A combo appliance that excels at one job often fails at the other. Consumer Reports tested blender-processor combos in both modes
Yaroslav Shuraev / Pexels
A combo appliance that blends smoothies well but chops vegetables poorly, or the reverse, defeats the purpose of buying a two-in-one machine in the first place. Only two combination units turned up in the ratings, and each performed differently depending on which mode was in use.
Consumer Reports tested combination blender and food processor units separately in each mode, rating blending performance on purees, icy drinks and ice crushing, and food processor performance on chopping, grating and shredding.
Credit: Amazon
The Cuisinart Velocity Ultra Trio BFP-650 costs $190 and earned an overall blender score of 68 out of 100 from Consumer Reports. CR rated its puree performance excellent, with good scores for both icy drinks and ice crushing, making it a solid performer for smoothies and frozen drinks. This combo unit pairs its blender jar with attachments for food processing tasks, letting one motor base handle multiple kitchen jobs. CR's testing found the blending side of this unit performed more consistently than its food processor counterpart, detailed separately below.
Credit: Cuisinart
The Cuisinart Velocity Ultra Trio costs $190 and earned an overall food processor score of 65 out of 100 from Consumer Reports. CR rated shredding good, with fair scores for both chopping and grating, landing behind the blending mode's stronger performance on the same base unit. Testers found the processor attachments handled softer shredding tasks better than precise chopping or grating work. CR's combined testing across both modes suggests this unit suits households prioritizing blending over food prep tasks.
Credit: Amazon
The Ninja Master Prep Professional QB1004 costs $60, priced lower than the Cuisinart in this lineup, and earned an overall blender score of 68 out of 100 from Consumer Reports, tying the Cuisinart's blending performance despite the price difference. CR rated both puree and ice crushing good, without the excellent puree score the Cuisinart achieved, though it still handled frozen drinks and smoothies capably in testing. This compact combo swaps between blender and chopper attachments on a single motor base. CR's testing found the blending mode slightly outperformed the food chopper mode on this same unit, detailed separately below.
Credit: Walmart
The Ninja Master Prep Professional QB1004 costs $60 and earned an overall food chopper score of 64 out of 100 from Consumer Reports, along with CR's recommendation in food chopper mode specifically. CR rated grating excellent, with good scores for chopping and only fair performance on pureeing tasks in this mode. Testers found the chopper attachment particularly effective at grating tasks compared with its blending counterpart's more middling processor results. CR's recommendation for this unit applies specifically to its food chopper performance instead of its blending capabilities.