Our blender all but died on us about a month before the start of this challenge. We thought about just replacing it straight across with another Livingwell HealthMaster by Montel, but Mario and I have wanted a Vitamix or BlendTec on and off since we got married. Having saved birthday and Christmas money for a while, and just piggybacking off a friend's yard sale, we had actually accrued enough cash on hand to invest in a high end blender.
We went with Vitamix, instead of BlendTec nearly 100% due to Mario's research. The reviews on his favorite professional review websites (CNET and Amazon) as well as Blender Reviews, an industry specific review site, all recommended Vitamix first. It was also what was in stock at our local Costco Wholesale on a decent sale, and we got the Vitamix 5300 for about the same as the Certified Refurbished option on Amazon of the same model.
Vitamix has a company challenge that the consultant/representative guy mentioned when he was here the week before we purchased our unit. We couldn't find it, so we did our own challenge. Costco has a 30-90 day return policy (I don't remember which category the Vitamix fit in,) so we resolved to use our Vitamix at least once per day for 30 days to ensure we will use it enough to justify the price.
Our first impression was that if you're just going to make smoothies, it's not worth 4-6x the price of our previous blender. But it stood above for the ability to make soups and sauces from raw to cooked in the blender, in 10 minutes or less.
Before I get to our full review, we wanted to try a variety of foods, especially things we would have made anyways. Here's what we tried.
Day 1: Creamy Broccoli Cheddar soup
Day 3: Protein smoothie, veggie "Stone" soup (I don't know if you've read the book, but basically whatever was on hand)
Day 4: Tomato Spinach soup, Banana Shake
Day 5: Strawberry Sorbet
Day 6: Chicken Tortilla soup (a personal favorite)
Day 7: Alfredo sauce, Creamy Tomato soup
Day 8: Chicken Tortilla soup (told you it was a favorite), peach shake
Day 10: Pineapple peach ice cream, finished a couple days worth of leftover soup
Day 11: Chicken Rice soup
Day 12: Pineapple orange banana smoothie, virgin Pinã Colada
Day 13: Creamed chicken Chili
Day 14: Creamy Tomato soup, Tropical Fruit sorbet, Rocky Road ice cream/slushy
Day 15: Failed attempt at vanilla ice cream
Day 16: 2 more failed attempt at vanilla ice cream, with 1 passable attempt used in soda freezes
Day 17: finished leftover soups
Day 18: Triple Berry Shake using leftover vanilla ice cream
Day 19: Pineapple Orange Julius
Day 20: Tuscan White Bean Soup (not a favorite), Strawberry ice cream
Day 21: Alfredo Sauce, Strawberry Orange Julius
Day 22: Strawberry Sherbet (some of which was used in Canada Dry floats)
Day 23: my "sore throat soothing" (Pineapple Orange Julius with honey)Day 24: Chicken Rice soup
Day 25: Orange Julius
Day 26: Triple Berry smoothie
Day 27: "Sore Throat soothing" smoothie
Day 28: Strawberry Orange Julius
Day 29: Strawberry ice cream
Day 30: Spicy Chicken Tomato soup
As you can see, my attempt at a variety of foods was moderately limited. We found what we liked, then we had a lot of the same or similar soups and smoothies over the past month. (A quick clarification: that is not all we ate over the past month, while I had hoped to supply more complete meals, I never got around to listing them, so the list above is just what was made in the Vitamix.)
I linked all the recipes I based things off of, but I rarely, if ever, follow a recipe directly. For starters, everything was gluten-free, and everything except the Creamy Broccoli Cheddar soup was dairy-free. If a recipe wasn't linked, it was either a repeat (such as the Chicken Tortilla and Tomato soups) or is was something that I just threw together based on foods I've made in the past or that sounded good that day. Smoothies were a soy milk base with a consistency similar to Jamba Juice (or other major smoothie shop.) Sorbets were made with juice and sherbets were made with soy milk; both were a consistency between smoothies and soft-serve ice cream. Orange Julius indicated it was an orange juice, banana base with or without added soy milk. Ice creams were made with soy milk and a consistency of soft-serve ice cream. (Occasionally I was able to get the strawberry ice cream to the consistency of softened ice cream, like at ice cream shops.)
Vitamix--and other high-end blenders--boasts the capability of being a blender and food processor. I really liked it for dicing and chopping vegetables, and it was really neat to just pulse chunks of veggies into the finished soups, to give them some texture. I, however, forgot to try making flours or nut butters until yesterday. I made almond flour, chocolate almond butter, chocolate almond milk and chocolate almond shakes after the girls' naps. (I remembered right when they fell asleep. Talk about rude awakening if I started the blender then!)
I thought it performed quite well! The flour was a little coarser than I would have liked, but that could have been my impatience for the chocolate shake. The chocolate nut butter was a great consistency! About the same as store-bought "natural" nut butters. I'm a big fan of Nutella, and my chocolate almond butter just didn't compete with it, but when I ate it the second time, without the expectation of Nutella, it was pretty good. My almond butter was just the almond flour with some added Costco chocolate chips (there's no milk in the ingredients, but they are processed in the same facility as many of the top allergens, but we've never reacted to the milk or wheat in the packaging facility,) so it tasted a little like a melted chocolate bar. The chocolate almond shake was by far my favorite experiment yesterday, and, although it wasn't quite as creamy as the store-bought almond milk, it was still a great dessert. The consistency was similar to that of a shake with mix-ins. I think that was partly the coarse flour that I scraped off the edge of the pitcher, and partly because the chocolate chips re-solidified with the addition of the ice.
Now that I've written all this up, I'm smacking myself for not taking any pictures of anything I made. Isn't drooling over the food part of the fun of reading these reviews?!?!?! [MAJOR FACEPALM!!!!] Oh well, I guess it's kinda too late now.
As for the final review, we're keeping it. The versatility is why we have been "saving our pennies" on and off throughout our marriage, and it has been SUPER nice to have a soup/meal on the table from scratch in <10min on days when I've forgotten food is necessary for survival. The nut butter yesterday really reinforced utility of the Vitamix.
However! High-end blenders are not a necessity for everyone. If your goal is just smoothies, a Ninja, our Livingwell HealthMaster by Montel, Oster or any number of other mid-level blenders will meet your needs for a fraction of the cost.
Pros:
- Powerful motor
- 7-yr warranty
- variety of uses (including--but not limited to--soups, sauces, flours, butters, ice cream, smoothies, homemade milk substitutes, etc.)
- HEAT soups/sauces in blender
- Tamper stick (I've always hated having to stop the blender to push stuff down)
Cons:
- PRICE! The Vitamix we got is 4-6x the price of a decent mid-level blender, and $30-150 more than a comparable BlendTec (depending on current sales)
- Some other reviewers don't like the tamper, so I included it here, too
My husband wanted me to add that the greatest benefit he sees from the Vitamix, is that we're eating healthier foods, and that, to him, is worth almost any expense.
Disclosure: I was not compensated for this reveiw, and all thoughs are my unbiased, honest opinion, but this post may contain affiliate links from which I receive a small commission on purchases. For more information, see my Disclosures page
Personal Statement: All links are things I have used or owned and thought they we're worthwhile, without any other compensation.
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