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BLENDTEC vs VITAMIX – How to Crush Ice
A regular blender can’t crush ice into fine textured snow, it requires a very powerful blender to crush ice and not leave chunks, or burn out the motor! The Blender Babes are using Blendtec and Vitamix blenders, the two most popular commercial grade blenders sold in America.
Crushing ice is no problem (and kinda fun!) for these two high performance blenders. If you have ever seen a WillItBlend video, you’ll see much harder and crazier things that are being crushed than frozen water!
Both Vitamix and Blendtec have stainless steel blades with high powered motors that quickly and easily crush ice, however each blender has their own style.
Ice Crushing with a Vitamix
The Vitamix instructions say to add water to your ice and to make sure the ice isn’t touching the blades.
If you are 100% manual control, such as the popular Vitamix 5200, go to Speed 10/High, then flip either the Power Switch on and off 2 or 3 times. This is the same as a “Pulse”.
If using a newer model such as the Vitamix 300, 6300, 7500 or 750, just use the pulse setting 2 times or 3 times.
This will produce a snowy ice texture. When you wet chop the ice like the instructions tell you, you’ll have to pour it out over a strainer. Though the Vitamix instructions say to add water, the Blender Babes have crushed ice with a Vitamix using no water and prefer dry ice.
Ice Crushing with a Blendtec
The Blendtec has a very powerful blade design backed with an extremely strong 3 horsepower motor. Due to a dull blade vs a traditional sharp blade like every other blender has, it can over power anything you put into the jar, from ice to iphones!
The Blendtec Classic and Designer Series models are preset with an Ice Crush button which runs for 35 seconds and shuts off automatically.
Of course, you can just also just use the manual speeds to achieve the same effect.
Usually crushing ice takes a few seconds, so you can just stop the blender when you see the blade spinning freely.
You don’t need to add any water to the Blendtec, just place the ice cubes or store bought ice into a dry jar and turn ice into snow.
Crushed ice is great for snow cones and displays such as shrimp cocktail and other Hors d’oeuvres.
If you have ever tried to make a smoothie with lots of ice or frozen fruit in a regular blender, we’re sure you have experienced the difficulty that’s inevitable. With a high performance commercial blender, you’ll end up making lots of fun creations with ease, including ICE CREAM Recipes!
Additional Questions
We’re Here to Help. If you still have questions, please let us know in the Comments Section Below or Contact Us! 🙂
And as always, Happy Blending!
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So, I’ve tried 3 different kinds of Blenders and they all fail at crushing ice even though they all have a special ice crusher button. What happens is this: the cubes of ice at the bottom of the blender become a slush that centrifugal force flings up above the reach of the rotating blades creating a “shelf” the prevents the remaining ice cubes from falling down and hitting the blades. It happens in an instant so no amount of pushing the ice back down accomplishes much. You’d be stopping every 3rd of a second to push the ice down to the blades. Explain how your blenders are any different? I’d be glad to invest in one, but the other 3 companies said they crushed ice too.
Hey Mark! Did you see the ice crushing video we made? It should be on this post. Both of these blenders can crush ice into a slushy like texture. They are much more powerful than the blenders you are probably talking about that claim to be ice crushers. Great news on both Vitamix and Blendtec, is they have a no-risk guarantee. Try for 30 days and if don’t like it, return for a full refund. Vitamix goes one step further and even pays return shipping. It’s worth testing for yourself. I’m sure you’ll love either brand enough to keep it for all your other needs! Hope that helps. 🙂 ~Tarashaun
Still watching but haven’t heard any answer to my major question which is best choice for crushing ice.
Additional question I have is Blendtec blade seems much smaller than container sides. Comments indicate a need to constantly stop blending and scrape. Is this a real problem?
Hey Joe! They both crush ice (and frozen fruit!) equally well so not really a “winner” here. Regarding your other question – if you are blending something thick with a Blendtec you may need to stop blending and scrape – which is why they invented the Twister Jar for these types of blends. It does essentially what the tamper does with a Vitamix. That said, you can only make one serving in the Twister Jar where you can make more in a Vitamix jar. Hope that helps answer your questions! 🙂 ~ Tarashaun
About your crushed ice test, The blendtec has the win on being the quickest with making dry fluffy snow but the blade is a bit different than on the Vitamix blenders therefore a different technique is needed. With the Vitamix high speed just makes a problem for the machine at it creates too much heat and make the ice melt and stick and not circulate within the container. Put the Vitamix on speed 3 to 5 and let it run 15 to 30 seconds depending on the amount of ice you added. It may not be as quick as the blendtec but for an additional 5 to 10 seconds it really doesn’t make that much of a difference to most people. When I saw your VS video it made the Vitamix look like it could not make the dry fluffy snow but it can just like some recipes require the tamper if you don’t use it the blender does not work right. Please keep this in mind when doing side by side comparisons. I own the blendtec and a vitamin and they are both great but they work differently therefore a heads up comparison with a time limit may make one or the other look bad when it just may be operator error. You have to know your machine and how to use it properly otherwise they can be a pain in the butt to get those recipes to look like they do in the books and online. Thanks for the great channel and videos.
Thank you for your feedback!
Which blender can purée raspberry seeds in smoothies?
Both can however Vitamix does it faster. You can review our comparison of Blendtec and Vitamix blending berry seeds here. 🙂 HAPPY BLENDING!
Using less water can get you a much better snow texture in the vitamix.