Blender vs Juicer: what is the difference, and which should you buy?

You may be wondering what's the difference between a blender and a juicer, and which makes a suitable choice for you? Well, they both have their merits and uses for which you might need both, but we will discuss the key differences in the article to help you decide.  

What is a Blender?

A blender features a jug with a blade system and sits on a motorised base. It is used for crushing solid ingredients like ice and processing ingredients into fine pieces, pastes and purees. Use a blender for soups, smoothies, chutneys, pesto sauces and more. Fill the jug with the ingredients to blend, lid on and start to blend. 

Discover Braun’s award-winning design power blenders, the PowerBlend 7 and the PowerBlend 3. 

The PowerBlend 7 automatically crushes ice at a pre-set timing ensuring a smooth ice-blend. The German designed blade system, powerful 1000W motor and intuitive speed sensor will cut through hard ingredients ensuring a consistency befitting of a premium smoothie.

What’s more, the Smoothie2Go cups allow you to blend directly in the cup, put on the secure lid and take your smoothie with you on the go. 

The PowerBlend 3 performs the same functions except it has a smaller capacity jug, 800W motor and does not come with the Smoothie2Go cups feature.

What is a Juicer?

A juicer extracts juice from fruit/vegetables through crushing, grinding or squeezing, separating it from the pulp, peel, fibre and seeds. The juice drips into a container or your own glass depending on the juicer. Juicers serve a single function of juicing fruit and vegetables. They may require more attention as you have to feed the fruit and vegetable into the juicer.  

The Spin Juicer J500 is great for people in a hurry but still want their juices freshly made every morning. Get your vitamin boost in seconds with the high-performance juicing system, and the large feeder chute, which allows you to toss in whole fruits and large chunks. Save time pre-cutting those fruit and veggies. 

Use the foam separator jug which makes it easy to separate foam and juice while pouring the juice or make and serve directly in your own glass. It’s up to you. The anti-drip system also ensures your kitchen is spotless.  

How does the Juicer compare to the Blender?

A juicer extracts juice from fruit and vegetables, separating the juice from the pulp, fibres, peel and seeds by crushing, grinding or squeezing the liquid out, leaving behind just the thin juice without any of the fibre.

In contrast, blenders do not separate your ingredients, instead they combine them together for a thicker consistency. You can add different types of ingredients into the blender jug while a juicer is limited to fruit and vegetables.  

1. Food waste

Most of the time, people only want the juice of the fruit/vegetable when they use a juicer and the pulp left behind after juicing goes to waste. 

When a drink is made using a blender, because you use more of the fruit and vegetable, there is less food wastage and it fills you up more than juice. 

2. Purpose of usage

The juicer’s only purpose is to juice fruit and vegetables to make a healthy juice but it wouldn't be convenient if you wanted to add additional ingredients like nuts, yogurt or protein powder to your drink.

The blender is great for thick drinks, soups, sauces, purees, crushing ice, there's so much more you can do other than make fruit and vegetable juice. However, a beetroot and orange juice drink made in the blender would turn out fibrous and not as smooth, compared to the juicer. There’s the option of straining it but who likes extra work.

Take a blender, like the PowerBlend 7  out when you are craving an icy thick shake and smoothie. The PowerBlend 7 automatically crushes ice at a pre-set timing ensuring a smooth ice-blend. The German designed blade system, powerful 1000W motor and intuitive speed sensor will cut through hard ingredients ensuring a consistency befitting of a premium smoothie.

What’s more, the Smoothie2Go cups allow you to blend directly in the cup, put on the secure lid and take your smoothie with you on the go. It's that easy. 

3. Ease of washing

A juicer must be disassembled to thoroughly clean the parts, particularly sensitive parts that require extra care when cleaning. The Spin Juicer J500 makes cleaning easy with some parts being dishwasher safe and a cleaning brush to reach the hard to access areas.

Comparatively, the blender is more straightforward, the jug and Smoothie2Go cups can be cleaned in the dishwasher.   

Juicer vs Blender: Which is better for health?

Both blenders and juicers can turn your vegetables and fruit into healthy drinks, but the drinks each make will differ in consistency, flavour and possibly nutrient content.  

Juicer

Because the juicer removes the pulp and peel of fruit and vegetables, some of the minerals and vitamins are lost in the clear juice. The juice also loses fibre which is good for our digestive system.

That said, there is still a concentration of vitamins in the juice, however, several pieces of fruit would have been used for a glass of juice, more pieces than eating the fruit. Resulting in you ingesting a higher amount of fructose than eating a few pieces of fruit.

Blender

A drink made in a blender keeps all the ingredients and is rich in fibre, keeping one fuller. As the fruit and vegetable are intact in your drink, no vitamins and minerals are lost. There’s also the option of adding yogurt, banana and other supplements into the jug for a power smoothie.

Verdict

The verdict is a blender offers the flexibility of using more ingredients for your smoothie or fruit and veggie drink and since every part of the fruit and veggie is blended, you get the full dose of vitamins and minerals and fibre which is great for gut health.

Although you lose out on some of the nutrients using a juicer, you will enjoy a celery, ginger and carrot juice without any fibrous bits and a cleaner mouthfeel.    

Conclusion

The blender and the juicer each serve specific purposes and have their pros and cons as we have explained in the article.

If you're a home cook and love your smoothies or you're simply someone that doesn't like the fuss of disassembling and reassembling equipment, the PowerBlend range would be a great choice offering flexibility, high performance and convenience.

If you are looking for a quick and easy tool to make fresh juices and don't need the additional functions of the blender, our Spin Juicer J500 is the ideal juicer for you. High performance, without needing to pre-cut your fruit, you're guaranteed a smooth juice straight into your glass in seconds.

To learn more about the Spin Juicer J 500

To learn more about the PowerBlend range