KitchenAid Diamond Blender Review 2024

It’s true that in the world of blending you get what you pay for. What if you just need a simple, budget blender for making smoothies, sauces, baby food and the like?

KitchenAid has been quietly getting on with building a reputation for budget blenders that punch above their weight.

In my KitchenAid Diamond Blender review, I’m going to explore what this popular blender is – and isn’t – good for in the kitchen.

(Head back to my massive home juicing and blending guide when you’re done for more help with this side of kitchen life!)

About The KitchenAid 5 Speed Diamond Blender

The KitchenAid 5 Speed Diamond Blender is designed to be an affordable, but effective and compact blender.

It doesn’t have the strongest motor in the world at 550 Watts, but it’s still up to the task of making foods like smoothies, soups, salsas, batters and dips.

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That motor drives five speed settings that are designed to tackle standard blending jobs like stirring, chopping, mixing, pureeing and liquifying.

There’s a pulse button too, which you can keep held down to run the blender at the speed you’ve selected. That’s handy when you want to give the mix a little more oomph.

The 60 ounce BPA free container jar is large enough for the average household. It’s also quite tall by design, and the narrower base increases contact time between the blades and the ingredients.

Finally, this is one of the most colorful blenders on the market!

At the time of writing my review, there were a whopping 22 colors to choose from – far more than the competition. Suffice to say, this is an easy way to brighten up your kitchen, whatever your current decor.

Who’s The KitchenAid 5 Speed Diamond Blender For?

If you want an extremely affordable blender that nevertheless performs well, I think you’ll like the KitchenAid 5 Speed.

It performs best when you work with soft fruits and vegetables and are making a liquid mix. Think things like soup preparation, salsas, smoothies, purees, baby food, shakes and so on.

The five speed settings are easy to apply to particular jobs, and the Diamond Blender also features something called “Intelli-Speed Motor Control”.

This is a clever bit of tech that adjusts each speed setting somewhat, and depending on the thickness of the current mix.

All in all, you get a surprising amount of tech at this price! That’s the value of looking a little further beyond the usual names in blending.

Who’s The KitchenAid 5 Speed Diamond Blender NOT For?

Here’s the one area where the KitchenAid Diamond Blender falls a little short.

It really struggles to tackle either very thick mixtures, or blend the toughest vegetables.

Things like hummus or nut butters require a lot of manual stirring and working. If you’re making the occasional serving it’s not a problem, but I don’t think you’d want to do this sort of work all the time.

You might want to consider looking at an entry-level Blendtec for a true all-in-one blender solution. Just be aware that even the lower priced Blendtecs require quite an investment.

Pros

• An affordable but effective blender for making smoothies, soups, salsas and other liquid-heavy foods.
• Five dedicated speed settings, a “Crush Ice” mode and a pulse button for manual blending.
• An elegant, classic design, with more color options to choose from than pretty much any other brand.
• Simple to use and easy to care for as well. The jar is dishwasher safe, but the lid needs to be cleaned by hand.
• 60 ounce capacity BPA free jar is large enough to suit most families.
• Container lid fixes on securely, but has a small opening so you can add ingredients mid-blend.

Cons

• You really need to focus on liquid foods to get the best performance from this blender.
• Not really suited for thick, sticky substances like nut butters.
• You can’t generate the kind of friction heat necessary to actually heat the soup you blend.
• Makes quite a bit of noise when it’s working at the highest speed settings.
• Quite a tall blender, so check you’ve got a suitable countertop space!

Kitchenaid Diamond Blender Review

That’s a really quick overview of what to expend from the KitchenAid.

In the next section of my blender review, I’m going to take a much closer look at the key features.

Diamond Blending System

The KitchenAid Diamond Blender makes use of a pretty standard four-prong blade system.

Truth be told there’s not an awful lot to say here!

They’re very sharp out of the box, made from high quality stainless steel, and seem like they’ve been well constructed for durability.

Note that the blade unit is permanently fixed to the actual jar.

The blades are absolutely fine to go in the dishwasher along with the container. Don’t try and detach them, or you’ll risk voiding the rather basic 1 year warranty.

Intelli-Speed Motor Control

The 550 Watts motor is housed within a die cast metal base. It’s a solid thing, and it won’t move around or vibrate on your kitchen countertop.

Compared to other blender brands, that 550 Watts motor is relatively weak. It’s good enough for handling softer fruits and vegetables, but it does run into performance problems with tougher stuff.

There is some extra tech built in to help the motor punch above its weight.

The KitchenAid Diamond Blender features something the company calls “Intelli-Speed Motor Control”

This actually detects the current state of the jar contents, and adjusts the speed a little to make sure it blends at the optimal speed.

That’s quite a neat addition for a budget blender like this, and it definitely helps with consistency.

The final bonus? There’s a little cable store beneath the motor base, so you can hide any excess cabling away.

60 Ounce Capacity BPA Free Container Jar

The container jug on the Kitchen Aid Diamond Blender has a capacity of 60 ounces. That’s about the right amount for the average household, although it’s smaller than the 72+ ounces you’ll find on higher end blenders.

It’s constructed from BPA free plastic that’s both shatter and scratch proof. That helps to keep the measurement markings readable over the long term.

It also features a silicone handle with a solid grip to it.

You wouldn’t want to get into the habit of dropping your kitchenware on the floor, but this model feels sturdy, long-lasting and durable.

It’ll forgive the odd whoopsie in the kitchen, in other words!

One thing to be aware of is that the Diamond Blender jar is actually quite tall – almost as tall as Vitamix pitcher.

That actually helps the relatively weak motor get more work done. The taller shape creates a vortex that keeps the contents moving around for an even blend.

The narrower base also means the produce spends more time in closer contact with the blades.

The pitcher’s topped off with a lid that sits securely, but actually has a small opening so you can add ingredients later on in the blend.

Just pop this central section off, add the new ingredients, then reseal. There’s no problem with splatters when you do so, as it’s really not a massive opening – just enough to squeeze items in one at a time.

I’ll talk more about cleaning the Diamond Blender later on in my review, but the blade unit is fixed entirely to the bottom of the pitcher. The entire unit is dishwasher safe, which makes life a little easier.

Speed Options, Control & Ease Of Use

The KitchenAid Diamond Blender is extremely easy to use.

Once you’ve screwed the container jug onto the base, it’s pretty obvious what you need to do. In fact, you barely need to even reference the user manual.

All of the controls are accessed from the front of the motor base.

First up is a row dedicated to the five speed options that give the blender its name:

• 1. Stir
• 2. Chop
• 3. Mix
• 4. Puree
• 5. Liquefy

It’s pretty self-explanatory stuff really.

Once you’ve switched the power on, you just select from the five speed options and the Diamond Blender gets on with the job.

There are a couple of extra buttons – beyond the power button – that are worth knowing about though.

The first of these is a pretty standard Pulse mode button. Select your speed, hold the Pulse button down and the blender will whir into life. It stops when you lift your finger.

This is useful when the presets aren’t getting quite the results you were after, and you need to give it a little more power.

Finally there’s a Crush Ice function. Fill the Diamond Blender with ice, hit this button, and it’ll turn everything into impressive snow in about 30 seconds. You can stop this earlier if you want a different level of crushing.

Overall, the blender is very easy to use and isn’t going to give even the greenest of cooks any kind of headache.

I’m also impressed to see these kind of speed options on a budget appliance like this.

Design & Specifications

I really like the look of the KitchenAid Diamond Blender.

I think it’s a nice mixture of retro and modern design. It certainly looks better on the countertop than most other entry level kitchenware.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, the most impressive thing here is the range of colors it’s available in.

At the time of writing this review, there are 22 different color options. I won’t list them all here (you can check the Amazon listing for this), but I’m sure you’re going to find a color that suits your kitchen.

As with all blenders, it’s important to make sure there’s enough vertical space in your kitchen. That’s especially important if you want to situate it beneath your cabinets.

As I’ve already mentioned, that container is surprisingly tall for an entry level appliance. Here are the complete specs so you can check the size before buying:

• Dimensions: 8.5 x 9.0 x 16.5 inches
• Weight: 10.8 lbs

Ease of Cleaning & Maintenance

The good news is that the jug and the fixed blade unit on the KitchenAid Diamond Blender are dishwasher safe.

The motor base definitely benefits from a wipe down with a damp cloth after each use though. You don’t want gunk ruining the control panel, after all.

You’ll also need to clean the lid and measuring cup by hand. They’re really not designed for the dishwasher, but are easy enough to wipe and rinse off.

If you’re short on time, or running through a number of blends, there’s a slightly quicker way to get things clean again.

Fill the Diamond Blender to around the half way point with warm water, add a few drops of standard kitchen detergent, pop the lid on, and then Pulse blend at medium speed for a minute or so.

That does a really good job of cleaning up both the jug and the blades, and gets the blender ready for the next item on your to-do list!

(Just give it a good rinse out afterwards. No one wants to taste dish soap in their salsa…)

However you choose to clean your KitchenAid, do let it air dry thoroughly before reassembling it. You can run into hygiene issues if you seal it back up with moisture left inside.

Performance Of The KitchenAid 5 Speed Blender

How does the KitchenAid Diamond Blender perform at tackling specific jobs?

Smoothies – This is one thing that the Diamond Blender does really well. When you’re working with ingredients like soft fruits and vegetables, you get a really smooth drink. It performs less well when you work with tougher stuff like leafy greens or carrots. A little extra manual pulsing helps here, but don’t expect the same performance as you’d get from a Blendtec, say, or even one of the better Ninja blenders.

Juicing – By its nature, a blender is never going to be able to deliver the kind of results you’ll get from a dedicated juicer. You are, after all, adding everything into the mix – pulp and all. Some people like that “whole juice” experience though, and if you’re using those same softer fruits, you get a good drink from the KitchenAid Diamond Blender.

Crushing Ice – Despite the motor being relatively weak, I think the Diamond Blender does a surprisingly good job at tackling ice. After half a minute or so, the Ice Crush setting turns hunky chunks of ice into a pretty fine slush. You can of course pulse on this mode to achieve a certain consistency.

Soups – Here’s the important thing to know about the Diamond Blender’s performance with soup. It will do a perfectly good job of blitzing the ingredients into liquid form. The blades just don’t generate the kind of heat friction that’s necessary to heat the soup at the same time as blending. Still, it’s good for prepping the raw ingredients into a form that you can warm up on the hob, or blast in the microwave.

Purees / Hummus – Purees come out really well with the Diamond Blender, and if you use the pulse button at low speed control you can achieve a very specific consistency for your salsas too. Hummus and nut butters? Too much for this little blender to handle in my opinion. It can be done, but it requires quite a bit more work on your part. I would only use the Diamond Blender for this occasionally.

Batters – As you’d expect, the KitchenAid Diamond Blender has no trouble blending those liquid-heavy batters for you.

Warranty

While the likes of Blendtec and Vitamix offer warranties of a decade or more on their flagship blenders, that’s not the case here.

You get the standard 1 year warranty on the KitchenAid Diamond Blender, but that’s par for the course when you’re spending at this end of the market.

Although it’s not the biggest name in the world of blending, KitchenAid has a pretty good reputation for customer service. That’s always reassuring with a short period warranty like this.

Final Verdict On The KitchenAid Diamond Blender?

You have to have realistic expectations when you buy a budget blender.

With that said, I think the KitchenAid Diamond Blender is a surprisingly effective little kitchen appliance, especially when you consider the price tag.

There’s no question that it’s better at working on “softer” foods like fruit smoothies, purees, baby food, salsas and soups, but it really does tackle those jobs well.

It’s just the tougher – or thicker – food types that it struggles to process as effectively.

As long as you’re aware of its limitations in that regard, I think this is a really impressive, compact budget blender. You’ve got to love those color options too!

Click here to learn more about the KitchenAid 5 Speed Diamond Blender, and read plenty more customer reviews.