This would be the one I'd buy.
Take out a loan, if necessary, but buy the Best blender
you can find. I feel this one qualifies.
I like this CIA Commercial Blender model better
than the Pro Series 500 because it doesn't have the 3 programmed
settings on the variable dial. I wouldn't have a blender that
had settings for 'hot soup' and 'frozen desserts', something
I would never eat.....WY

[www.chefscatalog.com]

WY...

Fess up, do you work for Vitamix? lol

juicerkatz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WY...
> Fess up, do you work for Vitamix? lol
Am I beginning to sound like Juicin' John with
his Green Star?
It's just that Blending is the way I eat now, and that has been
a revelation to me....and a long time coming.
You'll forgive me if I get a little excited, won't you?.....WY
P.S. The 'Secret' should be shared with all. Only a few will
have an ear to hear. Now, what is your Secret?

i love it when we all get excited about our personal journeys

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

hehe, its ok yogi, you dont sound anything like JJ ^_^

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Wheatgrass Yogi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> juicerkatz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > WY...
> > Fess up, do you work for Vitamix? lol
> Am I beginning to sound like Juicin' John with
> his Green Star?
> It's just that Blending is the way I eat now, and
> that has been
> a revelation to me....and a long time coming.
> You'll forgive me if I get a little excited, won't
> you?.....WY
> P.S. The 'Secret' should be shared with all. Only
> a few will
> have an ear to hear. Now, what is your Secret?


I can only get excited about this with my online presence; most of my friends/family think I am crazy eating this way.

I am into smoothies/blending in a big way too. At times, I am probably close to 90% - at present, about 60 - 75% blending. Juicing & fruit make up the other amount.

Glad to hear you are happy with your journey - seems like the true revelations do take a long time...

Am I seeing this right? You can be in variable speed, then if you flip to high it will go max? Can you go from 0 mph to high or is it more like 11mph (lowest variable speed) to max. The "high" is essentially a pulse button or is it just more power across the board? Last but not least, what's the difference between this and the new turboblend VS? Sorry for the million questions but I'm burning to buy a blender and be done with researching and to enjoy smoothies again!

Wheatgrass Yogi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This would be the one I'd buy.
> Take out a loan, if necessary, but buy the Best
> blender
> you can find. I feel this one qualifies.
I've changed my mind. I'd get the one offered by QVC.com
(today only 1/23/11) for $363 with free S&H.....WY
P.S. QVC has another one-hour TV show at 6pm (ET).
P.P.S. It comes with a 48-ounce container.

don't forget the blending station advance yogi !

[www.youtube.com]

[www.youtube.com]

proteus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> don't forget the blending station advance yogi !
I looked at the videos. It's too much power for me.
I liked his simple Spinach-Strawberry Green Smoothie, but why
didn't he blend it all at once, rather than taking 3 operations?.....WY

Adam, I have the Vitamix CIA. The high button is like a 'turbo', not a pulse. The variable dial turns it up from 1 - 10. The high speed switch cranks it up even higher and stays on. You leave it on for several minutes when making 'raw' soups or you can crank it up for just a few seconds to aerate whipped creamy blends.

Yogi Wrote: "why didn't he blend it all at once, rather than taking 3 operations?"

he = me

excellent question.

if you mess up and the strawberries are too firm they may get compacted in the bottom of the carafe under the blade so the blade will spin freely on top of them. if you have experience it won't happen but i still like to have the option to get in there and fix it if it does. so i don't put anything on top of them to have access. that's round 1.

for round 2 i am afraid that if i stuff the carafe too densely the spinach may be stuck and not want to fall down on the blades so i put it in somewhat loosely.

for round 3 i just put the remainder of the spinach in.

note that i did not actually "blend" until round 3. i was merely mixing the ingredients at low speed. the speed is adjustable from 7% to 100% and i was using about 20% to mix everything - then i raised it to 100% for the actual blending for about 40 seconds. i do this to make sure i don't introduce unnecessary heat and that everything is blended evenly and just once.



of course i am a noob at this stuff, so maybe with time i will simplify the process but i am not finding it particularly complicated as it is.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2011 09:40PM by proteus.

Yogi Wrote: "I liked his simple Spinach-Strawberry Green Smoothie"

thanks. it has a clean refreshing taste. but i stopped using it because i was afraid that i may be consuming too much oxalic acid. i also wanted to have greater variety of foods in the diet.

proteus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ....... it has a clean refreshing taste. but i
> stopped using it because i was afraid that i may
> be consuming too much oxalic acid.
I feel the same. Some people love Spinach, but
I never eat it. Kale, and Collard Greens do it for me.
That's quite a blender you have there. Will it operate
on regular household current?.....WY
P.S. He=Me....I didn't know.

@veghunter
Thanks, now that I have the 5200 I understand how it operates.

The blend station advance will require a dedicated circuit right? Looking at the manual it says 120 volts 15 amps. Correct me if I am wrong.
[www.vitamix.com]

As far as the blend station advance goes, did someone say somewhere that seeds get pulverized in this blender?

According to this video Vitaprep 3 does not… Not a huge deal to me but it does say something, in my mind probably the blade/container.

[www.youtube.com]

Huh just came across this video saying you can buy a 4" blade 96 oz Blendtec carafe and blender (idk which?) w/o the 3" blade 64 oz carafe, check it out.
[www.youtube.com]

adamlogan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> According to this video Vitaprep 3 does not… Not
> a huge deal to me but it does say something, in my
> mind probably the blade/container.
He was using the 'dry' blades to blend a 'wet'
concoction. I would like to see a video with him using
the 'wet' blades.

> Huh just came across this video saying you can buy
> a 4" blade 96 oz Blendtec carafe and blender (idk
> which?) w/o the 3" blade 64 oz carafe, check it
> out.
I wouldn't want to use the 96-ounce carafe (with
4" blade) on the small BlendTec motor base. The larger carafe
is designed to handle large loads needing a 15-amp, or larger,
motor......WY
P.S. Does MM drive anyone else up-the-wall, or is it just me?

"P.S. Does MM drive anyone else up-the-wall, or is it just me?"

LOL - someone said that exact same thing something like a year ago on here. he is "different" than me, but oh well...I can deal with him I guess.

I think the vid where the girl on the right rocks the blender all around is goofy...you do not need to rock it like that...but I suppose there is a bit of sensationalism generated by doing that.

And I've said it before when this vid was posted - that poor baby's ears must have been ringing - stuck in that room with 3 blenders screaming away on high speed...

Wheatgrass Yogi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Will it
> operate
> on regular household current?.....WY

lol excellent question again.

the power requirement stated next to the power cord is 15 Amps. standard household circuit is 15 Amps capacity (sometimes 20 Amps). so yes you can.

in practice i measured the current draw ( with a kill-a-watt ) and it uses about 10 amps but it would go up much higher if you tried blending something really thick. the 15 Amp figure is not an indication of what the blender uses in normal operation but rather how much it is capable of safely using under some extreme conditions. kinda like if your car has a top speed of 130 mph doesn't mean you can't drive it on roads with speed limits.

also your circuit will tolerate currents in excess of 15 amps for a limited periods of time. it is the prolonged excessive current that can damage the circuit and/or trip the breaker. my microwave exceeds 15 amps slightly in operation but because it is only used at 100% power for at most 5 minutes at a time it has never tripped the breaker.

remember that, as you blend, your household wiring, the thermal circuit breaker, the motor and your FOOD are all heating up at the same time. the wiring, breaker, and motor in this case are evenly matched all at 15 amps so they would reach the limit at about the same time. however your FOOD would get overheated long before that. remember the microwave can bake a potato or two fully without tripping the breaker so the blender would be able to deliver the same amount of heat to your smoothie before it tripped your breaker - and you don't want your smoothie heated at all.

the actual amount of heating ( of both your circuit breaker and the food ) could actually be LESS with this blender than with regular vitamix because by blending the shake more evenly ( circulating it around the carafe better ) it could finish the job probably in less time. remember this carafe is specifically designed for speed ( to maximize throughput in a commercial environment ).

in other words household power is not a problem either in theory or practice



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2011 09:04AM by proteus.

Wheatgrass Yogi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I feel the same. Some people love Spinach, but
> I never eat it. Kale, and Collard Greens do it for
> me.

lately i just blend frozen berries with some home-made juice and then add some green superfood supplement powder and some hemp protein.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2011 09:12AM by proteus.

adamlogan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As far as the blend station advance goes, did
> someone say somewhere that seeds get pulverized in
> this blender?

what do you mean ? strawberry seeds ? i only blend frozen strawberries which are already soft when you defrost them. i don't remember from the few times when i blended fresh strawberries what happened to the seeds. in any case i think if there was such a discussion it was probably in the context of blendtec, not blending station advance.

i really don't think there would be that much difference in power between this and 5200. the difference is mostly in blade/container design, cooling and soundproofing. and the point of the blade/container shape is to automate and speed up the blending, not to somehow blend it "better".

at least thats what i think.

theoretically i could borrow a 5200 from a friend and do a comparison but i wouldn't use any food because i am not a supermarket. i could just weigh the two bases, measure their power draw while blending water, make a subjective judgement about relative noise levels and compare containers side by side.

juicerkatz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "P.S. Does MM drive anyone else up-the-wall, or is
> it just me?"
>
> LOL - someone said that exact same thing something
> like a year ago on here. he is "different" than
> me, but oh well...I can deal with him I guess.
>
> I think the vid where the girl on the right rocks
> the blender all around is goofy...you do not need
> to rock it like that...but I suppose there is a
> bit of sensationalism generated by doing that.
>
> And I've said it before when this vid was posted -
> that poor baby's ears must have been ringing -
> stuck in that room with 3 blenders screaming away
> on high speed...

yeah i felt bad for that baby too. kids have sensitive ears. of course just because our ears aren't sensitive doesn't mean they aren't getting damaged just the same. simply because we already damaged our ears doesn't mean our ears somehow became immune to further damage. ear is not a muscle - it doesn't get stronger with abuse it just stops perceiving the abuse.

i generally find that Matt Monarch is unable to stay objective when doing comparisons. in fact he's not even trying. i felt he was biased on the blendtec/vitamix comparison and on the hurom/green star comparison as well.

Oh I know Matt Monarch is biased, for sure. I watched the Hurom vs Greenstar video Proteus mentioned. I think as a reseller MM is emphasizing the easier to use products (general public wants affordable easy but still good results). Less likely to be returned compared to harder to use products wouldn't you say? I like John Kohler's videos better (more detail/ pros & cons not just about user friendliness or 1 size fits all) but it's clear he is biased too albeit slightly less than Mm.


@Proteus
I don't care much about feeling seeds in my mouth while drinking, what matters to me is that the nutritional content of seeds are absorbed. If they are intact they just go out the other end from what I understand.

40 seconds sounds like a long time to me to blend at 100% but I'm newer to this than you are so what do I know.

I wonder if it is the cooling of the blender motor that makes a difference in temperature of final blend.

adamlogan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if it is the cooling of the blender motor
> that makes a difference in temperature of final
> blend.

cooling of the motor only has effect on the likelihood of motor burnout with continuous blending.

temperature of the blend is largely a function of how quickly you can achieve the blend that you want. blending station advance will turn solid ingredients into something that you can drink in about 5 seconds at full speed. but as you said it won't release all the nutrition in that time nor will the texture be as smooth.

i blend for ~40 seconds because from experience i know i will arrive at the temperature i want ( cool ) in that amount of time starting with cold temperature of ingredients. this also happens to be roughly the time that it takes the texture to become as smooth as it will ever get - blending it further doesn't seem to make any difference in texture - only raises the temperature.

proteus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ....... - blending it
> further doesn't seem to make any difference in
> texture - only raises the temperature.
You could try blending everything without
first thawing out the frozen Strawberries. Just add
more berries if you're afraid they'll get stuck under
the Blade.....WY

Wheatgrass Yogi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You could try blending everything without
> first thawing out the frozen Strawberries. Just
> add
> more berries if you're afraid they'll get stuck
> under
> the Blade.....WY

i usually defrost them carefully just to make sure they are not rock hard, but still partially frozen. i pretty much always end up with a final smoothie temperature in the range that i want it in. i don't want to drink it ice cold - i don't think that would be healthy ?