Blendtec Total Blender Four Side, Black

I must give you a little bit of history before reviewing the Blendtec . . .
Our local Costco was having a Vita-Mix road show and i bought it knowing that I really liked everything I had ever read about a Blendtec. A couple of my friends raved about the Vita-Mix, so I felt I needed to pay a little attention. A large purchase like this deserved a little research so that I wouldn't have any regrets. I watched the demo, was impressed and took home the Vita-Mix that day. I was anxious to make a smoothie with it because I had been using the Magic Bullet for five months. I made my first smoothie with it, and it turned out great but the "honeymon" didn't last very long. I did not like the sheer size of the Vita-Mix! It sat VERY high on my counter, wouldn't fit under the cabinet and it looked like it belonged in a commercial-sized kitchen, not mine. I absolutely disliked everything about the lid, except the ability to drizzle liquids in from the opening. The lid was not easy to put on nor remove. And the tamper!!! A good machine should not require a tamper to push the food around. The blender canister has these decorative grooves on the sides and oh what difficulty to "get every last bit out" with a a rubber scraper. I felt like I was wasting food! Then, I made a vegetable pate and the 4-pronged blade made it extremely difficult to get the food hiding below the blade. By this time, I had had enough and was only too happy to take it back to Costco.

That same night, I ordered my Blendtec. It arrived promptly and have LOVED everything about it since Day One! It is so-o-o-o easy to "get every last bit out" because the sides of the blender doesn't have the unnecessary decorative grooves on the side. It makes a big difference if you're the type that doesn't like to waste. I feel that the Vita-Mix and Blendtec are equally noisy, but it does its job so quickly and efficiently that it really isn't on for very long. It is so efficient and powerful that it doesn't need a silly tamper to get everything blended well. It fits under my cabinet where I like to keep it and it is just perfect in every way. I make whole fruit and/or leafy green smoothies, sometimes twice a day, and it's always smooth and perfectly blended. As long as you add the proper amount of liquid, that "vortex" forms and everything gets pulled downwards. Everything i make just comes out absolutely perfect. I just can't say enough good things about this machine.

This is an awesome blender. It blends stuff like you've never seen before and I am really pleased with it. But holy cow is it LOUD!! The cat hates me. I got a pair of earmuffs from the shooting supply place to wear while using it. Maybe overkill, but I think that using it twice a day without them would result in hearing damage eventually. I wish they sold an enclosure for this one like they do for the commercial ones....I'd definitely buy one.

I bought this because I had a juicer and liked it. But I felt that tossing all that pulp and fiber had to be making me miss out on a lot of health benefits. And just trying to spoon some of it back into the juice doesn't work, it's gross. This blender blends whole fruits and vegetables wonderfully, I can still get the fiber and in a drinkable form.

After I bought this, I read a webpage where they talked about blending an avocado WITH the pit, and I tried it. It works, I ended up with an amazingly smooth mousse-like creamy pudding. Not something I'd do every day, but it was very interesting. I have been making kale banana blueberry smoothies for breakfast and it blends everything into one homogenous shake. No bits of leaves, chunks of stuff, etc. I'm enjoying it. I just wish it wasn't so loud.

I have owned this blender for about a month. So far it has worked great. It is a great tool to have if you expect to blend stuff on a daily basis. The larger blades and powerful motor makes my Oyster beehive blender feel like a toy. It will blend things that conventional blenders would not even begin to blend. Baby food can be puree very well. Much better than with the food processor. This machine can basically replace a food processor, a juicer, and a grinder.

Things I like:
1. It blends just about anything do to the large blades and powerful 1500 watt motor. And it does it much faster than a conventional blender.
2. It's built in the USA and the parts seem to be good quality.
3. One push button operation allows you to blend w/o having to time it or supervise it.
4. lifetime warranty on coupling and blade.
5. It fits under standard counters.

Things I do not like:
1. The base has a cheap feel to it because of the plastic. For the price, I think it should have been metal.
2. Has lesser warranty than its competitor (Vita-Mix).
3. I expect an expensive tool like this to have better dampening to absorb noise and vibration.
4. The plastic container (polycarbonate) scratches easily when mixing grains, seeds, etc.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 265 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars