If, like me, you thought a blender’s ability to well… blend was the only criteria to measure its effectiveness, you’d be mistaken.
Granted, being able to blend is the vast majority of what makes a blender good. However, after a year using a basic NutriBullet I was surprised at how much better a blender can be.
Braun’s PowerBlend 9 is easy to use, it comes with a massive array of premium, genuinely useful features like being able to self-clean and most importantly, it’s great at blending.
While it’s one of the more expensive blenders on the market, if you’re a regular blender user, the PowerBlend 9 reduces prep time and cleaning, and also opens up a lot of other possibilities like making soups and crushing ice.
Everything about the PowerBlend 9 is simple and efficient. This is one of the best blenders on the market.
Pros
- Powerful 1600w motor
- Cleans itself
- iTextureControl for perfect consistency every time
Cons
- Expensive
Price
The Braun PowerBlend 9 costs $450. As a comparison, the 1500W Nutribullet Smart Touch Blender Combo costs $339.
The PowerBlend 9 is an expensive blender; however if you can afford it, it comes with a number of advanced features that make it stand out from the competition.
Design
After using a very basic blender for most of last year, at first glance the PowerBlend 9 looked complicated. In truth it’s simple to use, safe and has a great design.
The blender comes with three containers. There’s a massive 2L jug and 2x 600ml cups. I’m more of a morning smoothie for one type, so I didn’t have much use for the jug, however I can see it being useful for large groups or family events.
It’s easy to alternate between the containers. The jug has a built-in blade so all you need to do is put it on the blender and it’s ready to go. The cups come with a bladed lid that screws on and you’re away.
All three containers have the same size connection so you can put them on the blender without needing to constantly change accessories. It’s simple and efficient.
The front of the blender houses the control panel. It’s as simple as it sounds, if you’re making soup tap soup, use the dial to set your thickness preferences and then touch the start button. Easy as that. Once the blender has started, a handy timer will appear informing you how long you have until the blend is finished.
One thing I didn’t like was the instructions. They could have been a bit clearer. I’m still not sure what the Frozen Dessert setting does and I was mistaken in thinking that Chop was going to chop a carrot into smaller pieces. It’s a little ambiguous and more information would’ve been nice.
Features
The best part about the PowerBlend 9 is the “Clean” feature. Clean gets rid of the problem of having to wash and scrub smoothie containers and lids after every use. Fill the jug or cup with water, add some dishwashing liquid and turn the blender on. It effectively cleaned the blades and the container in seconds. This was a massive time-saver and knowing I didn’t have to spend time cleaning made me want to use the blender more.
Another standout feature is what Braun calls iTextureControl. Using the front dial you can manually select how thick you want the blend to be. Smooth, Medium or Coarse. I loved this feature. I like my smoothies thick and I was never able to get a consistent texture with my more basic blender. Some days it would be too smooth, some days it would be too thick. With iTextureControl set to coarse, I had the perfect consistency every time.
It lends itself well to the other presets as well. The Ice Crush setting allowed me to get the ice to the exact size I needed. It’s effective, consistent and allows you to get your blend just how you want it.
Braun says the PowerBlend 9 is capable of 18 different blend configurations. This number is a bit misleading. It basically means the 6 presets, Smoothie, Soup, Chop, Ice Crush, Frozen Dessert and Spread have three different textures, smooth, medium and coarse. There’s really only six configurations with different smoothness settings.
Performance
The PowerBlend 9 boasts a 1600W motor and it’s powerful. Very powerful. It handled almost anything I threw at it and reduced prep time. I no longer had to cut carrots and apples before putting them into my morning smoothie.
The rotor spins at 45,000RPM. It’s a beast. It’s so fast that it creates enough friction to heat up Soups so you can eat them straight out of the blender.
With a motor this big I was surprised at how quiet the blender was. It’s significantly quieter than my NutriBullet, even at the highest settings.
Verdict
At $450 Braun’s PowerBlend 9 is an expensive blender, however the premium features that come with it make it worth the extra cost.
This is an effective blender. The 1600W motor will handle anything you throw at it and the iTextureControl allowed me to get the consistency and thickness of my morning smoothie just right, day in and day out.
It reduces prep time and the Clean function means you won’t have to scrub the jug or container every time you use it.
Whether it’s smoothies, soups, ice or spreads, the PowerBlend 9 can do it all. Even if you’re not a regular blender user it’s worth the extra investment, you’ll love it.
