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Cuisinart Smart Stick vs Breville BSB510XL Control Grip Side-by-Side Comparison
Our Verdict
- Performance (50%)7.4/10
- Design (20%)8.5/10
- Usability (30%)7.8/10
- Performance (50%)6.5/10
- Design (20%)8.7/10
- Usability (30%)7.8/10
Both these immersion blenders share the same power rating. However, while the built-to-be-all-round Breville didn't produce good enough results across the board, the Cuisinart Smart Stick does well what it can. And this makes it a better value overall.
The Cuisinart Smart Stick isn’t as comfortable to use as the Breville BSB510XL; its working mechanism is a little more complicated than others, but it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it with practice.
The Breville BSB510XL costs twice as much as the Cuisinart Smart Stick, but in return, it comes with a few extra goodies, including a whisk attachment that is capable of emulsifying mayonnaise and beating eggs.
Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender Performance
- Hot Soup Purée (35%)7.0/10
- Frozen Fruit Smoothie (30%)7.5/10
- Mayonnaise (15%)9.3/10
- Almond Milk (15%)9.0/10
- Whipped Egg-Whites (5%)0/10
- Hot Soup Purée (35%)6.5/10
- Frozen Fruit Smoothie (30%)5.8/10
- Mayonnaise (15%)4.8/10
- Almond Milk (15%)8.5/10
- Whipped Egg-Whites (5%)10/10
Hot Soup Purée
- Pureeing Time: 30 seconds
- Result: Silky chunky
- Suction: Slightly
Despite being among the least expensive mid-range blenders on our testing list, this Cuisinart is plenty quick, taking only 30 seconds to give us a pot of soup. Still, we were just moderately satisfied with its performance. The soup was not well pureed enough to look entirely smooth. After we drained it through a strainer, we noticed many foods still remained unprocessed. For the best pureés maker, we recommend the Vitamix 5-speed.
- Pureeing Time: 30 secs
- Result: Smooth
- Suction: Slight
The Breville BSB510XL is not a bad choice if you need to create hot soup purées in a hurry. 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.
Frozen Fruit Smoothie
- Blending Time: 1 min 20 secs
- Result: Slightly Coarse
- Suction: Slightly
Although the Cuisinart CSB-175 Smart Stick could pass this test in 1 minute and 20 seconds, it had a very hard time grinding frozen fruits. By comparison, its counterparts — the Vitamix 5-speed and the Braun MultiQuick-5 — could turn all the ingredients into a green silky smoothie without a struggle.
The Cuisinart’s smoothie was acceptable but didn’t have the smoothest texture. It came out rather lumpy due to kale chunks. Our straw got clogged now and then with bits that were still too big.
- Blending Time: 2 mins 21 secs
- Result: Smooth
- Suction: Slightly
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.
Mayonnaise
- Emulsifying Time: 1 min 10 secs
- Result: Smooth
- Suction: Yes
Coming off the other tests, we didn’t expect much out of our Cuisinart when it came to making mayonnaise. For the most part, we agreed that a whisk attachment would emulsify sauce far better than any ordinary blending shaft. But as it turned out, of all the blenders we tested, the Cuisinart was the fastest to yield a creamy, mouthwatering sauce. It even beat the Braun’s whisk attachment by about 30 seconds, though in both cases, the mayonnaise’s texture was essentially the same.
Still, there was a minor drawback. When the mayonnaise began to thicken, our blender suctioned itself tightly to the beaker’s bottom, making it a bit trickier for us to move the blending wand around. Nevertheless, given this blender’s outstanding performance, this issue wasn’t a true dealbreaker and should be tolerated.
- Emulsifying Time: 2 mins 40 secs
- Result: Quite Thin
- Suction: No
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 immersion blenders 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.
Almond Milk
- Grinding Time: 40 secs
- Result: Fine
- Suction: Tightly
This Cuisinart performed fairly well in this test. Besides being the fastest contender, it also blended quite uniformly. While it did create suction and cause a humble mess when we lifted the blending wand upward, it sustained a nice vortex, so our liquid didn’t overflow. In contrast, some models, such as the Hamilton Beach 2-speed and the Mueller Ultra-Stick couldn’t produce the consistent vortex. This caused the liquid to overflow excessively when we turned them up to higher speeds.
- Grinding Time: 56 secs
- Result: Smooth
- Suction: Tightly
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.
Whipped Egg-Whites
- Beating Time: N/A
- Result: N/A
- Suction: N/A
Of all the blenders we tested, only machines with whisk attachments could draw enough air into the egg-whites to create a stiff peak. The Cuisinart's ordinary blending shaft, on the other hand, just gave us a cloudy liquid made of two layers: bubbly film and eggy water. We awarded this blender no points for this test.
- Beating Time: 1 min 21 sec
- Result: Stiff
- Suction: No
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.
Cuisinart Smart Stick 2-Speed Design
- Blending Shaft (30%)8.0/10
- Build Quality (60%)8.5/10
- Power Cord (5%)10/10
- Beaker (5%)10/10
- Blending Shaft (30%)7.5/10
- Build Quality (60%)9.0/10
- Power cord (5%)10/10
- Beaker (5%)10/10
Speed and Controls of the Cuisinart Smart Stick 2-Speed
- Control Type:Press
- Min Speed:11,670 RPM
- Max Speed:12,660 RPM
- Presets:No
- Noise Level:80 dB
- Digital Display:No
- Pulse Mode:No
At first sight, we thought this blender would be very easy to use since its two-button interface looks really intuitive.
Unexpectedly enough, we couldn’t figure out how to activate the device until we consulted the user manual. Not only that, but we also needed quite a lot of practice to operate it smoothly. Unlike others, this blender has an additional locking button which acts as a safety mechanism.
The locking button must be held down along with the operational button. That paired-button operation forced us to use two hands in some cases — certainly not what we’d call user-friendly.
The Cuisinart Smart Stick also allows us to switch between the two speed options (Low and High) with the slide control. We’d prefer more than two settings since multiple speeds give us more control over the food’s texture.
That being said, the slider also makes this blender more complicated to use, especially when the dial’s location is entirely separated from the On/Off button. It’s tough for one person to use the blender, adjust its speed, and hold the beaker at the same time, so we had to stop blending to speed up or slow down.
- Control Type:Press-button & speed dial
- Min Speed:6.014 RPM
- Max Speed:13.224 RPM
- Presets:No
- Noise Level:76 dB
- Digital Display:No
- Pulse Mode:No
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.
Blending Shaft
- Material:Stainless steel
- Type:Sharp Blade
- Guard Material:Metal
- Blade Count:2
- Removable:No
- Dishwasher Safe:No
The Cuisinart’s blade has two prongs: one sharp and the other blunt. Although it isn’t as high quality as the Vitamix, it can withstand consistent use. It even defeated its higher-priced counterpart in our mayonnaise test despite being the underdog.
A metal housing partially covers the fixed stainless steel blade to keep splashing to a minimum. This blade guard, however, left much to be desired in our test due to its awkward design. Rather than being a solid piece like others, it has several small holes which significantly degrade the shielding’s effectiveness.
Not only that, but the metal blade guard also caused scratches on the blender’s original beaker in its smoothie task. This is too awful even to be imagined.
- Material:Stainless steel
- Type:Sharp blade
- Guard Material:Plastic
- Blade Count:2
- Removable:No
- Dishwasher Safe:Yes
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.
In the Box Cuisinart Smart Stick
- Motor body
- Blending shaft
- 24-oz beaker
- User manual
The Cuisinart CSB-175 Smart Stick set includes 4 items: a blender motor body, a blending shaft, a 20-ounce beaker, and a user manual. Before using your blender for the first time, make sure to clean it thoroughly following the user manual’s instructions. For safe operations, you should also comply with all the basic safety precautions issued by the Cuisinart manufacturers.
- 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
- Height:15.6" (39.6 cm)
- Width:2.3" (5.8 cm)
- Weight:1.6 lbs (0.7 kg)
- Shaft Length:8.4" (21.3 cm)
Stylish and portable, the Cuisinart CSB-175 Smart Stick offers a delicate balance of weight, size, and aesthetics. With a reasonably sized blending shaft, it doesn’t have any difficulty operating even in deep pots. Plus, it is compact enough that it fits easily into a drawer for storage.
- Height:16.5" (41.9 cm)
- Width:2.9" (7.4 cm)
- Weight:2.2 lbs (1.0 kg)
- Shaft Length:9.3" (23.6 cm)
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.
Build Quality
Although this blender is mostly made of plastic, its motor body looks and feels as solid as the stainless steel wand component. Even so, it may become discolored with use.
The stainless steel blending wand is built well enough to endure regular use. So far, our blades have shown no signs of rusting or dulling, but we have found a user’s complaint about her blade that snapped in half after just two months of use.
The controls are of decent quality. They are easier to press than those of the Braun MultiQuick-5 and seem to be much more durable than the Mueller Ultra-Stick. Other than an awkward power button (to be discussed later) we were quite pleased with this unique design.
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.
Beaker
- Material:Plastic
- Capacity:NaN fl oz (NaN ml)
- Measurements:Yes
- Weight:0.2 oz (7 g)
- Height:6.5" (16.5 cm)
- Dishwasher Safe:Yes
- Tamper Included:No
Made of eco-friendly food-grade plastic, the beaker is entirely safe for use with any ingredients. It’s top-rack dishwasher-safe but doesn’t resist shattering, so we still recommend washing it manually to avoid any possible damage. Since it isn’t designed to withstand high temperatures, you also shouldn’t use it to blend hot liquid.
Besides the measurement marks, a wide pour spout is also a nice feature of Cuisinart’s beaker. When we used it to pour out the smoothie, we experienced less spillage than with other blender jars.
- Material:Plastic
- Capacity:40 oz
- Measurements:Ye
- Weight:NaN oz (NaN g)
- Height:NaN" (NaN cm)
- Dishwasher Safe:Ye
- Tamper Included:No
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.
Power Cord
- Cord Length:6.0 ft (1.8 m)
- Type:2-prong plug
- Detachable:No
The power cord has a reasonable length. Its plug is polarized so it will only be inserted one way into your outlet. For ultimate cable management, Cuisinart also included a nylon zip tie.
- Cord Length:6.3 ft (1.9 m)
- Type:2-prong plug
- Detachable:No
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
- Material:N/A
- Dishwasher Safe:N/A
- Removable:N/A
The Cuisinart doesn’t come with any accessories other than the 24-oz pitcher.
- Material:Stainless steel
- Dishwasher Safe:Yes
- Removable:Yes
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.
Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender Usability
- Ease Of Use (60%)7.6/10
- Blade Assembly (10%)9.0/10
- Handling (20%)8.0/10
- Cleanability (10%)7.5/10
- Ease of Use (60%)7.7/10
- Blade Assembly (10%)7.5/10
- Handling (20%)8.5/10
- Cleanability (10%)7.5/10
Ease Of Use
At first sight, we thought this blender would be very easy to use due to its simple-designed interface.Unexpectedly enough, however, we couldn’t figure out how to activate the device until we consulted the user manual. Not only that, but we also needed quite a lot of practice to operate it smoothly.
Unlike others, this blender has an additional locking button which acts as a safety mechanism. The locking button must be held down along with the operational button. That paired-button operation forced us to use two hands in some cases — certainly not what we’d call user-friendly.
Given that the dial’s location is entirely separated from the On/Off button, it’s also quite tough for use to use the blender, adjust its speed, and hold the beaker at the same time. More often than not, we felt very annoyed when having to stop blending if we wanted to speed up or slow down.
Another drawback was that all sorts of our blending motions, from stirring to drawing up, weren’t performed with ease. In particular, when the mayonnaise began to thicken, the blender suctioned itself tightly to the beaker’s bottom, making it a bit trickier for us to move its blending wand around.
Likewise, in the hot soup test, the suction force created by the blender was so excessive that it entirely threw off our momentum when we were struggling to pull it out. Together with the absurdly-designed blade guard, this caused us lots of splatter every single time we moved our hand. Indeed, no other blenders we tested created as much mess as the Cuisinart.
There was also a problem in the smoothie test. At some points, this blender demanded we temporarily stop to dislodge the food trapped in its blade guard’s holes. And since blending frozen fruit was a prolonged procedure, it took a toll on the motor. Therefore, we had to let it rest every 60 seconds, and this was so inconvenient.
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.
Blade Assembly
To set up our blender, we attached the blending wand to the motor body until they clicked. When blending was complete, we removed the wand by pressing the release button and pulling it out. The pulling force is relatively large compared to other blenders we’ve had our hands on, so this one was tough to disassemble when our hands were oily.
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.
Handling
The Cuisinart’s handle has nothing particularly special. It doesn’t have a rubber layer (like the Vitamix or the Braun MultiQuick-5) to help you maintain a grip. On the bright side, it is ergonomically designed to protect your hand from fatigue.
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.
Cleanability
Since the blending wand isn’t dishwasher-safe, it demands manual scrubbing after use.
Following each test, most of the food residue rinsed off effortlessly under our running tap. We removed more stubborn remnants using a soapy sponge. Along the way, we didn’t have as much difficulty scrubbing the backs of the blades as we experienced with the Vitamix.
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.