Here is my own personal reviews of the 3 different blenders that I either have owned or have worked quite a bit with:

About a week before Mother’s day this last May, our blender that we have used for about 3 years finally gave out on us. We loved our blender so we were really sad to see it go, but we had been wanting to upgrade to a professional grade blender for some time, and figured we would capitalize on this opportunity. For my mother’s day and my husband’s father’s day gift, we did a joint present of a blender.

KitchenAid: I figured that I should share a little about our old KitchenAid blender first. We got a KitchenAid blender for our wedding and used it almost daily until it finally gave out. This blender was perfect and works great for the casual blender user. It’s about half the price of the higher-grade blenders, and performs almost as well. If you research a little into blenders, this one usually shows up at the top of the list for the cheaper options of blenders. In some ways it even out-performed the Blendtec and the Vitamix, that being said, it doesn’t have as big of a motor as the professional grade ones, but it does a great job. I would totally recommend this blender to someone who doesn’t blend every single day, or for someone who has a smaller budget.

Blendtec: When we were deciding about which blender we wanted to replace our KitchenAid blender with, we knew it was between either a Blendtec or a Vitamix. We researched for probably hours (the usual for us when we make bigger purchases) and finally came to the conclusion that the Blendtec was what was going to fit our current needs. It is high powered and pulverizes just about everything. Our smoothies in the morning are more of a liquid than a smoothie, and I really like that because it means I’m able to drink it down a lot faster. The other nice thing about it is that the blades aren’t sharp! Every time I cleaned the KitchenAid blender I was so nervous and extra cautious about the blades because I didn’t want to cut myself. It’s so nice to know that I don’t even have to think about that with our new Blendtec. We were looking into buying either the Blendtec or the Vitamix with the variable speeds because that was important to us. That being said, the blendtec was the cheaper option between those two.

The Blendtec has pre-set settings that just with a push of a button you’re able to make a smoothie, soup, dressing, etc. At first I was afraid that this would make me frustrated that I was only able to push those certain buttons, but I actually like the setting now. I know that when I make my smoothies I push the “smoothie” button 2 times for our favorite texture of smoothie(liquidy). You’re also able to use the “pulse” button if you choose to not go with a specific setting.

One more thought: we chose to buy the blender with the second pitcher (the wildside blender). I love to home-make everything and I knew that each of the pitchers had their own specific purposes, so this was what we chose to do. Research the different things each pitcher does and decide if a second pitcher is really worth the price for you.

Vitamix: Now to talk about the Vitamix. I love the Vitamix.  My parents have a Vitamix and every time we go into town I get to use it for our smoothies, making soups..etc. To be honest I don’t notice a whole lot of difference between the two besides one factor: the “tamper tool,” or as we call it, the”plunger!” That is the only major difference in my eyes between the Blendtec and the Vitamix. There have been a few times when I’ve been blending smoothies that I put in a few too many frozen things and then have to go through the hassle of turning it off, shaking it down, and re-starting. When this happens, I usually mention the wonderful plunger that comes with the Vitamix and wish we had one for our Blendtec.

The Vitamix that I linked to this page is the one with the variable speed option. This was the one we were thinking about buying when we were deciding between the Vitamix and the Blendtec. That is the one that my parents have, and I felt that it gave me more control over the speed that I used and I really liked that. You can also purchase a cheaper version that they make that is a two speed blender.

You can also purchase a Vitamix with a second pitcher for different uses. My mom has one for “dry ingredients” and one for “wet ingredients.” Again, you can look into the second pitcher and decide if that is worth it for you and your family.

Choosing a blender can be hard. They all have their pros and cons and you just have to choose the blender that best suits your specific wants and needs. Good Luck! Happy Shopping!

Kristin