Durability

Both blenders are heavy duty and do a great job at blending just about anything. The Vita-Mix 5200 is bigger, having a more heavy-duty and industrial feel while the Blendtec Total Blender is smaller seeming more brittle. Both blenders now come with BPA- Free Copolyester containers with Blendtec's latest upgrade to the TB-600-20 series (available via our links). Vita-Mix has the industry's best warranty for a complete 7 years full use, while the Blendtec warranty offers 3 years on the motor and pitcher with lifetime on the blade.

Blending performance

Both Vita-Mix and Blendtec easily crush ice, make nut butters, hot soup, grind seeds, and a whole lot more. While the Vita-Mix draws less power, 11.5 amps/1380 watts versus 13 amps/1560 watts, we have yet to find anything the Blendtec can blend that the Vita-Mix can not (we only do food - no i-phones, furniture, or automobiles tested). We have noticed that the Vita-Mix blends some things smoother than the Blendtec, this could be from its ability to quickly create and maintain a vortex and/or the blade design.

Need More power?
---> Blendtec's NEW 20amp/2400watt Tom Dickson Signature Blender

Usability and Controls

Vitamix 5200 offers complete manual control over your blending pleasure with its variable speed dial in addition to a Hi/Lo switch. It also comes with a tamper to assist in blending solid and whole (uncut) foods. The tamper is not needed for most applications but is extremely helpful in making frozen entrees, nut butters and thick puddings. With the Blendtec, large items need to be cut-up or additional liquid is needed to get the more solid entrees to blend completely or you'll need to stop the blender and manually tamp things down.

Blendtec presents Smart-Touch Tec-nology™ allowing you to push a button and walk away to have it run through a hands free automatic program cycle that stops when completed. While the programs can come in handy for some applications, we oftentimes find that we need to continue blending after the program to finish the job. Blendtec also offers manual control with its 'up', 'down' and 'pulse' buttons to manually cycle through its 10 speeds as needed for special applications.

The Blendtec will automatically shut off after a max of 50 seconds of continuous blending while the Vita-Mix will continue to run until manually shut off or until the thermal protection kicks in to keep it from overheating damage.

Now available: the Blendtec WildSide Total Blender
- 5-sided Blendtec 3 qt(96oz) WildSide pitcher with a 4 inch blade.

Both blenders are noisy compared to the common kitchen blender but the
Blendtec is noticeably louder

Smoothie Making

Both machines do an excellent job at turning out delicious fruit smoothies. We've used our Blendtec over several hundred times (it includes a digital usage counter) and have found that the program cycles, while helpful for some uses, were not able to create a super smooth green smoothie - but fear not as the Blendtec Total Blender offers manual buttons for complete control over your blending desires so anything is possible.

The Vitamix 5200 consistently makes creamy and smooth green smoothies without the tamper no matter how much greens we pack in the container.

Dry Grinding: Making Flour

The Blendtec boasts a one blade does it all - both wet and dry, while Vita-Mix offers a separate container with a "dry blade" for grain grinding. Both blenders have no issue with grinding large amounts of seeds, such as flax or sesame although we generally prefer our dedicated coffee grinder for that job.

We've been doing a fair amount of wheat berry grinding lately, as well as fielding questions about differences in how the blenders grind, so we've been using all 3 containers to see how they perform. We found that both the Blendtec and the Vita-Mix "wet" container ground the berries about the same; the flour appeared to be identical in texture in the same amount of time. The Vita-Mix "dry" container did do a superior job of grinding the berries; the flour was noticeably finer with a more consistent texture and did not get as hot.

If your plans include only a limited amount of grain grinding, both blenders do an adequate job. But, if you plan on doing a significant amount of grain grinding then the Vita-Mix dry-blade container (Vitamix Super Package) would be a wise investment.

Or... as Blendtec recommends:

"To get a very fine grind and to keep the nutrients, always use the Kitchen Mill". The Kitchen Mill was designed specifically for grain grinding and does a superior job compared to any blender we have experienced.

Juicing

A common question by many regarding these quality blenders is "can it make juice?". While both the Blendtec and Vita-Mix make incredible smoothies, it is important to note that they are not "juicers" per say. There are marketing slants that say they make "whole food juice" but the important difference is that Juicers extract the liquid from whole foods separating out the fiber and blenders do not remove anything from the whole food so you get all the natural fiber.

Now, if you really want to make juice in your Blendtec or Vita-Mix, you just need to take an extra step after blending a smoothie. You have to strain it to remove the fiber; you can accomplish this using cheesecloth or a nut milk bag. But keep in mind that your juice will be "watered down" as it will contain the water you added needed to blend. If you plan on juicing a lot then you should consider a juicer - see the juicers we recommend.

Clean Up

Unlike less industrial blenders, neither have an easy option to remove the bottom blade housing to access the jar for easy cleaning (you can remove the bottom of the Vita-Mix with a special tool but there is no such option for the Blendtec). The 2 prong blade and smooth square design of the Blendtec container does result in easier access to remove your blended goodness than the more narrow, 4 prong blade Vita-Mix design. But when in comes to cleaning, neither container should be put in a dishwasher and both are equally easy to hand wash.

Comments questions and opinions here

The Bottom Line: