OT: blender recommendations???

[JAllen]

The wife and I are about ready to lay to rest our old blender. POS special we bought from Target when we first got married 6 years ago. Our dietary habits have led us to start a blender more often than not. I want something that is powerful, easy to clean, and durable.

What do y'all think?

[Cicli]

We use a Vitamix Creations. It works really well.

[Ken Robb]

Lots of info/opinions in our archives. I get good info on stuff in Consumer Reports.

[awdwon]

I don't own one but I think the Vitamix is probably the best if you can swallow the price tag. If you're looking for something a little cheaper the Ninja stuff is really good. We got one for Christmas with the big and small containers as well as a food processor attachment and I've yet to find something it struggles with.

[brando]

Blendtec. Same blender as Phil Gaimon. :banana:

[rbtmcardle]

Big vitamix fan here

[echelon_john]

Well, Vitamix DOES make nut butters.:banana:

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/vitamix/2816873

[vqdriver]

blendtec

[weisan]

Yo j pal, be careful there, that thing provides you and your wife six years of faithful service and you called it POS?? You will be so lucky to get that kind of mileage out of anything made today in mass production.

Do you guys have membership at Costco? Or friends who do? Get one there, whatever they have on the shelf...

[gavingould]

Hit the search, this has been covered a few times.
Vitamix is what I have
Blendtec is also up there
Ninja stuff seems pretty well-liked as a more budget option.

[Makuman]

We like our ninja from costco! Comes with a 9 cup blender and 4 single serve cups. I think it was under a $100 bucks. Good luck.

[Schmed]

After reading a post a few months back about not getting enough fruits and veggies (that struck a chord with me), we've been making up all sorts of creations with our Kitchen Aid blender.

I couldn't swallow the price of the blendtec or vitamix, so we just use our Kitchen Aid.

Makes perfectly fine smoothies and veggie blends. Ice, apples, spinach, carrots, strawberries, frozen bananas..... It has a nice "Ice" feature where it automagically pulses to get things started.

Get the polycarbonate jar, no matter what you get, though.

[bcroslin]

Do NOT buy anything else but a Vitamix. You can save a bunch by buying reconditioned machines:

https://www.vitamix.com/shop/Certified-Reconditioned-Series

Seriously, don't mess with anything else.

[firerescuefin]

Do NOT buy anything else but a Vitamix. You can save a bunch by buying reconditioned machines:

https://www.vitamix.com/shop/Certified-Reconditioned-Series

Seriously, don't mess with anything else.

Blendtecs are just as good. Both are made in the USA. Both are highly rated. Both have similar no question asked warranties. I have one of both. Purchased a refurb'd Vitamix for the Fire Station. Blendtec has more push button/program options. Vitamix is either on High or Variable. Wife likes the Blendtec better. I could go either way.

You're not going to find a bad word about either and both are sound investments, new or refurb'd.

[john903]

I am another Vitamix fan the things I like are. It is easy to use, clean,and super powerful. On the negative is yes it is expensive but very much worth it. Shut when I buy a 16oz smoothie at the coop it is $5.00 and I used to buy them often so over time it may save you some money.
It is just a good quality powerful blender nothing fancy it just plan works.

[AngryScientist]

we have a ninja that sees heavy use. works great and is a lower cost option.

for info, my wife made all of the baby food for our two kids using that machine, pureeing all sorts of fruits and veggies into creamy baby food. we make ourselves fruit smoothies a few times a week with the machine too. the occasional blended drink in the summertime...works very well for our purposes.

[SlackMan]

Big vitamix fan here

Ditto. Great smoothies every morning. Nut butters. Soups. Works great, and I was skeptical that it would be worth it.

[dnades]

Breville.

Not as strong as a vitamix ( which, I think will chop up a broom stick) but does the job nicely. Also not as expensive as the vitamix. I think they do make a version now that does compete with the vitamix but we have the smaller version (600xl) which Breville may not make anymore. It got replaced for free after the motor burned out suddenly on our original model after the warranty had long expired. Sees regular use and has been going strong for the past 4 years(at least). It is quiet and makes a really smooth soup. We do not use it for juicing. Have a Champion for that. Now that is a machine that lasts. I think ours is at least 20 years old.

[Fishy1923]

Another vote for the Ninja. I make a smoothie every morning with kale and spinach in it and it chops it up nicely.

[gasman]

Bass-o-Matic

[stephenmarklay]

I just went through this myself. I had been wanting a blendtec or Vitamix for a long time but I never wanted to spend the money.

I ended up getting the Kitchenaid http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-KSB1575ER-5-Speed-60-Ounce-BPA-Free/dp/B00CGSES9I/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1429672287&sr=1-2&keywords=kitchenaid+blender

I have been very happy with that decision. After a rebate it was about $95.

We use the blender 2-3 times a day and have great success with Almond butter. I read that it makes almond butter faster than either the blendtec or Vitamix. Who knows. I made Horseradish from the root and that was easy too.

For what we do, which is lots of green smoothies, apple, pear etc it works great.

It has half the power of the big ones but it sure is not lacking power. Its also pretty quiet.

[JAllen]

You're right. POS is a bit strong... especially for how long we've had it. Although it has never actually worked well. We don't have a Costco membership anymore since it's just the two of us and we mostly went there for food, which was overkill. My wife's parents live in Gresham and they have a membership and actually her grandparents have one too.

Yo j pal, be careful there, that thing provides you and your wife six years of faithful service and you called it POS?? You will be so lucky to get that kind of mileage out of anything made today in mass production.

Do you guys have membership at Costco? Or friends who do? Get one there, whatever they have on the shelf...



That is a great tip! We bought our vacuum (around the same time as the blender) from a refurbished store and had it for years. It finally died about a year ago, but worked wonderfully up until that point.


Do NOT buy anything else but a Vitamix. You can save a bunch by buying reconditioned machines:

https://www.vitamix.com/shop/Certified-Reconditioned-Series

Seriously, don't mess with anything else.

[JAllen]

Bass-o-Matic

That was my first choice! You know I looked but couldn't find them in stores... :p



PS. Thank you to everyone for the recommendations! I'll be going with a reconditioned Vitamix standard. They have a payment plan directly from their website.

:banana:

[gasman]

You'll be very happy with the Vitamix. We use ours almost daily. I think it could mix concrete but my wife would be pissed if I did that.

[JAllen]

You'll be very happy with the Vitamix. We use ours almost daily. I think it could mix concrete but my wife would be pissed if I did that.

Yeah that might be a long sentence of sleeping on the couch. I think I did make the right choice. Although, I think I'd have been happy with any of blenders mentioned.

[rugbysecondrow]

Do NOT buy anything else but a Vitamix. You can save a bunch by buying reconditioned machines:



https://www.vitamix.com/shop/Certified-Reconditioned-Series



Seriously, don't mess with anything else.


I bought mine refurbished 5 years ago and have never looked back. Certain things in life are worth spending more for.

Shoes (love my Alden boots)
Whiskey (or Whisky for my Scotch friends)
Bikes (duh)
Peanut Butter
Blender (Vitamix)

Going cheap is a solution, but is it the right solution for daily use? Nope





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fuzzalow]

Certain things in life are worth spending more for.

Shoes (love my Alden boots)
Whiskey (or Whisky for my Scotch friends)
Bikes (duh)
Peanut Butter
Blender (Vitamix)

Gotta agree on the Alden shoes comment. They hit a sweet spot in that they are good American-made shoes that spending much more money for in other shoes slams you on the diminishing returns curve. For example John Lobb's are very nice and worth the money for a pair here and there but I don't feel like I gotta own a closet fulla them because wearing Alden's ain't bad either. Alden does cordovan (referring to the hide not the color) better than any American shoemaker.

For any boots outside of dress boots another good American maker is Wesco.

This non-sequitur is less about shoes than the chance to extol the virtues of American-manufactured goods.

[veloduffer]

We have a Ninja. My wife uses it daily for smoothies for her and my son. Seems to work well.

[Nooch]

I'm glad this seems like a common problem. I *want* a Blendtec, heck, they even support cyclists, but I don't know how committed to smoothies I am and dipping my toes in for $80 at BJ's for a Ninja seems like a reasonable solution...

or am I missing some magic in the blendtec that the ninja doesn't have?

[bobswire]

I'm glad this seems like a common problem. I *want* a Blendtec, heck, they even support cyclists, but I don't know how committed to smoothies I am and dipping my toes in for $80 at BJ's for a Ninja seems like a reasonable solution...

or am I missing some magic in the blendtec that the ninja doesn't have?

Yes the Ninja is great for small servings I have one and love it but it's not a pro blender like the Blendtec or Vitamix. Depends on what you plan to use it for.

[4Rings6Stars]

We have a Vitamix that we use all the time and are very happy with it.

My sister has a Ninja. It seems to work pretty well (not as good as the Vitamix, but does a decent job) but just seems cheap. I also don't like all the moving parts involved. The Vitamix is simple--a motor and a blade. I like that about it most.

[JAllen]

Fuzz, being American made was a factor. I also liked the idea of a company viewing their product as being worth fixing and reselling. Imagine the national anthem playing in the background as you read the rest of this... It's an opportunity for people to own a superior product for less money, keeps the product out of the landfill, and offers more jobs at the company in the way of repair technicians.

Rugby, I'm glad you have had great usage out of it. That's promising. Oh and you shouldn't have to buy peanut butter anymore. Make it! :)

[m_sasso]

Online comparison, you chose!

http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/blender-guide/best-blender-vitamix-vs-blendtec/

[firerescuefin]

Online comparison, you chose!

http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/blender-guide/best-blender-vitamix-vs-blendtec/


http://www.blenderbabes.com/blender-babes-101/blender-reviews/blendtec-vs-vitamix/#.VTfFOSco7L8

A more up to date/comprehensive review. My experience (pros and cons of each machine) mirrors this review. You have to scroll down a page or two to get to the meat of the review.

[bcroslin]

Pay attention when you go into any store or restaurant that has a blender behind the counter and I bet 9 times out of 10 it's a Vitamix. Ask the person behind the counter how old the blender is and I you'll find time and again it's 5+ years old and in some cases well over 10. I've owned a Breville, Kitchenaid and my wife bought a Ninja/ Bullet and none of them lasted more than 18 months or so. The Ninja was bought as an xmas present and it was so bad I packed it up and took it back for store credit.

The one thing I've learned over the years is not to skimp on kitchen appliances and power tools. What good is it if you buy a $150 blender to have it die in 2 years and then drop another $150 for a new blender to have it die again when you could have spent $380 on a Vitamix and have it forever.

[kevinvc]

We bought a Vitamix when my now 13 year old (!?!) son was a baby so we could make his food instead of buying jars. It has gotten extremely heavy use ever since and is still going strong.

I have nothing negative to say about it and would happily buy another if this one ever wears out.

[dieonthishill]

I had a Blendtec for a year. Tried to make nut butter and it nearly caught fire... smoke poured out of it.

Costco took it back and I bought a Vitamix. Way better machine in my opinion.

[KF9YR]

I had a Vitamix in the bar of my restaurant in Wisconsin. We had it for 8 years and only needed to replace blender cups and the drive socket in those 8 years.

After selling the restaurant I bought one for my home.

[sparky33]

Well, Vitamix DOES make nut butters.:banana:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/vitamix/2816873
It is funny because it is true, everything in that skit.

Vitamix is the Rohloff of blenders. I heard the Vitamix warranty and repair department consists of 2 guys, and they aren't that busy.