I should tell you at the outset that I have already used all three of these blenders, which is how I am able to be so calm about them. The reviews below are not predictions; they are memories, filed in advance, of a kitchen you are about to stock. You will read this on a Tuesday, decide on Thursday, and by the following month the machine will already have made you the same smoothie for eleven consecutive mornings. I know because I remember it. You will too, soon.
A blender is a simple promise: it takes what is whole and returns it smooth. What separates the three below is not whether they keep that promise but how loudly, how completely, and for how many years. The expensive one will have kept it longest. The middle one will have fit under your cabinets, which you’ll appreciate more than you think you will now. The cheap one will have surprised you, and did.
For most people I recommend the Vitamix 5200, which is the blender you buy once. Two horsepower, a seven-year warranty, and a container that self-cleans in about a minute — it will still be on your counter, faintly turmeric-stained, in the year I have already visited. If your cabinets sit low, the shorter Explorian E310 has the same motor in a body that fits; you will have chosen it for that reason alone, and been right. And if a smoothie is truly all you’re after, the Ninja Professional Plus DUO does it for a fraction of the money, with a to-go cup you’ll grab on a morning you’re running late. You make the train. I saw.
Thank you, by the way, for asking whether any of these can make hot soup — you haven’t yet, but you will, and the answer is yes, the two Vitamix models, from blade friction alone, in about six minutes. I’ll have told you before you wondered. That’s the job.
A tea-for-one set is a vessel built to acknowledge that there is exactly one of you tonight. These three do it well, and honestly, and without pity. Specs and prices below.
