How to Clean Your Blender

If you ever come by my house around 7 AM, you’ll hear the whir of my beloved blender (well, I’ve got a noise dampening one now, but you get the idea).

I use mine at least once a day and make up the most glorious morning meal you can imagine…well…if you love turmeric and chia seeds and spinach and the like.  Either way, what I can tell you from years of whipping up my morning slurry, is that blenders get messy.  And, they require immediate attention, they can’t be filed in the ‘clean later’ pile.  They are rather sizeable contraptions, meaning they instantly make your kitchen or sink look messy, and any smoothie remnants get beyond cakey and hard to remove.

And the serious 7 AM struggle of this non-parent is the moment where I remind myself that the blender does indeed need to be cleaned, right now, before sipping away at my tempting frosty breakfast.  Why can’t the blender just clean itself? Ah-hah!  Wait a minute…

In this post, I’ll share with you how I’ve learned to get my blender to clean itself so that I can get to sipping, and some tried, tested and true tricks to keeping it looking and smelling clean.

As a point of reference, I use a Blendtec with a plastic jar, but these tips will work for a glass jar and almost any brand of blender.

Daily Blender Clean Up Routine

Cleaning the blender could not be simpler and faster than this smooth move (word win!).

Once you’ve made your concoction, simply dump or scrape out any remnants and fill the blender jar with about 1-2 cups of water and a squirt of dish soap.

Pop it on the base and blend for 30 seconds.  I use this time to clean up any mess I’ve made (turmeric peels, dropped seeds, etc.) and to pull my vitamins and fill a glass of water.  Multitasking FTW!

When that’s all done, dump the contents and rinse the jar.

Rinse the blender jar and the lid and lay out to dry.  Done!

Stubborn Stains

This applies more to a plastic jar than a glass jar (glass doesn’t stain), but the tips are still great.  Over time, the blender jar can pick up the dark colours of food as well as crusty bits which were never quite dealt with at an earlier time.  Keep on top of this to keep staining at bay, it can get pretty out of hand.  Here are three things you can try:

Lemon and Baking Soda

Juice a lemon into the jar (discard the rind) and add 2 tbsp of baking soda and a cup of water to your blender jar.  Blend on high speed for about 30 seconds and remove the jar from the base.  Scrub the interior with a soft sponge, rinse well and dry.

Vinegar and Baking Soda

Rather than using lemon juice, use 3/4 cup white vinegar and 1/4 cup baking soda, along with about 1/4 cup water.  Add this to the blender jar, and blend on high speed for about 30 seconds.  Remove the jar from the base and use a soft sponge or cloth to clean the interior, rinse well and dry.

Dish Detergent Powder

Add a couple tablespoons of dish detergent powder to your blender jar and fill with hot water.  Let this stand for a couple of hours and then dump the majority of the contents.  Use a soft sponge to agitate the rest of the mixture around the base, then rinse well and dry.

Quick story: I noticed over the years that my plastic blender jar became discoloured and scuffed/hazy.  I called Blendtec to inquire and they told me that because I ground up seeds (read: sharp) and used foods with dark colours (read: berries, spinach, turmeric), my blender was doomed.  Perhaps I wasn’t diligent enough about giving it a more thorough clean more often (heed my warning!).  What happened was, the seeds created tiny micro-scratches in the plastic and then the stains comfortably settled into the plastic.  So, just be aware that over time this may happen to you, despite your best cleaning efforts and it won’t affect the blender’s performance in any way.  However, if you can give your plastic blender jar a good thorough clean every now and then, you can work on avoiding this discolouration from setting in.

Smelly Blender

If your blender has a funky smell coming from the jar (and how appetizing is that?), there’s a quick fix you can use.

Cut up a lemon and add it to the blender.  Add a bit of water, say half a cup or so, and then blend.  The lemon helps pull odours out of the blender jar and will leave the blender smelling lemony clean! Rinse well and dry.

What About the Base?

Also a very easy task and something you don’t need to do often!  Use all-purpose cleaner (dish soap and water works fine) on a soft cloth and wipe the base well.  To get anything stubborn off the base or even in a little button hole (gosh that sounds bad, but what else do you call it?), simply use your cleaning toothbrush to loosen the dirt, and wipe away.

I hope this helps you keep your blender clean for a good long time!  What are your blender cleaning tips?