Vitamix and Blendtec are, without a doubt, two of the most popular producers of high-performance blenders in the world.
For decades, both companies have been designing blenders for commercial use in restaurants and for consumers to use in their homes. High performance-blenders are designed to do things that cheaper blenders are unable to.
Whether you want to grind nuts into creamy nut-butters, make your own flower, or just blend fruits and vegetables into restaurant-quality smoothies, a blender from either Vitamix or Blendtec is sure to work wonders for you.
Today we’re going to be comparing the Vitamix 5200 and the Blendtec Designer 675.
Vitamix and Blendtec share a pretty intense rivalry, as the two industry leaders are each other’s only real source of competition. Each company has its fair-share of vehement supporters, many of which disparage the other company’s products while praising their favorite of the two.
But the truth is, both Vitamix and Blendtec make extraordinary blenders that are more than capable of meeting all your needs and standing the test of time. There are, however, some significant differences between the blenders made by each company.
Blendtec makes the more powerful blenders. The Designer 675 model features a 3 peak horsepower motor, whereas the Vitamix 5200 boasts a 2 peak horsepower motor.
Although a 50% horsepower difference might seem extraordinary—and is certainly nothing to scoff at—actual blending performance is dependent upon more things than raw power output.
The size and quality of the blades, the design of the jar, the different available speeds and settings—these factors are just as important, if not more important, than just horsepower, which is why it’s important to look deeply into a product before deciding to shell out the kind of money these high-quality blenders command.
This comparison is here to help you to just that. The Vitamix 5200 is one of the most popular products made by Vitamix, while the Blendtec Designer 675 is one of the finest all-around blenders developed by Blendtec. Comparing the two should be fun.
How We Tested
When dealing with such expensive, top-of-the-line blenders, its important that they’re able to handle anything you throw at them.
With that in mind, we tried to diversify our tests as much as possible. First, we put both blenders up against a simple fruit smoothie: bananas, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and almond milk.
Unsurprisingly, both blenders performed great here. The only difference was that the Vitamix 5200 took a little longer to blend the berries (and their seeds) down completely, while the more powerful Blendtec 675 effortlessly blended everything down the first time.
We’re only talking about a difference of seconds, but still, the Blendtec did perform slightly faster.
Next up, we blended another smoothie, this time adding some leafy-greens. When blending fruits and vegetables together it’s important to make sure that all the fibrous little strands of greenery has been blended adequately, a feat that’s almost impossible for cheaper blenders.
Both the Blendtec 675 and the Vitamix 5200 did an exceptional job at this. Again, the Blendtec outperformed the Vitamix in terms of speed. With the Vitamix, we needed to stop the blender, taste the smoothie, and continue blending a few times before we got the desired results.
The Vitamix, however, again blended everything down almost perfectly the first time.
Next up, we decided to mix some hummus. A food-processor is generally said to be the best device for hummus, but a high-performance blender should be able to handle the task easily enough. I like my hummus slightly thicker than usual and don’t always add as much water from the chickpeas as I should.
Using the Vitamix 5200, it took this thicker concoction a second or two to get going, but once it did, it mixed effortlessly. The result was a well-blended, creamy hummus. A post-blend check of the blades revealed no stuck-on garlic-skin or unblended-ingredients.
The Blendtec 675 yielded similar results. After the first two tests, I expected the Blendtec to have an easier time with the hummus, but, to my surprise, it also struggled to get going.
After a few stops, a bit of added liquid and a few manual-stirs, it proceeded to thoroughly blend the hummus into creamy deliciousness. The same post-blend check of the blades yielded the same positive results.
Next up we tried mixing a hot soup. First up was the Vitamix 5200. Although it easily blended the soup, the Vitamix offered very poor control over the blend.
This was due in large part to the Vitamix 5200’s lack of a “pulse” feature. When making a chunkier soup—especially when using a powerful blender like the Vitamix 5200—the user needs control to ensure that the soup isn’t over-blended. A “pulse” feature is a great way to chop and mix ingredients without dissolving them into nothingness.
Unfortunately, Vitamix neglected this feature on their 5200 model. While it is possible to flip the on/off switch quickly back and forth to achieve the pulse effect, since this is not an included feature but more of a manipulation of the blender (and could actually lead to the warranty being voided), I refrained from doing so. Consequently, my soup turned out a bit too thin.
The Blendtec 675 on the other hand, comes with a designated “soup” setting. Aside from being extremely convenient, the Blendtec 675’s soup preset worked great.
While still a bit thinner than I intended, the soup made by this preset tasted awesome, and we were shocked by how convenient it was. Simply turn it on and standby. The friction of the blades even heats your soup, allowing you to blend cold ingredients into a piping-hot soup that’s ready-to-eat.
For the last test, we tried making our own nut-butter. Buying nut-butters from a grocery store is extremely expensive. Being able to blend your own is a great way to save money and easily makes buying a high-performance blender worth the money.
Using 2 cups of roasted almonds mixed with the appropriate amount of water, we tried our hand at making almond-butter, and, to be honest, both blenders struggled. The Vitamix was the first machine we tested, and after the first few minutes, our mixture still wouldn’t budge.
We needed to stop every few moments to manually stir. After about five minutes, however, our almonds finally started to blend. The tamper included with the Vitamix 5200 allowed us to stir as the mixture was blending, which proved to be quite useful.
It must be noted however, that the tamper does not reach all the way to the bottom of the container, making it much harder when making a small batch of nut-butter. When we were finally finished, our almond-butter wasn’t quite as smooth as store-bought butter, but nonetheless, it was delicious.
Making homemade nut-butter isn’t easy, and the Blendtec 675 had its fair share of struggles as well. In the beginning, it performed better than the Vitamix. The pulse feature really came in handy, allowing us to break the almonds down into uniform pieces.
The Blendtec struggled more towards the middle of the blending process, the lack of tamper keeping us from easily stirring. The square shape of the jar also allowed unblended nuts to get trapped in the corners, forcing us to stop and scrape them off.
Despite these troubles, we had perfectly blended almond butter after about 10 minutes. The Blendtec took longer to get the job done, but the higher power allowed for a slightly smoother butter.
Product Pros & Cons, Similarities and Differences
Motor
Vitamix 5200
The Vitamix 5200 features a specially designed Swedish motor. Boasting 2 peak horsepower, at its highest speed, the motor spins the blades at 37,00 rpm.
While not as powerful as the motor featured in the Blendtec 675, the Vitamix 5200’s motor still outmatches most of the other blenders on the market today. One downside is that, with power usually comes noise, and the Vitamix 5200 is no exception.
While not too loud for me, users who are sensitive to loud noises might want to search for a quieter blender.
Overall, the Vitamix 5200 features a powerful motor capable of handling all of your basic blending tasks with ease.
Blendtec 675
Blendtec is known for making the most powerful blenders on the market. Boasting a staggering 3 horsepower, the Blendtec Designer 675 is undoubtedly the stronger of the two blenders in terms of pure power.
While the power difference between the two is often considered to be negligible, the Blendtec is great for users who want to blend the ingredients in their smoothies as fine as possible and as quickly as possible.
The Blendtec absolutely obliterates whatever you put into it and rarely requires additional time to do so. For users who prefer courser, pulpy smoothies, the Blendtec might prove to be too powerful to be convenient, as you would constantly have to fuss over the speed settings.
Similar to the Vitamix, the Blendtec 675 can be quite noisy, although, despite the power discrepancy, the noise difference between the two is negligible. The base of the Blendtec is also a bit steadier than the Vitamix while blending.
This steadiness goes well with the automatic settings, as a shakier blender would require constant attention, making it impossible to confidently make use of the presets.
Compared with industry standards, both motors possess good power. In our testing, both blenders displayed the strength required to easily blend smoothies in a matter of seconds. Alternatively, both blenders struggled when making nut-butter.
Overall these two motors are comparable in their abilities. The Blendtec motor, however, is the more powerful of the two—even if the horsepower difference can be a bit misleading. Both are relatively loud, neither having a major advantage in that regard, while the Blendtec showed more stability.
The Blendtec 675 has a small edge here.
Controls
Vitamix 5200
The controls featured on the Vitamix are exceedingly simple. Positioned in the middle of the motor-base is the speed-dial; to the right of the dial is the power-switch; and to the left of the dial is the variable/high speed switch.
Setting this switch to variable allows you to control the speed of the blender with the center-dial. This dial goes from 1 to 10, 1 being the slowest capable speed (500 rpm) and 10 being the fastest (37,00 rpm).
These controls are quite simple, making them perfect for users who might be intimidated by more complex, higher-tech interfaces. The only important function that the Vitamix 5200 lacks, is the “pulse” feature. While not essential, a pulse button would take the Vitamix blender to the next level.
Blendtec 675
The Blendtec Designer 675 comes with a touchscreen display featuring 5 presets and several other convenient features. Despite being fancier, this illuminated touchscreen is just as easy to operate as the Vitamix’s display.
A digital timer counts upward or down as you blend, indicating the time you’ve been blending or the time remaining in a preset blend-cycle. Below this timer are the 5 presets: Smoothie, Frozen Treats, Whole Juice, Hot Soup, and Clean. While its never hard to blend a smoothie, the “Smoothie” preset can save you a lot of time and is particularly useful if you make multiple smoothies a day, or a smoothie every morning before work.
While it might not be a good idea to leave the blender completely unattended, this preset means that you can focus your attention elsewhere without having to constantly check the progress of your smoothie. The “Frozen Treats” preset allows you to perfectly make ice-cream and slushies without having to manually adjust power-settings.
The most useful preset of all might be the “Clean” preset. Add hot water and soap, press the Clean button and let the Blendtec 675 do the rest. It will stop itself when it’s clean. Just rinse and you’re good to go.
Another great feature of the Blendtec Designer 675 is the “+10” feature, which allows you to add 10 seconds to any of the preset-cycle times. This adds a degree of customization that most blenders lack.
Both interfaces are very easy to use. The Blendtec 675’s touchscreen, timer, and added features, however, give it a considerable edge compared to the much more basic Vitamix 5200.
Blades
Vitamix 5200
The blades featured in the Vitamix 5200 are perhaps the strongest feature. Along with the motor, the blades of a blender are the most integral component to its performance. And the Vitamix 5200’s blades are exceptional.
Made from stainless-steel, these 3’ inch, laser cut blades are larger and more dependable than most other blades on the market today.
Blendtec 675
Blendtec blenders feature unique stainless-steel dull blades. According to Blendtec, because of the added power, the motor is able to spin the blades much faster than other blenders, taking away the necessity of sharpened blades.
This makes the blender a lot safer to handle and clean. If you find yourself getting repeatedly poked and scratched by the sharp blades of traditional blenders, this unique design will be great for you.
Although Blendtec’s unique dull blades might be preferred by some, the high quality and readily available information of the Vitamix 5200’s laser-cut blades give it a small advantage here.
Pitcher
Vitamix 5200
The Vitamix 5200 features a 64 oz, BPA-free, copolyester plastic pitcher. This pitcher is quite tall and narrow. This narrowness can be great for users who want to blend small quantities of food.
While wider pitchers might spread the ingredients too thinly, a narrow jar means that the ingredients pile on top of each other and fall evenly onto the blades. The downside to having such a narrow jar, however, is the height. The Vitamix 5200 can be quite hard to store.
The pitcher is 20’ inches tall by itself, and even taller when sitting on the motor base. This makes it hard for users to store on countertops and in cabinets.
Blendtec 675
Blendtec have always prided themselves on being innovators, and the Blendtec 675’s “Wildside” jar is perhaps their best work. This pitcher features a small, fifth “wild” side wall intended to disrupt the flow of ingredients during blending.
This disruption forces ingredients back towards the blade, helping to ensure that everything gets blended smoothly.
This jar is also made from BPA-free copolyester plastic, and features a total capacity of 90 oz, although Blendtec only recommends blending with the jar half-full. One big advantage the Blendtec 675 has over the Vitamix 5200, is that it only stands at 9’ inches tall.
This smaller vertical footprint makes it much easier to store. The Designer 675 model also features a highly reviewed lid that easily latches onto the jar and offers ventilation.
Both pitchers are high quality, but the innovative “fifth wall” featured by the Blendtec, as well as its space-saving dimensions, make it the clear winner here.
Product Features
Vitamix 5200 Features
- 64 oz BPA-free Copolyester Pitcher
- 2 HP Motor
- 3’ Inch Stainless-Steel, Laser-Cut Blades
- High/Variable Speed Settings
- 6ft Cord
- Classic Tamper for Adding and Stirring Ingredients
- Radial Cooling Fan to Prevent Overheating
- 7 Year Warranty
- Dishwasher Safe
Blendtec Designer 675 Features
- Innovative 90 oz BPA-Free Copolyester “Wildside” Pitcher
- 3 HP Motor
- Touchscreen Interface
- +10 Seconds Feature
- 5 Presets Allow You to Conveniently Make Smoothies, Frozen Treats, Juice and Soups, and Also Allows for Effortless Cleaning
- Lid-Vent to Relieve Pressure and prevent Overheating
- 8 Year Warranty
- Blending 101 Quick-Start Guide and Recipes
- Dishwasher Safe
Alternatives
Vitamix 5300
If you like the features and the dependability the Vitamix 5200 offers, but aren’t willing to accept some of its flaws, the next generation Vitamix 5300 model might be perfect for you. Vitamix has listened well to the criticisms of its older model.
They shortened the pitcher by over 3’ inches, making it easier to store and added the missing pulse feature, while also upgrading its motor with added horsepower. The Vitamix 5300 is a greatly improved version of an already great blender.
While slightly more expensive than its predecessor, the Vitamix 5300 is well worth the money.
Who Should Get This
Vitamix 5200
Vitamix is the most trusted brand in the industry today, and the Vitamix 5200 is a great all-around model with a few flaws. The biggest of these is the inconvenient height. If you have extra storage space, however, the narrowness of the pitcher offers plenty of advantages, particularly for single-users.
The Vitamix 5200 blender is a great option for anybody who’s looking to blend small batches of ingredients, and who mainly wants to make smoothies and wouldn’t have much need of the missing pulse feature.
If you can look past the flaws, with the Vitamix 5200 you’ll get a blender that’s powerful, versatile and dependable, while also getting the dependability and great customer service that Vitamix is known for. And since the Vitamix 5200 is an older model, you’ll get all of this at an affordable price.
Blendtec Designer 675
The Blendtec Designer 675 is a powerhouse. Its 3 peak horsepower motor is one of the strongest on the market today, allowing it to tear through most foods effortlessly and quickly.
This power could be a downside for some. If you’re looking to make icy-drinks often, you’ll have to be careful to keep the powerful Blendtec from liquifying your ice.
Aside from this small concern, the added power means that it gets the job done a little better and a little faster. And for anybody who uses their blender daily, the touchscreen and presets will save a ton of time and hassle.
The Blendtec Designer 675 is a great blender, and a solid option for anybody.
Our Pick
While most reviews compare the high-end Vitamix products with the high-end Blendtec models, today, by comparing the Vitamix 5200—an older, cheaper model—with the Blendtec 675—one of the very best blenders Blendtec has to offer—we’ve done something unique. Given the overall higher price of Vitamix blenders, the cost of these two products is relatively similar.
Meanwhile, the Blendtec Designer 675 comes equipped with far more features and performed slightly better in our tests than the Vitamix 5200. I think that says something about the overall value of each company’s products.
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These are, however, just two of the many models offered. Vitamix and Blendtec are both well-trusted and respected companies known for making some of the best commercial and consumer blenders in the world.
Our Pick is: Blendtec 675
With either the Vitamix 5200 or the Blendtec Designer 675, you’ll be getting a high-performance, professional-grade blender that’s sure to stand the test of time. In this matchup, the results favor Blendtec.
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