Anyone have either of these blenders and if so what are your thoughts. Wife wants one for Xmas and would probably use it mostly for frozen fruit smoothies, though I am intrigued by the possibility of nut butters.
being in the market for a new blender as well, after using the magic Bullet for the past 3 years (happy but not quite) I have decided on the Blendtec. It is more powerful than the vitamix and less money. There are refirbs on their web page for considerable savings.
I've been researching blenders for over a year now. I have come to the conclusion that Vitamix costs are 70% name and 30% value.
The Ninja machines rate quite high as well for even more savings
I'm on my third Vitamix. First one, the old chrome-container Maxi 4000. Bought it used, had it maybe 5 years, decided I really REALLY wanted one with variable speeds and the Lexan (see-through) container, so bought a 5000. Worked great. Used it (with the "dry blade" container) to make flour from our homesprouted red winter wheat. Never a hickup.
Made the mistake of stopping at the VM Roadshow booth at Costco 2 weeks ago, came home with a 5300! LOVE it, the base of the container is wider so a bit easier to get stuff like peanut butter and our homemade mustard out of it.
Wouldn't be without one. Haven't tried the Blendtec but another forum I belong to (food related) there are a few folks who've had both and the consensus seems to be for the Vitamix.
Gonna try to sell my 5000 on ebay. Maybe somebody needs a Christmas present used only by a little old lady!
And I just purchased a recertified vitamix. They had the one with the 3 program settings on sale for $299 and free shipping. The blendtec was only $20 less, but I decided to go with vitamix.
What model did you get? Does anything on it work?
On my new one, the pulse button works independently of the regular power button, and the variable speed setting makes the pulse button work faster or slower depending on where the variable is set when you press down the pulse button.
If I can help you with it I will, otherwise yeah, I'd call their 800 number and have them walk you through trouble-shooting with it.
Wait so you are saying instead of hitting start/stop I would turn the dial to a number and then use the pulse? The manual's description of the pulse button was a little confusing
Most commercial restaurant supply stores have used blenders for sale. Sometimes you can get a 3-4 hp for half of new. And they're going to last forever with home type use.
I bought my wife a real fancy one a couple months ago so my younger daughter would actually 'eat' good food, as she is an incredibly picky eater. Well, when making her the strawberry 'smoothie', sometimes things like spinach, etc accidentally fall into the concoction, and miss picky is none the wiser. The wife absolutely loves her blender, so much in fact that I ended up purchasing one for my older daughter to make baby food with, and my sister who loves her frosty slushy drinks! Both have had them for a few weeks now, and just like my wife, absolutely loves them. Theirs weren't as fancy as my wife's, but they all work just as well as the others in their lineup, it's just how many bells and whistles you want/need on it to make you happy.
I was sneaky about it though, I had asked them to go to Costco with me to help me decide if I wanted to make a major purchase or not. We went and watched the road show for about 10-15 mins, and then talked about it as we were walking out of the store. Little did they know, I had purchased one for each of them and they were sitting in my trunk. While we were chatting about all the cool things we'd learned they could do, I popped open my trunk, pulled out one for each of them and yelled Surprise! They both almost fell over, it was so cool! Weeks on now, they still laugh when I ask them how the Vitamix is working out.
Enter your email address to join: