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Blendtec Blenders Review
If you’ve been following our recipe videos on YouTube or our website, you’ve probably noticed Blender Babes demonstrating how to make our healthy blender recipes using one of the high speed professional Blendtec blenders.
We believe the Blendtec blender is one amazing kitchen tool that should be on every countertop (unless you prefer a Vitamix)!
We hope after you see and/or read about how powerful and versatile the Blendtec blenders are – you will realize these are the BEST BLENDERS currently on the market and you will make one of the most positively best decision of your life: To Live Healthier, and Get a Blender!
Your Blendtec blender will definitely become the home appliance that you utilize above and beyond all others. It’s the number one investment you will make to improve your health, as well as if you would like to prepare fast, easy, nourishing meals, snacks, and desserts for you and your family that you can also take with you if needed.
Additionally it will accelerate dinner to table time, dirty fewer dishes, and is an absolute MUST at any social gathering. Once you invest in a professional high-speed blender, you’ll wonder how on earth you ever survived without one!
WHAT ARE THE CONS?
Con #1 – Cost
We’re going to start with the biggest (and pretty much ONLY) con regarding these amazing blenders – its initial cost. If you’re looking for a cheap blender – this is not an option for you. But let us just say that those cheap blenders always burn out or break, and only have 1 year warranties.
You will end up buying several of them and paying much more over the lifetime of a Blendtec blender’s (estimated 15-20 years) initial cost! Yes, your Blendtec blender purchase WILL take a sizeable chuck out of your wallet.
Yet, we know there is no other single kitchen tool that will support and increase your state of health, weight loss goals, and energy levels – all while making it more enjoyable, easy and rewarding to prepare entire meals and snacks for you and your (sometimes picky!) family members at home!
For a one time investment (or an easy 3 payment option) – you’ll have a terrific new kitchen tool that will potentially last for years and years and can literally help change your life!
Con #2 – Noise
Like all powerful blenders, Blendtec blenders are LOUD. Like… really loud. But that’s what you would expect with a 3 to 3.8 peak horsepower motor built into the base! There is no doubt that your kids and pets may be frightened when you first start using one of these blenders. Thankfully, they will get used to it – and most blends are a minute or less.
If you NEED a quiet blender, I recommend looking into the Blendtec Pro 800 – the quietest blender I’ve tested thus far, thanks to its nifty sound enclosure. You can see my Blendtec Pro 800 review here.
BLENDTEC BLENDERS COST
Blendtec sells both new and certified refurbished blenders (which offer a substantial savings) direct from their website.
Blendtec Designer Blenders:
From the manufacturer website the popular Blendtec Designer 650 costs $449 and the Blendtec Designer 650 S for $499 (which is just the stainless steel version).
Blendtec Classic Blenders:
The Blendtec Classic 575 model for $379 and their Refurbished Blendtec Classic 575for $319. Also the iconic Blendtec Total Blender Classic for $399 and the Refurbished Total Blender Classic for $279.
Blendtec Professional Blenders:
Their uber quiet Blendtec Professional 800 model with sound enclosure is $799. It’s expensive, but worth it for those that need the massive noise reduction. Remember you can check out my Blendtec Pro 800 review here.
Benefits of Purchasing Through Blender Babes 🙂
Blender Babes is proud to be an affiliate of many of the healthy lifestyle products we discuss. At no additional cost to you, we earn a small commission for sales made using the links from our website (and many times offer special deals just for our community!). It’s how we keep creating content you love and we are grateful for your support! ♥
1) FREE GIFTS: You will receive EXCLUSIVE Free Gifts for purchasing from Blender Babes using our Blendtec Promo Code BBGIFT (that goes for new & refurbished Blendtec blender models). Learn More about our current free gifts* offer.
*Make sure to forward your purchase confirmation email to FreeGift@Blenderbabes.com to redeem your free gifts!
2) FREE SHIPPING: You will receive free shipping for purchases made using our Blendtec Promotion Code BBGIFT.
3) SAVE BIG: Largest selection of less expensive refurbished Blendtec models available! See below for refurbished and Blendtec details with breakdown of features to find what’s best for your needs.4) PAYMENT PLANS! In addition to FREE SHIPPING + FREE GIFTS you also have ACCESS TO PAYMENT PLANS! Blendtec offers 3, 6, and 12 month payment plans with Financing through AFFIRM at checkout. This is NOT available at other retail outlets!
** Refurbished Blendtec ships free to the USA and Canada!
Blendtec Blenders – DESIGN
Power: Blendtec boasts (with good reason) one of the most powerful blenders in the industry, with a commercial grade 13 amps, 1560 watts and 3 peak horsepower direct drive motor. In case you’re wondering what this blender CAN’T blend, try watching some of the popular Will It Blend? videos.
Speed capacity: The Blendtec Total Blender has 10 speeds with a minimum of 4,080 revolultions per minute (RPM) and a maximum of 28,000 RPM’s. The blade can spin up to 310 miles per hour (MPH)! We like the option of the manual speeds to have more control of our blending.
Size: If you’re looking for a small commercial blender, look no further! The Blendtec Total Blender Classic is about 6 pounds and 15 inches tall. A very desirable feature, its compact size will fit underneath most kitchen cabinets (if it’s on the counter, you WILL use it more!) Its light weight makes it easy to travel with – and believe us when we say we take ours EVERYWHERE – road trips, vacations, to gatherings, etc. During heavy jobs such as making ice cream or lots of frozen fruit, sometimes this light weight blender will move around or shift on your countertop (usually if it’s tiled and not a smooth surface!) This can be somewhat alarming to new users, but it’s nothing to be too concerned about. We call it the Blendtec Dance. 😉
Controls and User friendliness: Blendtec is well known for their patented Smart-Touch Tec-nology™ which is completely automatic, enabling you to press a button and walk away. The automatic program cycle with fluctuating speeds stops when the chosen program is finished. The microprocessor technology features a digital display that shows you blending times and cycles.
A pulse button is used for chopping as well as mixing in pieces of ingredients without pulverizing. There are 10 adjustable manual speeds in addition to the program cycles that automatically power off after 50 seconds of continuous blending. You can stop both the program cycles and adjustable speeds at any point by pressing any button.
Blendtec Classic Touchpad: In terms of power, the Blendtec Designer 650 and Classic Series blenders share the same 3 peak horsepower motor. The Blendtec Pro 800 has a 3.8 peak horsepower motor.
The main difference is the interface, programmed buttons, and number of manual speeds:
The pre-programmed automatic cycles are our favorite thing about the Blendtec Blenders. It’s just easier to press a button and be able to continue doing other things, than hover over your blender.
That said, while the program cycles are awesome for most applications, on occasion we need to continue blending after the program completes to finish the job to our satisfaction.
For this we like to use our optional manual Speed ‘up’, ‘down’ and ‘pulse’ control buttons to blend a bit more as needed. Or we’ll just press a programed cycle a second time.
One thing we think is pretty amazing (although has happened only once for an extra tough recipe test) is Blendtec’s built in computer detects overheat, overload, and jammed blade situations, which prevents damage.
Blendtec Blenders – NOISE
Your Blendtec is definitely louder than a common cheap blender (Oster comes to mind here), however it’s about 5 times more powerful than those cheap blenders! At its highest speed (which is speed 10 or when using the SOUP button) and while crushing ice when making ice cream (in only 45 seconds) you will notice the noise.
The Blender kids may cover their ears or high tail it out of the kitchen – however most items are blended in 1 or 2 minutes, plus everyone gets used to it. That said, the newest Designer Series Blendtec model IS SLIGHTLY QUIETER than its predecessors.
Of course the Blendtec Pro 800 with sound enclosure takes quieter high power blending to a whole new level.
Blendtec Blenders – BLENDING CONTAINERS/JARS
Blendtec models usually come standard with the large 90 oz “Wildside+” container that is widely believed to be “the best” with its larger capacity and superior blending performance. (Note: Blendtec won a 24 MM lawsuit against Vitamix for patent infringement for this particular jar – it works that well!).
Please Note: I do NOT recommend getting the Fourside Jar over the Wildside+ Jar. I know it’s cheaper but it just doesn’t blend as well. Things get stuck and you will have to stop the machine and shake the jar or move ingredients around with a spatula. GO WITH THE WILDSIDE+ JAR OPTION.
The only other jar you really should get is the “Twister jar” which was designed especially for nut butters, frozen treats and other thick/smaller blends. It’s a game-changer and honestly the Wildside+ jar alone can’t do these types of blends very well without a tamper.
Blendtec container options include:
- ”3 qt” 90 oz Wildside+ Jar – Largest capacity with a bigger 4-inch blade. This is the must-have jar and should definitely be the one purchased over the Fourside Jar option.
- ”2 qt” 64 oz Fourside Jar – The original container before they invented (the better) Wildside + jar. This is a good additional jar to have if you plan do a lot of grinding which will pit/cloud the jar or if you blend something that stains.
- 46 oz. Mini Wildside Jar – Performs as well as the regular Wildside Jar but only good for single servings. We like the new latching lid to prevent any accidents. However for single serve to-go we recommend the Blendtec GO Jar instead.
- Twister Jar (Standard) – This container was made specifically for thick dishes/purees such as nut butter, hummus, baby food and for small amounts. This is the MUST HAVE additional jar for the ultimate Blendtec set up to be able to blend everything.
- Blendtec GO Jar – Allows for single serve blending with a to-go jar and cup. Perfect for busy mornings and multiple family members making different types of smoothies. You can get one GO jar with blade or two jars.
Container Material: All current Blendtec containers use Eastman Tritan™ copolyester plastic because it’s BPA-free, very chemically resistant, is very clear, and it does not stress fracture under prolonged loading.
These containers are lightweight and are EXTREMELY TOUGH to break in case you drop it (our favorite Will It Blend? videos come to mind!).
They are certified to the NSF standard for food safety in the kitchen as well. For the most part the jars do not absorb the odors of the ingredients that are put in, however it is important to clean the jars right away to eliminate any unwanted smells (see easy clean up).
That said, spices and their strong odors have been known to leave a scent and/or discolor jars – so we recommend designating one Blendtec Fourside jar specifically for grinding spices as well as grinding dry goods (which can make the jar cloudy in appearance as the hard grains will pit the jar). Blender Babes has one jar we keep extra clean and pretty, and one that takes a serious beating! 😉
Blade: Blendtec features a patented single blade design that is already dull, and you cannot remove the blade as the blade & container is essentially one piece. In a single Blendtec jar, its patented dull one blade will do it all: hot, cold, wet, and dry blending.
To handle Blendtec’s colossal power, the blade needs to be bigger, thicker, and more robust than your typical blender. The blades are super hard stainless steel that are cold-forged and tuned specifically for heavy use.
The blades resist corrosion much better than lesser quality blades. One of the reasons a Blendtec blades can pulverize just about anything is that their patented vertical wingtips and precision angles transfer more power than other blades. Plus, the patented single-blade design allows your ingredients to easily fall in front of and behind the blade, rather than pushing ingredients away from the blending vortex like almost all other blenders do.
Capacity/Volume/Lid: Blendtec’s Fourside “2 qt” jar is UL rated to have a 64 oz capacity and their Wildside “3 qt” jar is rated 90 oz capacity. The Blendtec Fourside and Wildside jars have a lid that suctions on tight and flat, with a removable chute where you can add ingredients while processing is going on so there is no need to stop the blender to add more ingredients.
This works as long as the jar is not super full, however Blendtec recommends NOT filling their jars to the very top and operating at capacity – and we know why! Once or twice we filled the jar to its brim and “pressed a button and walked away.”
As the highly fibrous contents were pulverized and the level of fluid increased slightly, the lid was pushed off sending the contents of our green juice all over. After we cleaned up (and laughed!) we realized our error, and therefore make it a point to make sure to tell our readers to make sure to fill the jars no more than 2/3 full for most blending jobs (except ice cream).
For larger batches of product, we stick with Blendtec’s Wildside jar. Of course each jar is marked with easy measuring volume units in oz & cups. All of the Blendtec jars have their capacity measurements marked in black and in addition to oz & cups, the newest jars also include ml, and cl.
Due to Blendtec’s patented square jar and single blade design, the vortex created while blending PULLS the ingredients into the blade so therefore there should be no need to push things down* so it does not come with a tamper. We recommend large fruit and vegetable items to be halved or quartered, or additional liquid is needed to blend completely without stopping the blender and pushing ingredients into the blades (this need is almost completely reduced when using the larger 90 oz. Wildside Jar due to its larger blade/volume).
*About 15% of the time, if we don’t have enough liquid to produce ratio, or we tossed in some rather large chunks, we do stop our standard Fourside Blendtec jar and push ingredients down or move them around with a spatula (unless specifically INSTRUCTED to do so such as making a nut butter).
Blendtec Blenders – PERFORMANCE
All Blendtec blenders are not just smoothie blenders; they easily crush ice, makes hot soups, dips, dressings, batters, nut butters, grind seeds and flour, puree fruit and a whole lot more!
Smoothie Making
“What is the best blender for smoothies?” is our most popular question from community members who are looking for a blender for smoothies specifically. There is no doubt with a Blendtec blender, you will be able to make the best smoothies you have ever tasted! There’s a reason that well known smoothie shops and franchises (Robeks, Juice It Up, LA Fitness, and Whole Foods just to name a few) use this professional blender for their needs. With our extensive recipe testing, Blender Babes has used our Blendtec blender literally thousands of times – (we can actually know for sure by its digital count, and many of our readers have experienced long life cycles of their Blendtec through thousands of uses, so we’re not alone!)
We have found that on occasion when making super packed green smoothies, the WHOLE JUICE program cycle will not ALWAYS complete the blending to its smoothest point upon the timed 50 second cycle. That said since every Blendtec offers manual buttons for added control over your blending desires, usually only a few more seconds at a high speed finishes the job. For example, sometimes with carrots, and certain green smoothies packed with tons of fibrous vegetables like celery, it may be necessary to do additional blending after running the Whole Juice cycle. For common blends and fruit smoothies we find automatic program cycles to be a serious blessing and time saver by not having to stand next to and/or assist the blender.
Juicing
One of the most common question by those considering a Blendtec blender is “can it make juice?.” While a Blendtec blender is not going to EXTRACT the juice from your fruit & vegetables (like a traditional juicer), it is important to note that it is still a “juicer.”
The difference is that while a traditional juicer extracts the liquid from whole foods, separating out the skin, seeds, and pulp which is all the fiber, a blender juicer provides a “whole food juice.” It will not remove anything from the whole food, it is powerful enough to pulverize cell walls and liquefy everything, so you get ALL the nutrition that is found in the skin and seeds, as well as the natural fiber (pulp) – thus a wholefood juice.
Another big difference between a traditional juice extractor and a Blendtec juicer, is that a traditional juicer requires between 4-10 times more produce to extract a small amount of juice. It’s more expensive and although the resulting juice has a higher concentration of vitamins and minerals than what a blender juice will yield, it can also have a much higher concentration of sugar, especially in fruit juices or vegetables juices such as carrots. Since a Blendtec blender juice will use 100% of the produce, your juicing costs are much less.
PS. For those of you who have had to clean a regular juicer before, you will especially appreciate the EASY clean up of a Blendtec juicer in comparison!
Note: Some illnesses and digestive diseases require the high concentration of vitamins and minerals without the fiber, seeds, or anything else that the body has to digest. Also if you want fresh squeezed fruit juices such as apple or orange juice, many people prefer the juice from a quality extract juicer.
Soup
You don’t have to be a professional to whip up a raw soup in less than a minute or a super hot soup in mere minutes in your Blendtec blender! Yes that’s right, this commercial grade professional blender is powerful enough to HEAT SOUP due to the friction the blades cause when spinning!
Literally, steam will be coming out the top when you take the lid off! When starting with cold water or broth, the powerful Blendtec blender takes about 4.5 minutes (pressing the SOUP button 3 times) to get super hot. It is of course much healthier to make a fresh soup at home than to use a canned soup – which has a shelf life of 3 years thanks to hefty preservatives and are often extremely high in sodium. Some soup recipes you can make completely in your blender, and others are finished off by pureeing in the blender.
Due to the larger capacity Wildside jar and ability of the BPA free plastic – you can put hot/boiling liquids in a Blendtec jar unlike other “regular” blenders. We have many soup recipes and are constantly adding new ones, although one of our favorites and most requested recipe is our easy CHUNKY TORTILLA SOUP!
Chopping
A Blendtec blender is not designed to be as good of a chopper as a separate and specific food processor, however it does have the ability to roughly chop smaller quantities of food.
Due to its dull blade, it doesn’t allow for precise, small, or aesthetic chopping, however it definitely “gets the job done”! Blender Babes uses the chopping PULSE feature for certain recipes such as Skinny Guacamole, or to add chunks to our Tortilla Soup. If you need to chop large quantities of food, we recommend a true food processor.
Grinding
One of the most shocking things this commercial grade blender can handle is grinding grains, seeds, and spices. A Blendtec is actually considered to be a “grain mill”.
All of the Blendtec jars have the ability to also dry blend (meaning you do not have to buy any additional jars specifically for this purpose) although we do not recommend dry blending with the Twister jar. It is important to note: When grinding hard grains, it will pit the BPA free jar interior, resulting in a “fogged” appearance. With our Blendtec, Blender Babes uses one Fourside jar specifically for dry goods and strong spices, and one for all else – since cosmetic alternations are not covered under warranty.
Also, we received a good question about whether or not when grinding the flour gets hot and starts to lose nutritional value.
We have done some testing on rice, corn and wheat berries and found the following:
Rice – Speed 8
♦ Temperature after 1 cycle- 84 ⁰F
♦ Temperature after 2 cycles- 92 ⁰F
Popcorn – Speed 7
♦ Temperature after 1 cycle- 86 ⁰F
♦ Temperature after 2 cycles- 108 ⁰F
Wheat Berries – Speed 9
♦ Temperature after 1 cycle- 96 ⁰F
♦ Temperature after 2 cycles- 102 ⁰F
Many raw foodists are concerned about enzymes breaking down once the temperature exceeds 104-120 ⁰F. There may be some nutrient losses during the cooking process as well. If you are very concerned about exceeding a certain temperature, we recommend blending only one time or selecting a cycle and then allowing the product to cool before blending a second time.
Mixing
Another unique application of your Blendtec blender is to use as mixer, which we find is less cleanup and dishes than using a huge kitchen stand mixer. You can quickly create batters, quick breads, and yeast breads.
The Blendtec has a specific BATTERS button, and will easily blend up pancake and waffle batters. Some cakes, cookies, and bread instructions call for you to blend the wet ingredients and then poor them into a bowl containing the dry ingredients and mixing it by hand from there.
However what we like about the Blendtec is, you can blend the wet ingredients in the Fourside or Twister jar, then add them to the dry ingredients that you have sifted in the larger Wildside jar (if you have it). Or you can blend the wet ingredients in the Wildside jar, sift them in the Fourside jar, then add 1/3 to ½ the dry ingredients at a time that you previously sifted in the Fourside jar.
If you have a simple cake, cornbread, or brownie mix, such as our Healthy Brownies recipe, you can just blend it all together in the Wildside Jar then easily poor it directly into your baking dish! When it comes to yeast breads in the Blendtec, it require a little finesse and know-how of baking bread – as there are a lot of other factors to making good fresh bread than just mixing it.
Ice Cream
Who would have EVER thought they would see ice cream made in 45 seconds?! Well, it takes that short of time if you use the Blendtec ICE CREAM button! We find that with ice cream, the Blendtec needs to have fairly exact measurements of liquids to ice (which our recipes provide!) or the ice causes cavitation around the blade, so you must stop the machine, shake it out, and use your manual keys to reblend.
The ice cream is more of a soft serve or sorbet texture – not like traditional hard ice cream. You CAN however add it to an ice cream maker to get that traditional texture. Aside from yeast breads, ice cream is probably the trickiest thing to make but once you have made it a few times, it’s a piece of cake! Er, ICE CREAM! CLICK HERE for Blendtec ICE CREAM TIPS. 🙂
Blendtec Blenders – CLEAN UP
We have to say that HANDS DOWN one of the best features about the Blendtec Blender is the SUPER EASY CLEAN UP!! Most regular kitchen blenders have a separate blade, gasket, and jar – and therefore must be taken apart to clean and sanitize after each blend.
With all of the Blendtec models, you CANNOT remove the blade from the jar, which results in faster and easier cleanup AND prevents leaky or broken seals. It’s actually considered SELF CLEANING (yup, that’s what we said!)
For most blended concoctions, all you have to do is add some hot water with a little bit of dish soap and blend for several seconds then rinse. This will remove any gunk around the blade.
That said, stickier jobs such as nut butters and bread doughs usually require additional scrubbing after first self cleaning. Luckily, we do not worry about cutting ourselves on its dull single blade and its square design is easy for both small and larger hands to reach in and clean with a sponge. Also, make sure to clean right after blending – believe us you’ll THANK US LATER. 😉
Dishwasher machine use: Blendtec states that it’s safe to put their jar in the dishwasher (we do it and we LOVE THIS!) We recommend that you DO NOT put older Blendtec containers that are not BPA-Free in the dishwasher, however the most important factor for easy clean up is to wash your container immediately after use.
Blendtec Blenders – WARRANTY and DURABILITY
One of the greatest advantages of owning this commercial grade blender for the home is their SUPERIOR product warranty over typical 1 or 2 year “regular” blender warranties (you know, the kind that almost ALWAYS burn out).
The quality construction of your Blendtec blender purchase means you will use it for YEARS (life expentancy is 15 to 20 years) without problem. For added peace of mind, Blendtec offers a 8 year warranty, but only if bought through Blendtec directly or an Authorized Blendtec Dealer. Extended warranties are also available direct at an additional cost.
Blendtec blenders are Made in the USA, however per Blendtec’s website there is a special notice that says “it is required by law to say it is ‘designed and assembled in USA’ due to a California law prohibiting companies from making the ‘Made in the USA’ claim if any part of thre blender comes from a foreign country and Blendtec’s products do contain some foreign-made components.”
In our own personal experience, and we have heard from many of our community members, Blendtec has exceptional customer service and makes it easy to fix or replace under warranty without headache. You can absolutely feel safe in your purchase with your Blendtec blender!
Blender Babes’ Recommendations
The Blendtec Classic Total Blender OR Designer Series with the Wildside jar AND getting the TWISTER jar (break it up into the easy payment plans if necessary!) for the most complete package for ALL of your blending needs.
If you can only get ONE jar however, make sure it’s the Wildside jar. The Twister jar is a must for smaller portions, and especially thicker purees – who doesn’t love fresh nut butter in seconds – but one can always put this helpful little jar on their Birthday, Christmas, or Wish list!!
We want you to look at your purchase as a positive investment toward your own health!, we encourage you to find a way to obtain a Blendtec in the best way you can.
These blenders PAY FOR THEMSELVES typically in less than a year, and over time you will actually SAVE thousands of dollars.
Of course you must USE the blender to do that, and our goal with our video recipes is to show you exactly how to do that AND more easily live a much healthier lifestyle. However, the price is in the (chia) pudding! We are sure you will see for yourself!
What do you think about Blendtec Blenders? If you have any comments about the blenders or this review please share with us in the section below.
Happy Blending!
Luv, Blender Babes
I m Canadian so I cant benefit from the 3 payment plan…. True?
Hello Catherine and WELCOME! Thank you for your question – we are happy to clarify. No this is NOT true (yay!) As long as you (and other Canadians) go through one of our Blendtec affiliate links to order a Blendtec online – once you add your desired model to cart, go through checkout and input your zip code which will then apply $25 towards shipping to Canada, so you will only pay $30 for S&H (it’s free for USA). For the 3 payment plan, make sure to checkmark the option for it underneath your payment info just like this photo.
Hi Jody and WELCOME to Blender Babes! There was a technical glitch on Blendtec's side. Did you manage to order with free shipping?
I'd like to order, but the linked order page doesn't allow me to add to cart, it comes up empty not matter what I try.
Hi Jody and WELCOME! I was having the same issue as well, but just tested it now using http://www.blenderbabes.com/blendtec and it worked. Can you try again?