Blendtec Designer 650 Series Blender (Black) & 90oz* WildSide+ Jar

My mom got a Vitamix 5200 from Costco about a month ago. I used it almost non-stop. Used it to make rice milk, strawberry-banana smoothies, butter, and peanut butter. I used it so much I started to consider getting a high performance blender of my own. About a week later, I ended up getting the Blendtec Designer Series just to see which blender I liked better.Let me just say this review comes down to personal preferences and what you are willing to compromise on as both blenders are very good. You cannot go wrong with either blender. Both do the job just as well as the other.Pro's vs the Vitamix:- Design. I have always put a high value on form. Depending on the gap, I will sacrifice some functionality just to get the better looking product in my opinion. The Blendtec Designer Series is certainly a good looker. The design of it is also part of the reason why I went with the Designer Series instead of the Total Blender Classic. I got the black model so when everything is off and unplugged, the Blendtec just blends in. The motor base is rounder giving it a smooth look. Where the Vitamix 5200 motor base has sharp edges and is squarer looking. It stands out on the counter. So a win for the Blendtec.- Controls. I just love the touchscreen controls. Another reason I went with the Designer over the Total Blender Classic. The touch controls enhance the design of the motor base as referenced above when everything is turned off. When the controls are on, they are bright and sharp looking. The touch controls are responsive with no lag. As soon as you press the mode, the motor turns on and does its job. I love it over physical buttons. How a person uses a Blendtec differs from the Vitamix. It's hotly debated and up to personal preferences. The Blendtec relies mostly on its automated modes for blending your food. The benefit of that is you can simply hit the smoothie button and walk away. It will go through the smoothie mode starting out slow to draw the ingredients into the blade and slowly progress to a higher speed to turn rice milk, an orange, a banana, and frozen strawberries into a smoothie and stop when done. The Vitamix is all manual control where you start on Variable 1 and work yourself all the way to high depending on the recipe you're using. While this gives a person more control over the blending process, it does require the user to be more watchful when blending. For my uses, I prefer the Blendtec's automated modes. It does provide a slider for manual control and a pulse button.- Jar. The Blendtec's Wildside jar has a fifth side that is stated to help prevent cavitation. While I don't have the Fourside jar to compare it to, I haven't needed to stop the blender and mess with the ingredients in order to get them to blend. The Wildside jar is a square in shape leaving a nice wide bottom near the two blades. This combined with the two dull blades makes things a lot easier. I have made pretzel/pizza dough (same recipe) with the Blendtec. After allowing the dough to rise, the dull blades and the wide bottom made it easy to get all the dough out of the jar without worrying about cutting myself on the blades and trying to get everything out of the jar and not wasting anything. Where the Vitamix jar is a more traditional round design that narrows, as you get closer to the sharp 4 blades. When making peanut butter, it is a pain in the neck to get everything that is below the blades out of the jar. Have to take a spoon and take it out constantly moving the blades to get as much peanut butter out of the jar.- Cleaning. It's not a big win for the Blendtec as both machines are easy to clean. Just put about 2-3 cups of warm water and a dash of dish soap in the jars and let the machine do the cleaning. But, it goes back to the jars design. When making thicker things like peanut butter and dough that tend to stick to the jar, the wider bottom and dull blades make it easier to rinse out the Wildside jar. Where you have to again work around the sharp blades at the narrow bottom of the Vitamix jar.- Size. The Blendtec is able to be stored under the cabinets with the jar still on the motor base. The Vitamix can't store with the jar on the motor base.Cons vs. Vitamix- Consistency. Like cleaning, for me it's not a huge win for the Vitamix. But, the sharp blades do have a benefit over the dull blades. The frozen strawberries from Costco can be huge. And sometimes just running the smoothie cycle on the Blendtec leaves 1-2 small pieces of strawberry in the smoothie (nothing a few more seconds wouldn't solve). A lot of the times it will be completely smooth. But, I guess it depends on how many of the huge frozen strawberries find their way into the smoothie I make for the day. So a small win for the Vitamix there.- Lid design. Not a huge negative for me, but I do like the Vitamix lid design a bit better. It doesn't get as much splatter on it than the Blendtec's. Making it easier to remove without worrying about getting the contents of the jar over the counter, etc.The washes between the two blenders.- Noise. Both of these machines are loud, but they are very tolerable. In my opinion the Vitamix is a bit louder, but there is so little difference between the two. It shouldn't be a deciding point between them.- Out of the box readiness. This all comes down to what you plan to do with the blenders. If you plan to do nut butters more, the Vitamix is ready to do it out of the box with the tamper. The Blendtec either requires you to stop the machine to push the nuts into the middle of the jar so it can be blended or have to spend the money on the Twister Jar. From videos I have seen it does a good job making nut butters. On the other hand, if you want to do grains, the Blendtec is better suited for them out of the box (just as long as you don't mind cosmetic damage from the grains marking up the jar). The Vitamix requires the dry grains container, which has a different blade design better suited for grains. Where the standard jars blade will be damaged over time grinding them up.ConclusionI prefer the Blendtec Designer Series to the Vitamix 5200. But, it doesn't mean the Blendtec is the better blender. As stated above, it all comes down to personal preferences and where you are willing to compromise on. For me, the Blendtec came out to be the winner. But, you can't go wrong with either blender.Update 10/13: I'm still loving the blender. Been making smoothies almost every day for breakfast. Also used it to make baked potato soup( blendtec recipe and delicious) and other meal ideas. I did get the Twister jar to make peanut butter. Twisting the top in my opinion is easier than using the tamper with the Vitamix. Also, I like the texture/consistency of the peanut butter using the blendtec and twister jar over the Vitamix.

There were massive amounts of research before making this purchase, both by my husband as well as myself. There were videos and articles on this blender and others that made it a hard choice in knowing which one to choose. The purpose for our purchase was merely to make smoothies and such at home that could address everyone personal needs.We wanted a blender that would address both ice, and products e.g. veggies, fruits etc. This is a huge purchase for a family with a budget but after adding up the cost of buying smoothies elsewhere it was a wise decision. We have had the blender only a couple of days and already have used it 22 times. This blender has a counter on it, that is how I know exactly how many time we have used it.Each member of the family is using it for different reasons and this blender is addressing them all. I am a vegetarian, EMT, full time student, wife and mother, I struggle with getting everything I need daily and keeping up my energy. I use this for my green smoothies and add Chia seeds, super food and even dna green tea powder for an energy booster. I am able to put whatever I want into my smoothie to meet my health needs. My husband however does not love greens or veggies at all, but I can hide his greens in a fruit smoothie and he loves it, so for him, he is trying to eat (drink) better but not be punished by taste in doing so. My daughter is fit and lean, she uses this blender with a women’s wellness powder for a pre and post work out smoothie. My son is trying to gain weight and he injects his smoothies with weigh gainer powder for a pre and post workout.So far, in two days, we have consumed about $88.00 worth of smoothies. Once we reach 53 smoothies this blender will have paid for itself and I think that will happen sooner rather than later. Embarrassedly so, we are actually bringing this blender on vacation with us. There is no real replacement and really nothing else that can compare. It is durable and user friendly. The blades have no issue with ice, nor seeds. I will say to peel lemons or lime, not because the blender cannot address such things, but because it tastes awful in the smoothie. (Operator error)We have used both the smoothie setting as well as the pulse setting and both are working great. The smoothie setting is my favorite as it does all the work for me in a pre-set cycle. The book that comes with this is great for us, first time smoothers. It has great ideas and the web is also full of great recipes as well. This blender is really a plug n play and come with a DVD for assistance. There is a blender number provided that customers can call as well.I will update as the month go buy to report if it is still holding up. I will say the warranty is one of the best out there, if not the best that conjoined with the health benefits and cost saving of smoothies at home, the buyer’s remorse nonexistent.One of my favorite recipes for my sinful low calorie smoothie is;2 (6-oz) containers low fat - strawberry, mixed berry or red raspberry yogurt½ C Chocolate almond milk½ C fresh strawberry halves or raspberries1 banana, sliced1 C granola cereal.• Add ice for an ice cream effect

After killing an Oster 12 speed blender in 11 days making green smoothies I decided to splurge on this blendtec designer in black, and after a week with it I have no regrets. The big decision with these high-enders is between this and the Vitamix. Can't go wrong with either one I suppose, but I chose the Blendtec because of its size, size of jar, easy cleaning, it just looks better in my opinion, and it was less expensive for a new one(non refurb).Also I like that the blades are somewhat dull in the Blendtec instead of sharpened on the Vitamix. The base of the wildside jar is big and flat making cleaning and removing sticky stuff much easier and you don't have to worry about slicing a finger or resharpening/ replacing the blades and/or jar.The only cons I've noticed are with the jar lid. It is vented to let steam escape when making hot soup, but the vented center cap gives me no confidence that its going to stay on without keeping my hand on it the whole time. Also whatever is being blended will usually splash up on top of the lid, which results in drippings while removing. Always have to have a paper towel nearby to rest it on.Both have a 7 year warranty but I've heard in other reviews Blendtec charges for shipping on repairs where Vitamix does not.The touch pad for the controls looks great and works fine so far, but I can't help but assume it won't last 20+ years like the manual switches on a vitamix. The blend cycles are good but don't seem to liquify as much as I like with one cycle for smoothies. I usually use the whole juice cycle, then add the smoothie cycle to get the results I'm looking for. This process takes about 1.5 minutes, where the cheap Oster would be blending away for up to 5 minutes and still not do the job.The 3 horsepower motor is a beast, and it is loud, and if not held down it will shake around on the counter a bit. Another reason I keep my hand on the lid, which really isn't a con for me because I get some satisfaction out of watching this thing pulverize whatever I put in there hahah. From what I've heard the Vitamix is heavier and more stable but just as loud, so that's part of the deal with a monster blender.One of the reasons I went the blender smoothie method instead of a juicer is the clean up, which is really easy with this. Just do the self clean and wipe the base with a towel, its all smooth like wiping down a counter top. Plus I don't feel like I'm wasting all that healthy fiber and pulp that the juicers remove. If blended long enough everything is liquified anyway.I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a powerful high end blender. Hope this helped anyone who took the time to read it.. happy blending!

If you need a new blender, this is a great one to get. This is my second Blendtec blender so I know a lot about this company because I have used my old Total Blender for over six years, almost everyday. I just bought this new designer series blender because my old one was making a lot of noise, I thought it would probably quit on me any day and I didn't want to take a chance on being without my smoothies (very healthy eating) for even one day. This new one is even better, quieter and seems more powerful than the old one, not sure about that but I can tell you I'm glad I upgraded to this new one, it's worth every penny. Beautiful and powerful.One more thing about this great company. As it turns out, I didn't need to replace my old one because the container is the part that had worn out and was making all the noise. I only found that out when I tried out the old container on the new machine. The old blender is just fine but I'm keeping the new one because it is much nicer to operate and I do use it every day.Also, you should know that when I called up the company, they were great to deal with. The guy asked me for the serial numbers, told me it was 6 years and 8 months old and said that they increased the warranty to 7 years ( it was 5 when I bought it) so he would send my a brand new container, those wild side ones sell for about 100 bucks so I was very happy to get a new one for free, no shipping or returning the old one. That's customer service that deserves all my business and me keeping the one I just got even though I now really don't need it. However, now I have a back up, and a second container witch can be handy.These blenders are the best and now I know also the best value. Very strong, you won't slow it down, and it fits under the cabinets on the counter, unlike some of the other strong blenders out there.All that power is nice for blending anything I want in just about 15-20 seconds, that's fast.It is a professional strength unit for sure. I gave up on 100 dollar blenders 7 years ago because they are just too week to do the job fast or for a long time. Buy one today, you'll love it I know.Good luck

After four years of very light use, the blender jar gave out and leaked black, greasy, metallic liquid into my coffee drink one morning. Luckily I only took a sip and could spit it out. When I called Blendtec for a replacement jar (as the jar was still under warranty, with 4 years of an 8 year warranty remaining), they insisted I pay them half price for a new jar or pay 75% off for a new jar but with zero warranty remaining. This is ridiculous! What good is a warranty if it only gives you a discount on a new (and probably still defective) product?! Replacement of a defective jar under warranty should be free. Since the blender base is still working well, I paid the "75% off" price and will hope for the best. When this second jar gives out I will be kissing the blendtec good bye and buying a Vitamix instead. Shame on Blendtec for not honoring their warranty.

I sat here for a while and debated on whether I should give this blender 4 or 5 stars. So far I have had this blender for 4 days and I have used it 10 times already because this thing has made me addicted to smoothies it is so amazing. But, I will start by saying what it is that made me decide to deduct a star and honestly I don't feel like this is a reason to not buy this blender which is why I debated over it for a while.It is LOUD when it goes up to the higher settings. My old blender never got so loud so I was extremely surprised when I felt the need to run into another room in order to preserve my hearing. I only endured this once however because I live in an apartment so I absolutely cannot have something this loud going off every day. When I first set it up I wanted to make a smoothie so I hit the smoothie button after I put everything in. The smoothie button is what made it go up to such a high speed in the first place. I still make smoothies but I use the manual controls now and never go above 4 because I don't want to disturb the neighbors more than necessary. When I get a house I will be using the smoothie button again.My second negative point is that when it did get to go on the higher settings that one time I hit the smoothie button it ended up walking across my counter. This is very understandable since it was spinning at such high speeds but definitely defeats the idea of being able to set it and walk away due to it's auto settings that will shut it off on its own. I feel like because of this I will still need to watch it, which doesn't really bother me since I had to watch my old blender it's just the fact that this blender is advertised as being able to set and forget in a lot of places.Now onto the good! This thing is a power house! With my old blender I ended up having to chew half the smoothies I made which made them very unappealing to me and I never got the smoothie hype. Well when I had my first smoothie in this thing I was sold, it was so creamy and well blended it was amazing. I also add chia seeds to my smoothies and that first time I made the smoothie using the actual smoothie setting even the seeds were ground up so much that they didn't even have a texture. Now that I can't go above 4 on the power setting due to noise the chia seeds still keep form unless I am patient enough to give it extra time. I love having whole chia seeds so it doesn't bother me because everything else is always that creamy texture still. And the machine is meant to go higher than 4 In order to make the perfect smoothie so I am extremely impressed with what I am still able to get.I love that the base is also easy to clean. It is a touch screen surface so it is completely flat and can be wiped clean with a simple damp cloth without having to worry about cleaning around buttons. I am so happy I chose this blender, it is a huge step up from my last one.This blender is amazing and if you use a blender every day or even just once a week this thing is worth the investment. The price might look really high but it's actually pretty cheap considering the fact that it has a 7 year warranty so you know you will have this thing for more than 7 years and it pays for itself really. If you want quality blending, invest in a good blender.

Finally, we had enough money to get a high powered/high end blender. We love it! I use it at least three times a day. The concerns I had were met as follows.1. Blendtec or Vitamix?- this machine fits under my counter,- it has settings that lets me leave the machine alone while I tend to the kids or prep other food,- it also has a manual setting so I can blend a little extra if needed, and- the flat surface is easy to clean2. How can I justify the cost if all it does is blend? I.e. what else can I make with this thing other than smoothies?I took some time and read through the recipe book that comes with the blender. If you get this machine I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING THROUGH THE RECIPE BOOK - KNOWLEDGE IS POWER and you will enjoy more foods as a result. Each day I make a smoothie and then two or more completely different foods that I didn't ... well ... think were possible with a blender. I make,- pancakes from scratch, that is, I throw wheat berries in with milk and pulverize those, then all the other ingredients and in less than 3 minutes I have this really good batter that makes fluffy pancakes each time - no white flour! With our griddle I can make 4 at a time and have pancakes on the table within 15 minutes it's really good for my kids because they get impatient. It's easy to pour each pancake straight from the jar and clean up is painless.- brownies = delicious and restaurant quality every time!- cookies = again, delicious and healthy- tomato salsa and sauce- tomatillo salsa- bread- soup- almond butter- almond milkand more3. PriceWell, we had to save up for this but after baby #2 came along we really could justify the cost. Its easier to make healthy foods high in nutrients when you have this type of tool. I really feel that the cost is justified because of the time we save in cooking and the health benefit we get. If you're struggling to pay for it now just keep saving because the day will come when you can get it and you will appreciate what it can do for you even more.We now want to get the four sided jar because we use the wildside jar so much.

I really enjoy this blender, sure it costs a boat-load and takes up some of that precious commodity called counterspace, but without a doubt it's a great purchase if you are going to use it (and let's be frank, if you're considering a $400+ blender for a kitchen, one would hope you're actually using it).I bought it for one main purpose and that was making smoothies and iced drinks. Rather then spending $5-6 a pop on the way to work for my smoothie fix, I am able to make drinks on par (if not better due to fresher ingredients) with the local smoothie or coffee shop at home. These are cousins to the blenders in those same shops so it is definitely up to par. This should (hopefully!) pay for itself after a year or two.Using it does take some getting use to as you can't just throw in ingredients and expect it to come out perfect, but with a little trial and error I was able to find the right proportions of liquid, ice and solids to make the perfect mixed drink. There is literally no comparison between the drinks produced by this blender (super smooth) and my previous $20 cheap-o blender (what's that weird burning smell coming from the motor?).The wildside jar is great, but you do need to make sure that you have enough liquid in there to keep everything moving. This might not be an issue for some, but I like my smoothies thick, so it did take some tinkering with liquid amounts.One thing I have started adding to my smoothies is flax seeds (high in fiber/protein/vitamins/etc. and minimal taste impact when its one of many other ingredients). In my old blender I needed to grind the flax seeds in my coffee grinder to get them chopped up. In the blendtec, I throw them in whole and they're pretty much obliterated in the smoothie and it's hard to tell they're even there. I've also had a similar experience with kale, where the cheap-o model couldn't handle the tough fibers, but the blendtec doesn't even bat an eye-lashThe designer series is a step up from the older blendtec model and it's sleek finish is pretty easy to keep clean due to a lack of buttons (the controls are operated by a capacitive touchscreen similar to a cellphone).Downsides:+This thing is loud. You're only going to be using it in short bursts, but the neighbors might wonder why you're running heavy machinery in the morning.+Smoothie cavitation (this is when the blender blades create an air pocket and spin without hitting anything) -- Can be remedied by making sure there is enough liquid in the jar.Pros:+Powerful...yes it will blend+Professional quality+Easy clean-up (just throw a little water with some dishwashing soap and pulse for a few seconds. Rinse out and let dry)+7 year warranty

Don’t waste your time with other blenders cause you don’t want to spend the money. It’s worth every penny. And the best is there’s no sharp blades every time you wash it. We have smoothies every morning with nuts, fruit and many other things that are blended to perfection.

Me gusto todo en ella. Muy buena eleccion.

We bought this as a wedding gift for my brother and he and his wife are thrilled with it. They made a batch of almond butter in minutes, thoroughly impressed with it's consistency. The new "designer series" style is far more intuitive that than the old four button approach. Worth every penny!

The design looks really nice in the pics, but when it arrived, I realized the base is made from low quality materials, its not strong enough. My friend has a Total blender and, though it does looks better than this in the real life and it's building is stronger.

This is not your average blender! Since splurging and purchasing this i have made green smoothies everyday. I have trouble eating fruits and vegetables because i have had extensive mouth surgery due to cancer. It is so easy to add whatever fruits and vegetables you want in this blender, and everything is blended with no pulp leftover! The design is such that there is minimal cleanup. A terrific product!