It seems like a pretty simple matter — you know, deciding if you should buy a blender rather than a juicer to help you get rid of those fruits and vegetables that have been sitting in your refrigerator and crying for some attention! Or maybe you have decided to eat healthy for this New Year and feels it would be in your favor to combine your favorite fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc into one bowl. But wait… don’t these two pieces of appliance technically do the same thing? Isn’t it just easier to buy the one that is maybe cheaper, or coordinate in color with the other pieces of appliances in your kitchen?
The answer? — No. Definitely not so!
Both these appliances a very much different from each other even though the end result is ultimately the same — something that you consume. However, the difference is in the texture of what you consume at the end. So choosing between a juicer and a blender is dependent on what you are planning to do with your fruits and vegetable and whether or not you plan on adding oatmeal, nuts, etc. So if you are planning on making smoothies, acai bowl, salsa, and soups — blender it is! If you are planning on just making juice then the obvious choice is a juicer. If you are planning on doing both, well… you can decide at the end of this post after you have looked at the differences in how each works and the end results they both produce.
Juicer Vs Blender
The Juicer
Like I noted earlier, if you are looking for undiluted natural juice then the juicer will do just that. What the juicer does is squeeze all your fruits and/or vegetables by separating them from the skin, pulp and seeds.
How juicers work is that you feed your fruits and vegetables through the top lid or nozzle and the process of extraction begins when a rotating blade slices and dices the food or chops it into small pieces, depending on the type of juicer. The juicer then grinds the fruits and vegetables separating juice from pulps. There is then a pressing motion that causes any leftover juice to be removed from the pulps before it is sent through the filter. This filter acts as a strainer allowing you to have your juice the way you would at the juice shop — or maybe even better! No seeds, no pulps, no coarseness, just nice and smooth! So if you plant fruits and vegetables and just love your fruit juice. A juicer is ideal.
Juicers are quite easy to use as they do not have half the number of buttons as blenders, and are far less complicated.
The Blender
The bender on the other hand does the job its name suggests. It blends everything that you put into it without any separation! It uses a blade to chop and mix everything together. With the blender, you can not only blend fruits and vegetables, but you can add just about anything else you want. So you can add yogurt, granola, nuts milk, and even sweetener at the end depending on what your tastebuds are craving for. In the end, what you put in is what you get out — just all blended together to create one meal.
Blenders can get quite complicated to use based on the number of buttons they come with. It seems the better they are in terms of performance, the more button options you have to deal with, thus the more complicated they seem to get! But, nothing that reading the manual cannot solve. If you chose to purchase a blender ensure you buy one with a lot of power.
If you are an athlete who consumes a lot of smoothie or acai bowls, the blender is ideal! So in terms of diversity, the blender has the edge over the juicer.
Now based on the description of what the juicer and the benders do, you can decide which to choose based on the end result and what you are thinking of using it to do —
You can also take a look at the comparison below to help you concrete your decision on which way to lean.
BLENDERS JUICERS
| Blends/Juices | Combines all your favorite fruits, vegetable, yogurt, nuts, etc. into smoothies, acai bowls, or soups. Some are equipped to crush ice for summer juices. They do not separate juice. | Extracts all the juice from water base fruits and vegetables. Separates juice from pulp and skin. |
|---|---|---|
| Operation | Uses blades to chop and mix everything together including seeds and pulp. What you put in is what you get out. | Fruits and vegetables are chopped, crushed, and squeezed to extract juice while separating the pulp, seed, and skin. Only juice is filtered into your container. |
| Density | You can choose how you want your blend based on the various features. Thick, smooth, soupy, lumpy, icy, etc. | Thin/watery |
| Nutrients | Because everything is blended together it retains all fiber contents. Thus reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and stabilizing blood sugar (glucose) level. | Very low fiber content. But fruits and vegetables help to reduce the risk of stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. And may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes |
| Cups | Depending on the size jug you can get between 4-8.5 cups | Limited by the types of fruits/vegetables chosen and how juicy they are. |
| Cleaning | Self-clean or dishwasher safe | Some have dishwasher-safe parts. Others take time to handwash. |
| Ease Of Use | A number of buttons. Can get complicated. | Easy to use |
Health:
More and more persons are becoming health conscious. In fact, because so many have been working from home and have become less active, they are not only making the conscious effort to add exercise to their daily/weekly routine but also adding healthier eating habits. As a result, many are seeking easy dietary options that contain just about all the food groups in one quick and easy preparation.Thus persons have turned to smoothies, fruit juices, nutritious soups, acai bowls, and healthy snacks.
If this is the case then the blender option is ideal for this purpose. However, the type and size of the blender chosen can be dependent on the size of your family or if you are looking to blend in larger portions to refrigerate some for your next meal. Many a gym enthusiast, jogger, or walker have found the blender their next best friend when it comes to preparing their protein shakes. Staying at home also affords you time to get more creative in the kitchen. A a result you will find that things you never thought can be done in a blender can! Your soup, salsa, and healthy salad dressings can now be done in the blender! Hmm… imagine that!
However, This does not mean you do not need a juicer. We have already established the differences between the two. So if you find that you are a natural juice lover, and prefer the watery texture compared to the thicker blend then by all means the juicer it is! If however, you want to do all that the blender does but wants your fruit juice in between, then there is absolutely no law against going the extra mile and grabbing both! Remember, nothing and no one can give you that truly rich, undiluted flavor of your fruits and vegetables like your juicer.
Diversity
If you are looking for something that makes you spend less time in the kitchen while giving you a complete meal, then the blender wins this round.You can prepare your complete healthy meal on the go, complete meals for your picky eater, and even your favorite tasty indulgence to satisfy your sweet tooth. Think about it and your blender can bring it to life. A complete meal in a bowl, a cup, or a bottle is what your blender is all about!
Unfortunately, the juicer is limited in this area. So while it can provide your most refreshing natural juice complete with a touch of ginger, it will not give you that complete meal in one easy step as you may crave. But do not forget that fruit and vegetable juice is rich in vitamins, minerals, and is an important acid enzyme that boosts our stamina and energy.
Functions
Blenders are built to work at very high speeds to grind whatever you put in while mixing it all together.The way the mix comes out will be dependent on the setting you choose, so it can puree, make lumpy, extremely smooth, or with heavy texture. You can choose whatever setting based on how you want the blended texture to be. For most blenders, you do not need to cut whole fruits and vegetables as the sharp blade is equipped to destroy any whole fruit or vegetable you put in, while getting the job done in a matter of seconds. The more powerful a motor the quicker the appliance will get the job done. Not only are there buttons to choose your preferred texture, but also the speed you want to blend, grind, or chop. Because of the power of the motor, there will be quite a bit of sound as you blend.
The juicer does not have this high powered motor so it eliminates the excess noise. When the juice has been extracted from the fruit it flows through a very fine filter that allows only the juice to flow from the appliance, leaving everything else behind.
Storage
One of the things persons look at when buying an appliance is how and where it will be stored. Based on the design of the juicer it is larger and harder to store away than the blender unless you choose a hand-cranked juicer which pulls apart. Despite the large ounces of the blender container, it is still more compact making it easier to store than even a smaller juicer. Once you have found a space on your countertop for the juicer it is best to leave it there as it is heavier in weight and harder to keep moving around. If you prefer storing away your appliances, the blender can be stored in your cupboard or under-counter depending on your choice. The juicer — not so much.
Hygiene
Cleaning the blender or the juicer thoroughly is very important as this will prevent particles from hiding in areas and rotting away, then re-blending with your next mix. This is certainly not good for your health especially since fruits and vegetables decay quite quickly. Therefore, when it comes to cleaning ensure you do so as instructed by your manual. The juicer will take more time to clean and can in fact be quite time-consuming as there are a number of pieces that have to be pulled apart to clean properly after each use. Some pieces are not dishwasher safe and so it is important to check the manual. The blender on the other hand only requires the jar and blade to be cleaned. The outside can just with wiped with a damp cloth. A number of blenders are now designed to be dishwasher safe or with a 30-60 seconds self-cleaning mode.
Purpose
Both the blender and the juicer are designed to get the jobs done that they were designed to do. The blender will chop, crush, grind, puree (and a dozen other features), and combine everything that you put in — just the way you want with the press of a button or two. The juicer will do just what its name suggests — give you natural juice, no addition, no subtraction. So again, choosing which is better for you is dependent on what you want it to do.
Blenders come with a bit of an edge over the juicer as it is more diverse in your meal preparation. As while they can provide complete meals, the juicer can only provide the perfect natural fruit or vegetable juice. Does that mean the bender is better? No… it means it depends on what you need the appliance to do for you. So even though the blender has more options, if that is not what you are after but just wants your daily fruit and vegetable intake then the juicer would win this round for you.
Therefore, despite the fact that blenders can be used to also blend fruits and vegetables, the smoothie form and the heavy consistency may not be your thing. Thus it depends on your personal taste.
Different Types of Juicers
There are a number of juicers that you can choose from. If you have chosen to go with a juicer instead of a blender then you can choose one that best suits your lifestyle.
- Centrifugal juicers — These are some of the most popular juicers on the market. They come with a mesh compartment where the fruits and vegetable make their first stop for chopping by the sharp blades beneath. During this process, the juice is extracted and is immediately pushed into the filter and flows pulp-free into the container. While this is quite a popular juicer, many prefer its cold press counterpart as the heat generated from this motor can damage some of the nutrients in the juice. My friend who actually makes and sells natural fruit juice informed me that heat causes the fruit to lose some of its lifespans and after a day or so it just does not taste the same. Centrifugal juicers are easy to assemble, use, disassemble and clean. Some come with a cleaning brush to help clean the filter basket, and detachable parts that can be washed in the dishwasher, thus saving time. Some come with an anti-drip nozzle, preventing overflow. Cost range anywhere from $78 to $100 dollars.
- Cold-press Juicers — Also known as Masticating Juicer, this is a more powerful juicer than the Centrifugal as it works to crush and press your fruits and vegetables for high-quality, high-volume juice. These produce non-oxidized juice that will last for days and creates quality taste and texture while keeping vitamins, enzymes, and beneficial nutrients intact. Relatively easy to clean and ranges in price from $134 – $854.
- Twin-gear Juicers — also known as triturating juicers, this crushes produce in between two gears that rotate at slow speeds thus preventing oxidation. These high-end heavy duty juicers as the ability to automatically eject pulps so you can juice more than one session in a single activity. Some twin gear can also grind nuts and grains. Believe it or not, some can even work as a food mill to prepare your baby’s food, sorbet, and nut butter. No surprise that they are on the pricey side and range from $530 -$ 1,592.
- Hand-crank juicers — As the name suggest, these are basic, and of course manually-operated. They are not compatible with all fruits as cranking it for hard fruits and vegetables is near impossible. Thus only softer fruits can be juiced. These are made up of detachable parts which mean easy to store and easy to wash. Cost ranges from $64 – $116.
Two Main Types of Blenders
- Countertop blenders — These come in many different brands, watts, speeds, and processors. The power they push out will depend on the size of the motor they are built with, while the power will often determine the standard of the food that it makes. These come laden with buttons that give a variety of options based on your requirements. They come with their own jugs to hold the food to be blended and can range in size from 32 ounces to 72 ounces.
- Immersion blenders — These work well for persons not looking to blend often nor in large portions. The immersion blenders are small, handheld appliances equipped with a blade at the end of the unit that blends ingredients in a container, such as a bowl or pot. The good thing is that they can also be used for mixing and chopping. So they are a 3 in one deal.
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