Does Anyone have Vitamix, is it worth the money?

chika

Hi,

I'm on a health kick at the moment and have been having green smoothies, but my £10 Tesco blender doesn't get them smooth enough. Chewing down half blended celery and kale isn't nice! I had a green smoothie in London the other day and it was fab, suoer smooth and the shop was using a Vitamix.

I'm thinking of getting a Vitamix blender as I hear they are the best bar none but I would like some opinions before I part with my cash.

Does anyone have one? If so is it reliable, which model do you have and would you reccomend it?

Cheers!

Pink.

Hi chika,

I don't have one, but they are seriously expensive. :eek:

There is some mention of the vitamix on this thread that may help:

What's the best HARDCORE Food Processor/Blender?-making Icing Sugar/grinding Nuts etc

Pink

chika

Thanks! I know its scary but do you know when you just want something...! Also I will pick it up in the states using dollars left over from when they were cheap so hopefully I won't have to part with too many pennies.

Maybe I can justify it with the fact that I won't have to get icing sugar anymore!

Thanks for the link to that thread too - Hmmm decisions decisions....

greenbee

You'd probably be better off juicing the vegetables rather than blending them. I juice any fibrous fruit & veg, then add the juice into the blender with the soft fruit/veg and other ingredients.

I started off with a cheap and cheerful juicer, but then invested in a magimix one, which gets the pulp really dry but is a really pain to clean :rolleyes:

star2007

I think if money is no object, and your eyes don't pop out of your head at the £400 price tag, it is meant to be a fantastic piece of kit. However, as you're on the 'Old Style' board, I suspect you're one of us mere mortals who the above doestn't apply to.

I'd be wary of buying one from the states, you'd need to get a transformer the size of the blender itself, the warranty wouldn't be valid/ would be nigh on impossible to send it back for repairs etc.

I think Blendtec ones are generally regarded to be an equivalent, and a bit cheaper I believe. I remember seeing a comparison chart a few months back for high end blenders.... ooh, found it with only a few seconds googling!...

http://www.juiceland.co.uk/blendercomparisonchart.htm

Looking at that I would say the Krups is the best value for money, and I wish I'd bought that one instead of my £80 (sale price) Kitchen Aid one. Not that it's bad in any way, but I suspect I could've done better.

I also have a juicer (a centrifugal one, rather than a gear one), and the blender gets used a LOT more than the juicer. I love making fruit smoothies, green smoothies, raw soups, cooked soups, dips, houmous etc in it. You get all of the raw goodness of the veg remaining in the soup/whatever, rather than being left behind in the collection container of the juicer. And if you do get a vitamix/ similar, it's meant to get every last smidgen of goodness into you by extracting the nutrients at the cellular level of the plant.

Oh another thing to bear in mind is whether it has a plastic/ polycarbonate or glass jug. If you're into raw food & detoxing, you're likely to be concerned about the potential toxins in plastic food prep utensils etc, so that's something else to consider.

ShelBell

My mum bought one in Costco last year. It's still in it's box. It's a nice box though, makes a good table substitute.

Paul.glaser

The Vitamix is an excellent blender but do you really need it?
If you own a milk shake bar, or need completely smooth blended food for some medical reason, then you might.
For standard kitchen/ Domestic use, you almost certainly do not.
You can make excellent soups in a £9.95 economy model blender from Argos or Tesco. And you can have warm soup by adding warm water from the kettle. This will be a lot cheaper than £439 for a Vitamix, which can make warm soup -but at a very high purchase price, and by using lots of electricity in the process.
Certainly try a cheap blender before splashing out - and you might prefer the product with a few bits in it to the totally smooth product from the Vitamix

Callie22

No way I could afford one, but I did end up watching a demo in John Lewis' and I was very impressed - loved the fact that you could make hot soups in it as well as smooth juices and iced stuff. If money was no object then I'd definitely think about one.

Paul.glaser

I saw the demo too in John Lewis and found the vitamix impressive, but not so impressive that I thought it could be worth the £439 price being charged for it.
Hot soups can be made by adding water from the kettle to any economy blender and the small bits remaining from the economy model add some texture to the soup, which I prefer to a totally blended baby-food like product.
If you're planning to open a milk-shake bar and need a heavy duty blender for all day, every day, use then this seems as good as any, but for domestic use, a cheap Argos type machine seems more than adequate.
Certainly make some hot soup ( water from kettle) in your £9.95 blender before spending £439. There are plenty of blender soup recipes on the web, and well worth trying, before buying something for more than 40x the price, which seems to do a similar job, but leaves things far too smooth for my liking

Seakay

star2007 wrote: »

.

I also have a juicer (a centrifugal one, rather than a gear one), and the blender gets used a LOT more than the juicer. I love making fruit smoothies, green smoothies, raw soups, cooked soups, dips, houmous etc in it. You get all of the raw goodness of the veg remaining in the soup/whatever, rather than being left behind in the collection container of the juicer. And if you do get a vitamix/ similar, it's meant to get every last smidgen of goodness into you by extracting the nutrients at the cellular level of the plant.

Could you point us in the direction of recipes for green smoothies? i have a centrifugal juicer (total bargain on ebay!) and although it is a good one green leaves are tricky and involve a lot of waste. Raw soups also sound very interesting.
I'm seeing a naturopath at the moment and am on 5 juice days followed by 3 weeks wheat free but even when the regime eases up I intend to have more juice/smoothies/raw food and am looking for ideas.

bltchef

green smoothe recipe 2 cups of water 2 cup of lettuce or cabbage 1 banana puree till smooth i have a russel hobs 700 watt if that helps u can sub apple foe the banana if u like