Breville BSB510XL Control Grip Immersion Blender Review
Overall Verdict
The Breville BSB510XL is touted as a premium hand-held blender, but unexpectedly, its performance doesn’t live up to the hype, if not somewhat mediocre for the price.
There is a lot of room for improvement regarding its pureéing ability. Since its motor power wasn’t sufficient for a quick blend of root vegetables and celery stalks, our soup came out chunkier than it should. The whisk attachment offered decent performance when beating eggs, but the mayonnaise it delivered was neither as thick nor as creamy as we’d like. While it did deliver a smooth combination of frozen fruits, it struggled and took too much time. Most other high-end models had no such difficulty.
Overall, we're really impressed with all the innovative features, extra accessories, and build materials of the Breville BSB510XL. Still, we don’t think it is a good value considering its upscale price and the fact that there isn’t much in return for its efficiency.
Things We Like
- It performs with consistent efficiency.
- It comes with extra accessories.
- There are many innovative features like ergonomic pistol-like control grip with trigger operation.
- Non-scratch base helps prevent scratching pots.
- The whisk attachment brings more versatility.
Things We Don’t Like
- The heavy blending performance is limited
- The blade housing base is relatively large, making it hard to fit well in certain blending containers.
We spent several weeks rigorously testing the Breville BSB510XL immersion blender. That time was spent making smoothies, hot soup, mayonnaise, nut milk, and whipped egg whites. In the end, we drew our own conclusions about this blender’s performance. There were a few surprises along the way, both good and bad.
6.5 Performance: Falls Short of Rivals
The Breville BSB510XL is slow to blend frozen foods, grind raw nuts, or emulsify sauces, but the products it produces are well worth the extra time.
6.5 Hot Soup Purée
The Breville BSB510XL ranks among the best blenders for those often in a rush to produce hot soup purées. Breaking down cooked veggies into liquid form is this machine’s forte.
Although our test soup did retain a few unblended chunks, it was acceptably smooth and had a nice creamy consistency even without adding dairy. Our purée test runs for only 30 seconds, though — you will likely get a silkier soup if you blend longer.
5.8 Frozen Fruit Smoothie
The Breville BSB510XL produced a silky smoothie with almost zero leftover sediment. The task did seem challenging, though, since it took nearly a full minute longer than average. You may not mind a little extra time, but frozen fruit smoothies are actually best when they’re blended quickly; the extra time and blade contact will thaw the ingredients and give the resulting smoothie a more watery texture.
4.8 Mayonnaise
The Breville BSB510XL took 2 minutes and forty seconds to create a batch of mayonnaise featuring three egg yolks and 240ml oil. This was nearly a minute and a half slower than the fastest models we tested (such as the Cuisinart CSB-175 Smart Stick).
The sauce had a pale yellow color. It was light and creamy like pudding — neither great nor bad. It lacked the thick texture we prefer, suggesting that better emulsion would demand more oil.
8.5 Almond Milk
The Breville BSB510XL performed well in this test. Of all the mid-powered blenders we tested, it was among the select few that pulverized the nuts evenly and drew the most flavor out of the almonds. After we’d removed the pulp with a mesh strainer, it tasted smooth and creamy, too.
10 Whipped Egg-Whites
The Breville BSB510XL was excellent at beating eggs. It requires less than one and a half minutes to churn out a stiff-peaked whip from 100ml of egg whites, which was considerably faster than most of its peers. If you use this blender to make meringue, you won’t need to make any special preparations; the Breville BSB510XL will readily handle it.
8.7 Design
The Breville BSB510XL received plentiful praise from our testers for its overall design. It has an aesthetic appeal that very few others match. They’ve also commended its high-quality materials, which add to the visual attractiveness and make it feel more solid than most other blenders out there.
In the Box
- Motor body
- Blending shaft
- Whisk attachment
- Chopper bowl with stainless steel chopping blades
- Blending beaker with dual-purpose storage lid & anti-slip mat
- User manual
Contributing to the high price tag is a set of well-designed attachments, to include a whisk, a chopping bowl, and a 42-ounce blending jar with dual-purpose lid. All of the attachments are top-rack dishwasher safe, which is definitely a big plus. They’re also very practical and easy to use.
Dimensions
At 16.5 inches, this blender’s length is about average. It is top-heavy, though, so it can feel unstable, especially if you want to rest it against the side of your blending beaker when you pause the motor. On the bright side, that length may allow you to reach the bottom of deep pots more easily. Our other concern is the blade housing’s large size; it won’t fit well in all potential containers.
9.0 Build Quality
The steeper price of the Breville BSB510XL is justified by its build quality, which is hard to beat. While we have different opinions about the plastic coating of its motor body, whose finish is likely to be marred with minor scratches after repeated use, most everyone agrees that this blender will offer you great durability overall.
Speed and Controls
The motor has 15 speed settings, giving us precise control over our food’s texture. To switch between different speed settings, simply turn the dial at the top of the blender’s motor body. All the controls, including the power button and the speed dial, demand minimal pressure from your finger.
To blend at high speeds, the manufacturer recommends that you start with the slowest speed and gradually increase to the higher ones to minimize splattering or over-processing. However, we found it difficult to get this job done when both your hands are engaged while blending — one hand to use the controls and the other fighting the blender’s suction force.
7.5 Blending Shaft
The blending shaft is made of high-quality stainless steel to ensure durability. There is a plastic rim around its base, which is meant to reduce head suction and to protect your cookware from scratches.
The blade has two prongs—one is razor sharp and the other is dull. To keep the former sharp, you should avoid using it to crush whole ice cubes or to grind raw nuts without liquid.
10 Beaker
The beaker has clearly marked measurements for convenience. It is almost twice the standard size, making it easier for you to maneuver the hand blender around. And since there is more room in the container for the mixture to rise, it also helps to prevent overflow.
For storage, the cup comes with a lid, which then snaps onto the bottom of the cup to keep the container from moving on the countertop when you’re blending. And for some operations, such as making a smoothie, the handle on the jar gave us a good grip.
10 Power Cord
The power cord is long enough to reach nearby outlets. It’s notably designed with a finger hole in the power plug so you can easily and safely remove it from the wall socket.
Extra Accessories: Whisk Attachment
The whisk attachment functions as a hand whisk so you can whip up cream, beat egg whites, and emulsify sauces without a stand-alone mixer. In terms of quality, this part is well built, but one of its wires somehow has a very awkward shape. We can’t say for sure if that happened during shipping or on the production line.
Extra Accessories: Food Processor
We haven’t tested this attachment, but we think it could serve you well when making something like basil pesto. It could be a good alternative if you don’t want to bother with a full-sized food processor. The Breville can be a moderate food processor in its own right since the included chopping bowl comes at just the right size for chopping vegetables, onions, and more.
7.8 Usability: An Elite Level of Use Ease
The Breville BSB510XL really impresses us with its cleanability and an easy-to-assemble blade. Its height didn’t dominate our blending experience, but we did have a hard time maneuvering it due to the tight suction it created.
7.7 Ease of Use
The Breville BSB510XL allowed for a thorough blending process since food didn’t get lodged around the blending blade or in the blade guard. We could get an even blend without having to pause our blender and dislodge trapped chunks.
Moreover, the motor operated very smoothly so we didn’t need to hold the beaker throughout the whole job to keep it from moving around (as was necessary with certain other blenders such as the Mueller Ultra-Stick).
After each task, the cleanup was messier than we anticipated, though. This was because the suction force entirely threw off our momentum when we went to draw the blending wand up. The Breville created a lot of splatter every time we moved it around.
7.5 Blade Assembly
The process of assembling your blender is very easy; simply align the top end of the blending attachment with the corresponding end of the motor body and then push until you feel them ‘click’ together. Separating the two pieces is simple as well thanks to the EJECT buttons on either side of the motor body.
8.5 Handling
Suctioning problem aside, this blender is among the easiest models to maneuver. You hold the Breville with one finger wrapping over the power trigger rather than just pressing it with a fingertip. Contributing to its comfortable grip is the handle’s rubber coating. Apart from staving off hand fatigue, this feature will help prevent your hands from slipping if they’re wet or covered in grease.
7.5 Cleanability
With the exception of the motor body, all the pieces are dishwasher-safe. However, we recommend hand washing so as to get the best long-term use.
While cleaning it manually, we didn’t have to use much elbow grease on food tailings. For the most part, they rinsed off effortlessly under the tap. The only troublesome things were sticky and water-insoluble residues, like mayonnaise, which demanded some scrubbing. Getting that residue off the backsides of the blades was a frustrating process.