Our experts explain why all five of us love the Magimix Powerblend 4 for a family home

The Magimix Power Blender 4 is one of the most popular models on the market. It's powerful, versatile, and durably built. If you're happy to splurge a little, this is the place to do it.

There's only a certain amount of time that anyone should suffer with a cheap blender before they need to upgrade to a quality, countertop model. And, when that time comes, you'll have the Magimix Power Blende 4 waiting for you.

Based on build quality and reputation alone, the Magimix is one of the best blenders on the market. The minimalistic design looks great in almost every home and there are even different size options to suit a range of kitchens. But you don't want to buy a more expensive blender based on rumour, so here's the proof that this really is worth the investment (and this isn't sponsored, or an advert).

Specifications

Unboxing

The Magimix's box is surprisingly small, given the size of the blender. It's long, slim, and considerably weighty, but not so much that it would be tricky to put onto the counter. 

Inside the box, the Magimix is packaged with a fair amount of polystyrene and plastic, which isn't great for the environment, but it kept the Magimix in good condition for transit. Magimix sends a useful tamper, which has a stopper so that you don't end up shredding it mid-blend.

Whilst those are pretty much given for most blenders, what isn't a forgone deal is the recipe book. They send a selection of leaflets as well, but the recipe book is the big bonus. You get over 80 different recipes to help you out with inspiration, so you can explore what the Magimix can do.

Who would it suit?

The Magimix Powerblend 4 is the perfect family blender for a number of reasons. The 2-litre capacity is one of the most obvious: this'll give you enough space to whip up a batch of smoothie for four or five people and the same applies for soup, hummus, and crushed ice. One of the biggest bonuses is that this doesn't tip over into being a huge blender that takes up the whole counter: it's actually really slim.

Whilst it's slightly more expensive than the likes of Nutribullet, the Magimix comes with a 30-year guarantee. So, if you divide the price by 30, it's the same as buying a new blender for £7 each year. The difference is that you get a genuinely good blender to use throughout that whole time.

There are lots of other features that protect against clumsiness: the pitcher is shatterproof; it's non-porous and won't smell; the settings are simple; and it's generally nice to use.

What is it like to use?

There are three buttons on the base of the Magimix that control the speed and then the dial twists to work on different pre-sets, so you can flip between the manual controls and useful pre-sets.

Test 1: smoothie

The first test that I put all of our blenders through is simple, but not as easy as it looks. I make smoothies and protein shakes using frozen berries, banana, oats, spinach, and ice. This throws a whole host of tricky textures (skins, fibres, seeds, and ice) into the mix, which only a powerful, thorough blender will make light work of.

As you can see, the Magimix did a wonderful job of whizzing this up into a juice-like drink. There wasn't a seed or skin fragment in sight. After that, I grabbed a scoop of protein powder and dropped it on top of the smoothie. In a bad blender, this would form lumps and clumps of dry powder, but the Magimix deftly incorporated the protein powder into the mix, delivering silky smooth results.

I didn't need to add in any syrups for either, but I wanted to test out the lidded top. This has a measuring cap that shows you in ml what you've poured in and then, when you turn it on it's head, it all ends up in the smoothie. I tried this with some maple syrup and the whole process was clean and easy.

Test 2: hummus

The next test that I like to put all of our blenders through is making dips and hummus. These can be tricky, because they have a much lower liquid content. Nonetheless, a family-sized blender should be able to tackle these tasks, especially at this price.

I poured in a cup of chickpeas, a spoon of tahini, a squeeze of lemon, some cumin, salt, and olive oil. The Magimix, to its credit, was quiet when blending this. You can see that I didn't give it an easy job with the amount of liquid that I added, so the hummus ended up looking quite thick and dry. However, the texture was actually surprisingly smooth. It was almost a peanut butter style smooth and thickness, which is impressive.

Test 3: crushed ice

Crushed ice is perhaps the weak spot of the Magimix. You can see in the picture above that my ice cubes, whilst crushed a little, still look quite chunky compared to the snowy mists that other blenders have produced. For the price, I expected a little more power and finesse. However, at the same time, when I added ice cubes to my smoothie, these were easily blended up, so I think the Magimix's power is very context dependent. As a rule of thumb, the more liquid you add, the better.

Test 4: soup

Soup isn't part of my regular tests at woman&home, but I saw the Magimix talking about blending up a soup, so I had to try it. There is an important caveat to the Magimix's soup function that I will translate. The Magimix can blend hot ingredients, which not every blender can. If you put hot vegetables and boiling water in, you'll get a hot soup out. However, the Magimix will not actively heat your soup like the Ninja and Tefal blenders. This isn't an issue, but it's certainly worth noting, because I read the 'soup' function as if the blender would be able to add heat into the mix.

Cleaning

Magimix says that all parts, except for the motor base, are dishwasher safe, which makes life easy. Of course, you should put the blender jug in upside down, so that it doesn't collect dishwasher water, but you can let the machines do the rest.

I also tried another technique, which is a little less aggressive for cleaning. I popped a squeeze of washing up liquid and some warm water in the blender and then pulsed it. This dislodged any bits left behind in the blender, so that all I needed to do was wash and dry the blending jug and parts. If that sounds better to you, it's a really easy alternative (and it'll leave space in your dishwasher for smoothie cups).

Should you buy it?

There are a fair few other blenders on the market that have similar offerings at a similar pricepoint. The model that I couldn't get out of my head whilst testing the Magimix Power Blend 4 was the Tefal Perfectmix. This comes with a full menu of settings, offering heating, chunky soup, smooth soup, sautes, ice creams, smoothies, and more. It's a much more versatile blender and I think it's more powerful too. The drawbacks are that it can't be submerged in water when you're cleaning it and that it's heavier, because the jug is glass. I actually don't mind the latter, because I like to minimise how much plastic I have in my home, but the cleaning part is actually a real pain. You also don't get the same 30-year-guarentee that Magimix offers, instead you'll have to settle for 10 years, which is still pretty good.

In summary, you can't really go wrong with either. If you want a quiet, simple, family-friendly blender, go for the Magimix. There's a lot less that could go wrong. On the other hand, if you want something a little more sophisticated the Tefal covers more functions with more power, but also more noise. 

Should you buy it?

After speaking to the team, we've decided to give this the top spot in our buying guide.  Five of us, who test blenders for a living have all agreed that this really is the best all-rounder that the market has to offer. It's exceptional value, with great performance, simple controls, and a sleek aesthetic. It's perfect in almost every way, just perhaps a little simple for some.