- Blendtec Total Classic Original Blender - WildSide+ Jar (90 oz) - Professional-Grade Power - 6 Pre-programmed Cycles - 10-speeds - Red

First, I offer a word of caution to buyers out there. This product is the Blendtec Total Blender, the current model on Blendtec's website as of 2012. This is the one you want because of additional programs and other features. Sadly, Amazon is also offering the older HP3A unit for a few dollars less, I made that mistake and ended up returning it. It looks almost identical, and you have to look at the button panel in enlarged view to see the difference. Anyway, I love the Blentec total blender, it is a very reliable tool that has earned its place on my counter daily. I had a Vitamix previously, but I found it to be clumsy to use by comparison. Basically the Vitamix is a manual blender, very rugged, but its lack of automation makes it hard to get consistent repeatable results especially when you are doing multiple batches. The best part of the Blendtec is its programmed buttons provide a repeatable consistent performance, that guarantees the same product each blend. Also, the Wildside jar is my favorite. Not simply because of its large capacity, but with its 4 in. Blade it makes really short work of anything you ask it to blend. It also heats food faster because the tips of the longer blade travel faster through the material than a shorter blade would thereby generating more friction. The key difference in the 2 blenders is the plunger in the Vitamix, and the lack of same in the Blendtec. The major technical difference is that the spinning blades and square jar design in the Blendtec create a downward liquid vortex, sucking your material into the blades and eliminating the need for a plunger, whereas the blades on the Vitamix (and basically every other blender made) tend to blow your blended material upwards away from the blades and it needs a plunger to push the material down into the blades. In a clear vote of confidence for this superior design, a few years ago Vitamix blatantly copied Blendtec's patented square jar design in an effort to get the vortex performance, but they ultimately lost a $24 million lawsuit and were forced to drop the product and square jar concept from their line. [..] So basically, if you see any commercial blender with a square jar, it is a Blendtec or one of their subsidiary companies. An important component of successful, repeatable results with the Blendtec is proper loading order of your ingredients. Liquid and soft ingredients first, then hard or frozen items on top. This allows the blender to quickly liquefy the soft ingredients, thereby immediately forming that strong vortex to suck the other harder material down into the blades. This makes for completely efficient blending, noticeably faster than identical ingredients in the Vitamix. If you do not load the ingredients in this order, grinding the hard items first will not form an efficient vortex, and you may have to stop the machine and tamp down the material. In this scenario, the Vitamix with its plunger will work without stopping. Understanding this may leave you with the impression that the Vitamix is more versatile, allowing the user to throw whatever ingredient they want into the bowl without regard for order or hardness of the item. This is true enough, but in that case it takes manual intervention in either unit to get a blend when you load items outside the recommended liquid/soft to hard order. The great advantage of the Blendtec is that it will allow anyone to get completely consistent results. The programs under the buttons vary time and motor speed precisely, and shut off when the cycle is finished. Vitamix relies on an entirely manual set of analog controls, and therefore require the full attention of the operator, making it nearly impossible to get consistent results realistically. This is especially true when doing long blends, like making hot soups, where the friction of the blades passing through the material generates heat. Having a consistent timed process ensures you do not over process and overheat the soup, killing the raw food value of the ingredients. Using a thermometer, I can get within a degree or two every time with the programmed process buttons of the Blendtec. To do this with the Vitamix is complete babysitting, making it unrealistically difficult. Understand that a Blendtec program button is not a simple timer. It also changes motor speed at predefined points. Trying to do this combination of time and motor speed change with the manual analog controls of the Vitamix is nearly impossible. Certainly not something you want to do when you are making multiple batches of a recipe to serve a large number of people. This is one of the obvious reasons the commercial Blendtec models are the overwhelming choice in restaurants, where you can load it, hit a button and walk away to do some other task, confident that the unit will do it's job with unwavering consistency. Now I cannot speak to all the things each unit is capable of, as I only do smoothies, juices, soups and ice creams. I cannot speak to nut butters or grains, seeds or basically anyone using the alternate jar recipes. I assume that the majority of the people and their uses for the blender will be similar to mine and therefore hope this review was valuable.

Good product

For our family, this was our second BlendTec Blender. The first one failed sooner than I had expected (after several years of operation), but I was pleased enough with its performance to order another. Sadly, this one never worked correctly right out of the box... It was bought to make smoothies, which involves crushed ice. It would often stop working during the blend cycle (for "Smoothie"), and then the push buttons were unresponsive. No error message, and the display was lit, but the buttons failed to do anything other than make the display blink. There is no "reset" button. After sitting a couple of hours, the device would begin operating again. We were left with lots of unfinished smoothies trying to work out why it wouldn't deliver. Got so frustrated that we eventually returned it. Not sure we will buy another BlendTec, as they seem to have quality and performance issues. Very disappointed. One would expect more from a $400+ blender.

Totally amazed at the versatility and power of this blender. It shouldn't even be lumped in with most 'blenders' as this machine is way more powerful and rugged. My roommates had one and after 6 years of daily use it still performed like a champ. It comes with an 8 year warranty and is made in Utah. Everything about it is built to the highest standards. The power cord is attached with a block under the base that prevents any stress being transferred into the connection to the motor. My coffee grinder broke and what used to take ten minutes or so to grind a pound of coffee now only takes 10-15 seconds to use in my cold brew machine. It chops ice really fast and easily. My old blender felt like it was fighting to chop ice but this machine overpowers the ice from start to go. Juices really quickly; in fact all of the preset buttons cycles are less than a minute in duration with most in the 30-45 seconds realm. Makes great peanut butter! Love this beast of a machine and it's worth every penny!

I bought this to make smoothies and the Blendtec can make smoothies out of practically anything eatable. I've used whole oranges (peeled) and cored apples, berries, spinach, nuts and any number of other things. It is the BEST blender I've ever used. It is pretty amazing considering the blades are not even sharp. I debated between this and the VitaMix blender and ultimately chose the Blendtec because of its size, it fits under my cabinets and is easily accessible. I researched for weeks and found that for my purposes it really didn't matter which blender I chose because they both would do what I needed. Having kids, this blender has been through many experiments and the one that seems to be the most interesting is the ice crushing feature. You can make snow balls it crushes the ice so fine. My kids also make a lot of smoothies and I love that they are consuming healthy foods instead of junk food. The downside is that I'm spending a fortune on frozen fruit. One of my kids does not like fruit but loves fruit smoothies. The cleaning is so easy that my kids automatically clean it every time. Probably because it just takes a cup of water and a drop of soap and the push of the pulse button and in 5 seconds you have a blender full of foam. I guess I should mention my kids range from 10 & up and they are supervised while using the blender.

Amazingly powerful blender. Pretty obviously industrial quality. The buttons are idiot proof (pictograms) so put stuff in the top and press button. It works perfectly. Wife wanted to get a blender that would make daiquiris and pina coladas. I wanted something that didn't require me being involved every time she wanted to make a frozen drink. This is that machine. Now large pieces of ice left in the mix. No hanging up when the ice moves half a turn. Cleans with a drop of soap in 10 seconds. Just like they say. I would have a cutoff switch that wouldn't allow it to work with the top off or with the blender cup off the base but that would just defeat the whole "industrial/professional" feel. THIS IS A GREAT BLENDER>

Never have to scrape sides, mixes everything to a smooth blend. Never have to worry about slicing my fingers when washing. I wore out my first one after years of service. Still works just getting noisy because I use to hold the top (don’t, not necessary) the slight pressure caused the bottom gear to wear. Still works but decided to get a new one and it’s quiet in comparison! Haha!

This is only my second time purchasing this product—which says a lot, because my first one lasted nearly 10 years of almost daily use. It’s incredibly reliable, powerful, and consistently delivers great performance. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a blender that truly stands the test of time.

Blendtek. Awesome product.

Expensive but worth it, blends, chops purée’s it’s awesome