Breville BL16 Illuminated Glass Blender

Advantages: powerful motor, 5 speeds, glass jug, looks good, touchpad controls
Disadvantages: heavy jug

...I recently purchased the KitchenAid blender from www.beststuff.co.uk (only place I could find it in the UK). I chose this one because I needed a powerful blender which could do nut milks. I find that this is great at producing a smooth almond milk. I could not afford the creme de la creme VitaMix blender (about £500) and have worn out a few of the cheaper blenders (breville, phillips, morhpy richards) and this one seems like a good compromise. It was this at £96 from beststuff or the MagiMix at £129. The blender has a touchpad area which means that you can keep it clean. It is easy to put together and take apart to clean. The motor is 500W and is very powerful but is not as noisy as my last cheapo Phillips blender. It has a solid loud noise rather than a loud screachy noise. It comes with 5 speeds (from chop to blend) each... Read review

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Advantages: Well made, easy to clean, variety of settings, looks good
Disadvantages: None at present

...I wanted to start making my own smoothies & two years ago went out & purchased a basic blender for the job. Nothing too flash, just something basic, it cost £19.99 from Comet & did the job quite well. However, it was basic with just one speed (a rather noisy speed at that), a plastic jug which looked rather weather beaten after being washed countless times & it had a tendency to move around the kitchen counter when blending. Recently my partner bought me a Breville Blender with a brushed stainless steel finish, £39.99 from John Lewis; she chose this model after reading glowing reports about it in a magazine. It certainly looks impressive with its glass jug & stainless steel finish. Its main features are the 1500ml capacity glass jug, 600 watt motor, durable stainless steel blades, rubber sealed top & jug, integrated measuring cup, non... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Solid, looks good, performs well
Disadvantages: A bit pricey, lid a bit dodgy

...The Breville Classique range includes a top of the range blender. FYI it looks nothing like the icon that Ciao have assigned it. At £65 its not cheap, but if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys etc etc. It looks the business:- a chrome base which includes the speed control. Atop is a removable glass jug and topped off by a black rubber lid with a clear plug in the top. The motor runs at variable speeds, being low, medium and high. The high speed is actually called "ice" as this is the ice crushing speed. In addition to these 3 speeds, there is an option to run the blender at "pulse" speed (self explanatory.) The ice function is possibly the best bit about the blender as it gets through ice with ease, tho best to use a bit of water to lubricate the ice. The jug, a 1.5 litre capacity is quite heavy and may be a bit much for older... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful