Blenders are one of the most helpful kitchen appliances we can own. Whether you enjoy making smoothies, frozen desserts, nut butter, or just whipping up protein shakes after your workout, blenders make short work of almost any chopping, grinding, or mixing needs you may have.
Their one drawback is that countertop-blenders are not exactly portable. That is where battery-operated blenders come in to play. Having a portable blender that you can tuck into your briefcase, gym bag, or suitcase gives you the freedom to live an active lifestyle without the need to compromise nutrition or convenience.
Many portable blenders on the market, and choosing the best one for your specific needs can be a daunting task. That is why we are providing this guide to what we consider the best battery-powered blenders on the market.
Here you will find the best of the best battery-powered blenders, advice on what to look for when shopping for a cordless blender, and how battery-powered blenders stack up in terms of performance.
What is a Battery Powered Cordless Blender?
As the name implies, a battery-operated blender is not powered like a traditional blender. They are powered by an internal power source such as batteries.
The majority of battery-operated blenders today are USB rechargeable, much like other mobile devices. This means you can charge them in your car, from your laptop or desktop computer, power bank, or from any mobile charger you may have.
Some rechargeable blenders still use a standard power cord or inverter to boost their batteries, but these are usually older outdated models or on the lower end of the quality scale.
As an aside, there are also some solar and even crank chargeable blenders on the market. These are targeted mainly towards the outdoors people and survivalist markets rather than general consumers. Because of this, we will not be discussing them in this article.
Quick Summary
Our Picks for Best Battery Operated Blender
Ninja BN301 Personal Nutri-Blender Plus Compact
Topping our list of best battery-powered blenders is the Ninja BN301. This is one of our personal favorites because it is one of the most powerful battery-operated blenders on the market. Even with an astounding 900-watts of power, it still punches way above its weight class.
It has all the power you could ask for in a battery-powered personal blender, and with its patented extractor blades, it can crush ice cubes into snow in seconds and create silky smoothies from the toughest ingredients.
Pros
- Built-in safety features
- It comes with three 20-ounce BPA free to-go cups
- Dishwasher safe
- Screw on sippy lids to avoid spills
Cons
- Some users have complained of the top seal on the cups leaking
- Not suitable for hot liquids
- Louder than many blenders in the battery-powered category
BlenderX Cordless Home & Portable Personal Blender
Billed as the blender that delivers countertop performance in a portable blender, this cordless blender has exceptional battery life and power. It has received rave reviews from BUZZFEED and Home and Garden magazine due to its superior design and ease of use.
It is a one-button operation that only requires the jar to be properly locked into place as a safety feature. Unlike many blenders, this powerful blender is not chargeable from a USB port. It uses an old-fashioned power cord like many of us will remember from portable radios and probably have tucked in the back of a drawer.
A stylish waterproof carry bag completes the package of this go anywhere, do anything battery-powered blender.
Pros
- Last for 20-30 uses, making green smoothies per charge
- Power light flashes to let you know batteries are getting low
- It makes crushed ice in a snap
- Can be charged from any standard household outlet
- ETL Certified
- Full two-year warranty
- Dishwasher safe
Cons
- 3.5 hours to recharge from dead
- Some users have complained of charging plug coming loss
- Locking cup only built-in safety feature
2021 Lahuko Portable Blender
![2021 Lahuko Portable Blender[6 Blades]，Personal Blender for Shakes and Smoothies，4000mAh USB Rechargeable Portable Juicer Blender for Home, Travel, Office(White)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51w1esdwwKL._SL500_.jpg)
The Lahuko portable blender packs a lot of punch into a small package. It measures just 1.5×4 inches and weighs in at just over a pound.
But, small doesn’t mean weak. With a 4000mah battery, this portable blender will provide over an hour of blending time, and its proprietary six-blade blending head can make short work of even tough vegetables and greens.
If you love fresh fruit smoothies and live life on the run, then this compact blender could be the ideal companion to have at your side.
Pros
- 22000rpm operating speed for ultra-smooth blends
- Easy cleaning with the provided brush and auto-clean function
- 7.4-volt operating system
- Very compact design
- 4000mah battery
- Dishwasher safe
Cons
- 3-5 hour charging time
- Smaller cup (380 ml) than much of its competition
- It doesn’t come with a separate lid for the cup
- Some buyers have complained it doesn’t crush ice or grind nuts well.
Cuisinart CSB-400CD Cordless and Rechargeable SmartStick Hand Blender
If you should happen to be looking for a battery-operated immersion blender then it would be difficult to find a better choice than the Cuisinart CSB-400CD.
The Cuisinart name has stood for quality kitchen appliances since 1971, and you don’t maintain a sterling reputation for that long if by accident. You do it by offering top-shelf machines and providing quality customer service.
The CSB-400 is a battery-operated cordless blender that offers change on the fly 5-speed convenience to make blending easy. Its power lock safety feature makes it ideal for homes with children.
It is powered by two built-in 3.9-volt lithium-ion batteries (7.8 volts total ) that provide up to 20 minutes of continuous run time even at high speed, and as an added bonus, it comes with a chef’s whisk to take the work out of whipping meringue and cream.
Pros
- 3″ commercial-style blade guard
- It comes with a whisk and measuring cup
- Useful to blend hot liquids
- Dishwasher safe
- USB rechargeable with quick charge feature
- Power Lock/Unlock for safety and convenience
- 300-watt DC motor
Cons
- Some buyers have complained the lock button is difficult for people with weaker hands to use
- It might not be strong enough for some difficult blending chores
- Some users find it heavy when used for extended periods
- No cup style blender attachment
PopBabies Personal Portable Blender
One of the highest-rated battery-operated blenders on Amazon, the PopBabies Personal Blender comes with many features that make it a universal favorite among battery-powered blenders.
To begin with, it comes with a funnel to make loading the cup easier and even has its ice tray so you can have the perfectly sized cubes for it to blend. It also helps to avoid overloading the blender, causing stalls.
This USB cord chargeable blender quickly charges in an hour or less and will normally provide you with around 15 minutes of blending time. While that may not seem like much, based on our own experience, it is enough to make 7-10 smoothies.
For even more convenience, the lid for the blender jar doubles as a carrying handle, but perhaps the greatest feature of this battery-operated blender is the fact that it is so cute
The PopBabies personal blender comes in baby blue, pastel pink, and white.
Pros
- Dishwasher safe
- It comes with an extra lid
- 16-ounce travel cups
- Great for making baby food and protein shakes
Cons
- Ingredients must be cut very small before being blended
- It can’t be used with hot liquids
- Not strong enough to crush ice cubes
- Heavey for its size
Battery-Powered Blenders vs. Counter Top Blenders
If you are used to working with a full-sized blender, especially one of the more advanced models with lots of bells and whistles and pre-programmed modes, then transitioning to a battery-operated blender might take a little getting used to.
Battery-powered blenders tend to be more minimalistic in design and function. This might be seen as a plus for many people, but that is simply a matter of taste—the three main differences between a full-sized blender and one with rechargeable batteries.
Portability– The entire point of having a battery-powered blender is convenient to take with you almost anywhere. This does come with some trade-offs, though.
- A portable blender is going to have a smaller capacity. That is why they are often referred to as personal blenders.
- A little blender does have some advantages. If you are making fresh baby food or blending nut butter, the smaller container of a battery-operated blender can make the process quicker and cleanup easier.
- Battery-powered blenders shouldn’t be expected to have larger blenders’ motor power. It is simple physics that a more powerful motor requires a larger package. Many can still crush ice and blend frozen fruits but will lack the efficiency of countertop blenders.
Lower Operating Speeds– Smaller motors mean that higher gearing and lower operating speeds are required to maintain the torque levels needed to perform tough blending jobs. Be prepared to spend more time making smoothies and blending frozen drinks than you usually would with a more powerful blender.
Simplicity– If you’re the type that has an anxiety attack when faced with too many features or options, then you will likely be very happy using a battery-operated blender.
While some do have basic features and accessories like a whisk attachment or electric knife attachment, most cordless blenders are as basic as on and off.
If you need lots of flashing lights and digital readouts to feel like you got your money’s worth, this may not make you happy, but it is what it is.
The purpose of a rechargeable battery blender is portability and convenience on the go, not being a complete kitchen system with walk-away programs.
Advantages of a Battery-Operated Blender
The most significant and most obvious advantage that battery-operated blenders offer is their portability, but this is by no means the only benefit they offer.
Yes, you can throw them in your briefcase and make smoothies at work or take them on a weekend camping trip to prepare Michelin Star meals in the wild. Their compact size, lightweight, and independence from grid power were originally intended for.
There is nothing, though, that says you can only use them on the go. As a rule, battery-powered blenders are much quieter to operate than other blenders. This makes them ideal for people who share a living space or keep hours different from the rest of their household.
There is no need to disturb your family or roommates, and you don’t have to compromise your healthy routine in the name of peace. Just purchase a battery-powered blender with a very low noise rating.
The compactness that makes a highly portable personal blender ideal for your active lifestyle also lends itself to use in trendy smaller apartments or homes with limited kitchen space.
It is hard to compete with the overall utility that a countertop blender offers. Still, personal-sized cordless blenders provide the convenience of being able to tuck them away in a drawer or the corner of a cabinet.
Things to Consider When Buying a Portable Blender
When choosing any appliance, it is essential to evaluate your taste and needs before shopping. As the old saying goes, ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison,’ and no two people’s needs are going to be exactly alike.
Below we have listed what we consider the most important points that you should take into account when looking at battery-operated blenders.
Some are questions you should ask yourself and others are important characteristics you should keep in mind when looking at a personal blender.
How you will use your portable blender
The most important consideration you should consider before purchasing a cordless blender is how you will personally use it. Do you want to make a quick green smoothie to recharge after a workout? Maybe you just want to mix protein shakes or blend frozen fruits into a summer treat.
The main thing to remember is that a battery-powered blender isn’t going to have the muscle that countertop blenders of equal quality possess. They will have a more difficult time with frozen ingredients and other challenging to blend items.
Knowing how you will most often use your portable blender will enable you to shop for an optimized model for your needs. Portable blenders come in various power levels and have blades that are better suited to specific purposes.
The best type of blender for you
While this article is mainly concerned with jar-type battery-powered blenders, they are not the only battery-powered blenders on the market. While we generally consider stick blenders to be more akin to high-speed mixers than blenders, they do perform some blending functions reasonably well and, in most cases, come at a lower cost.
If they suit your needs, then an immersion blender may be a more economical choice.
Immersion Blender
Immersion blenders, also called stick blenders, wand blenders, or mini-blenders, are handheld appliances that have a set of blades at the end of a shaft. They don’t require the use of any special containers and don’t require any counter space.
Stick blenders work well on softer ingredients and are generally used for sauces, soups, or whipped cream preparations.
Because they have less power than personal blenders, they are not an ideal tool to crush ice in frozen drinks or even make your favorite smoothies; if you like tough, blend ingredients like kale or frozen fruit.
Personal Blender
A personal blender is a smaller version of what most of us think of when we picture a blender. They can be corded or a battery-powered blender, have two to six stainless steel blades and use special blending jars or cups like a countertop blender.
While the battery-operated blenders are not as powerful as the corded models, they still possess more muscle than stick blenders and are better suited for crushing ice, blending nut butter, and making smoothies with tough to grind ingredients.
Most models are dishwasher safe other than their power bases and come with lids that attach to their blending jars to turn them into travel cups.
Charging Source
Most blenders with a rechargeable battery pack will be chargeable via a USB cable which makes them very handy in today’s world where everything from your car to your television set has a USB port built into it somewhere.
Some older battery-operated blenders on the market still use power converters or a standard wall plug as a charging source, but these are few and far between and becoming rarer by the day.
Even more rare are models that have charging systems built into them. Most of these are solar-powered, but other systems can be found in survivalist catalogs. I guess a quality margarita is valuable even in a zombie apocalypse.
Charging Time
How long a battery-powered blender will take to charge will depend on two factors. One is how much current is being fed to the batteries when they are on charge and the batteries’ capacity.
While it may be good advertising to say a battery-operated blender will charge quickly, in reality, this isn’t a desirable feature.
A USB rechargeable blender will receive whatever current is fed through the USB cord. That will be a constant depending on what your blender is plugged into. This means that the only way to make a cordless blender charge faster than the competition is to use batteries or cells with a smaller capacity.
Smaller-capacity cells will charge faster, but they will also run down faster, resulting in a shorter run time.
Battery Life
When discussing battery life, there are two different subjects that can be discussed. One is run time or how long the battery will keep your blender running at peak speed, and the other is cycles or how many times you can recharge the batteries before they no longer take charge.
Run Time
The run time of a battery will depend on its capacity. This is normally expressed as mAh or milliamp hours. We won’t go into all the technical details of what affects the capacity of a battery. For our purposes, just remember the higher the battery’s capacity, the longer it will be able to power your blender. The higher the mAh, the longer your blender will operate between charges.
If you want a battery-powered blender for weekend camping trips, this could be of major importance.
Life Cycle
The number of times that a battery can be recharged is termed its life cycle. With modern lithium cells, this isn’t as big a deal as it was with rechargeable batteries in the past, but that isn’t to say it shouldn’t be a consideration when shopping for a portable blender.
Modern cells can be recharged thousands of times without any ill effect provided they are handled properly. Using quick chargers, allowing batteries to get too hot, and draining them too low before recharging can greatly shorten the lifespan of your batteries and your cordless blender.
Ease of Use and Maintenance
How simple any appliance is to use and maintain is a key factor in its usefulness. Let’s be honest; if a blender is too difficult to put together, break down, and clean properly, we will likely not bother with it.
Most personal blenders are very simple to use, with the majority requiring no more than the push of a button or lite pressure on the cup to start blending. There are some that are more complicated, but these are generally part of larger systems and not battery-operated blenders.
It is also rare for a personal blender to be difficult to clean. Most are easy to disassemble and dishwasher safe.
We would be remiss if we didn’t include one word of caution when discussing disassembling and cleaning your portable blender. Because a portable blender is usually less powerful than larger blenders, they are more likely to have ultra-sharp blades rather than crushing style.
It can be very easy to injure yourself on this type of blade if you do not take proper precautions. Be sure to read all of the manufacturer’s warnings and instructions concerning the safe handling of your portable blender’s blade assembly.
When possible, purchase a portable blender that doesn’t require you to handle the blades at all.
Stainless Steel Blades
The title of this section says it all. Regardless of power level, quality, brand, or other factors, buy a personal blender with stainless steel blades.
Most portable blenders come with stainless blades, so it shouldn’t take a major effort to achieve this goal. There are exceptions, though, and these should be avoided as a general rule.
Ice blocks, nuts, and other hard-to-blend ingredients can quickly wear on a blender’s blades. There are some very good composite blades on the market today, but none have been able to surpass the performance stainless steel blades provide.
Accessories and Features
A portable blender can come with a host of accessories while the features that most offer are going to be slim.
The best features to look for in a personal blender are a variety of cups sizes, a self-cleaning function, and, if you can consider, large battery capacity and a strong motor. Of course, any safety feature they possess is a large plus.
The Accessories that come with a portable blender can vary greatly from company to company, but the most commonly seen are:
- Travel lid
- USB cable
- Ice tray
- Carry bag
- Small containers for baby food and such
Warranty
Any time that you are buying a handheld blender, personal blender, or any other electrical appliance, the warranty that it comes with should be a major consideration.
The reasons for this are multifold, and some are more obvious than others.
Firstly, no matter how high a quality blender you buy from how sterling a company, the one you get will always be that one lemon that slipped by quality control. Even the best brands have an occasional issue.
Your warranty is your insurance that you will be taken care of if this happens.
The second reason you should pay close attention to the warranty your blender comes with is one of simple business economics.
No company likes to have to do warranty work. It is a drain on manpower, hurts their reputation, and lowers their profit margin. Most companies invest heavily in testing to determine how long what parts will last to avoid such problems.
We have all had the experience of a car breaking down, a television set going out, or a handle falling off a cooler a week after the warranty expired. These are not accidents. Companies know how long their products will last and write their guarantees accordingly.
The advantage this knowledge offers you is that you can look at the length of the warranty, what it does and doesn’t cover, and any conditions that may apply to its use and have a very good idea of how long your battery-operated blender will last and what is likely to go wrong.
As a side note, it always pays to check a brand’s reputation for customer service. Every company will have a bad item slip through sometimes. That is a given. How they deal with the situation separates great brands from good ones.
Cost
Cost is always a consideration when making any purchase. In the case of battery-operated blenders, you can spend as much or as little as you like.
Some imported off-brands can be purchased for less than twenty dollars, and from there, the sky is the limit. Some top models from the very best brands on the market can run well over one hundred.
How much you will need to spend will depend on your personal needs and requirements.
As with most things, the higher the cost you can afford, the more options will be available.
It should also be remembered that price is going to follow quality and capability in most cases.
If you want the best, you need to be prepared to pay for it. At the same time, if you scrimp unnecessarily, it can cost you more in the long run.
Our best advice on price is to spend what you can afford and shop smart to be sure you get the best deal available.
Wrap-Up
Once you use a blender, it is difficult to imagine living without one. Sadly though, a full-sized blender isn’t the most convenient thing to lug around, and there are still many places you might want to go where power is not readily available.
That is the beauty of owning a battery-powered blender. Whether you are at the gym, in your office, or 100 miles from nowhere, enjoying the great outdoors. It doesn’t matter.
You can still enjoy the utility and convenience that a blender offers without the need to be tethered to the power grid.
Today’s lithium-ion batteries offer superb capacity, and modern electric motor technology has made it possible for personal blenders to deliver performance close to their countertop cousins. But in a small and light package to take anywhere, including in a backpack.
Which cordless blender is best for you will depend on your personal preferences and priorities.
In this guide, we have tried to offer various suggestions that we feel should offer a little something for everyone. The one thing that all our listings provide is performance above and beyond the competition.
As always, we hope that you have found this article informative and of some help in your search for the battery-operated blender that will best suit your needs and lifestyle.
Hey, I’m Joey. I’ve been cooking since I was a little kid and love everything about it. You can find my writing about food, kitchen appliances (such as blenders) and much more. Thanks for stopping by!
