Blendtec jars vs Vitamix Containers - What's the Best Choice

Blendtec jars vs Vitamix Containers – What’s the Best Choice

Both of the Blades on the Vitamix and Blendtec are very powerful and made from Stainless Steel. The consistencies the blades produce are almost equal and it’s hard to tell them apart. Vitamix produces a slightly finer consistency for wet and dry chopping, but for smoothies, juices, grains, and ice creams both blenders are almost equal.

Both Blendtec and Vitamix are able to do hot dry wet and cold blending with the same blade which means these blenders can produce hot soups, syrups, and fondues, fresh flours, frozen sorbets and ice creams, smoothies and juices, and more.

A perk to Blendtec blender blades are their dull design makes them easier to clean. The sharp blades on the Vitamix containers are harder to clean than the dull blades on the Blendtec, but the 4 inch sharp blades on the upgraded Low Profile Vitamix Jar and the 4 inch dull blades on the 96oz Blendtec WildSide jar both prove to be fairly equal and easy to clean.

Welcome to the Review

My name is Frank Musa, I produced the Blend offs and wrote this review. If you have any questions about the Blendtec jars and blades or Vitamix containers and blades or how the Blendtec vs Vitamix blender models compare, please leave your comments at the bottom of this post, I will do my best to answer your comments in the order received..

Just to throw it out there my favorite Blendtec Jar is the Blendtec Wildside Jar and my favorite Vitamix Container is the Vitamix Low Profile Container. You can still read the article but those are my two favorite mainly because they are easier to clean because of their wide base and larger 4 inch blade and you can put a whole lot of ingredients in them without having to chop them into little pieces.

Thank you!

Which blender jars and blades are better?

If you notice from the picture below, Vitamix and Blendtec have containers and jars that are different sizes. Which one of these Vitamix containers and Blendtec Jars should you buy? Well, to answer the question, one must know what the container is and can do.

The standard Vitamix Container is the tall 64oz container which you can see in the left of the picture, this is the old school Vitamix container which your grandma has and it works great, and has been working great for years, and will continue to work great. The downsides of it are that it is hard to reach your hand into the bottom of the container because it is tall and narrow, it has a blade which almost touches the edges of the side so it is hard to reach under the tall container, and the blades on the Vitamix Tall Container are sharp, very sharp. The upsides are that it is great for all blends, and produces resort quality textures for smoothies and juices, and can make flours, ice creams, chop vegetables, and cook soup.

Now let’s talk about the New Upgrade that Vitamix did in 2014 bringing their newly designed Vitamix Low Profile Container into the blending game. Big Move by Vitamix, revolutionary times for both Blendtec and Vitamix for blending containers and innovative designs. The New Low Pro Vitamix Container has more space around the blades, and although the blades are sharp, they are slightly thicker which makes it easier to reach under and around without cutting your fingers. It’s shorter so it’s easy to fit the Vitamix blender and the container under the cabinets, and the wide base allows you to fit more vegetables and fruits into the jar, larger holding capacity. Big improvement in my eyes.

Now let’s talk Blendtec, so the Blendtec Standard container is a revolutionary design because it’s a square container with a dull blade, YES, the blade is totally DULL, no sharp edges, and there are only 2 blades vs 4 blades. Makes a big difference when trying to get things out from the bottom of the jar and for cleaning. The standard container by Blendtec is similar to the bigger Blendtec wildside jar, the only difference it that the Blendtec wildside jar doesn’t narrow as it goes down to the bottom of the jar, it stays wide for larger holding capacity, also the wildside blendtec jar has a bigger 4 inch blade which catches ingredients quickly and easier.

Both Vitamix and Blendtec jars and containers are able to liquefy, puree, heat, cook, chop, and grind.

Blendtec vs Vitamix Cleaning

Vitamix blades are sharp, and some containers are sharper than others, so you have to be careful when cleaning them! The Low Profile Vitamix Container is much easier to clean than the rest of the Vitamix containers because of it’s bigger. The blade is bigger and there is more room for your hand.

Blendtec blades are much easier to clean, there is no fear of cutting yourself because the blade is dull on all there blender jars. It is really easy to reach your hand in, under, and around the blades, and although you might not consider cleaning a big deal, you have to clean the blender every time you use it.

Blendtec vs Vitamix Jar and Container Design

Blendtec Jars

The Jar and blade come as one piece and you are not able to remove the blade from the jar. This makes for easy cleaning. The Blade and Jar are dishwasher safe(Top Shelf) and come with a 3 year warranty when you purchase directly from the manufacturer.

The 96oz WildSide jar (Recommended) comes with a big 4 inch blade and the Blendtec Standard 64oz Jar comes with a 3 inch blade. Once the Blendtec blades start spinning you will notice what looks like a Vortex getting created inside the jar.

The ingredients get pulled right down the middle of the jar and every little bit of anything inside the jar gets pulled into the blades. This causes no chunks to get left behind and amazingly smoothie textures. The Blendtec blades can go through beats, big fat carrots, and avocado pits, and anything else you throw in there. I still haven’t seen something that the Blendtec blender can’t blend.

Blendtec Blades

The Blendtec blades are thick and fat, and are not sharp so you can comfortably reach into the blender jar and touch the blade without cutting your hand. Blendtec’s Dull blades are pushed by an extremely torque-powered motor, 3.0 to 3.8 horse power motor, (depending on the blender model), which pushes the blades to overpower ingredients easily and take the blades to extreme speeds(28,000RPMs).

The Blendtec blades are made from cold forged stainless steel and are welded onto the BPA FREE Blendtec Jar which is made from Eastman Tritman Co Polyester Material, (CANCER FREE, NOT PLASTIC).

Vitamix Blades

Vitamix Sharp Blades – Vitamix blenders come with cutting edge, sharp stainless steel blades which have been working for chiefs, cooks, mothers, and restaurants for a very long time. Vitamix is a brand name everyone knows and can trust, and their warranty and durability precedes itself. The four prong stainless Blade Design on Vitamix Containers can be pushed to a speed of 37,000 RPMs and back down to as low as 500 RPMs giving you an enormous range of control over your blends, more control than a Blendtec blender.

The Vitamix blades come attached to the jar but can be removed if needed by a special Vitamix tool, you can replace the blades if you want too. Vitamix has 2 main blade designs for their different Containers: the 3 inch blade which comes on their 48oz short container, 64oz tall container, and 32oz small container are very sharp with pointy edges and can be difficult to clean under because they span out across the bottom of the jar.

They are harder to reach under and clean than Blendtec blades because they are very sharp, pointy and lay lower to the base so it’s hard to get your fingers under them. The NEW 64oz Low Profile Vitamix container is the only Vitamix Container with a big 4 inch blade which is very easy to reach around and clean because the container is very wide at the bottom. The 4 inch blade rests a little higher up from the base of the container so you can easily reach your fingers under it and clean underneath the blades. This is by far the best container Vitamix carries.

Blendtec vs Vitamix Blade Consistency

The consistency of the beverages and flours made in the Blendtec are equal to those of the Vitamix, and Vitamix are equal to those of the Blendtec. Even though the Blendtec blades are not sharp, your smoothies, juices, ice creams, and soups will come out equal. When wet chopping or dry chopping using the Blendtec blender the consistency will be slightly thicker pieces because the blades are thick and fat, so if you want to keep a food processor handy, it might be wise.

Blendtec Jars vs Vitamix Containers continued..

Both Blenders are able to go fast enough to cook soups and heat up liquids from the friction of the blades caused by the high speeds the blades travel in a small confined space.

We tested this numerous times and noticed that the Blendtec blender heats up liquid at a rate of around 25 to 30 degrees every 90 seconds, where the Vitamix heats up liquids at a rate of 20 degrees to 25 degrees every 90 seconds. The Blendtec can heat up soup slightly quicker.

The Blendtec heats up and cooks recipes a little faster than the Vitamix because it has a more powerful motor, and (I think) due to the thicker blades which, I’m assuming, cause more friction inside the jar than the sharp skinny blades. The highest temperature I’ve reached by letting the blenders blend for 6 minutes is around 170 degrees F. Note: Your live enzymes will start to die off at 118 Degrees, so maybe relax on the heating up the soups, just liquefy, you don’t need to heat it up.

Overload Shut Off

Both Vitamix blenders and Blendtec blenders come with an overload shut off mechanism where if for some reason the blades can’t spin because you overloaded the jar or it can’t cut through a giant fat carrot the blender will shut off automatically so it doesn’t destroy itself.

To Tamper or Not to Tamper

How come my Blendtec blender didn’t come with a tamper? Can the Blendtec blend as good as the Vitamix? Why does the Vita mix need a tamper and the Blendtec doesn’t? These are all common questions that people ask when thinking about purchasing a Blendtec or Vita Mix blender. These blenders are direct competitors to one another and let me say that both are absolutely amazing machines, you can’t go wrong with either one. The question of the Tamper remains, should I get the high powered blender with the tamper or the high powered blender without the tamper? Well it’s like this…

The Blendtec has created a square jar dull blade design that is specifically designed to pull ingredients into the blades when it blends by creating a vortex with everything inside the blender jar as where the Vitamix blender pushes it’s ingredients up the sides of the jar so it falls back onto the blades. So the design of the jars and containers between the two big high powered blender brands are somewhat different. Now how does the tamper fit in? Well, since Blendtec’s dull blade and jar design pulls ingredients down into the blade, the Blendtec company advertises that you don’t need a tamper because the ingredients simply get pulled into the blades for you allowing you to just push a button and walk away; therefore, their machines don’t come with tampers! But, I’ve seen a lot of Blendtec users say that sometimes they’d wish they’d had a tamper because it can drastically help with ice cream air pockets or if you overfill your jar and things get stuck when your juicing.

Vitamix blenders are specifically made to be used with the tamper during blending, although you rarely need to use it. The Rubber Gripper Lid on the Vita mix machines has a small plastic piece which you can twist off and remove. This is where you can stick the tamper in which amazingly allows you to press ingredients into the blades while the blender is running. This helps a lot with ice creams and and thick recipes such as nut butters or simply when things get stuck and are not moving. Both Blendtec and Vitamix machines are able to liquify, puree, heat, and grind recipes and although 90% of the time you won’t require the Vitamix tamper because the high speeds and high power will do the job, many people say it’s nice to the Vitamix Tamper around. With Blendtec, since there is no tamper, the only way to get rid of air pockets is to shake the jar. You have to stop the blender and press the ingredients into the blade and then restart the machine, and you’ll have to do this repeatedly if the blades don’t pull the ingredients down. Of coarse this rarely happens, and will only happen if you overfill the jar or make thick recipes such as ice creams.

In Conclusion

The Vitamix tamper is mainly used for thicker recipes such as almond butter or ice cream. Juices and smoothies are easy to make in both machines and unless you stack the ingredients wrong or overfill the jar, majority of the time the Vitamix and Blendtec won’t have trouble with a smoothie. The times that Vitamix beats a Blendtec in a competition is when you’re making an ACAI Bowl or Nut Butters or something that requires some effort. You have to have a tamper for nut butters and ACAI Bowls, it is much more difficult to do without the tamper. Nectar Juice Shop is a smoothie shop that uses only Vitamix blenders and they use the Vitamix TurboBlend two speed blenders and they primarily make ACAI Bowls for their customers, and if you go into their shop, you will see them working that tamper all day. Without the tamper you need a spatula and have to stop the blender from running, take off the lid, and scrap the ingredients into the blade, secure the lid, and then start the blender again, it proves to be very difficult to do this. Blendtec realized that for certain recipes it is smarter to have a tamper so that’s why Blendtec came out with a special jar called the Twister Jar that is even better than Vitamix containers for thicker recipes such as ACAI Bowls and Nut Butters. The Twister Jar is an amazing innovation by Blendtec where you can twist the lid as the blender is running which shoves the ingredients directly into the powerful blendtec blades.