Wissec Portable Blender review in a nutshell: it's a blender that runs on a battery, it's very cheap, and in this case, you get what you pay for
Portable blenders are gaining traction. This is partly thanks to their ability to let you whip up fresh smoothies on the go, and partly because they are all over Amazon, and cost very little.
A portable blender, in theory, helps you cut down on time in the kitchen. You throw it in your bag on the way to work and grab some fruit and veg on your lunch break, perhaps toss in some protein powder too, and make a smoothie. The Smoovii portable blender which I recently reviewed is probably the best portable blender you can buy; this Wissec rival sits very much in the chasing pack.
The Wissec hails from China, despite its vaguely middle-European name, and is a big seller on Amazon. Priced at somewhere between £18 and £22 – it fluctuates – the Wissec is one of the cheapest portable blenders you can find. It’s made entirely of plastic, apart from the blades, and sized for a single serving. I’ve been giving it a try over the past week to see if it’s worth buying.
Wissec portable blender: price and availability
Available to buy now on Amazon UK – and nowhere else – for around £20, the Wissec comes in four different colours, a nice and normal black or rather sickly blue, green or purple options.
This particular portable blender is not available in America but a lot of suspiciously similar-looking ones are, from $20-$30. In Australia it's the same story, with pricing from AU$30 to AU$40.
Wissec portable blender review: design and build quality
In the box you get the blending motor and blades, a mixing cup, a lid with a carry strap, a filter, which helps sieve out all those lumpy bits and bobs, and a USB-C charging cable (no plug). You'll also find a little cleaning kit to help you get any residue off the blades. That's all very well, but I didn't find it made it any less tricky to clean.
To look at, the Wissec blender isn’t too bad. It has a simple design and easy-to-use interface – essentially a USB-C charging port, a power button and an LED light that tells you if the battery is low, the beaker is misaligned, or you’ve packed too much fruit inside for it to work.
The plastic lid screws off the top for you to add your fruit and veg, but it will operate with or without this, so be careful to ensure it's properly screwed during use. Post-blending, you can make use of the lid's built in 'sieve' – actually a perforated plastic disc – to stop bigger bits of fruit that have failed to properly blend from entering your drink. You'd be right in thinking the inclusion of this doesn’t bode well.
The cup cannot be screwed directly off the unit without the entire smoothie contents falling out – yes, this happened to me. You need a separate receptacle to pour the smoothie into. Unless, of course, you’re happy to drink directly from the unit. I would feel a bit weird, seeing the blades inches from my nose, while the lumpy bits empty straight into my gullet, but it's a free country.
Speaking of blades, these are made from stainless steel, seem pretty sharp, and rotate at 22,000 RPM, according to the Wissec marketing material. While they do get most fruit down to a smooth liquid, they aren't all that great at blitzing harder fruit and veg, frozen fruits or more than 1 or 2 ice cubes. If you are going to buy this blender, it should only really be used for blending soft fruits such as strawberries and bananas.
Still, it's pretty lightweight and thus easy to carry around in a bag, weighing just 550g. On top of this, you get more than your average portable blender when it comes to volume of liquid, at 380ml.
The Wissec blender boasts a 2000mAh battery that will blend up around 10 smoothies once fully charged. Via a USB cable, this single serve blender can be easily charged by power bank, laptop, computer or other USB devices.
Wissec review: performance
When it comes to performance, the Wissec blender is pretty hit and miss. My tests involved blending a banana and blueberry mixture, which is hardly a big ask. Even so, while I found the Wissec managed to whip it down to a pretty smooth consistency. I did find a few unblended berries left in the bottom – thank goodness for that sieve.
I initially found that if there’s too much fruit backed into the mixing cup, and it’s sitting on top of the blades, the motor will not even budge. The makers recommend adding liquid – ie: water or milk – to cover the blades before adding the fruit. This does help the process along a bit.
On Amazon, some reviewers have complained of the motor burning out and melting the base unit. This seems to me to be inevitable with a device that has electrical and motorised parts, and costs only £20/$20.
Wissec portable blender review: verdict
The Wissec portable blender isn’t actively bad if you consider its price. It’s not going to give you anywhere near the level of performance you’ll find in a corded blender – even an affordable one like a Nutribullet – so don’t be under any illusions there. It's quite telling that you have to 'lubricate' the blades with water or milk before adding more than a small amount of fruit and veg, for instance.
That said, the Wissec's power is sufficient to blend soft fruits and veg and a small amount of ice, and of course it’s easy to use. The Wissec probably won't prove to have much longevity, but you get what you pay for. I don't think future generations will be overjoyed with us for filling up landfill with short-lived, battery-powered, plastic gizmos such as this, but on the plus side, you will get some nice single-serve smoothies out of it.
