power settings presuming everything needs max power.
We had read that this blender will blend a block of cheese so of course we had to try this out. Not only did it blend it but it did it with ease. This was a great showcase for it’s power on the higher settings.
Care and Maintenance
This one comes with a standard one year warranty. We have always found KitchenAid products to be well built and long lasting but they do offer servicing via the website if you need it.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a stylish and incredibly versatile blender then you can do a lot worse than the KitchenAid 5-Speed Diamond Blender. If you are looking for something to make protein shakes and smoothies only then you might as well get something cheaper like the Hamilton Beach Smoothie Smart Blender. If you need something a bit more powerful though then take a close look at the KitchenAid. This blender will break a block of cheese without much bother but it won’t break the bank.
CHECK LATEST PRICES AND REVIEWS ON AMAZON
