I really like the Vitamix, easy to use and clean. My daughter uses it to make green smoothies and it works great! Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten. ;-)

This post was edited by Quadesl on Wed, Apr 16, 14 at 6:59

I also have a vitamix and love it. There have been a few postings regarding it which may be helpful. If you google search vitamix and GW you should find.

Have you tried a Vitamix?

Is it over priced? definately, but it is a well made machine and it makes best smoothies. I purchased one from Costco last Nov. The only regret I have is that I did not get one sooner.

and it is made in the USA.

I went back and forth between vitamix and blendtec....and yes I even called both to ask country of origin and they are both made in the USA (something I do when making most purchases, but that is another story).

I ended up going with the blendtec, only reason being that my neighbor at the time was a restaurant supply person and someone had ordered one through him and never picked it up....that was 8 years ago, my family of 6 use it every day multiple times and as a matter of fact just looked at it this morning and it has been run over 45,000 times without any problem at all

If I were to get another I would go with Blentec, essentially the same price as the vitamix....and I know that this one has performed wonderfully

Without no doubt vitamix and blendtec got higher ranks in the chart but at this moment of time i can't afford any them.

Another totally happy Vitamix user here. Still going strong at ten years after heavy daily use. Vitamix smoothies are just the best! Worth every single dollar of the initial cost, and more. SO many new owners post wishing they had bought one years ago! Maybe take one home from Costco and try it for a few months, then, if we're all wrong and it's not for you, Costco will gladly take it back!

My 28 year old blender died a few years ago and I needed to replace. I only use it for smoothies, & popover batter. I am happy with the kitchenaid I purchased, it is model ksb560sm1.

Love my vitamix also!! QVC has payment options, I have seen 3 or 5 months to pay it off. Also I know a lot of people that are happy with the nutribullet.

Another vote for Vitamix. Just got one for my birthday and love it!
MJ

We bought a Ninja Pro and are totally happy with it. We like to make smoothies using large ice cubes with either fresh or frozen fruit. The results could not be any smoother than this produces. Very good product at a reasonable price.

If you have a Costco membership, you can get the blendtec for around $330. I got mine over the holidays when it was only $300

I bought a Vitamix refurbished from their website and it was around $300 (believe regular price is around $500).

I bought a Ninja Mega with a bunch of accessories (two smoothie cups, dough paddle, round bowl, regular blender, chopper blades) from Gilt and used a 30% off coupon (130 net). The blender alone is less. Very pleased thus far, about two months in.

another happy vitamix owner...bought in Jan and love so far...
i have a post on here "Help me pick which vitamix"
very helpful for me.

bought re-conditioned and no problem whatsoever...

bought thru "blendarlady and got many perks buying thru her...

HTH

The mention of Ninja makes me shudder...I made awesome smoothies near daily for two seasons with the Ninja immersion blender which was powerful enough to pulverize ice cubes, etc. then I began to notice strange black tarry marks on my counter - it was quite a while before I connected the increasing leaking of black substance to the blender. YUK! I was ingesting that stuff for ages! EWWWW.....(and I cleaned it thoroughly each time) still makes me ill to think of it which I do when ever hearing of anything from that company....and they never responded to me. That said, hopefully it was their only seriously flawed product line.

Just FYI on the box on the Ninja Blender it states that this product contains lead and to wash your hands after touching!! It's also made in China. I don't remember if that was the exact wording, but definitely along those lines.

vitamix. but the thing is huge and rather ugly. it is quite heavy so if you use it daily you will not want to put it back in a cupboard. I have the really tall blender jar and we use the pusher on it, so it sits on our counter wit the jar on it, it is about 22" high total.

this sounds like I hate it, but it is my absolute favorite kitchen appliance.

Love my vitamix also but do expect a learning curve.
You can do lots more with a VM than a standard blender.
I amoritized the price over 7 years and number of times I will use it and comes out to less than $.50 per use and probably more like $.25.
VM added an extra year to my warranty, so the numbers may go down if I recalculated. Of course, I am hoping it lasts longer than 7-8 years but based my numbers on the original warranty.
Some days, I use it 5-10 times and other days just once.
Soup, hummus,pasta sauce, smoothies, etc.

If you only make smoothies, a good blender might be cheaper. I had a KA blender for almost 20 years but only used it about once a month or so- a few more times in the summer. It still works fine but just moved to the basement for now.

Now, if I amortize my kitchen, I better live for a long time!

My favorite part of having a vitamix live on my kitchen counter? Everyone in the house consumes way more fresh fruits and veggies than previously and no one accuses me of sneaking in something healthy. They are all welcome to observe the process and they know it's gonna taste good!

Thank you everyone out there for helping me to solve the mystery of buying a smoothie machine. I have buy Vitamix 5200 although it is expensive but would say it's working quiet well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Smoothie maker

This post was edited by elizbathmartin on Wed, Apr 23, 14 at 0:52

Vitamix's and Blendtec's are great, but yes, expensive. You can get them quite a bit cheaper if you buy a factory reconditioned one though. They're practically new and come with new containers etc.

I justified the purchase because they come with a 7 year warranty, brand new, or 5 years if you buy a reconditioned version. They're amazing machines and it's nice not having to worry about buying another one every few months/years like I used to with the cheaper brands.

You can get free shipping ($25?) and sometimes other specials using a promo code from someone like http://rawblends.com/vitamix-blender or http://boozysmoothies.com/blendtec-promo-code

Here is a link that might be useful: vitamix promotion code

I want to try and avoid Oster as there are countless poor reviews on current models...

I have a vintage Oster bought from a rummage sale for a couple of dollars that does a great job. Last summer, I lucked into a vintage 'Vita-Mixer' for $20 at an estate sale. It's huge, it's ugly and it is nigh-on indestructible. (Mine is exactly like the one at the link.) Actually, it's ugly in kind of a charming retro/ steam-punkish way--fits in with my old Oster and vintage commercial Hamilton Beach milk-shake mixer

Neither of which does you any good but what I'm saying is to not overlook second hand appliances. It's a small risk buying used for a few bucks. If it turns out to not do the job you're wanting it to do, then donate it or resell at a garage sale.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vintage Vita-'Mixer'

VitaMix is nice but not for everyone. I have a Ninja. In response to nyrgirl's comment above about lead being present in the Ninja, most power cords are made of PVC, which contains trace amounts of lead. So really, you should wash your hands after handling pretty much any power cord. The reason Ninja had the warning on their box is California's ridiculous regulations that require pretty much anything sold in California to be labeled that it can cause birth defects, cancer, or reproductive harm. The cutoff is 200 ppm but Ninja did not have their cord tested, so they had to put the warning on anyway. This freaked out consumers so they ended up getting it tested and of course, there were only small amounts, nowhere near 200ppm. So the warning is being taken off. No parts of the actual Ninja blender contain lead. So if you're considering buying one, don't let that scare you away. It's a great product.

This post was edited by hvtech42 on Wed, Jun 11, 14 at 18:46

Love my Vitamix that I just bought a few months ago. So far, it makes great green smoothies, milkshakes, hummus, and margaritas!

Vitamix all the way. We use it near daily for smoothies of all sorts. The motor is strong and won't burn up (like other expensive blenders I've had.)