Pricewatch: Value for money in juicers and blenders

RUSSELL HOBBS 3-IN-1 ULTIMATE JUICER

€139.99

We reckon you would want to be really, really serious about your juices to invest in this hideously complicated product.

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The Breville Blend Active Family Blender, at €32.99, is very cheap but it has much less power than its rivals.

It is not so much the price – which is pretty horrendous – but all the bits that are cause for the greatest concern, at least for us. There is the motorised citrus press for squeezing oranges and lemons and actual fruit juicer and what the makers call a “powerful personal blender for the creation of thicker smoothies and shakes”.

Storing it will be a problem, cleaning it will be a problem and we can say, with absolutely certainty, that if this were to find its way into the Pricewatch kitchen it would soon join the array of waffle makers, ice-cream makers and other mysterious things bought in hope and never used.

Verdict: Too dear and too bitty.

Star rating: **

NUTRIBULLET

€80.99

This product is very much of the moment – and has been of the moment for about two years. The price you will pay can vary quite wildly but we found the basic model selling for this price in Argos. And, at this price, it is very good value for money.

It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of some of its rivals but it does what it does extremely well. It completely breaks down fruit and vegetables, liquefying and blending together – to make sure you miss out on none of the nutrients.

That is all well and good but what we like about this is how easy it is to clean and how easy it is to store. A ridiculously wholesome smoothie can be prepared in 60 seconds and it won’t take much longer than that to clean it.

Verdict: Genuinely great.

Star rating: *****

NUTRI NINJA

€114.99

You wait years for a nutri-product to come and then two come along at once. Unsurprisingly, given their names, the blades move in a circular, and up and down, motion.

We would imagine that these two things mean it liquefies all that goes into it more efficiently than its better-known rival although, to be honest, we couldn’t really see much difference.

It has an ice-crushing function that may be handy for some people. It is a very good product and the only reservation we have is the price – it was €35 dearer than the Nutribullet and we can’t really see why the extra spend is necessary.

Verdict: Very good but too dear.

Star rating: * * *

BREVILLE BLEND ACTIVE FAMILY BLENDER

€32.99

Were it down to just price, this would win hands down. It is less than a quarter of the price of the most expensive product we reviewed (although it does not have the same functionality) and less than half the price of the next cheapest option – the market-leading Nutribullet.

With a motor that runs at just 300 watts, it has significantly less power than any of its rivals and while we struggled to see any difference between the 600-watt motor and the 900-watt one, we really noticed the power struggle on display here.

The notion that you can blend a smoothie and then take the bottle you blend it in with you to work is kind of cute – although we didn’t much like the colour schemes on offer and would have reservations about the longevity of this.

Verdict: Cheap but it looks it.

Star rating: ***