Juicer vs Blender | Appliance Comparison Guide

When you want to enjoy a glass of home-brewed veggie-based drink, the top appliances that come to mind are juicers and blenders.

However, these appliances have different modes of operation; hence the juicer vs blender debate. To help you choose the machine that’ll best serve you, we’ll delve into the blender vs juicer debate.

So let’s find out the differences between a juicer and a blender.

 

What Are the Main Differences Between A Juicer and A Blender?

The main difference between a juicer and a blender is in the result of the process.

A juicer extracts juice and nutrients from fruits and vegetables, leaving their fibers and pulp behind, while a blender processes fruits and vegetables including their fibers and pulp into smoothies.

To better understand the different roles of these kitchen appliances, let’s study them individually.

What is a juicer? A juicer is a kitchen appliance that extracts only the juice from fruits and vegetables with high water content. When extracting the juice, the smooth and clear liquid flows into a sieve while the recipe’s fiber, pulp, and seeds go into another chamber as the juicer doesn’t process them.

This then results in an extracted liquid that is rich in nutrients and vitamins and very easy to digest as there are no insoluble fibers. The separated pulp and fiber can then be used for other purposes like making soup, cakes, muffins, and smoothies, etc.

The recipes made by juicers are not great for people on weight loss diets and diabetics as 100% of the nutrients (and high levels of sugars) are absorbed into the bloodstream. This also makes juicing yield highly nutritious drinks as you're packing more veggies in one serving.

What is a blender? A blender is a kitchen appliance that pulverizes fruits and vegetables to produce delicious, nutritious, and thick smoothies. When you blend a recipe, there’s no waste as the powerful blades slice and process everything including the seeds, pulp, and fiber into the resulting drink.

Blending allows you to add other ingredients such as ice, butter, milk, nuts, supplements, etc. And this makes it great for producing soups, cocktails, dips, purees, and sauces, etc. The powerful motors of blenders make them versatile in making baby food, crushing ice, and slicing fruits and veggies in addition to making smoothies.

Furthermore, the fibers in the blender recipes are healthy for the digestive tracts and slow down the body’s sugar absorption rate; this makes blending yield more filling results with more nutritional value and improved health benefits.

What are the advantages of a juicer when compared to a blender?

The advantages of a juicer when compared to a blender are that it produces juice that tastes better, is more nutritious, and releases energy faster.

Enjoy more veggies and fruits

Because juicing separates the fiber, pulp, and skin from vegetables and fruits, it’ll take a greater amount of produce to process a glass of juice than to make a smoothie. Therefore, a glass of produce processed by a juicer will have a higher concentration of vitamins and minerals than that processed by a blender.

Better tasting juice

Juicers are specially designed to extract juice, so they produce drinks that taste better than blended veggies and fruits.

Secondly, drinking a blend with a pulpy texture sometimes tastes unappetizing. In this case, drinking juice will be more appealing.

Third, some ingredients like carrots, beets, celery, etc., taste better when juiced than blended.

Absorb your nutrients faster

Fiber slows down the digestive process, so drinking a cup of juice extracted by a juicer (which contains around 80% of the nutrients) will give your digestive system a break. The nutrients of the drink will go into your bloodstream unlike in drinks processed by blenders that are rich in fiber (which will take a longer digestive cycle).

Secondly, juiced drinks are great for people with low-fiber diets.

Better quality drinks

When compared to blenders, juicers produce juices with great nutritional quality. This is because juicers basically squeeze the produce to release its juice while blenders are run by high-speed motors that generate little amounts of heat, and this can destroy some of the enzymes in them.

Secondly, some of the nutrients in the recipes stick to the fibers which are then excreted from the body.

Quicker energy boost

When you need to boost your energy levels instantly, a juiced drink will serve you right. This is because juiced drinks have a higher concentration of veggies or fruits (which releases more sugars and important nutrients) per serving than a blended drink. And as these nutrients enter into the bloodstream in a pre-digested form to instantly give you energy.

What are the advantages of a blender when compared to a juicer?

The advantages of a blender, when compared to a juicer, are that it’s a cost-effective, versatile machine that’s easy to clean and has more health benefits than a juicer.

Versatile appliance

A blender is a versatile appliance that can perform a wide range of kitchen tasks when compared to a juicer. Blenders can blend smoothies, make milkshakes, purees, emulsions, salad dressings, and slice ingredients. On the other hand, juicers perform only one kitchen task – juice. 

Secondly, juicers can only extract juice from produce with high water content. For example, they can’t extract juice from bananas. While blenders can brew several kinds of veggies and fruits. 

Cost-effective

Not to be confused with juice extractors, juicers and blenders cost roughly the same amount – $60 to $1,500. However, blenders are more cost-effective.

First, blenders are multi-use kitchen appliances and can do a wide range of tasks while juicers can only make juice.

Furthermore, to make juice for one serving, you’ll need more vegetables and fruits, and it's more expensive to buy more supplies, especially if they're from a farmer. Blending requires fewer amounts of produce.

And finally, a glass of a blended serving is more filling than a glass of juice as it contains the pulp and fibers from the recipes. Whereas, many critics consider juicers to be wasteful as people tend to throw away the separated pulp.

Ease of use and clean

Blenders are more user-friendly than juicers. You can simply place your ingredients in the blender and push the start button and let the machine do the work.

Juicers are more labor-intensive as you’ll have to monitor the process and load a piece of fruit or vegetable at intervals into the machine.

As opposed to juicers, blenders take a little effort to clean. Juicers have more parts, so it may be a pain to clean them, plus it takes a longer time to clean them.

Also, most blenders have dishwasher-safe parts while most juicers have sensitive parts that you’ll have to hand wash.

More health benefits

A juicer will yield a drink with only the juice’s nutrients while blenders retain all the nutrients from the whole fruits and veggies.

The smoothies brewed by blenders contain the produce’s skin, fiber, pulp, and seeds. These components have health benefits (for example, fibers contain nutrients and compounds as well as slow down digestion and make you feel full), so drinking a glass of smoothie gives you the nutritional value of consuming whole fruits and veggies.

Secondly, you can add other items like milk, protein powders, butter, and supplements, etc., to your blend while juicers don’t allow this.

Great for weight loss

Juicing produces drinks rich in sugar because it contains more fruits or veggies per serving. This also increases your calories and is not great for diabetics.

Blenders, on the other hand, cut back on the sugars in your drink as it also blends the pulp and fiber of the recipe into your smoothie.

Kids love smoothies

When compared to veggie-based juice, kids prefer smoothies because they’re thicker and can be made to taste like frozen dessert.

Which One Is more Usable in the Kitchen Between A Juicer and A Blender?

Blenders are more useful in the kitchen as they’re very versatile in their operations: this makes them undertake several tasks such as make icy drinks; whip up purees; and prepare sauces, pastry batters, and baby food.

And if you’re asking, “Is a juicer the same as a blender?” The answer is no. Juicers and blenders are different appliances.

A juicer is a kitchen appliance specially made to squeeze the juice from fruits and vegetables while a blender is an appliance used for pulverizing fruits and veggies into smoothies, mixing baby food and milkshakes, etc. However, a blender can act as a substitute for a juicer but it can’t juice clear drinks like a juicer.

What foods can you juice with a juicer?

You can make delicious, nutritious juice out of the following vegetable and fruits;

• Melons (watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe, etc.)
• Beets
• Cucumber
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Spinach
• Kale
• Celery
• Citrus (oranges, limes, and lemons, etc.)
• Tomatoes
• Apples
• Pears
• Kiwis
• Pineapple
• Berries
• Grapes

Here are some of the best uses of a juicer.

What foods can you process with a blender?

You can process the following foods in a blender;

• Smoothies
• Protein shakes
• Nuts: almond and peanut
• Purees: soups and baby food
• Hollandaise
• Cakes
• Shrimps and fish
• Batters: pancake and muffin
• Sauces and dressings: salad, mayonnaise, vinaigrettes, spreads, salsas, hummus, and pesto
• Pie crusts
• Grain and cereals: almond flour, breadcrumbs, oat flour, and cookie crumbs
• Fruit popsicles
• Puddings
• Butters
• Ice creams

However, you should refrain from kneading dough, blending mashed potatoes, and grinding beef and other tough meat with your blender. Don’t also put boiling liquids, coffee beans, and unchopped recipes in your blender. We’ve put together some of the other best uses of a blender here.

Can a juicer and a blender be paired together?

Yes, you can pair a juicer and a blender in your kitchen as both serve different functions. A juicer extracts liquid from vegetables and fruits to yield clear juice rich in nutrients. While a blender makes smoothies as well as performs a variety of kitchen tasks like prepare baby food and puddings, etc. Here's how to use a blender.

What are the instances where you can use a juicer and a blender together?

You can use both your juicer and blender when you want to make glasses of fruit juice to enjoy with your cakes or puddings.

The juicer will make nourishing glasses of fruit or veggie-based juice for your guests while the blender will whip up the cakes or puddings. Here's how to use a juicer.

What are the instances where a juicer and a blender should never be used together?

A juicer and a blender should not be used together if you or any member of your household is diabetic or on a weight loss diet. Juicers make fruit drinks with high sugar content which isn’t good for diabetics or people trying to lose weight.

Instead, you can make smoothies (which are rich in fibers) as they have less sugar content and help the digestive system. Also, if you don’t drink juice often, you could make do without a juicer.

What to Consider when Buying A Juicer or A Blender

Some blenders and juicers are designed to be budget-friendly to handle simple tasks, while more premium models come with special features to make using these appliances a breeze. But which of these features really matter to you? Here are some of the questions you should ask yourself before getting a juicing or blending machine.

What type of machine should I get?

There are four types of juicers depending on how they work; Centrifugal, masticating (or cold press), twin gear (or triturating), and citrus (or hand-crank) juicers.

Centrifugal juicers are the fastest and cheapest juicers. They can juice recipes at high speeds of up to 15,000 RPM. However, they tend to be the noisiest juicers and they’re not very efficient since their speed can impact the vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidants of the vegetables and fruits they juice.

Masticating juicers are more efficient than centrifugal models. They work by crushing the veggies and fruits like teeth; however, they’re very slow – rotating at around 80 RPM. This makes them produce juices that last long.

Twin gear juicers are the most efficient juicers. They work like a masticating model with an extra set of teeth. This makes their motors faster and more powerful; however, they’re the most expensive juicers and it’d be difficult to find a compact twin gear model.

Citrus juicers are specialized juicers designed to juice mostly citrus. They’re also very affordable.

Also, there are four types of blenders; countertop, personal, immersion, and high-performance blenders.

Countertop blenders are great for whipping up smoothies and soups but are not as durable as high-performance models. They’re not designed to handle heavy-duty tasks like blending nut butters or larger pieces of ingredients.

Personal blenders are smaller, cheaper, and less powerful than countertop models. Their small containers are designed for single servings.

Immersion blenders are hand-held models without containers; instead, you place them in the container or pot that contains your recipe. They’re the least powerful and versatile.

High-performance blenders are the most powerful and expensive models. They’re designed to perform both basic and heavy-duty tasks.

Which speed setting is appropriate?

Blenders with two speed settings are okay for basic blending tasks, but models with more settings will be able to perform more heavy-duty tasks. Keep in mind that juicers like masticating and twin gear models with slow speeds are more efficient at extracting juice. Plus they yield more nutritious juice.

When getting a juicer, go for models with multiple speed settings as these units can juice hard fruits like carrots and coconuts.

Are there quiet juicers?

Centrifugal juicers are very fast when running, and this makes their operation loud. But if you get irritated by noisy appliances, you can get a masticating or twin gear unit; they’re quieter.

Ease of cleaning and use

Juicers are generally more labor-intensive and difficult to clean. So if you want a more user-friendly brewing appliance that’s easy to clean, you should opt for a blender. However, there are convenient juicing machines that are easier to clean – citrus juicers are some examples. You can also find units with dishwasher-safe parts.

What motor strength is good for me?

300 watts models can perform basic tasks but can’t grind nuts or crush ice.

So if you need a versatile blender that can do some heavy lifting, go for a model with a power range of 500 – 700 watts. Also, get a blender with the pulse function as it can make blending faster and easier. 

What are the best blender blades?

Blender blades are not very sharp; instead, they’re very strong. The best blades for blenders are those made of stainless steel or diamonds. Both blade materials are strong, durable, and will last a long time without rusting or dulling.

What Are the Best Brands for Juicers?

The five best brands making the best juicers are Dash, Kuvings, Breville, Hamilton Beach, and Black & Decker

Dash

One of the top brands making the best juicers is Dash. Their juicers are budget-friendly but don’t compromise on quality. And this has earned them lots of positive reviews.

Kuvings

Kuvings is one of the best brands making premium juicers. They mostly manufacture quality masticating juicers that are quiet when running. They also make juice extractors, and their models have lots of positive reviews.

Breville

Breville is another popular brand that makes some of the best juicers. They mostly make very efficient masticating and centrifugal models. Their products generally have good reviews for their quality.

Hamilton Beach

Hamilton Beach is one of the best brands making low-cost juicers. Their juicers have exceptional performance and lots of good reviews. They also make great juice extractors.

Black & Decker

Black & Decker is known for making budget-friendly kitchen appliances. And some of their best juicers are citrus juicers.

What Are the Best Brands for Blenders?

The five best brands making the best blenders are Vitamix, Cuisinart, Hamilton Beach, Ninja, and Dash.