Top food processor brands for 2020

Food processors are generally pretty reliable, but we’ve found that some brands are more likely to develop faults or stop working than others.

We surveyed more than 1,200 Which? members who own food processors from big brands such as KitchenAid, Kenwood and Magimix and found that the premium brands are not always the most reliable. We also discovered a big difference in how highly customers rate them.

Read on to find out which brands are built to last and which are the most popular with their owners.

Just want to know which are the best models for chopping, grating and slicing? Head straight to our round up of the best food processors. 

Best and worst food processor brands

In the comparison table below we've pulled together our expert knowledge on each food processor brand so you can see at a glance which ones you can rely on, and which to steer clear of. 

For each brand, you can find out: 

• Average test score – based on the overall test scores of models we've tested since 2011.
• How reliable it is – we ask owners if, when, and how their food processors broke down, and this data is used to calculate how likely each brand is to last. 
• How owners rate it – owners tell us how satisfied they are with their brand of food processor, and whether they would recommend it to a friend, and we turn this into a percentage score. 
• Our overall verdict – we summarise all of our testing and survey data to give an overall verdict on each brand. 

You can see a preview of the best and worst scores below:

Only logged-in Which? members can see which brands came out on top in the table below. If you’re not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access.

Preview: food processor brands rated
Brand	Average test score	Reliability rating	How owners rate this brand	Overview of our verdict
	n/a*	95%	80%	Most reliable: Despite being one of the cheaper brands, this brand scores highest for reliability. Customers reported a very low number of faults over eight years of ownership, and none of their products broke down completely. We haven’t currently tested any models as the range is small and not available in major retailers, but it’s clearly well liked by its customers, with four out of five saying they’d recommend them to a friend.
	70%	91%	82%	Customer favourite: This brand ranks the highest for customer satisfaction. Its food processors do pretty well on our tests and isn't as expensive as some premium brands. However, it's one of the most likely brands to develop a fault and it scores the lowest for reliability overall.
	65%	92%	82%	This brand has the lowest average test score, despite being one of the most expensive. But it's also one of the most loved, with an impressive customer satisfaction score of 82%.  Its food processors are the least likely to have problems, but if they do they're more likely to be serious faults.
	71%	93%	77%	This brand tends to do well on our tests – coming in joint-first for its average test score. While it's not quite as well loved as some of the premium brands, it gets a respectable customer score and its food processors seem to be built to last, developing fewer faults than most.
	68%	93%	81%	This brand is rated highly by customers and its food processors are pretty reliable too. Customers reported more problems in the first two or three years than other brands, but the food processors are actually less likely to develop faults in the long term. They tend to not encounter too many serious issues either, with 75% of the faults reported being minor. Food processors from this brand can be a mixed bag. Not all products are great, but there are a couple of Best Buys.
	68%	92%	77%	Many of our survey respondents had food processors from this brand. While it does OK for customer satisfaction, it doesn't do quite as well as other brands. Its food processors score averagely on our tests but also have the highest proportion of reported faults out of all the brands we looked at.
	71%	92%	73%	This brand is ranked lowest for customer satisfaction. Its food processors are affordable compared with other big brands and achieve the joint-highest average test score, although they've yet to impress us enough to earn a Best Buy.

Can't see the brand you're interested in? We couldn't report on some brands as we didn't get enough responses from owners, but for reviews of brands such as Tesco, Morphy Richards, Swan, Moulinex, Sage and more, head to our food processor reviews.

Choosing the best food processor

Food processors tend to be pretty reliable. Four of the brands we looked at had an impressive 92% of their food processors fault-free after eight years, with the worst brand still having 88% still intact.

However, some are more prone to developing serious faults than others and one brand came out as the clear front runner, scoring an impressive overall reliability score of 95%. Food processors from this brand aren’t likely to develop faults, and any faults that do occur will probably be minor.

Many brands give a mixed performance in our lab tests, with average test scores ranging from just 65% to 71%. In particular, one of the well-known brands scores extremely inconsistently, with models ranging from a disappointing 54% to a couple that just missed out on being Best Buys. So as well as choosing from a reliable brand, make sure you check our food processor reviews to see which models we recommend.

It’s worth noting that the more expensive brands aren’t always the most reliable, or the most popular with their owners. Our survey found that one of the most expensive brands had the highest number of faults, and one of the lowest customer satisfaction scores.

Are food processors generally reliable?

Food processors are generally reliable. They’re less likely to develop faults than other appliances such as blenders, coffee machines, kettles and microwaves.

Most common food processor problems – and how to fix them

Our survey found that if you encounter a problem with your food processor, it's most likely to be with one of the accessories. These are the top problems reported by owners:

• 30% – plastic bowl cracked.
• 18% – lid broke.
• 9% – broken attachment.
• 9% – bowl or blender leaked.
• 9% – inconsistent performance.

If an attachment or accessory breaks on your food processor, it's not necessarily the end of the road. 

Big brands such as Kenwood and Magimix usually have spare parts available to buy, so try contacting the manufacturer or searching online to see if you can replace a broken lid or bowl before forking out for a new food processor.

If you just want a food processor you know will chop, grate and slice the best, head to our top five food processors for 2020 to see the models that impressed us the most.