Vitamix

The history of the Vitamix Corporation, also known as Vita-Mix Corporation, dates back over 90 years to 1921 when the founder, W.G. “Papa” Barnard started selling “modern” home products. In 1937, he introduced a new product, a blender called the Vita-Mix.

Vitamix Professional Series 500

After several years of successfully selling the Vita-Mix through word-of-mouth and at local fairs around the country, “Papa” Barnard booked a 30 minute time slot on a local TV station in Cleveland and took to the airwaves. This first-ever infomercial showed off the benefits of his new machine and made the blender a household word.

Since then, they’ve grown from their headquarters in a small log cabin, built by the founder himself, to a world-class facility in Olmsted Township, Ohio.

Jodi Berg

The company is currently lead by Jodi Berg, a fourth generation family member who holds the history of the company close to her heart. She is also a vocal supporter of the same health-first ideas that were made popular by the company founder, “Papa” Barnard.

The Vita-Mix Corporation’s commitment to quality, customer service, and unmatched performance is what makes them the preferred brand of restaurant owners and chefs in both their professional and home kitchens.

What Sets Them Apart From The Rest?

Patents

Vitamix is an engineering company that drives innovation in the blender industry. Some of the most pertinent patents they hold are:

  1. Blades: They have 4 patents just on blade design
  2. Blenders: They have 21 patents on the Blender Base, silencing technology to make blenders quieter, and blending systems
  3. Containers: 18 patents on container design. Who knew containers were so unique that they could be patentable.
  4. Others: 5 patents ranging from tampers to cleaning devices.

Markets

They have a complete line of personal blenders for home use as well as a comprehensive line for commercial business use, such as restaurants and bars. The household line of blenders have  34 models to choose from, from personal blenders to full size powerhouse machines. While the commercial line of blenders have 13 models to choose from.

They invest considerable amounts of money in their commercial line of blenders for noise mitigation as well as exceptional power and extended duty cycles as you see in restaurants or bars that are open over 12 hours a day.

These blenders, while not normally purchased for household use, most likely have indirect benefits for their line of household blenders. It’s common for a company to take the knowledge learned and the patents gained from one line of products, to scale manufacturing and production and trickle the technology to other product lines.

I think the evidence that we see is how long people are owning and using their household blenders.

No Interest Payments

Let’s get real for a minute. While these are one of the best blenders you can buy, they don’t come cheap. They understand that, and as of April 2016, they’ve partnered with PayPal to offer zero interest payment plans.

Terms vary between 12 to 18 months, and if paid within that time period, will come with the benefit of no interest. You have to buy  direct from their website to take advantage of this offer, but it’s well worth it.

I don’t know of many companies that offer zero interest, let alone by partnering with one of the most respected online financial companies, PayPal. It’s worry free and easy to apply.

Risk Free In-Home Trial

Buying online is appealing but comes with disadvantages. The biggest benefit is better prices than what you’d find in a traditional brick and mortar store. But the downsides are many:

  1. You can’t see the color choices
  2. You can’t touch the product, feel the knobs and other moving parts to judge build quality
  3. You can’t take it home today
  4. You have to pay for shipping
  5. Returns are a hassle and you have to pay for return shipping. It could end up costing you up to $50 for shipping and return shipping and you end up with no product in the end.

They’ve solved 4 out of those 5 big downsides with their Risk Free In-Home Trial program.

  1. Colors: From sites like BlenderReviews and at Vitamix.com that have high quality images, you can easily narrow down your choices.
  2. Touch: This program allows you 30 days to touch, feel, use, blend, and prepare foods in the comfort of your own home. No pushy sales people hovering over you to make a purchase in a store.
  3. Today: Well, online shipping is fast, but it’s not as fast as receiving the product the same day. Maybe one day with drone delivery!
  4. Shipping: By using links or the coupon code provided on this website, you get free shipping to you.
  5. Return Shipping: This program, as long as you return the product within 30 days, will include no-charge return shipping. They are that confident you will love their product. I don’t know of any other blender manufacturer that will pay for return shipping if you don’t like their product!

This program is truly exceptional. Zero risk buying online from them. You get to try the blender, with food, for up to 30 days. And you can return it within that time period with no out-of-pocket costs. If you decide to return the product, all you need to do is call 1-800-848-2649, option 1 and get a Return Authorization Number. So simple.

Service

They not only have an extremely reliable product, they have backed it up with exceptional service and service policies.

  1. Warranty Repair Costs: Zero! If your product is under warranty, there’s zero cost to you. I’ve had these before with other products, but never used them because they had a big gotcha. The gotcha’s were:
    1. I had to pay to ship the product to one of the manufacturer’s service facilities
    2. I had to pay to return ship the product back to me
    3. The cost of the shipping alone sometimes reached half if not the full price of the product I bought. With the price of these blenders, two-way shipping costs wouldn’t amount to that much, but you get the point.
  2. Free Two-Way Shipping: If your product is under warranty, they not only will charge you zero to repair the product, they will pay for two-way shipping! Wow, this is a warranty service program I would definitely use. I’ve never had to use it before, but I trust that Vitamix will stand behind their program.
  3. 20 Years of Service: Not only will they service blenders under warranty, they can even repair blenders out of warranty, up to 20 years old. Who expects a kitchen appliance to last 20 years anymore? While the upfront costs of one of these blenders may seem high, they are truly one of those blenders that will probably outlast any other kitchen appliance in your house.

From their website:

“For Home, U.S. Service

To speak to someone about having your Vitamix product serviced, please call 800.848.2649.

If your machine or container is still under warranty, Vitamix will repair it at no cost to you, including two-way shipping. If your warranty has expired, Vitamix is able to service machines up to 20 years old, depending on availability of parts. You will be notified of the cost of repair upon our receipt and examination of the machine.”


Key Differentiators From The Rest

Easy

These blenders are designed to be easy. Easy to use, easy to clean, from start to finish it’s a great experience. How many kitchen gadgets have you purchased that came with a bunch of doo dads? They were all fun in the beginning, but as time goes on, I always lose them in some kitchen drawer. Or while it was easy to use the appliance, it was a real pain to clean. In the end, I have at least one or two kitchen cabinets full of gadgets like this that eventually found their way to the back of my kitchen. They got used when I first purchased them, but eventually ended up being shoved to the back.

What’s more expensive? A $50 kitchen gadget that was used 5 times and eventually donated or given away to a friend? Or a $300 blender that is kept on the countertop, used one time a week for 20 years?

Better blades
vitamix Better blades

Designed, with the patents to prove it, to withstand the toughest ingredients. They are made with nothing but the best materials, and in a kitchen appliance, that means aircraft-grade stainless steel.

Fewer Attachments

Unlike other blenders that have multiple attachments, these blenders only have 2 that are required, and 3 at the most.

  1. Container: of course, you need this to put your ingredients into
    1. Blade: not detachable, it’s bolted into the container. It’s not removable either. So the container and the blade are one unit that keeps it simple.
    2. Other manufacturers have removable blades. Making it part of the blending process to insert a second blade, thru your ingredients, into the container. It’s a hassle and just one more thing to keep track of and clean.
  2. Lid: it’s a snap-on lid to attach to the container. No screws, latches, or other catches to attach it to the lid. Super simple.
  3. Tamper: This is optional. Depending on the ingredients, you may or may not need to use the tamper. But it’s so simple to use. You remove the Lid plug, and insert the tamper. That’s it.

Simple Controls

simple controls

The controls and icons that they use are very simple to use. Like most people, I didn’t even bother reading the manual when I got my first Vitamix. What’s great about the controls, the icons are self-explanatory.

Self Cleaning

One of my big gripes about any kitchen gadget, after buying a ton of them over the years, is difficulty cleaning them. It’s such a big deal to me, I actually judge a product on what it takes to clean them as a major deciding factor whether I buy it.

What I like about these blenders is that they are really simple to clean. Most of the time after I pour out my ingredients, I immediately rinse the container, lid, and tamper under water. That’s it. If I forget to do it immediately, no sweat, I then use the self cleaning feature.

self-cleaning

All I do for self cleaning is the following:

  1. Add warm water to about half-full in the container
  2. Add a drop of dish soap
  3. Then set the blender on high speed for about 60 seconds.
  4. Dump the soapy water, give the container, lid and tamper a quick rinse under clean water
  5. Voila! It’s all clean.

Continuous Blending

What does “continous blending” mean? Don’t all blenders do continous blending? Check out this scenario. You plan to make a frozen smoothie, consisting of frozen fruits, some fresh vegetables, and some Almond milk. You put in all the ingredients, turn on the blender, see the ingredients start to blend, then all of a sudden the blade starts whirring and you don’t see ingredients moving any more. This is called, “cavitation”. It’s a condition in which the blade is no longer making contact with the food, so the blending process has essentially stopped.

What do you do in that situation? Most common next step is to remove the lid, get a spoon or a mixing scraper, and scrape the sides of the container until the ingredients fall back down into the blade. You then put the lid back on and start blending again. All is good right? Well, most of the time no. Cavitation normally happens immediately again. So you open the lid, scrape the ingredients down again until they make contact with blade, and then you decide to solve the problem by adding more Almond milk. But not too much, you still want a frozen smoothie after all. You then put the lid back on, turn on the blender, and dang it, cavitation happened again. So you start the scraping process and adding more Almond milk process all over again.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

Vitamix has solved this problem with their patented tamper. Yes, its patented. You won’t find any other blender with a tamper integrated into their system. With the tamper, you never have to turn off the blender or remove the lid. You can keep the blender running 100% of the time, use the tamper simultaneously, and gain the ability to push your ingredients down to the blades in a continous motion. This is a huge time saver. And more importantly, a huge frustration saver!


Vitamix Blender Models

Vitamix re-organized their blender line-up in 2018, but here’s a quick recap of how they re-grouped their models.

  • Vitamix Smart System Blenders
  • Vitamix Classic Blenders
  • Vitamix Space Saving Blenders
  • Vitamix Certified Reconditioned Blenders

Vitamix Smart System Blenders

The Vitamix Smart System Blenders currently contains the Vitamix Ascent Series of blenders. In the future, I’d expect to see another blender series pop-up here. But for now, this is the only one in here.

What Is Unique About Vitamix Smart System Blenders?

  • Wireless connectivity direct to the blender base
  • SELF-DETECT Containers compatibility

Vitamix Ascent Series

The Vitamix Smart Systems Blenders currently have one Series.


Vitamix Classic Blenders

The Vitamix Classic Blenders is their traditional line of blenders. They have features that are timeless.

What Is Unique About Vitamix Classic Blenders?

  • Intuitive Controls: Usually knobs, switches, and some touch interfaces
  • Simple Design: No electronic connections to other devices. The blender is a self-contained and functioning unit.

The Vitamix Classic Blenders comprises 3 different series of blenders. They are:

  • Vitamix Explorian Series
  • Vitamix G-Series (Next-Gen)
  • Vitamix C-Series (Classic)

Vitamix Space Saving Blenders

The Vitamix Space Saving Blenders is a collection of blenders that are designed for single-serve purposes.

What Is Unique About Vitamix Space Saving Blenders?

  • They can make single servings
  • They can make double servings
  • Their two major features are convenience and space savings

Vitamix S-Series (Personal)

The Vitamix Space Saving Blenders are composed of one series.


Vitamix Reconditioned Blenders

Just a few years back, Vitamix used to offer their Certified Reconditioned blenders under a “generic model name”. And under that name would be different models of blenders that were very similar to one another. It was a little tricky to understand since you weren’t sure what exact model of Vitamix you might get. These are the reconditioned models using a generic name:

GENERIC NAMERECONDITIONED BLENDER
Certified Reconditioned Standard5200
CIA Pro Series
Creations II
Creations GC
Pro Series 200
Total Nutrition Center
Turboblend VS
Certified Reconditioned Standard ProgramsPro Series 500
6300
6500
Total Nutrition Center 3
Certified Reconditioned Next Generation
Pro Series 300
7500
Creations Elite
Certified Reconditioned Next Generation ProgramsPro Series 750

Since that time, they’ve started offering the new models in a reconditioned version, using the same name so there’s much less confusion. An example is below:

NEW MODELRECONDITIONED MODEL
Vitamix 780Vitamix Certified Reconditioned 780
Vitamix 5300Vitamix Certified Reconditioned 5300

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