I've been using a KitchenAid 5-Speed Diamond Blender for the past 11+ years. The first one broke after less than 5 years and KitchenAid sent me a replacement under warranty (not in the same color as the original I had, which matched my KitchenAid mixer that my mom gave us as a wedding gift). The second blender is now 6+ years old and still works, but every time I blend a smoothie (which is what I use it for the most), I feel like its days are numbered, and it is definitely out of warranty by now. Every now and then I thought about looking for a replacement but I never looked that hard until last week when I started looking at Vitamix blenders. I've heard they're great quality and last a long time and there were some great sales going on so I decided to buy one. The hard part was figuring out which one would suit my needs best.
I narrowed it down to 3 models - the iconic 5200, the Propel 750, and the newer VX1. There are things I liked and disliked about each of these blenders, and every time I thought I finally had my mind made up, I second guessed my decision and did more research. I'll break down my thought process below:
The 5200 is the OG blender that many restaurants and professional chefs use. It's been around forever and has stood the test of time. That also means it's very basic, which is something I like since that means there is less that can go wrong with it. It comes with a tall 64-ounce container that works well with both small, medium and large amounts of food in it. Since the jar is so tall it would not fit on my countertop under my cabinets when it is attached to the base unit, which could simply be remedied by storing the container to the side of the blender or storing both parts out of sight in a cabinet (that's where my KitchenAid blender is now and likely where this one will be too). This has a 2 horsepower motor. The main thing I didn't like about this blender was the Variable/High button. It's an extra step that just seemed like it would leave room to mess something up. I'm sure we would forget to switch it back to variable (the setting it should be on so you can move between 1-10 on the control knob) and then when we turn the blender on to use it the next time it would go right to high speed. If I was the only one in my household using a blender, I'd probably chose this one, but knowing that my husband and eventually my sons would use this too, I thought something more straightforward would be better for us. This classic mixer has a 7-year limited warranty and is highly regarded as the best Vitamix. It was on a great sale ($140 off) so I kept coming back to it, but I knew that button would drive me crazy.
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| Vitamix 5200 |
That led me to my next best option. The Propel 750 doesn't have the Variable/High button and instead has a pulse button, which I thought would be useful. It has a higher 2.2 horsepower and also has a few presets for smoothies, hot soups, frozen desserts, and dips and spreads, which the 5200 lacks. In addition to the presets, like the two other blenders mentioned in this review, there is also a variable speed control which lets you manually adjust the blender speed. This blender comes with a low profile 64-ounce container and would fit under most cabinets to store the blender on the countertop, however a lot of people seem to not like this container because it is wider and therefore does not blend small amounts well. It does a great job with medium to large amounts though. I read that this was the loudest of the three blenders, possibly due in part to the wider container, so that is one drawback. However, I also read that all of these blenders are pretty loud. It comes with a 7-year limited warranty. I decided if I bought this blender, I would eventually purchase the classic tall 64-ounce container so I could have the best of both worlds. This one was the most expensive of the three but was on the best sale ($250 off).
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| Vitamix Propel 750 |
When I couldn't decide between the two blenders above, I came across the VX1, which is a bit of a middle ground. It is basically an updated 5200 with a 2.2 horsepower motor but has a limited 5-year warranty which helps keep the cost lower than those with 7-year warranties. It has a pulse button like the 750, does not have the Variable/High button that the 5200 does, but it also does not have presets like the 750. It comes with the tall 64-ounce container like the 5200. I think the updated sleek look of this one looks the best of the three blenders. I read that this blender was quieter than the other two which was appealing. This is a newer blender so there are not as many reviews on it, and it's also unknown about how long it might last compared to the other two older models. I worried that this one was perhaps not made as well as the other two and did not like the shorter warranty period. The sale on this one was not as good ($50 off) but since it is a lower priced blender to begin with, it was still less expensive than the other two, but not by much.
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| Vitamix VX1 |
This shows the difference in the two 64-ounce containers, low profile vs. classic (tall).
All of these blenders were offered with a free Under Blade Scraper that I'm not sure I'll use, but I guess it's a nice bonus.
There are many other Vitamix blenders to choose from but these are the ones that appealed to me. They are highly rated and pretty basic. I did not want electronic controls or smart features, but I did think a few presets could come in handy, so I chose the Propel 750. I applied a $25 off welcome coupon code which helped lower the sale price a bit more (unfortunately I could not apply the 10% military discount to my order since the blender was already on sale). I also use a Capital One Shopping plugin in my web browser which finds coupon codes and lets you earn a percentage reward on eligible purchases. When I went to do an Amazon price comparison, a $150 "price comparison bonus" on a $300 purchase popped up. I activated it before I checked out from the Vitamix website, and once that $150 is applied to my Capital One Shopping account (it takes about a month), I can redeem it for gift cards. This is by far the biggest reward I've ever received (most are only a few cents or dollars) and part of why I chose to purchase this blender now rather than waiting to see what Black Friday sale prices would be. I looked through to see which retailer has a gift card and sells the 64-ounce tall container and Walmart is the only option, so I might use my reward towards that.
One thing I will say about a lot of the negative reviews I read online is that it seems like the people who didn't like these blenders were not using them properly. I watched a ton of videos on how to use this blender (for instance, there is an order in which ingredients should be placed in the blender, starting with liquids on the bottom, then softer items, then frozen items and ice all the way at the top) and I'm excited to try it out. There are lots of tips online on how to use these blenders and some great videos. I think I'll enjoy using the wider container when I make smoothies for more than one person in my household and for blending soups and sauce, but I hope to find the taller container on a good sale soon so I can make individual smoothies when needed.
Another thing that people don't do correctly is use the right speed. You get the best results when you use the blender on high speed (speed 10). The blender will be pretty loud on high speed, but it won't need to run long at all - oftentimes less than a minute. The blender has a cooling fan to help prevent it from overheating. To use the blender correctly, start it on low (speed 1) and then move the speed to high (speed 10) right away. You do risk overheating the motor by blending on low speeds (exception: if you want to make something chunky, like salsa, you would use a lower speed or use the pulse button). So don't be scared - crank the speed up and let the blender do its thing. There is an automatic overload protection safety feature that will turn the blender off if the motor starts to heat up, in which case you should wait at least 30-45 minutes to use it again.
One cool thing I didn't realize these blenders can do is they can blend ingredients into soup until it gets hot - not from a heating element but just from the friction of the blades. It takes about 6 minutes. You can also use this setting to make hot chocolate, simply using chocolate chips, milk and vanilla extract. I'm definitely interested in trying that out and my boys will happily taste test it for me!
All of these blenders come with a tamper which is like a long stick you can put into the lid of the blender to push ingredients out of the corners and into the blades while the blender is running. They are designed so they will never touch the blade, so if you have more than one container, make sure you are using the correct size tamper with it. This is especially helpful for things like frozen berries in thick smoothies or sorbet or for making peanut butter.
There are a lot of different accessories and containers you can buy separately, including various sizes and also different containers for wet vs. dry ingredients.
They also make this easy to clean, and in fact they do not recommend washing the container/blade by hand. You can fill the container half full of water with a drop of dish soap, securely attach the lid and run a self-clean setting to clean the container (or run on speed 10 for 30 seconds). The container should be clean but the lid will likely not be - hold the container over the sink and hold the lid upside down over the sink, dump the soapy water from the container into the underside of the lid (to clean it) and then just rinse the container and lid out. I read that hand drying the container right after washing it can help prevent it from becoming cloudy in the future. I generally let my blender container air dry upside down on a drying rack so this is something I'll have to remember to do. I never put things like this in my dishwasher so I did not even pay attention to which of the containers are dishwasher safe.
Yesterday my Vitamix arrived and last night I used it for my Butternut Squash Soup. In the past I used my immersion blender for this soup, which sometimes left some chunks of squash (it's hard to make sure you get it all) and also left scrape marks all over the bottom of my All Clad 8-qt. stockpot. Using my Vitamix blender made the soup come out so smooth. Maybe I just need a better immersion blender, or maybe the Vitamix is the better machine for the job. I will say the immersion blender makes it easier to blender up hot soup than the extra steps needed to use the Vitamix (drain the veggies, let the veggies and broth cool down a bit, fill the container only half full of veggies and broth which means blending two containers worth of soup, then putting the blended soup back into the pot and heating it up again). Using an immersion blender, you just turn the heat off, blend the soup in the pot, and turn the heat back on. However, my immersion blender definitely does not blend soup nearly as well as my Vitamix blender did, so I will happily keep transferring hot liquids into the blender container in batches in order to blend soup.
This morning I used my Vitamix to make a smoothie for my sons for breakfast. I added orange juice, vanilla yogurt, a banana and 2 cups worth (the cups I put their smoothies in) of frozen fruit. I had to add more juice but it blended really well using the smoothie preset. My boys loved it and loved watching me run the cleaning cycle afterwards.
I'm looking forward to using this blender the next time I make Pastina Soup, as there were small parts of celery that didn't get completely blended when I used my KitchenAid blender. The Vitamix is so powerful I know it'll blend everything completely.
I can't wait to try some new recipes in addition to the smoothies and soups I usually make. If you're looking for a new blender or you are on the fence about buying a Vitamix, I hope this review was helpful. After all the research I did, I can see why they are so popular! It really does live up to the hype.
Note:
If you want to make your own frozen treat recipes, a good ratio is:
1 cup of liquid to 1 pound of frozen ingredients (for the 48-ounce container)
1.5 cups of liquid to 1.5 pounds of frozen ingredients (for the 64-ounce container)
*Liquid could also be yogurt - in the video I saw, they used plain or vanilla yogurt with frozen strawberries.
*Frozen ingredients can be ice or frozen fruit.
Use the frozen treats cycle or blend on high speed for 30-45 seconds, and use the tamper.
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| It is just slightly too tall to fit under my cabinets (but I don't store it on the countertop anyway) |
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| Butternut Squash Soup |
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| Fruit Smoothie |
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| Ready to run the cleaning cycle |
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| Fill container halfway with water and add dish soap |
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| Run the cleaning cycle |
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| Pour the soapy water onto the bottom of the lid, then simply rinse both off and you're done! |
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