Post Punk Kitchen Forum

We found a commercial Vitamix (the bar boss) on craigslist.com for $50 with 3 containers. It only had two speeds - High & SUPER HIGH! Sold it on ebay for $400 then bought one from costco. We love ours and use it daily!

A friend has had a Vitamix for years then sold it for a Blendtec...says she likes the blendtec better. Any blendtec users out there?

I love my vitamix. I bought it last year during our Vegfest (they had a pretty good deal--it came with the flour container for the same price as the regular sells for). I was super stressed out about buying it, since it was insanely expensive, but I figured the cost would average out over the years since I wouldn't be constantly replacing cheaper blenders anymore.

I use it everyday, usually a couple of times--for smoothies, dressings, cashew cheeze, grinding flour etc. It's awesome. The only thing I don't like about it is it's really hard to get thicker stuff out from around the blades on the bottom. The new blender jar, which is shorter and wider should help fix this issue.

xo
kittee

It's seriously I think my favorite thing I've ever bought. That's not really helpful if you're trying to talk yourself out of it, but I use mine every day and have gotten into the habit of drinking a green smoothie every morning, which allows me to get so much more produce into my diet. That's how I justify it, and I feel it was totally worth the money.

I have 3 blenders, but I have mad love for my Vitamix. I have an old all stainless-steel model and it's still going strong. Makes cashew cheese, smoothies, grinds nuts, crushes ice, etc like a pro. It's pretty much my favorite. The other blenders I have a sufficient for regular things i need blending, but the Vitamix is much faster and more efficient for mushing up things.

So it turns out that contrary to what the Vitamix website says, they don't have the model I was looking at in the store - just the 5200 and 6300. The Vitamix demo dude was also lying to people by telling them that this was the same blender that Starbucks and other restaurants used. I would bet anything that this is wrong - they do make commercial grade ones but I guarantee your Frappuccinos don't get blended with a consumer grade Vitamix, AND I would bet that there's something specifically in the manual that says you void your warranty by using it for commercial purposes. Not that the 5200 isn't a good blender, I just got annoyed that he was making shiitake up.

I got mine at Costco also, about 6 years ago and we use it all the time. We use it for smoothies, sauces and soups. I make homemade salsa in it too because I don't like it chunky. There are some things I prefer my food processor for, but there are many things that a food processor just wouldn't work for and I'd never give up my vitamix.

I love my Blendtec which I also purchased at Costco a few years ago, at the time that I was deciding between the Viatmix and Blendtec it boiled down to the height of the jar fitting under my kitchen cabinets. I've since purchased the Wildside jar (which is now standard on new models) and couldn't be more pleased, I make hummus quite often and never use tahini as I just throw sesame seeds in with the other ingredients and finished product is always smooth as can be.

I think the Blendtec and Vitamix come out pretty similar, but I got a Vitamix for two reasons - 1) I watched a comparison series on YouTube and the Vitamix with it's tamper is much quicker for making nut butter, 2) Vitamix had a demo stall at the Ideal Home show where they had 10 year warranties and a reduced price meaning I could get the dry container in addition for what amounted to free.

It was still an awful lot of money, but I do use mine at least once a day, and as a lot of people have said, it really has encouraged me to up my consumption of fruit and veg. You can just bung a carrot into your smoothie and it will pulverise it. After 30 seconds of blending, if you have other strong flavours in there, you will not be aware there is a carrot in your smoothie.

The Vitamix 750 seems to have incorporated a lot of the Blendtec benefits (lower profile, preset cycle buttons), FWIW...

I'm still dithering. If our regular blender would die it would be an easy choice, but that's not very likely because I mostly use the immersion one for convenience because I hate blender cleaning (the 750 has a self-clean cycle!!).

Annak, I would just get one. You will probably love it. I withered for months before I got my 5200 and all that time I could have been happily drinking smoothies, making nut based salad dressing, soup, etc. I use it at least one a day, more like twice. It fits under my cabinets if I don't put the lid on it. I pull it out from under when I'm using it. Not a problem. Love it. Don't look back.

Love this thread. Hate the fact I had an old Vita-mix model I bought at a Goodwill 10 years ago-- FOR $3.00!!!-- and gave it away. How I wish I had not done that.

Husband got me one as an anniversary present! I guess he got tired of my dithering. So far I'm really impressed with how powerful it is and how easily it gets through thicker mixtures compared to my other blender. My own head-smacking moment has come because for some reason I thought it heated things similar to this one: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products ... chRules-_- I totally thought I could just throw a bunch of things and have pureed soups. Not so much! This is a bit of a bummer because while I have an immersion blender I love, it doesn't always get things perfectly silky smooth. I think what I really want is a vitamix immersion blender.

If you blend soups long enough, they will get hot. It takes around 4-5 minutes.

We got one a few weeks ago. I love it! We use it at least once a day. I can't wait for it to get cold so we can start making soups!

Yeah, I guess I thought there was a heating element rather than just excess heat from the motor. I can think of a few applications for that, but it's maybe 1/20 of the soups I make instead of the 50%+ I had anticipated being able to cook in it.

Though that sort of heating would be PERFECT for my favorite avocado soup.

Yep. Chuck in some rice or potatoes, broth, and veggies, and end up with super yummy hot soup.

I actually have to watch out that I don't blend my smoothies so long the fruit starts to melt. That motor is powerful!

it's actually from friction of the blades. (but yeah, still not what you were expecting.)

When I make soup in the Vitamix, I add vegetables right after they are done steaming and it only takes a few minutes to make hot soup. If you start with ingredients that are cold or at room temperature, it will take much longer to heat up.

I've had my Vita-Mix for maybe 7 years now, and I still can't get over how silky I can puree soups and sauces.

I'd really like to know - have any of you had to replace the blades, or found they have become less effective over time?

I'm trying to justify a vitamix to myself, but they're $1000 here in Oz.

yes. but I was not washing it correctly. the blades were still super sharp, but they stopped spinning because I kept washing it in the dish washer. (the replacements were cheapest on amazon)

Ours seems as good as new and it is the better part of 20 yrs old! I'd say we've used it moderately over the years, sometimes more heavily than others, but it's always been in use.

Supercarrot - how come the dishwasher made them stop spinning properly?

Thanks lavawitch.

I went ahead and bought a second hand Vitamix on Ebay yesterday, only about 8 months old and used a handful of times.. Crossing my fingers - now I just need to know - do any of you have any tricks or tips on how to take care of it?

We don't have a dishwasher, so that's a good start ;)

i have no idea, but i'm assuming it made water/dish powder/food bits get in under the bit that grabs onto the teeth of the motor, and it just gradually got worse.

i think it might have also gotten loose, and the non-tightness compounded the issue. so if you start hearing any high pitched noise/container vibrations, stop using it until you can tighten it. if your ebay purchase doesn't come with the wrench, that'd be needed. (the manual says you can tighten it with the shaft of a screwdriver, but it would always slip off for me. and the procrastinator i am never ordered the wrench... until i had no alternative.