Breville VBL062 Blend Active Personal Blender Review

We are very cautious which products we recommend to our visitors, however this one is easy! And it has been very, VERY well tested.

Still going strong after being our primary smoothie maker, used at least once a day, for well over a year now – this little blender certainly packs a punch, even if the price doesn’t!

Benefits:

I can’t see a better smoothie-maker for the price. And trust me, we’ve tried! At £20, this great little machine has never needed any replacement parts, the blades are still sharp and it does its job day-in-day-out with no fuss whatsoever.

Exceptional “flow”. We NEVER get “large bits of fruit” stuck to the sides, nor do we have any problems with ingredients not mixing. Fill it up, press the button and occasionally if it “dry spins” (i.e. the fruit gets a little stuck higher up the tube) give a little wobble. This smoothie-maker creates an exceptional whirlpool of liquid, than you can visibly see move to the top of the unit, before travelling back down to the blade. The design is flawless in that respect. If you’re getting a good whirlpool effect, you’re getting a good blend!

Great all-in-one “closed” setup. By that, I mean you are drinking out of the same “unit” you use to make the smoothie in first place. Fill it up, pop on the blade, blitz – and drink! Less washing up, more eco-friendly and far easier than tipping out into a glass. It IS the glass!

It makes two large glasses of smoothie when full, perfect for couples or small families. You get a lot more than you think out of it!

Dishwasher friendly. We’ve been putting the blade, the lid and the bottle in the dishwasher for over a year without any issues at all.

Handles ice and frozen fruit like its warm butter. Noisy warm butter. Ok, nothing like warm butter but you get the point I’m trying to make! Again, we’ve been putting ice or thick chunks of frozen fruit in it for well over a year and the blades are as sharp as ever, blitzing everything to a cool, creamy pulp.

Ergonomic hand-holdy bits. I’m not bothered about this, I’m far more about function over style, but the finger ridges do actually serve a purpose when you’ve got condensation and the outside may be slippery. We’ve not dropped one yet!

Drawbacks:

Just too thin to clean properly. I can’t get my hand in it, which is a bit of a nuisance if I forget to wash it out immediately upon use, or perhaps take it out with me. Crusty fruit is a real pain, but the fact that they’re dishwasher safe comes in pretty handy if and when this happens.

The lid clips have broken on both lids. Look, it’s been over a year, it was cheap and we’ve almost been using it commercially to create smoothies for this website for a long period of time. I’ll let this one slide. You can still “stick” the lid on, it just won’t flap back nicely, and you need to make sure you don’t lose it.