Vitamix 5200 Blender, Professional-Grade, 64 oz. Container, Self-Cleaning, Red, 64 fl oz, DAA

I’m going to tell you why I bought this blender and how I like it! This blender has so many options but I’m not going to go into detail because you can read all that! Best blender ever!!! I’ve had several and I will never go back! I make protein shakes every morning and this is my go to! We made Birria tacos and you have to purée the sauce once you’ve added and cooked everything! (Photo of the sauce before being puréed. Oh my gosh it did exactly what I needed it to do and it did better than I expected! This blender is a must have!!! They sell replacement parts if needed , you don’t have to buy the entire blender. (My dog managed to get the canister part, easily replaced)

30 Years of Great Smoothies

I bought my Vitamix somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 years ago. I use it for smoothies almost every morning. Peach smoothies are a favorite, but I also like pinapple orange, pineapple mango orange, and strawberry or strawberry razzberry blueberry. I also use it to make really good crab chowder. I cook the crab chowder ingredients on the stove, then transfer it to the Vitamix to make it a smooth soup. I then add chuck crab meat and cilantro garnish.

Cautiously Optimistic

The "5200 Standard - Getting Started" Vitamix seemed to be a good fit for me as someone who only occasionally needs a blender but as such wants a single tool that can handle all of my blending needs and is reliable and durable.Having owned the blender for a couple of months now, I have used it for a variety of things that intentionally span the gamut of the most severe challenges I expect to use my Vitamix for including making cold drinks (i.e. blending ice), making nut butter, and making fruit purees (i.e. blending prunes) along with several other less challenging uses (making soup, batter prep, etc.). This blender meets my needs by providing basic functionality and achieving results that I am looking for. It is easy to clean and easy to use.As far as ... MoreThe "5200 Standard - Getting Started" Vitamix seemed to be a good fit for me as someone who only occasionally needs a blender but as such wants a single tool that can handle all of my blending needs and is reliable and durable.Having owned the blender for a couple of months now, I have used it for a variety of things that intentionally span the gamut of the most severe challenges I expect to use my Vitamix for including making cold drinks (i.e. blending ice), making nut butter, and making fruit purees (i.e. blending prunes) along with several other less challenging uses (making soup, batter prep, etc.). This blender meets my needs by providing basic functionality and achieving results that I am looking for. It is easy to clean and easy to use.As far as durability/reliability, only time will tell. This Vitamix serves as a replacement for another Vitamix blender, which was very similar and was purchased a decade ago. While that blender still operates, upon starting the motor (at low speed), the motor "jumps" to a high speed for a brief second before engaging at a low speed. This doesn't render the blender unusable, but especially in certain circumstances, the resistance of the contents is too great for the motor to jump to such a high speed and the circuit breaker trips. Although I cannot remember exactly when this behavior started, I have speculated that I may have done something to marginally overload the motor at some point. With the new blender, I am trying to be more conscious to follow recommendations regarding what order to add the types of contents and other practices as recommended in the user manual. The need to be cautious about these things is why I currently rate this as a 4 star product. If after a couple of years, the blender is running like new and demonstrates that it does not need to be handled with "baby gloves", then I expect I would consider it a 5 star product.

EXCELLENT, with a few minor flaws.

Really a 4.5 rating. I make fruit/vegetable smoothies twice a week using protein powder, fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, among other ingredients. With my old blender, the process took forever because I had to coax the blender along, stopping, starting, stirring, gradually adding ingredients, pouring some out to get things moving, pouring it back in, and on and on. It was a whole song and dance that took a long time and that I was sick of. And I didn’t have a bad blender. It was a 10 year old, well rated Oster, but I’d had the same issues with it from the start. Finally I’d had enough. I was just wasting too much time and energy. Got this 5200. PROBLEM SOLVED. Just put everything in using the order recommended in the instructions, turn it on, also following ... MoreReally a 4.5 rating. I make fruit/vegetable smoothies twice a week using protein powder, fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, among other ingredients. With my old blender, the process took forever because I had to coax the blender along, stopping, starting, stirring, gradually adding ingredients, pouring some out to get things moving, pouring it back in, and on and on. It was a whole song and dance that took a long time and that I was sick of. And I didn’t have a bad blender. It was a 10 year old, well rated Oster, but I’d had the same issues with it from the start. Finally I’d had enough. I was just wasting too much time and energy. Got this 5200. PROBLEM SOLVED. Just put everything in using the order recommended in the instructions, turn it on, also following the instructions, blend for 30 seconds, DONE. Occasionally I need to use the provided tamper to get things moving. But otherwise it saves me a ton of time and, more importantly aggravation. Love it.Gave it a 4.5 rather than a 5 for a couple of minor reasons:1. Instructions about cleaning aren’t great. As in, can you submerse the whole container in water.2. The Lid of the container doesn’t attach to the container in an easy, fully satisfying way where you know it’s definitely on. And I also suspect its rubber attaching latches will deteriorate and loosen over time. The removable, clear plastic cap part of the lid also doesn’t go on and come off in an easy, obvious way that doesn’t seem to just rely on force or make one suspect one will damage the seal.3. The recommended blending instructions, if I understand them correctly, have you starting the blender on the variable, low speed, gradually raising the speed to the max, and then flipping the switch from variable to high. So there’s no pre-set levels and you have to be actively engaged in the process.But, as I say, these are minor imperfections as far as I’m concerned. For the main purpose that I bought the 5200, I am extremely pleased.

Every family member has one for their own house!

My ex and I bought the 5200 model a dozen years ago or so and loved it. We took on our cabin vacations to make smoothies, ice cream, etc. For Mother’s Day 8+ years ago, he ‘helped’ our teenage son buy the 5200 for me at my house. It was a great way for us to make more smoothies and be healthy. I use mine daily. His is still working strong. This week, we bought the newest digital entire pack with the separate disc container and individual containers at a Costco road show for our son and his bride as a wedding gift. They are both thrilled. The app allows recipe ingredients to be added to the grocery list and instantly programs for required time. It is a great gift with a lifetime of use!

Extremely Underwhelming

I have been saving for a couple years to buy this blender and have now had this Vitamix for one week and tried it 5 times. 3 of the 5 times I had to remove all my contents and put everything in my old blender because this one was not working sufficiently. The 2 times it worked well was when I was blending soups that were very liquid-y. The quality of the blend was the same as if I had used my cheap immersion blender. There has been a smell of burning rubber each time because the blender does not latch into place on the base. Contents get stuck under the blades and are hard to get everything out and to clean. I plan to return this blender.

Make them like you used to

We had an 18 year old Vitamix that we loved! I died a few months ago. Of course, we bought another Vitamix. However, we are having it shipped into to be looked at less than 9 months after buying it. It has a burning smell when using it, and it overheats when making things like black bean dip (using canned black beans). I thought the burning smell was due to it being new, but there continues to be a faint aroma. We purposely bought the more "basic" machine so that it would last longer. We have learned the things with more bells and whistles tend to break quicker. I am so incredibly disappointed in my new Vitamix. I don't understand how you can mess up such a good thing!

Not powerful enough for my simple smoothies. My 11 year old Creations II is more powerful but wearing out. Spoke to Vitamix. They agtree it's less po

Not powerful enough for my simple smoothies. My 11 year old Creations II is more powerful but wearing out. Spoke to Vitamix. They agtree it's less powerful than my and other models. Recommended better mixes. Returned!!

Vitamix keeps on going

I bought this VItamix over eight years ago, could be closer to ten years. I had used it every day making a green smoothie. The smoothie had carrots, celery, spinach, kale, ginger, strawberries, banana, pineapple. It blended them smooth every time. I stopped making those smoothies after six years because I got sick of them. I started making other smoothies and again it blended them smooth. I love this machine. It works perfectly every time! I have also used it for other things. I also bought another one for our summer house, that one was from Costco and not the 5200 and it doesn't work as well as the 5200.

powerful, but flawed

There is no question that the 5200 is a powerful blender. It's definitely a step up for our smoothies; it pulverizes anything, even seeds, and produces a smooth texture that is a pleasure to drink. What we wonder about is the tamper, and the need for it. Maybe it's a carafe design thing?Our previous blender (mid-level Breville star performer) had an ingenious bowl-shaped carafe. This kept air pockets from forming. You never (hardly ever) had to stop the blending to expel the air pocket around the blades.With the 5200, despite the narrow, squared carafe bottom, we are constantly fighting the development of the air pocket around the blades. We use the tamper, which is smartly designed to never touch the blades, all the time.But even that often doesn't work, and ... MoreThere is no question that the 5200 is a powerful blender. It's definitely a step up for our smoothies; it pulverizes anything, even seeds, and produces a smooth texture that is a pleasure to drink. What we wonder about is the tamper, and the need for it. Maybe it's a carafe design thing?Our previous blender (mid-level Breville star performer) had an ingenious bowl-shaped carafe. This kept air pockets from forming. You never (hardly ever) had to stop the blending to expel the air pocket around the blades.With the 5200, despite the narrow, squared carafe bottom, we are constantly fighting the development of the air pocket around the blades. We use the tamper, which is smartly designed to never touch the blades, all the time.But even that often doesn't work, and the air pocket forms again instantly. Are we doing something wrong? We've added more liquid, less solids. We've varied the way we increase the blending speed, quickly or slowly, and still: the air pocket forms around the blades and only the bottom part of the smoothie gets blended until we jam away at it with the tamper.(Plus, the unit should come with a Tamper Holder, so the tamper is not just laying on the counter when not in use. Why not?)So, we fight the air pocket every time (why?), and we struggle to find a place to store the tamper, but other than that we're making some excellent smoothies, and the 5200 is a powerful and capable blender!