While most blenders on the market use plastic pitchers, you might want a glass jar blender if you like the more premium feel of glass versus plastic. Glass doesn't scratch as easily, so you can avoid the cloudy look of a beat-up plastic pitcher. Glass also doesn't retain odors the same way plastic can.
However, high-end blender manufacturers like Vitamix and Blendtec don't make glass jars. They say it's for safety reasons: both brands make high-powered blenders, and glass is more prone to shattering if a chunk of frozen fruit or an ice cube gets flung into the side of the jar—or if you accidentally leave something like a metal spoon in the jar. Accordingly, most glass blenders we've tested have relatively low power or at least a lower blending speed compared to powerful, high-end, high-speed blenders from brands like Vitamix, Blendtec, Wolf, and Breville. This means you can get a glass jar blender for pretty cheap, but most popular models won't perform as well as expensive blenders with plastic jars.
We've tested over 105 blenders; these are our recommendations for the best blenders with glass jars. If you're looking for more recommendations, check out the best blenders for smoothies, the best budget blenders, and the best blenders.
The best glass jar blender we've tested is the Ninja Foodi Cold & Hot Blender. This model differs from most Ninja blenders for a few reasons: its 56oz main jar is made of glass, of course, but it also has a heating element built into its base. This allows it to heat and cook ingredients as they blend. It's fantastic for processing fibrous ingredients that are common in soups and smoothies, like kale and broccoli, since it doesn't take very long to make a mostly smooth blend.
It has no problem powering through ice cubes to make snow-like crushed ice for cocktails or blended drinks like slushies. It can produce fantastic results with thicker mixtures like nut butter, although you might need to stop the machine to stir the ingredients and scrape the walls. While it has limited manual speed settings, it has several blending programs for different recipes. However, it's more difficult to clean than most full-size blenders since you can't immerse the jar in water because of the heating element. That means you must be careful when cleaning it by hand in the sink, but you can always run the blender with warm water and soap in the jar first to help dislodge sticky ingredients.
If you want a less expensive option or won't use the previous pick's heating element, the Oster Pro 1200 is the best glass blender we've tested. This model is our best budget blender overall, but since glass blenders are more common at lower price points, its price puts it in the middle of the market. It comes with a 48oz glass jar and a 24oz personal jar, but only the main jar is made of glass. It can't heat ingredients but can blend hot ingredients fresh from the stove or oven for soups and sauces. It makes a smooth blend with fibrous ingredients with almost no grains left over and has a few dedicated blending programs for different recipes, including smoothies.
Like the previous pick, you only have three speed options for manual blending. Using it for thicker recipes like nut butter and hummus requires some hands-on work: you must stop the blender partway through to stir and scrape the ingredients toward the blades. It can only handle about six ice cubes at once, which is half the Ninja Foodi Cold & Hot Blender's capacity, and it tends to leave small unprocessed chunks. Overall, it doesn't feel as well-built.
The Black+Decker Quiet Blender with Cyclone Glass Jar is a solid option for a budget-friendly price. This blender is similar to the Oster Pro 1200 in many ways. It comes with a 48oz glass main jar and a plastic personal jar. It doesn't blend fibrous ingredients quite as smoothly as the Oster, so you'll notice a few more grains left over in smoothies and soups, but it can still make very well-blended purees with fruits and leafy greens. It can also make very smooth, spreadable nut butter, although, like the Oster, it takes a few minutes, and you have to stop the blender to stir partway through.
However, it's not as good at crushing ice. It has a lower motor power than the Oster, and even if you only use six ice cubes at once, ice tends to build up under the blades, and it doesn't fully crush all the ice cubes. However, adding liquid to the jar makes ice easier to process. Plus, as its name suggests, this blender is quieter than the previous picks on the list. Its removable blades make it very easy to clean by hand.
The Hamilton Beach Wave Crusher Multi-Function is one of the cheapest full-size blenders we've tested. As you might expect from a blender that costs less than $50, it comes with some compromises in terms of performance. The glass jar feels thick and sturdy, but the rest of the blender is made of flimsy plastic. Its motor isn't very powerful, and this blender isn't good for tougher blending tasks like ice crushing or nut butter.
That said, if you just want a blender for smoothies and other liquid recipes like soups, it's good at blending fibrous ingredients. It makes a less smooth blend than the previous picks, so you'll notice more grains left over in recipes like kale smoothies and broccoli soup, but the unprocessed pieces are small and uniform, and overall, it still produces a good result. You can use it to hot blend, although the manufacturer says not to add more than 25oz of hot food to the 40oz jar. Unfortunately, it has no automatic blending programs, so you'll have to stop it manually.
Jul 10, 2024: We've made minor updates to the text and checked that the products are in stock.
May 01, 2024: Added the Oster Master Series Blender with Texture Select Settings as a Notable Mention since it's a better ice crusher than the similarly priced Black+Decker Quiet Blender with Cyclone Glass Jar.
Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best glass blenders that we've tested. We factor in the price, feedback from our visitors, and availability.
If you'd like to do the work of choosing yourself, here's the list of all the blenders with glass jars that we've tested. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no blender is perfect for every use, most are good enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.