To whom it may concern, my designer series wildside blender struggles in making hummus, which is why I'm on the market for a food processor. I love it for making smoothies though. It is so easy to clean, and I love being able to jump between 10 speeds, having control over the speed is critical in my opinion.

I initially had the vitamix 5200, it drove me nuts that I had to use the variable dial for the low speed to somewhat high speed, & then hit a paddle to go to the maxiumum speed. I felt like I was tripping over myself working with the blender controls rather than dealing with the food contents. Working with the tamper thing just added more to the chaos in my opinion.

I wanted to like Vitamix more as they seem a lot more mature, especially compared to Blendtec's marketing campaign videos "will it blend"and so on. But of the two models I've had, I prefer the designer series wildside blender hands down.

Have blended avocado seeds in it with the Twister jar (a different jar for making hummus & peanutbutter) several times, but have discontinued that, I feel it dulls the blades and worry about the blade becoming unstable.

I would only suggest looking at more powerful blenders if you want to make hummus, but otherwise I don't think it's neccesary. There are many things a blender can't do well like juliene, dice, emulsify (as in nut butter consistency), so in my opinion it's better to get a good blender for a reasonable price and also get say a mandoline, or a food processor, a juicer, a maléur etc and so on. Manufacturers all try to tell you their product "does it all"but it's just false marketing, don't fall for it. Get the right products for the right task, you'll save yourself more money that way, and get more effective tools.