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BLDC Mixer Grinders: Power consumption, efficiency & review – Can they change the market for Mixer Grinders?

We at Bijli Bachao always try to bring forward exciting technologies that can help you save electricity. In the past, we have helped people adopt inverter ACs, refrigerators, washing machines, and BLDC fans. Whenever we come across something new that has the potential to impact the energy efficiency of an appliance significantly, we do try to help that. When my friends at Atomberg (my fellow alumni from my engineering school) came to me with a BLDC Mixer Grinder, it excited me. BLDC has the potential for improving many appliances (like air coolers, etc.); however, unfortunately, it has not been applied in most of them. So, when I did get to hear about the BLDC mixer grinder, I did want to try it out and measure it. Thankfully, the Atomberg team did send a sample unit for me to test out. So here are the first impressions:

The Content of the Package

The packaging was pretty good, and it came with the following things:

• Base Unit
• 6 L liquidizing jar with lid
• 1 L dry grinding jar with lid
• 5 L chutney jar with lid
• 5 L chopper jar with lid
• Spatula
• Instruction and Warranty Manual.
• Cookbook

First Impression

The unit does look premium. The quality of steel, as well as the plastic used, is pretty good. The unit is pricey, and the looks do justify the price of the unit.

The base unit has LED lights that show the speed at which the unit is running. However, the most beneficial aspect of the LED light is that it shows if the jar has been set well or not. The light is yellow if the jar is not placed well but turns blue when the jar is set.

The base unit has suction cups that make it stick to the platform where you keep it. This is also helpful as the unit is relatively stable and does not move around quickly.

However, the most noticeable difference is the “slow mode” visible on the base unit. This is not usually available on mixer grinders, and thus, this comes across as visibly different. We will talk more about this mode later.

Power Consumption

At Bijli Bachao, our first approach is to measure the power consumption of any appliance and evaluate it on the same. So, we picked up our energy meter and measured the machine using the same. We also ran the same test on our old 750-Watt Bajaj Mixer Grinder to get a comparison. The Atomberg mixer grinder is rated at the peak of 485 Watts, and it was interesting to observe the power consumption of both in similar scenarios:

I tried simple tests of juicing a watermelon and grinding black pepper, and here are the results.

The observation was that once the watermelon was crushed, the power consumption did not differ much if you increased or decreased the speed. The power consumption initially goes to 485/750 watts when the product is intact. Once the product is crushed, the power consumption comes down immediately. The significant effort for a mixer grinder goes into crushing the solid, but the difference in power consumption is not much once crushed. The slow mode in Atomberg indeed was really low in power consumption. And the time it takes to grind anything is just a few seconds.

The Slow Mode

This looks like the USP of this mixer grinder. This mode is quite helpful in making chutneys as the texture and taste it generates are pretty good. The power consumption of the mixer grinder in this mode is also very low. We have not seen such a mode in most mixer grinders available in the market, and thus this does make it stand out if you are looking for a slow mode.

More Observations

I observed that the mixer grinder is pretty fast. At the speed of 2, it was moving faster than our old Bajaj mixer grinder at 3. This could be because our old mixer grinder is a bit old. But the general feedback in my house was that it is pretty fast. The RPM value of the new mixer grinders from other brands is the same as the RPM value of this mixer grinder (18000 RPM). Please note, we were in general pretty happy with our old mixer grinder too, and had absolutely no complaints about it.

The mixer grinder has quite low noise levels. Especially in the slow mode, the mixer grinder is super quiet. Even though the speed was good, that did not significantly increase the noise.

The copper jar that comes along with this mixer grinder is quite useful. It can do very good basic vegetable chopping (in slow mode).

The mixer grinder does not have any vents, etc., so the cleaning process is quite simple.

The Positives of BLDC Mixer Grinder

• The “Slow Mode” is the most significant positive of this BLDC mixer grinder. It can be very useful if you do not want finely powdered output. It is not available in other mixer grinders. However, they can certainly add it soon. The power consumption in slow mode is really low.
• Being a BLDC mixer grinder, it does not have a high startup current and thus can be used more easily than a regular mixer grinder in case of power failures on power inverters or Solar inverters.
• The power consumption is indeed low as compared to a regular mixer grinder. If you want to bring down the electricity consumption of your house or want a greener option, then this is a great choice.
• Noise levels on this mixer grinder are lower. However, because the jars are made of steel, the solids in the jar will still make noise while getting crushed.
• It is pretty easy to clean the mixer grinder.

The negatives of the BLDC mixer grinder

• A newer technology that many local repair shops may be unable to fix. Our older mixer grinder has been going well for years now with small fixes done by our local mechanic whenever we had issues.
• Low Power consumption does not justify the ROI on high upfront investment. The usage of mixer grinders is usually relatively low in a household. At best, a mixer grinder is used for 5 mins daily. Saving just 100 Watts (or 100 x (5/60) = 8 Wh or 0.008 units per day) may not provide much economic benefit.
• Many pricier grinders have presets, and Atomberg can do good by adding the same to their mixer grinder.

Conclusion

Atomberg has made a good start by introducing the BLDC mixer grinder (it was long overdue). The product looks and feels premium and has good features. However, if you are looking at electricity savings through it, you will not see a significant difference in your electricity bills as the usage of the mixer grinder is less. It is indeed energy efficient, and if you like to go green, this is an ideal machine. But do not go for this to get an ROI. Go for it to get a premium product that functions well.

Atomberg Mixer Grinder on Amazon: