Juicers and Blenders

No, juicers and blenders are not the same machine, and the difference is one thing: separation. A juicer splits a plant into liquid and a pulp bin. A blender has no screen and no separation stage at all -- it breaks everything down and keeps all of it in the jug. That single structural difference is why a combination machine is a compromise rather than a shortcut, and why most people who want both end up owning two appliances. This page answers the three questions people actually ask when they search the two together: are they the same, can you get them in one, and which should you buy first.

Are juicers and blenders the same thing?

No, and it is worth being precise because the two machines are sold side by side and often by the same brands. The difference is not speed, power or price. It is whether the machine has a screen.

That table is the whole answer to "are they the same". If you want the longer version of which appliance suits which plan, juicer vs blender takes the decision apart properly, juice vs smoothie compares the two drinks, and do juicers remove fiber follows the fiber through each machine.

Can you get a juicer and blender in one machine?

Combination appliances are sold, and we are going to be straight with you about what this site can and cannot tell you about them: Auger & Pulp covers no combination juicer-blender. None is in our product registry, we did not verify one for this page, and we are not going to describe or recommend a machine we have not sourced specifications for. That is the same rule that keeps every number on this site attached to a manufacturer's published claim -- see how we pick.

What we can tell you is mechanical, and it applies to the category rather than to any particular model. A machine that does both has to contain both architectures: a sealed jug with a blade for the blending, and a screen with a crushing or shredding stage for the juicing. Manufacturers resolve that in one of two ways, and both have a cost:

1. 1.Two attachments on one motor base. This is really two appliances sharing a plug. It saves money and a power outlet, not counter space or washing up -- you still store both heads and wash both sets of parts. Whether it is any good comes down to whether the shared motor suits both jobs, and the two jobs want opposite things: a blender wants high speed, a cold press juicer wants low speed and high torque.
2. 2.One chamber doing both with a removable screen. This saves real space, and it is where the compromise bites. The juicing stage in a machine built around a blender jug is normally a high-speed spinning basket -- which is the mechanism that handles celery, kale and other long-fiber produce worst. See masticating vs centrifugal for why fiber length, not speed, decides that.

So the honest summary is this: a combo is a reasonable buy if you juice hard fruit occasionally and blend often, and a poor one if a daily green or celery juice is the plan. The produce that most people buy a juicer for is exactly the produce a blender-derived juicing stage is weakest at. If you do go looking at combination machines, check which juicing mechanism is inside before anything else, and treat a missing RPM figure as a warning sign rather than a detail.

Which should you buy first?

Buy the appliance that matches what you will actually drink in the next month, not the one that matches the habit you hope to have in a year. In practice that resolves quickly:

• Buy the blender first if soft fruit, banana, avocado, protein, frozen fruit or ice feature in what you want to drink. A juicer does none of those -- see what you cannot put in a juicer and best juicers for berries, which is mostly an argument for a blender.
• Buy the juicer first if celery, cucumber, kale, carrot, beet, ginger or citrus is the plan, and you want a thin drink rather than a thick one. No blender produces that without you straining it by hand.
• Buy neither yet if you are not sure the habit will stick. Is a juicer worth it is the page that takes that question seriously, including the cases where the answer is no.

One under-rated option: if you already own a blender, blending and straining through a fine-mesh bag gets you a passable juice from soft, high-water produce such as cucumber or melon for the price of a nut-milk bag. It is slow, messy and poor on celery and hard roots -- but it is a real way to find out whether you want a juicer before buying one.

What owning both actually costs

The money is the smallest part of it. Three costs land in a kitchen and all three are worth weighing before you commit:

1. 1.Counter space, permanently. Two appliances, and an appliance that lives in a cupboard stops being used. This is the single strongest predictor of whether either machine survives month two. What size juicer do I need covers measuring for it, including the counter-to-cabinet clearance almost nobody checks.
2. 2.Two cleanup routines. A blender is a jug, a lid and a blade. A juicer is a chamber, a screen, an auger or basket, a pulp bin and a jug -- and the screen is the part that decides whether you keep using it. Easiest juicers to clean ranks everything on this site on that criterion alone.
3. 3.Twice the produce planning. Juicing and blending want different shopping. Juicing eats volume -- a 16 oz glass of celery juice takes a large bunch -- while blending wants ripe soft fruit. Running both habits at once is the commonest reason people quietly drop one.

What to look for if you are adding a juicer to a blender

Most people searching this phrase already own a blender, so this is the realistic version of the decision. Four published specs are worth checking, and all four are usually listed:

1. 1.The mechanism, read off the RPM figure. Anything published in the thousands is a centrifugal machine; 43 to 110 RPM is an auger. Buy the auger if greens or celery are the point, because that is the one job your blender genuinely cannot approximate. Juicer RPM explained covers the band.
2. 2.Chute width, which is the spec that costs you time every session. Three inches takes a whole apple; 1.5 in means a chopping board.
3. 3.A reverse function, for backing a jam out of the auger instead of dismantling it over the sink.
4. 4.The warranty term and its structure. Omega, Hurom and Kuvings USA state 15 years; Ninja and Nutribullet state 1. Nama states 15 years on the motor but only 2 on parts -- and on an auger machine it is the parts that wear.

Three juicers that pair well with a blender you already own

All three are augers, because that is the capability a blender does not have. One at each end of the money and one in the middle.

The AMZCHEF ZM1501 is the lowest-commitment way to find out whether you want both: AMZCHEF states 90 RPM, 150 W, a reverse function and operation below 60 decibels -- the only decibel claim any brand on this site publishes -- under $100. The Nutribullet Slow Juicer is the obvious pairing if your blender is already a Nutribullet: the brand states 65 RPM, 150 W and a reverse function, with a 24 oz catch cup and a 1-year limited warranty as the trade. The Kuvings REVO830 is the one we would buy if the juicer is going to be the machine you use most: Kuvings states a 3.5 in wide chute plus a 1.75 in auto-cut chute for celery and carrots, 50 RPM on 240 W, and Kuvings USA states a 15-year limited warranty.

If the real question is citrus

A surprising share of people who want "a juicer and a blender" want orange juice in the morning and smoothies at the weekend. If that is you, the cheapest correct answer is not a whole-produce juicer at all -- it is a citrus machine alongside the blender, and citrus machines are a fraction of the price and a fraction of the washing up.

At the budget end, our BLACK+DECKER CJ625 review covers a machine with dual auto-reversing cones, adjustable pulp control, all parts dishwasher safe and a 2-year warranty. At the volume end, the Hamilton Beach Commercial 932 is a manual lever press rated by its maker at 2,000 lb of force with no motor to fail. Best citrus juicers is the full field, and is a citrus juicer worth it asks whether you need a dedicated one.

And if you have not settled on a juicer type at all, best juicer machines sorts the whole field by mechanism, while how to choose your first juicer starts further back than this page does.