Vitamix Refurbished Blenders: 6300 Series $262, 5200 Series $247 | 25% off+Free Ship

nilepez said:
Is 20 years a long time for a blender? I know my mother used the same blender for at least 25 or 30 years. I don't know what she paid for it, but it was probably from Sears.
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I'd say it really depends on how often you use it, and what you blend in it, but I'd say 20-30 years for any small home appliance that you use daily is pretty amazing. The Ninja I got a few years ago is already falling apart (mainly the pitcher cover) and it is a total pain to clean. Doesn't do a great job of blending some stuff either, but it was a solid intro blender. Looking forward to my Vitamix though!
 
Not in today's day & age, unless you buy something like this. It's all about cost-cutting and maximizing profit, so typical blenders are flimsily made in China and designed to last only a couple years until they break. Not just blenders, either....Lots of American brands like Whirlpool washers, Hoover vacuums, Singer sewing machines, Craftsman tools etc. were all sturdy and U.S.-made, now a shadow of their former glory. I have a relatively cheap Peavey amp from the 90s (and a relatively not cheap JCM800 stack from 1983 but whatevs!) that was still U.S.-made, which they have not been in many years. Hardly any hydraulic jacks or snowthrowers are still made in the U.S. anymore, the ones that are remain much more expensive, and consolidation over the years has resulted in only a few Chinese companies manufacturing almost all the brands.

I say if Ninjas are the Beats of blenders, then Vitamix and Blendtec are the Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic of them (except being German :D)....Handmade in USA, can't really go wrong with either, and built to last for decades which is why so many commercial kitchens use them. Also why you'll see 7 and 10 year warranties. Be glad to have this option, it's getting more and more difficult to find any type of product of this quality at any price. My Technivorm coffeemaker was handmade in Holland with glass instead of plastic internals, cost around $300 but considering they last 40+ years, it's a bargain. We should be on the lookout for deals on those in fact!
 
chizow said:
I'd say it really depends on how often you use it, and what you blend in it, but I'd say 20-30 years for any small home appliance that you use daily is pretty amazing. The Ninja I got a few years ago is already falling apart (mainly the pitcher cover) and it is a total pain to clean. Doesn't do a great job of blending some stuff either, but it was a solid intro blender. Looking forward to my Vitamix though!
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I have a ninja and use it daily; I bought my mom a vitamix for her birthday. It's definitely a superior quality blender and when the ninja fails I'm probably gonna bite the bullet and pay the $400 for a vitamix.
 
i2abid said:
20 years is a long time for my uses since I cook professionally, I decent quality blender lasting 25+ years seems reasonable for regular home use. I wish I had the cash to plop down $1800 for something like a Waring commercial blender to last a lifetime of abuse.
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So you've used a vitamix in a restaurant (or catering business) for 20 years? If so, that is impressive.
 
jschen said:
From what I've read the Blendtec has this issue as well. Vitamix has redesigned their jars to fix this issue and should be releasing them later this year.
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If that's "later this year", then that means they still haven't done it. I was considering getting a good blender at some point to make green smoothies, but I don't feel comfortable with the possibility of plastic fragments in my stuff. I'm surprised anyone is buying them with those kinds of issues. Do the Blendtecs linked in page 2 really have the same issue?
 
nilepez said:
Is 20 years a long time for a blender? I know my mother used the same blender for at least 25 or 30 years. I don't know what she paid for it, but it was probably from Sears.
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20 years for something made today is absolutely phenomenal, 20 years for something made in the 50s? ehh.. things were just made differently back then. I have an old Kitchen Aid mixer from the "black and white era" :D (I say that because I only know that it's older than me but not by how much) and it still works like a champ, this was the standard mixer too, now the ones you buy today they're fine and all, but unless you buy the much more expensive commercial models you won't come close to it in terms of lasting.
 
So I got my Vitamix and tested it out...holy crap lol such a HUGE difference. It is like going from integrated graphics to your first dGPU. It is that profound of a difference.

My typical smoothie in the past was some greens (kale or spinach), frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, 1 banana, chia seeds, and a little bit of apple or grape juice to get it fluid.

With the ninja, I had to use a lot more juice, and there would still be visible pieces of kale floating around that were big enough to tasted and chew. The chia seeds could also be chewed like little nuts. With the Vitamix, it all gets pulverized and you get a perfect consistency and taste. The resultant smoothie is almost gritty because the remnants of the seeds and greens have a slight texture. It also took about 1/3rd the time as I just used the smoothie preset. The Ninja after awhile, just stops cutting things smaller.

Really amazing, such a massive difference and well worth it for anyone who was on the fence. This will be about 3x the price of a new Ninja or Bullet, but it is so worth it as each and every smoothie you get is actually SMOOTH. The smoothie pours right out with no effort, while I would often find myself shaking the Ninja pitcher like a bottle of ketchup that was down to the last bit.
 
chizow said:
With the ninja, I had to use a lot more juice, and there would still be visible pieces of kale floating around that were big enough to tasted and chew. The chia seeds could also be chewed like little nuts. With the Vitamix, it all gets pulverized and you get a perfect consistency and taste. The resultant smoothie is almost gritty because the remnants of the seeds and greens have a slight texture. It also took about 1/3rd the time as I just used the smoothie preset. The Ninja after awhile, just stops cutting things smaller.
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I know exactly what you're talking about. That's pretty much what turned my GF and I off from the daily berry+spinach smoothies that we used to make...the Ninja would only cut greens into tiny visible bits, and every once in a while you'd take a sip and get a big nasty piece of spinach. Not that spinach is nasty; in fact I like raw spinach a lot, but that was a real turn-off when drinking a smoothie.

And yeah, a lot of food sticks to the sides, making it difficult to pour it all out.

We didn't pay for our Ninja though, we won it in a drawing at Lowe's. It's decent but I wouldn't buy one with these higher end blenders available.
 
Screw Vitamix get a Ninja. Cheaper does more and has a Lifetime warranty. You could drop a rock in your smoothie and never know it. Those of you posting above about the Ninja must not be using the higher end unit.
 
scgt1 said:
Screw Vitamix get a Ninja. Cheaper does more and has a Lifetime warranty. You could drop a rock in your smoothie and never know it. Those of you posting above about the Ninja must not be using the higher end unit.
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I've watched tons of Ninja vs. Vitamix videos, no contest. Even one directly comparing what you just linked to the baby Vitamix S30, which made a far more consistent blend, never mind handing things like ice cream and nut butter that the Ninja can't.

Enjoy your flashy Wal-Mart blender. I'm pretty pleased having spent $50 more on something that's pretty much the benchmark of blenders.
 
sfsuphysics said:
20 years for something made today is absolutely phenomenal, 20 years for something made in the 50s? ehh.. things were just made differently back then. I have an old Kitchen Aid mixer from the "black and white era" :D (I say that because I only know that it's older than me but not by how much) and it still works like a champ, this was the standard mixer too, now the ones you buy today they're fine and all, but unless you buy the much more expensive commercial models you won't come close to it in terms of lasting.
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This is the truth! Things these days are not built to last, by design.

w.r.t blenders, don't spend money unless you know you'll use them every day. You can get a $30-40 refurb Ninja on ebay or refurb Blendtec for $200-250, which is how I got mine and am very happy with it.
 
scgt1 said:
Screw Vitamix get a Ninja. Cheaper does more and has a Lifetime warranty. You could drop a rock in your smoothie and never know it. Those of you posting above about the Ninja must not be using the higher end unit.
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That "high-end" Ninja unit still has the suspended blades, which are awful in just about every aspect from loading, to blending, to cleaning. Good way to lose a chunk of smoothie contents, and I bet it still doesn't fully emulsify greens like Kale. :D

Like I said, Ninja is a good intro blender, but if you want to take it to a professional level go with Blendtec or Vitamix.
 
When some of you get your blenders in, perform this test. I'm not sure if this is what rudy was talking about earlier or not:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dc_CL3AvHQ

He starts about a minute or two in and then the results are at 4:30ish.

Personally that kind of reminds me of that tea kettle I got from Amazon where I rubbed the inside a bit and there were black particles coming off. I think that was cheap Chinese paint (which I'm not going to ingest; hence I returned it). I'm not sure what this stuff is.
 
I love my Blendtec. No sharp edges to clean. Costco has them on sale once in a while for around $250.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
When some of you get your blenders in, perform this test. I'm not sure if this is what rudy was talking about earlier or not:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dc_CL3AvHQ

He starts about a minute or two in and then the results are at 4:30ish.

Personally that kind of reminds me of that tea kettle I got from Amazon where I rubbed the inside a bit and there were black particles coming off. I think that was cheap Chinese paint (which I'm not going to ingest; hence I returned it). I'm not sure what this stuff is.
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wow that's odd, maybe those gaskets are breaking down from the friction. I would probably run those several times for a "break-in" period...though there really shouldn't be such a thing when food is involved. Maybe these refurbed units are the ones to get having that particular issue resolved. PUN INTENDED
 
So I ordered a Vitamix on November 28th. It is now December 15th and my order is still stuck in the "Order Processed" phase. How long does it generally take for a Vitamix order to actually ship out?
 
I too prefer the vitamix over blendtec because the tamper is necessary for things like peanut butter and ice cream. Blendtec makes a jar for vitamix users anyways, so with a vitamix you can have the best of both worlds.
 
King of Heroes said:
So I ordered a Vitamix on November 28th. It is now December 15th and my order is still stuck in the "Order Processed" phase. How long does it generally take for a Vitamix order to actually ship out?
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It took a long time for me. I don't recall exactly how long, but a few weeks. One it shipped, it arrived in two days. It'll ship UPS ground out of Ohio.
 
Viper87227 said:
It took a long time for me. I don't recall exactly how long, but a few weeks. One it shipped, it arrived in two days. It'll ship UPS ground out of Ohio.
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Just got a response back from customer support. Apparently they're backlogged due to the holiday season, but that they'll ship overnight once its ready to go. They're also throwing in an extra year of warranty.
 
King of Heroes said:
So I ordered a Vitamix on November 28th. It is now December 15th and my order is still stuck in the "Order Processed" phase. How long does it generally take for a Vitamix order to actually ship out?
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Mine took a few weeks and when it finally shipped, I didn't get any notification email from Vitamix, just saw it show up in my UPS My Choice notification.

Well worth the wait though as long as its not a gift that needs to make it before the holidays, still enjoy my Vitamix multiple times a week although not as much now that its cold.
 
My mom just got me one of these refurb Vitamix blenders today. I don't even know why, I didn't really ask for it. She said she heard me mention it once. Got it at the outlet mall for 300$. I don't know what exact model, it just says "Total Nutrition Center 3" on the front of it.

To test out for the black particle stuff, I tried putting water in it and then doing some mixing. The first time, it had one black thing floating in it. Then I poured that out and tried it again. Came up empty after a little while of blending. So maybe it's okay? Maybe just something from manufacturing or something, idk. Afterwards just shoved some random stuff in it, including ice cubes and then set it on the automatic ice blend setting. I think that thing turned everything into mush before 1/4th of the cycle was even up. It was kind of ridiculous. Ended up accidentally making 4 cups, so I was really freaking bloated afterwards...

What I don't like is how there isn't any lock in for the top portion, you just kind of stick it on there. The lid also feels a bit tacky, considering there's no really secure locking for it. It's just cheap-feeling rubber clamp-on.

Still, I kind of like how fast it does things, I might just keep it. Kind of worried about the plastic chipping off crap, though. Though when I look at this blender I can't really figure out what it would be chipping off of. The only thing I can think of is the lid. There's no way the bottom portion would come off, and the inner container isn't even black plastic... I don't know anything it could be.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
What I don't like is how there isn't any lock in for the top portion, you just kind of stick it on there. The lid also feels a bit tacky, considering there's no really secure locking for it. It's just cheap-feeling rubber clamp-on.
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Its intended, I hated how the lid on my Hamilton beach one used to stay on almost like a suction cup, its soooo much easier to make my stuff if I can just peel up the lid and throw something in quick.
 
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