If youād asked me mere months ago to describe the shape of a blender pitcher, I probably would have replied with something along the lines of, āI donāt know? Blender-shaped? Roundish? I donāt know! Why are you asking me such a weird question?ā So if you havenāt given much thought to the shape of your blender, youāre certainly not alone. But if youāve ever been frustrated because your blender wonāt do what you think itās supposed to, I invite you to go down this little physics rabbit hole with me.
Late last year we invited a mechanical design engineer into the Epi test kitchen to explain to those of us without an engineering degree exactly why a $600 Vitamix works so much better than a $25 blender. It seemed pretty obvious that the Vitamix would outperform the budget-friendly Oster based on horsepower alone (okay, and maybe sharper blades). But as we learned from Vincent Valderrama, the associate director of engineering at Smart Design, these high-end components are only part of the equation.
Square blender pitchers vs. round blender pitchers
It turns out thereās more to the Vitamix than its 12-amp motor and laser-cut stainless-steel bladesāand this is where good engineering comes in. Because in order to properly handle everything a powerful motor throws around, a blender pitcher needs enough space for its contents to move freely and it has to be the right shape.
āWhen the motor is throwing things away from the blades, there needs to be some sort of physical geometry to throw it back into the blade so you can get a consistent blend,ā Valderrama told me when we geeked out over small kitchen appliances on a Zoom call. For breaking down solids in a high-watt blender like Vitamix or Blendtec, he says the ideal shape is squareābut not necessarily a perfect square. In the Professional Series Vitamix Valderrama tested, inverted corners work as baffles to help knock ingredients back to the blades. Similar models have a square form with various divots and curves to keep things agitated (in a good way) inside the pitcher. Using a round pitcher with a Vitamix motor would mimic what happens on a spinning barrel amusement park ride. Without hard angles or baffles to throw the food back to the blades, centripetal force would cause the contents to hang on to the wall and just spin around and around until manually tamped or scraped down.
So why then arenāt all blender pitchers square? According to Valderrama, thatās because less powerful motors actually perform better in smaller rounded containers.
āIf you put the Oster motor in a square-shaped vessel, youāre not going to get a good result,ā he says. āAnd lower-powered motors with larger vessels donāt do much. They donāt have the power to take advantage of the extra space.ā
Of course, bigger isnāt always better, and sometimes a smaller, weaker blender is just what you need. As Valderrama demonstrated in the video above, the $25 Oster emulsified mayonnaise better than the much pricier Vitamix. And you should always keep in mind that no matter what youāre trying to blend, if thereās too little of it in a giant pitcher, it wonāt work wellāno matter how powerful the motor.
Unfortunately, there is no single best blender shape or size for blending everything, and it really depends on what youāre trying to accomplish. The best blender for emulsifying has a less powerful motor and a slender round pitcher, while the best blender for pulverizing solid ingredients has a high-powered motor and a spacious square pitcher.
The good news is that round blenders will still get most jobs done (but not all of them, as we learned from Valderramaās, er, illuminating almond butter test), they just might require some extra patience and work on the part of the user. Conversely, if you have a beast of a blender that sometimes feels like overkill in your kitchen, play around with the lower speeds and look into alternative vessels; many brands offer secondary pitchers and smaller blending cups for recipes that donāt require a 64-ounce capacity.
Blenders with a square pitcher
These blenders with square pitchers came out on top in our testing.
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Round blender attachments
Round attachments can make smaller jobs a little easier in a big blender. Just make sure whatever you get is compatible with your specific make and model.
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Personal blenders
These space-saving personal blenders have slender round vessels perfect for making individual smoothies as well as small batches of sauces and dips.
Immersion blenders
An immersion blender can do most of what a countertop blender can do and eliminates any issues with pitcher shape or size.
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