the blendtec is such a good machine that i had a hard time returning it. returns are easy at bedbathandbeyond. i will keep the blendtec regardless:
i like this blender even with its limitations. it is small, light, cheap and very powerful. i could even use it as a travel blender. at home i will use it mostly for dry blending. i blend grains regularily for baking my own sourdough bread. i also blend the old, hard bread into bread crums. the blendtec is ideal for that, it is proven to blend iphones, golf balls and even vitamix:
the advantage of a seperate dry blender is that the container will always be dry and i do not have to wait for it to dry when i use it for wet blending.
both blendtec and breville boss together are cheaper than the vitamix with an additional dry container. i think i get a better value even if i keep both.
the boss does not only a superior job in blending difficult smoothies (seeds, nuts, whole kale etc), it is also an excellent chopping and mincing tool. vitamix cannot mince and chop i found. the boss has a program for chopping which makes it really easy and accurate without overprocessing like all other powerblenders do.
i have not used the boss for dry processing yet. i have read that dry processing will dull the blades over time and it will also taint the container. that is why i will do any dry processing in the blendtec.
i have never had smoother green smoothies than those from the breville boss.
like most people in north america who are looking for a blender i decided between vitamix and blendtex. in my opinion a strong contender from australia has entered the market with a product which blows the competition away:
not only does it have a better design than the vitamix and blendtec, it also blends smoother in less time. when i started the machine i made my green smoothie with kale, flaxsseeds and berries by clicking the normal smoothie button. there is also a more powerful green smoothie button but the normal smoothie button already blended everything into a rich, very fine, creamy smoothie, even finer than the vitamix smoothie. i have also noticed that there were less air bubbles. i put in one whole apple. the boss liquified the apple within less than two seconds into apple juice. try that with blendtec or vitamix. it will not work. i have tried to blend a whole apple in the vitamix 750 as part of my green smoothie. the apple did not blend even after a minute there was only a small piece missing. i had to take the apple out and cut it before the vitamix could work with it.
here you can see a video with the apple test vitamix vs l'equipe. the breville boss can do exactly that, vitamix can't:
the boss comes with two tools: both are heavy and solid unlike the light one from vitamix. one is a plunger for ice based foods the other one is like a spatula which makes more sense anyway and it can be used as a spatula too to scrape out your food from the container.
the boss has a six prong blade being able to cut, grind and blend at the same time in the same container. some blades are sharp and some are dull (blendtec has only dull blades, vitamix only sharp). those blades get a grip on anything you throw into the container. only frozen desserts and nutbutters will need a little help from a plunger.
the breville boss is a great blender which i will keep for the next years to come. breville boss will get you 7 years warranty, same as blendtec and vitamix (blendtec 575 has eight years).
cleaning was the issue of vitamix. breville boss is very easy to clean. the sides of the container can be scraped with the added spatula-plunger. the jar can be cleaned in the dishwasher even at the low level. it cannot get easier and more comfortable than that !
so far i love this blender. the only negatives i found:
- it makes similar noise as the vitamix on the highest level or is at least as loud. too loud for me, i need earplugs or plug my ears manually when it runs at high speed. i fear that it is louder than 100 db which will hurt your hearing permanently. workaround: i run it and go to another room. when i work with the plunger i do not go to highspeed or i use earplugs
- the boss fits underneath the kitchen cabinets. unfortunately when you just put the lid on the jar twisted to dry it, it will touch the kitchen cabinet door when it is opened because the blender will become higher than the cabinets. the blendtec is much lower and even the vitamix lid can be dried sitting openly on the jar without being higher than the kitchen cabinet doors.
other than that the BREVILLE BOSS is a modern, smart machine which fits flawlessly into a modern stainless kitchen. the blending capabilities are superior to blendtec and even to vitamix.
it is a great product which can highly be recommended.
i decided to give blendtec another try. bedbathandbeyond give you 20% on most products with some exceptions. vitamix is an exception for example. that is why i bought a blendtec classic 575:
this one is a very good product. i can highly recommend it. the blendtec classic 575 comes on rubber feet and it produces significantly less noise on the highest level even compared to the vitamix 750 pro.
the jar feels light and small but it is large enough to make a couple of fresh smoothies or anything else for a small family. it is perfect for singles too.
the twister jar promotion had ended. i called blendtec and they did not want to make an exception. therefore i tried to make nutbutter in the standard jar. it worked. i ground my grains and knead bread dough in it. it is a very strong machine. everything worked fine. except: the smoothies are very coarse compared to vitamix. vitamix can blend berry seeds within a minute. this machine could not do that. i added more ice and blended two smoothie cycles. the smoothie was smoother but still coarser than the vitamix smoothie. i blend green smoothies with whole kale and flaxseeds. the vitamix is able to blend the seeds into the smoothies, the blendtec leaves some seeds only halved or in small sand-like particles.
i can still recommend the blendtec 575. it is quite cheap (apply 20% off at bedbathandbeyond) and it can do the same as any vitamix. if you do not mind chewing a little bit on your green smoothie it is a great machine with better price/performance than vitamix.
BETTER BLENDERS?
due to the fact that green smoothies with seeds are not blended fine enough with the blendtec i continued my search for the perfect blender. i went to all review websites, youtube videos and looked at omega blenders and l'equipe rpm from korea. omega is a great company, i had a juicer from them, they provide 10 years of warranty on their blenders which are commercially rated. unfortunately all omega superblenders do not fit underneath the kitchen cabinets. for this simple fact i ruled them out. l'equipe from korea is a good power blender. i could not find it at costco, wmt or bbb here. therefore i decided to try the breville boss from bbb for a price almost as low as blendtec 575, significantly cheaper than vitamix.
now i had two machines in my kitchen to compare head to head: vitamix 750 pro and blendtec 625:
the blendtec 625 is a beautiful, modern and very powerful machine. at 3hp it is more powerful than vitamix. but does it blend better? i do not think so because the blendtec hammers the produce instead of cutting it, what the vitamix does. i bought it from bedbathandbeyond which had a promotion running adding a free mini twister jar to the blender. i tried out the minitwister jar first making peacan-almond butter. it worked well even though the blender stalled many times displaying an error message. it also made extreme noise and vibrations. smoke came out from the motorblock leaving traces on my white countertops. i was not amused and decided to return the machine.
i think this model is a failure. maybe i got a broken machine. i am curious if other customers had a similar experience.
so far the vitamix had won. i decided to hold on to the vitamix even though i had the issue with cleaning it and i returned the blendtec.
the blender odysee started when i decided to retire my juicer and go for green smoothies instead. maybe the juicer retains a little bit more nutrients but it removes all fibre which is also benefitial for you. furthermore i like cooking. i make my own almond-peacan butter, hummus, sauces and other delicious food. therefore i decided for the vitamix in the first attempt to find the perfect blender:
this is the high-end model vitamix 750 pro which i bought at the hudson bay company.
the vitamix does everything as advertised. it blends everything and anything into a very smooth drink, soup or sauce. it is built like a tank and it works like a charm. the tamper is only needed when blending very thick substances like hummus or nutbutter. the programs work flawlessly like advertised. no wonder that many professional cooks use it in their kitchen.
when i saw this video from a cook making pizza using the dry container, i placed an order at costco to send me this wonderful container:
i was already looking forward to making pizza like lionel when the cleaning process of the jar started to annoy me. the jar is waved at the sides which makes it difficult to get your last bit out of the jar even with a spatula. the mouth of the jar is bent almost parallel to the ground which makes it drip everywhere. if you blend thick, oily substances like seeds, nuts,avocado or oils it will collect all around this 'mouth' and removing the mess takes a long time. the advertised washing program does nothing to the mouthpiece and it does not even clean the part between the lid and the jar. if you blend oily substances the self-cleaning program will not even clean the jar properly. you will have to wash everything by hand. the jar is very large and i had problems fitting it into the sink when it had to be turned for washing and rinsing. that was too time consuming for me.
when i learned that blendtec could do the same as vitamix i decided to buy a blendtec in addition to the vitamix, then decide what blender to keep. i had the pro 750 only for a week and vitamix is proud to offer any customer a risk-free return period of 30 days which turned out to be true even though
the hudson bay company turned me away when i tried to return the vitamix after 13 days.
i had to call vitamix directly who told me that the hudson bay company (the bay) had to abide by this policy of vitamix and refund me directly (which they refused to do). finally the supervisor of vitamix called me back after he had made sure that i could return the machine to the hudson bay company directly.
lesson learned: only buy from usa companies. i recommend COSTCO, WALMART and BEDBATHANDBEYOND
when i returned the vitamix i also had to return the dry container to costco. their service is excellent. all i had to do was refusing delivery of the container and they recredited the amount. shipping was free too.
