What’s the Best Blender?

I recommend the blender which has enough power to do what you want without frustration.

If you’re doing heavy duty blending like large amounts of seeds to grind, or frozen fruits into smoothies, then I recommend getting a heavy duty blender (Vitamix or Blendtec). There are other blenders the Ninja and Montell Williams to name a couple and their probably great blenders, but I don’t have them and I don’t know how they’d hold up over time with frequent use for heavy duty jobs.

If you can’t afford the Vitamix or Blendtec (usually within a range of $400-$600) then consider using your time and energy to help a lesser powered blender get the job done, like soaking hard things first or cutting them up into smaller pieces before blending, or blend smaller amounts (break your blending into batches).

I’m lucky enough to have owned both a Vitamix and a Blendtec at the same time. Both of these machines are power houses. I used the Vitamix for wet stuff and the Blendtec (Wildside canister) for the the dry stuff.

I’ll tell you the story of two blenders…

I started off with a Vitamix (wet and dry canisters) in 2001. I thought I was getting a juicer – the salesman told me that Vitamix was the best “whole food juicer” on the market. I didn’t get his joke until I opened the box and saw a big blender. I was ready to return it, but something made me use it and I fell in love.

My Vitamix and I were happy for many years.

Then I saw a demo by Matt Monarch in which he compared the Vitamix to the Blendtec (with the new broad Wildside canister). OMG – were my feelings hurt. The Wildside whupped the Vitamix. I was offended by this upstart and waited for Vitamix to answer this challenge.

I waited and waited and waited.

Then one day I was walking through Costco and there was a Blendtec demonstration. Having felt abused by Vitamix’s nearly two year lapse in trumping the Blendtec, I purchased the Blendtec and began using it exclusively, like any kid with a new toy.

It took a while for my mind to reconcile that I was finding chunks in my blended matter. I didn’t want to admit it, but what made the Blendtec fast and excellent with dry stuff, made it not-so-excellent for control and texture with wet stuff.

With that realization, I began using both blenders – the Vitamix for wet stuff and the Blendtec for dry stuff. Here’s my comparison between the two blenders.

Fast foward to present date…

A few years after Matt Monarch’s comparison, Vitamix came out with the professional series (the 300 or the 750). I have the 300 model. The motor base is basically the same, as the older blender, but Vitamix refuses to sell the canister, which is wonderfully wide and with a much larger blade, separately. I think it’s a punk move to force loyal customers to purchase a whole new blender to get the improved canister. Loyal customers deserve better treatment. Especially those who waited years. I hope this posts reaches Vitamix and they start selling the canister by itself so that their loyal (did I say “loyal”?) customers can have the benefit of the larger canister without having to pay $600 for the new base.

In the picture below, you can see the difference in size of the base of the professional series canister and the old Vitamix canister. They both work on the same base.

So for me, I use the Vitamix Professional Series 300. It’s the best of both dry and wet blending. And it can also function as a simple food processor.