One machine for both is a real requirement and a genuinely awkward one, because a frozen smoothie and a pan of hot soup want opposite things. The Vitamix 5200 is the only countertop machine here that does both without a compromise: the power and jar shape for frozen loads, and the fully variable dial and vented lid that hot liquid needs. If that is more than you want to spend, the honest alternative is two tools — a Ninja BN701 and a stick blender — which together cost less and cover more.
Why the two jobs pull apart
A smoothie is a power and geometry problem. Frozen fruit and ice have to be fractured and then kept circulating, which wants a strong motor, a jar shaped to maintain a vortex, and ideally a tamper for the thick end of the range. Capacity helps, because a family batch is a real load.
Soup is a pressure and control problem.Cooked vegetables in stock are the easiest thing a blender is ever given — power is irrelevant. What matters is that the lid vents, that you can raise the speed slowly so steam leaves as it forms, and that the jar tolerates the heat. Blending hot liquid in a sealed vessel is a genuine burn risk, and the mechanism is set out in blending hot liquids safely.
Where they conflict.The features that make a machine good at smoothies — a big sealed jar, strong presets that ramp themselves, a program you press and walk away from — are precisely the ones you must override for soup. And the machine that is safest with hot food, a stick blender, cannot touch frozen fruit at all. Anything claiming to be excellent at both is either expensive or overselling.
Whatever you buy, the hot rules do not change.Fill well below the maximum line, take out the lid’s centre cap, cover the opening with a folded towel, and start on the lowest speed. Never blend hot liquid in a sealed personal blender cup. Your machine’s manual takes precedence over this page.
How this page is ranked. A machine has to clear both bars. Frozen capability is judged on published motor rating and jar geometry; hot capability on venting, whether the speed is genuinely variable, stated maximum liquid capacity and jar material. Primary sources throughout, no bench tests. Our method.
Running cost assumes 3 minutes a day, 365 days a year at 17.45¢ per kWh (US EIA, Electric Power Monthly — average residential price, US total, retrieved July 2026). Motor and capacity figures are in each manufacturer’s own words.| Machine | Frozen | Hot | Warranty | Cost / year |
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| Vitamix 5200 | Tamper, variable dial, 64 oz | Variable dial, vented lid | 7 years, full | $4.39 |
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| Ninja Professional Plus BN701 | 1,200 W continuous, 64 oz max liquid | Vented lid, presets only | 1 year | $3.82 |
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| Hamilton Beach Power Elite Wave Action | Weak — 3.7 A rating plate | Glass jar, vented lid | 3 years (US) | $1.41 |
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| NutriBullet 1200 W Blender Combo | 1,200 W, 64 oz pitcher | Pitcher only — never the cups | 1 year | $3.82 |
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| Braun MultiQuick 7 MQ7035X | No — will not blend frozen | Best here — no sealed vessel | 3 years (US) | $1.59 |
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The ranking
1. Vitamix 5200 — the only one that does both without a caveat
It clears both bars with the same three features. The fully variable dial gives you the slow ramp hot liquid needs and the fine control a thick frozen load needs. The tall narrow 64 oz jar keeps a vortex going on frozen fruit and gives enough room to fill low for soup and still make a real batch. The lid’s centre plug comes out for venting, and the tamper handles the thick end of both jobs.
It also heats soup by friction if you run it long enough at high speed, so the liquid was never near boiling in the first place — a neat sidestep of the whole hazard. Backed by a seven-year full warranty covering parts, labour and shipping. Vitamix publishes no watt figure at all for it, only 2 HP and an 11.5 amp nameplate, which is why our running cost is our own arithmetic on their numbers rather than a quoted figure. Full detail in the 5200 review.
2. Ninja Professional Plus BN701 — the value answer, with one thing to remember
On frozen it is the best value here: 1,200 watts published as a continuous figure and 64 oz of stated maximum liquid means a family batch of frozen smoothie with no drama. The lid comes apart, so venting for soup is available.
The thing to remember is that Auto-iQ decides its own ramp, and for hot liquid you want to decide it yourself. Use the manual speeds, start at one, do not walk away. Do that and it covers both jobs perfectly well at a fraction of the Vitamix. One year of warranty is the real cost of the saving.
3. Hamilton Beach Power Elite Wave Action — excellent hot, weak cold
For soup it is arguably the best-value machine on the page: a 40 oz glass jar that will not stain from tomato or curry, a vented lid, and three years of warranty at the lowest price here. Hamilton Beach is also the most candid brand in the category about its own numbers, defining what its 700 “peak” watts means and printing the true 3.7 A rating plate.
That candour is what disqualifies it from the top: 3.7 A works out at 444 W continuous, and a full jar of frozen fruit will stall it. Buy it if soup is the main job and smoothies are occasional and soft-fruit-based. Do not buy it as a frozen-smoothie machine.
4. NutriBullet 1200 W Blender Combo — two vessels, one of them off-limits hot
A 1,200 W base with a 64 oz pitcher and two single-serve cups, at the lowest price of the full-size machines here. The pitcher handles frozen smoothies and, vented and filled low, soup as well.
The cups must never see hot food. A blend-and-go cup is sealed with a watertight lid, which is the worst possible container for steam — see can personal blenders handle hot liquids. Owning a machine where one vessel is safe for a job and the other is dangerous for it is a real consideration in a busy kitchen. One-year warranty, excluding the cups.
5. Braun MultiQuick 7 — the other half of the two-tool answer
It is here because the honest recommendation for most kitchens is not a single machine. A stick blender is the best soup tool at any price — no sealed vessel, no transfer of near-boiling liquid, purée in the pan — with 500 W published as input power and three years of US warranty.
It will not blend frozen fruit, and it does not pretend to. Pair it with a Ninja BN701 and you have a better-covered kitchen than any single machine below the premium tier, usually for less money. That is the recommendation we would give a friend.
The short version. One machine, no compromises, buying once: Vitamix 5200. One machine on a budget: Ninja BN701, using manual speeds for soup. Mostly soup: the glass-jar Hamilton Beach. Being practical: a BN701 plus a stick blender, which covers more than either alone.
Related reading
The soup-specific countertop ranking is best blenders for hot soup; the smoothie-specific one is best blenders for smoothies. If the two-tool answer appeals, the immersion soup picks covers the other half.
