Best Large Bottle Blender: BlenderBottle Shaker Bottle

Need a quick way to blend a protein shake? Bottles with built in blender balls (steel whisks in the shape of a ball) are an inexpensive way to get it done. And they’re portable—no need to plug in a blender or other gadget.

We tried out several top brands, looking at how well they worked, how easy they were to clean and price. For the best large bottle shaker (28 ounces), we picked BlenderBottle Classic Shaker Bottle (C01626). Here’s why:

What We Liked

• Flip open cap is convenient.

• BPA free.

• Worked the best among the large shakers at getting protein powder to dissolve quickly.

• Dishwasher safe.

• Phthalate free.

• No leaking. 

• Measurement markings are helpful, but they stop at 20 ounces, even though the bottle holds 28 ounces.

• Special editions = fun designs. We have to hand it to this company—they do some inventive marketing. For “shark week,” they released a special shark and turtle bottle (see picture at top of this article). Very clever!

What Needs Work

• Cap can be hard to clean—stuff gets stuck in the grooves.

• Can’t be frozen, boiled or microwaved. 

• Lid could be easier to close. We thought it was easy enough compared to other brands we tried, but we see reports that others wished it were easier to close.

• Not insulated. If you need to keep a drink cold for a road trip, we’d suggest the next pick in this article.

Best Electric Bottle: VOLTRX Premium Electric Protein Shaker Bottle

When we asked our readers for feedback on the best shaker bottles for protein drinks and smoothies, we realize there was a contingent of folks who preferred electric bottle shakers over the manual type.

For those folks, we’d recommend Voltrx’s electric shaker bottle—it performed best in our tests, while still being easy on the wallet. Here’s more:

What We Liked

• Good at mixing lighter protein drinks with cow’s milk.

• Rechargeable battery = travel/portable use! Yes, this bottle has a rechargeable battery which takes about 2 hours to charge—and then worked for 11 uses (days) in our tests. The company claims it can last for a month of normal use on a charge . . . that is a bit overly optimistic in our opinion.

• Disco lights blink while mixing.

• Can handle warm liquids up to 160 degrees. That’s unique, as most manual blender bottles are designed for cold shakes or smoothies. However, you don’t want to exceed that limit as the pressure can cause the seal to leak. We didn’t try that in our tests, but we’ll take the company’s word on it!

What Needs Work

• Must add powder after bottle starts mixing. This takes a bit more time.

• Could be more durable. We see scattered reports that this bottle stopped charging or mixing after six or so months of use. We were unable to verify this issue, as our tests were short term. We’ll update this review when we have more long-term testing to report.

• Not as effective at mixing thicker protein powder. While the motor of this shaker bottle did fine with most protein powder, we don’t think it has enough power to mix thicker powders (we are looking at you, peanut butter powder enthusiasts).

• Better with cow’s milk than other denser, nut-based milk in our opinion.

Best Small Bottle Blender: BlenderBottle Classic Loop Top Shaker Bottle

This bottle blender has the same pros and cons as the first pick in this article—it’s just smaller in size. It holds 20 ounces (versus 28 ounces). The measurement markings go to 12 ounces or 400 ml.

Why Trust Us

We’ve been rating and reviewing products for the home and families since 1994. We do hands-on testing—we buy the products with our own money and evaluate with an eye toward quality, ease of use and affordability.

Here’s another key point: we don’t take money from the brands we review. No free samples, no sponsors, no “partnerships.” Our work is 100% reader-supported!