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22 hours ago
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When I reviewed nearly a dozen models to find the best blenders for The Filter, I was already quite familiar with one of the brands I was testing: Vitamix. My parents bought me a refurbished Vitamix Turbo Blend 4500 in 2010, and I’ve used it to make smoothies, pesto, and other kitchen concoctions ever since. Vitamix is the founding father of the premium blender category, known for its impressive warranties, extensive accolades, and steep prices, especially on the more high-tech models.
Introduced in 2007, the Vitamix 5200 is considered its “legacy” model, still holding strong nearly two decades later despite newer models like the digital Ascent X line popping up around it. At $500, the Vitamix 5200 is still a daunting investment, but if you’re a home cook looking to take your smoothies, soups, and sauces to the next level, it’s well worth it. Here’s why.
Vitamix 5200: what you need to know
This is a workhorse of a blender. It has a max blending capacity of eight cups –enough soup for a big dinner party! Its wide, angled blades are stainless steel and laser-cut, doing the bidding of a 11.5-amp motor, or about 2 horsepower, as Vitamix prefers to state it. This means that it can blend frozen bananas into “soft serve” with ease, pulverize chia seeds, and turn a head of broccoli into a silky puree.
And it does the work quickly: another blender I tested, the Cuisinart Hurricane, took so long to blend a smoothie made with ice and frozen fruit that the smoothie was no longer cold. My Vitamix whips up morning smoothies made with greens, seeds, and plenty of frozen fruit in less than a minute.
All Vitamix blenders also come with a tamper, which can be shoved into the hole of the jug cover to move along particularly thick mixtures. This is extra helpful when trying to make something like peanut butter, which requires a bit of extra agitation, or to smush down a particularly burly hunk of frozen fruit that’s holding up the rest of your smoothie.
One of the great things about buying a Vitamix is its warranty: each blender comes with a free seven-year warranty, and you can add on an extra three years for $75. About a decade ago, something weird was happening with my Vitamix motor, and they sent me a replacement part in a few days, with instructions on how to fix it. The process was shockingly simple; I haven’t had any issues since.
Specifications
Dimensions: 20.5 x 8.75 x 7.25 in.
Capacity: 64oz (eight cups)
Weight: 10lb 9oz
Cord length: 6ft
Accessories: Comes with a tamper and a small cookbook
Jug Material: BPA-free Tritan Copolyester
Warranty: seven years
How I tested
To test Vitamix 5200, I blitzed a handful of concoctions: smoothies chock full of seeds and greens; soups full of fibrous kale stems, garlic scapes, and broccoli; peanut butter; and pesto. I also crushed ice, which Vitamix models can only do with the assistance of a tamper. (Once I added a little water – to simulate the preparation of a frozen cocktail without drinking on the job – both easily whipped up a slushie.)
A tamper is also necessary for peanut butter, and smaller batches of things like pesto, but with it the 5200 bested its competitors in almost every test. It turned a chunky soup into velvet; and blended a green smoothie without a hint of mulchiness. It successfully made a delicious batch of peanut butter, and it kept my pesto a vibrant green, rather than turning it muddy. (Pro tip: if you want extra-green pesto, go the extra mile and blanch your basil. It’s totally worth it.)
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The Vitamix is also a cinch to clean: squirt in some dish soap, fill it halfway with water, and simply blend for a minute. Sometimes you’ll still need to pass a sponge over the jug’s nooks and crannies, but this rarely bothers me; I’m rinsing it out anyway. With my morning smoothies, I usually let the blender jug soak in the sink while I drink my delicious beverage, and then all it needs is a quick wash when I’m done.
What we love
One of the biggest upgrades from my old 4500 to the new 5200 is the speed dial. When I turn it on, I have two options: I can either flip the switch on the left to “high” and let it go ham until the jug holds a smooth mixture, or I can control the speed manually with the dial at the center, starting at one and going up to 10. This is the option I use every time, in part because it’s less aggressive – it doesn’t abruptly splash chia seeds to the far edges of the blender – and in part because it assuages my fear of the top popping off when blending hot liquids. (A good trick I’ve learned over the years is that if you are blending hot soup, hold down the top of the blender with a clean tea towel – that will keep your walls safe.)
The 5200 is perhaps the simplest Vitamix available, with just a simple trio of switches and knobs. The Ascent X series, on the other hand, includes timers; special “recipe settings” for smoothies, frozen drinks, soups, and more; a digital pulse button; and a “tamper indicator” that tells you when you need to use your tamper.
Personally, I don’t find any of these features particularly essential. I have a timer on both my phone and my stove; I generally know if something I’m blending needs the tamper. And I’ve found in my testing that the “settings” for different kinds of drinks and dishes is often just a question of speed and time. Thanks to my eyes and ears, I can usually tell when my smoothie is fully blended.
I also love the shape of the jug. Vitamix’s shorter, 48oz jugs have a wider base than the taller 64oz jugs, and I’ve found that the taller jug with a more narrow base makes it easier to blend small quantities of solids with less need for a tamper. I found this to be especially true when making a single batch of pesto: in the 5200, the mixture whizzed up beautifully, whereas the Ascent’s wider base kept more of my ingredients farther away from those razor-sharp blades.
What we don’t love
There’s no way around the fact that all Vitamix blenders come with a plastic jug, which can be frustrating for anyone anxious about microplastics in food. Vitamix does sell a stainless steel jug, but you can only buy it in addition to the default 64oz plastic jug. Vitamix sells a “bundle” with the 5200 and the smaller, 48-ounce stainless steel jug for $680, a pricey and frustrating option for anyone who might want to go stainless steel-only.
Some people struggle with the height of the 5200: it’s generally too tall to fit below a standard-height cupboard. If that’s an issue for you, the Propel 510 has basically the same functionality (two switches and a speed dial) with a shorter, 48-ounce jug.
Lastly, some people find the Vitamix to be very loud. It is, but I’ve found that this is the price to be paid for any high-speed blender.
