Philips HR2094 Blender Alu Professional 750w review

14 January 2006 0:00 GMT / By Stuart Miles

With the UK Government promoting a “five fruit and veg a day” regime, there is no better time to invest in a blender for the year ahead. But can the Philips HR2094 Blender Alu Professional 750w help you get your smoothie fix?

To be honest we've had our blender fix before. You get one, blend everything in sight for 2 weeks and then the excitement wears off, the plastic jug dulls in the dishwasher and eventually the white base turns yellow. Your once pride and joy gets relegated to the back of the cupboard, or worse the shed, for that eventful boot sale you keep promising yourself you'll do.

Where the Philips model hopes to be different is that rather than a plastic jug, it's glass and rather than that white gleaming plastic base it's shiny aluminium. It is a good start and one that certainly makes the Philips blender a stylish accessory for any kitchen.

The HR2094 doesn't stop the good stuff there though. The solidly built blender comes with hefty suckers to keep it on the worktop without sliding all over the place and the 1.5 litre glass jug not only means you can get a good deal of liquid blended but also that you can keep it clean without the fear of tainting or dulling.

The blender is controlled via a glowing central dial on the front of the base and here you have four settings to help you blend quickly and effectively.

First off is a power dial that on turning causes the detachable knife unit (with 4 serrated blades) at the bottom of the jug gets progressively faster. A further three quick setting buttons; smoothie, ice and pulse are also present.

Like scene modes on a digital camera, the three quick buttons offer ideal speeds and settings for the three tasks. The smoothie button smooths, the ice button crushes and the pulse button strangely enough pulses things.

The final trick the blender has up its sleeve is a filter for juicing. Any one that blends will know that blending raspberries is great, but the getting the pips stuck in your teeth isn't.

Here, the removable filter sits over the blades and allows you pulp stuff. When it comes to fruit this is brilliant and it means you can start doing things like apples, cranberries or things that don't normally work in a blender.

Verdict

The HR2094 Blender Alu Professional has reinvigorated our love the blender and its smoothie time once again in the Pocket-lint office.

We especially like the glass jug, the juicer and the easy to use varying speed dial. The quick function buttons are just another way of doing things, but like scene modes in cameras you'll find you probably don't really use them.

Complaints? You can use the blender without putting the lid on. While this will appeal to some (even ourselves) it does mean that you run the risk of sending liquid flying across your kitchen (something we've almost done on more than one occasion).

The second is that you've got to remember to put the cap over the juicer attachment when it comes to pouring otherwise the two mix.

Overall however, the easy to clean device is brilliant.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Philips
Price as reviewed: £69.99
Latest price: Compare prices
The good: Glass jug, variable speeds, fruit filter
The bad: Can turn on without lid on, got to remember to put lid on fruit filter before pouring
Quick verdict: The HR2094 Blender Alu Professional has reinvigorated our love the blender and its smoothie time once again in the Pocket-lint office.
Score
Winner