I tested this $300 KitchenAid blender — but it's left me wondering whether I’m just paying for the brand name

A blender that does it all is hard to come by. When it comes to the best blenders, the KitchenAid K400 may not take the top spot but I think it still does a great job blending everything from simple smoothies to notoriously difficult nut butter.

This blender is an improvement on the KitchenAid K130 model, with the addition of a glass jug for increased hygiene and a three-part blending system to make clicking the power button and watching the magic happen even easier.

I found the glass jug to be pretty heavy compared to a standard plastic jug, though, and the self-cleaning function doesn’t make the jug absolutely sparkling. But the blender can make a smooth peanut butter in 5 minutes and while it didn’t blend every tiny fruit seed in my smoothie, it still tasted amazing.

But there are far cheaper blenders that perform ten times better than KitchenAid K400. The Ninja Detect Power Pro with Blendsense is over $100 cheaper and blows the K400 out of the water.

You can find out more in my full KitchenAid K400 review.

KitchenAid K400 review: Specs

KitchenAid K400 review: Price & availability

The KitchenAid K400 is available from Amazon U.S. for $299 and from Amazon U.K. for £329. The blender comes in 15 different colors but I tested the Pistachio color. There are enough options to suit everyone’s taste and if you already have KitchenAid appliances at home, there will be a colour to match your collection.

There are optional accessories available to accompany the blender to get the most out of it. The citrus press to juice any fruit, small batch jar for 200ml blends, and personal jar which is 500ml.

The K400 is a lot cheaper than the best blender on the market, the Vitamix Ascent X2, which is £549, and that will give you the perfect blend (which is why we awarded it a full 5 stars). It’s more expensive than the Ninja Detect Power Pro with Blendsense which is priced at $179, and the K400 doesn’t perform as well.

KitchenAid K400 review: Design & controls

Like most KitchenAid appliances, the K400 is lovely to look at. The base of the blender is made from die-cast metal and is weighty enough to keep the blender stable on your work surface.

On the front of the base is a knob to switch between all the settings. These include pulse, 5 blend speeds and three preset settings. The presets include ice crush, icy drinks, and smoothie.

The knob on the blender is very wobbly and moves smoothly throughout the settings rather than clicking. There isn’t much resistance and I was worried I would pull it off unintentionally — it doesn’t feel very secure.

It also has a soft-start feature where the blender gradually increases speed so as not to make a mess. This is a useful feature already found on the KitchenAid stand mixers the brand is known for, but I’m not sure how necessary it is on the blender. I didn’t notice a difference to my normal Nutribullet blender’s start up which is full throttle immediately after twisting down.

The 1.4L blender jug is made of glass which is far more hygienic than regular plastic blender jugs — it won’t harbour any smells since it is not porous like plastic. It also has measuring markings on the side to reduce washing up.

However, the glass makes it very heavy. When it was filled with a smoothie and I was holding the jug upside down to scrape out the dregs, it was like a full bicep workout.

The jug has a hard plastic lid which has a removable cap so I was able to add ingredients while the blender was on. The cap also doubles up as a measuring cap so there is less washing up after cooking (more on that later).

KitchenAid says that the blender uses a three-part blending system. The first part is an asymmetric blade that blends at four angles, but this is no different from your average blender.

The second part of this system is a ribbed to the glass jug, which supposedly helps blending by folding the contents back on top of the blades. However, I didn’t find this worked effectively as the blades of the blender essentially made a hole in the mixture of my smoothie without ‘folding’ it back on top.

The third part of the system is the Intelli-Speed motor. This basically means that the motor is intelligent and can sense the contents of the blender to maintain optimal speed throughout blending. The blend speed remained consistent throughout.

The power cable for the blender is about a meter long so the machine needs to be set up pretty close to a power outlet.

The KitchenAid K400 is certainly an upgrade from the KitchenAid K130. Although both blenders look pretty much identical, the K130 only has 3 speed settings along with pulse. Its jug is also plastic so the K400 is definitely worth the upgrade if you are a KitchenAid stan.

KitchenAid K400 review: Blending performance

It’s no surprise to anyone that blenders are loud. I tested the sound level of the KitchenAid K400 while blending frozen fruit and got a reading of 92dB on the Decibel X app. That means the volume of the K400 is similar to what you’d hear from a motorcycle engine or a lawn mower.

Now, this is pretty loud for a blender, since the Magimix Blender Power 4 only gave a reading of 87dB under the same circumstances.

The classic — berry smoothie

I added 1 cup of frozen mixed berries and 1 cup of milk to the 1.4L jug. I used the ‘smoothie’ preset and let it run. I wasn’t happy the first time around so ran it through the preset setting twice to make sure it was fully blended.

While the K400 was able to mush the icy frozen berries with ease, the drink wasn’t smooth. The smoothie came out grittier than I would have liked.

It only blended some of the seeds from the fruit, not all of them like the Ninja Detect Power Pro with Blendsense. While this is fine if you don’t mind texture, for a perfectly smooth blend, I’d definitely recommend the Ninja.

I also had to give the glass jug a bit of a shake to coax the smoothie to fall back onto the blades (which supposedly should’ve been done for me by the three-part blending system) as the K400 was leaving a hollow gap in the centre where the blades are.

The appetizer — hummus

The K400 thrived when making hummus — it took me less than a minute! To the glass jug, I added a whole tin of chickpeas, a tablespoon of tahini, and a tablespoon of olive oil. While the mixture was blending, I took the removable lid cap off and poured ice water in to loosen the hummus.

This was super fast and the hummus came out incredibly smooth. This came out far smoother than when I use my regular Nutribullet Pro 900W blender — the perfect texture for dipping veggies or chips.

The challenge — peanut butter

Now for the real challenge — nut butter. It’s hard to find a blender that can make nut butter without fuss. The KitchenAid K400 did it in just five minutes, the same as the Magimix, but the Ninja Detect Power Pro could produce a thick peanut better in just 85 seconds!

I added 360g of peanuts to the blender jar and put it on setting number one on the dial. I had to tamp it down a lot in the first minute, but then I (finally) witnessed the magic of the three-part blending system.

The blender folded the peanuts inside so they blended together on their own. It came out very smooth, but the consistency wasn’t runny as with the Magimix Blender Power 4.

KitchenAid K400 review: Storage & maintenance

The glass jug of the KitchenAid K400 has measurements on the side and the removable lid cap can also be used for measuring, so that’s already reducing washing up right off the bat. But to make clean up even easier, the blender has a self-cleaning cycle.

This is done by filling the glass jar of the blender with water and a little dish soap, then running a cycle. It’s nice that self-cleaning is there as a quick option if you’re short on time but this mode isn’t perfect: I still had to get a sponge out and clean it by hand to make sure I got everything sparkling.

For a deeper clean, the jar and lid are dishwasher safe, so you don’t even need to wash by hand!

The blender also comes with a 5-year guarantee and 15-year reparability offer. This means if anything goes wrong within the 5 years guarantee period, KitchenAid will repair or replace the blender, and parts will be available for reparability for 10 years after that.

KitchenAid K400 review: Verdict

The KitchenAid K400 is a great blender but I do think you’re partly paying for the KitchenAid brand name, since there are other blenders like the Ninja Detect Power Pro that are cheaper and perform far better.

When you consider that the KitchenAid costs $299 and blends from nut to nut butter in five minutes but the Ninja is over $100 cheaper and can do it in just 85 seconds… I don’t think it’s much of a contest for which is worth your money.

Like most KitchenAid products, there are a lot of colour options to choose from that match the rest of their range, so if you love a cohesive kitchen this will be right up your street. One of my favourite things about this blender is the glass jar to eliminate any issues with lingering smells after cleaning.

The fact this blender can make nut butter in 5 minutes is no mean feat and is a testament to the three-part blending system. And while it may not be able to blend every tiny seed from fruit, it still makes a delicious tasting smoothie.