Bryanna Owner/Moderator 2156 posts Aug 02, 2007 10:04 AM	Julie, I guess I have more room under my cupboards, but my Vita-Mix fits under there, so I just pull it forward when I use it. I was curious about the BlendTec myself, but it doesn't seem to be available in Canada (without shipping from the US, which means more expense, plus customs, which can be prohibitive-- I paid $70 customs and brokerage fees of a $150 item from the States last year!). Anywya, I looked up some reviews (charts with numbers don't mean the same to me as hands-on experience!). I came across this at http://www.perfectsmoothie.com/vitamix-vs-blendtec/ "Blendtec Total Blender This is also a popular blender. It has a 1500 Watt motor, supposedly the most powerful home product on the market. It has a futuristic electronic display with no knobs or dials. It includes a 64-ounce jar along with a book of over 100 recipes. Its warranty is not as competitive as the Vitamix though, it has a 3 year warranty on the motor base, 1 year on the jar, and a lifetime warranty on the coupling and blade. We purchased this blender and used it for the full 30 day trial and ended up sending it back. The main reason is that it can't handle frozen and whole uncut fruits. It's just pure physics, without a way to push the food into the blade it won't blend. If you love the display and look of this machine and don't plan to use much frozen or uncut material then you might consider this product." Also: "let me say, i've used both, and the difference between the 3 hp vs vitamix 2 hp is hardly noticeable and unimportant. If you're making a sorbet, ice cream, nut butter/spread, or anything with a low liquid content in the k-tec, you have to contantly be taking the lid off and stirring with a spatula. the vitamix solves this problem by including a plunger. It's just better." http://www.sunfood.com/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=009331;p= EOPINIONS.COM: The BlendTec gets 3 1/2 stars, the Vita-Mix 5 stars. Out of 11 reviews, the Vita-Mix got 5 stars on all but one review, which was 4 stars (that person didn't like the juice it made.)http://www.epinions.com/pr-Vitamix_Super_5000_Blender/display_~reviews Here are some reviews of the BlendTec K-Tec Champ HP3 on eopinions. Out of 19 reviews, opinions were extreme one way or another-- some loved it and gave it 5 stars, others gave it only one or 2 stars-- nothing in the middle! Of course, there are some positive reviewa, but these ones addressed specific issues that seemed to repeat: http://www.epinions.com/K_TEC_Champ_HP3_Blender__Blenders_hp3/display_~reviews 1.) "I bought this blender in June '04 and it certainly is powerful (and noisy). Two things - one, it tends to walk off the counter at the higher speeds. There is probably something I can do to prevent this - I just haven't gotten around to it. It's a minor annoyance at this point. More importantly, however, I have had the same problem as another reviewer, which is that sometimes when I turn the blender on the display comes up as a series of darkened boxes and the touchpad won't work. I have discovered that if you wait about 5 minutes, the display comes up and the blender works. This happened a couple of times at first, but has happened everytime I turned the blender on in the last couple of days. It has been very humid here in that period and I suspect that the electronics are sensitive to the humidity and that after they heat up a bit, it's ok. Well, it's not ok because I don't want to wait for that in the morning when I am rushed and want to have a power drink." 2.) "This is sold as a commercial-quality blender that can do not only the things that you would expect but can even, all on its own, make soup (because its high speed can generate so much heat) and ice cream (because it can so finely chop and aerate icy preparations). Five buttons allow fancy programming (x seconds at speed 1 then y seconds at speed 2, then z seconds at speed 9). These programs plus the hydraulics of the jar and blade allow the blender to work remarkably well, at least for ordinary tasks. (We tried soup and ice cream only once.) However, when the jar is more than half full, liquid pours out around the lid. Moreover, the blender is too weakly built to cope with its power. Five months after purchase, the bearings in one of the jars disintegrated. (Two jars come with it.) It was replaced under warranty. After one year, running the blender or even touching it would cause the display to flicker. After 19 months, both jars' bearings are on their last legs (loose and noisy) and both jars show stress cracks in a number of places. This has been in ordinary domestic use. Only 753 on-off cycles show on the counter and the blades show no nicks or evidence of abuse." 3.) "After a lot of research on blenders, I bought the Champ. I had heard good things about the Champ but was torn between this and the Vitamix 5000. My unit completely stopped working after 5 months. I used it 120 times and kept it in excellent condition (no floor drops, careless banging or anything). I made a smoothie one evening and it worked fine. The very next night, the machine would not even turn on! I contacted the company to lodge a complaint and explained the problem. K-TEC informed me I must send the unit back to them (on my own postage. After sending it back and waiting three-weeks to have it fixed, they sent the blender back to me...BROKEN! They told me it was an electrical error that they had fixed but once again, the unit did not turn on!!! At this point I was angry. When I called the company, they basically said "oops". This time they sent me out a postage UPS stamp (which took four days to receive). I am still waiting to get my machine back, but when I called to ask why it was not fixed, they simply said "it is fixed this time." For the amount of money, the blender should not malfunction within the first few months. The customer care service should have been more receptive. I am not happy with this company or product at all." 4.) " bought the blender less than two years ago and have had the canister replaced once already and it now needs replacing again; the bearing/seal wears out quickly. Unfortunately I am beyond the warrantee for replacing the canister (which I was mistakenly under the impression was the same as the base, like VitaMix) and now the base is cracked. I can get that replaced, with me paying for one-way shipping (unlike VitaMix!), but still would have to pay for a new canister." 5.) " received this blender last Thursday. I carefully read all of the instructions and then made my first shake. It worked great. I then put in a whole orange: perfect. On Friday I made a smoothie with frozen berries and ice: best, smoothest smoothie ever. I turned the switch off. This morning I filled the blender with stuff for a smoothie, turned on the switch, and the LCD panel shows a few darkened boxes. Pressing any button results in nothing. Switch off then back on: nothing. Unplug/plug in: zilch. Use different outlet: the same. The manual has very little troubleshooting information and tells me to do what I already did. If that doesn't work I'm to call customer service which of course is open during business hours M-F. I threw the yogurt, frozen berries and frozen banana that were in the blender into the garbage. So it's Saturday and I now have to call the folks that were going to come by and watch as I amaze them with my $400 Cadillac blender and cancel the gathering. Three uses and the damned thing is brain dead, with no help in sight. What a disappointment! A $400 crying shame." 6.) "We bought this blender because we make protein smoothies from frozen fruit and wanted a powerful blender. This one did the trick... at first. After a few weeks, the buttons on the base stopped responding. We sent it in for warranty repair and it came back in just 2 weeks, fixed and working well. And then the carafe started acting up (the blending blade is in the carafe). It got very loose and we had to stop using it again. The carafe is not covered under warranty and a new carafe is $65.00! Advertised as "the last blender you will ever buy," this one didn't last a year. Our prior blender was a wedding gift and lasted 30 years. It just gave up the ghost finally. This one has no excuse. I do NOT recommend it. Don't waste $300 on a product that fails and that requires a replacement carafe in less than a year." 7.) "The blender base is fantastic. I have nothing but good things to say about the power and ease of use. However, the carafe has fried out on me twice in the last two years. The carafe itself is more expensive than many store-bought blenders so maybe I will go back to burning out $30 blenders once a year rather than burning out $50 carafes." 8.) "I replaced an eight year old Vitamix with the K-tec HP3 three years ago. I was impressed with the smaller size, more efficient jar design, greater power, one year longer warranty, and the fact that a major chain of smoothie shops was converting from the Vitamix to the K-tec. I figured that I couldn't go wrong. I use my blender everyday to grind grain, make smoothies, etc. I used this blender with satisfactory results for a year when the blender blades locked up putting a lot of strain on my motor. The bearings of the mixing blade went bad. I thought it was no problem, and ordered another jar. A year later, the same thing happened. That was a year ago. Guess what happened this morning? The bearings went bad on my latest jar. In my 8 years of owning a Vitamix, I only had to replace the jar once. At around $50+ a jar per year, not to mention the strain/damage to my motor, this is becoming a very expensive blender. It's been great except for that. I think that I'm going back to a Vitamix" 9.) "I researched both machines extensively and waited a few days because there were pro's and cons's to both and I wanted to have the clarity that comes from cool-headed judgment - and bought the Vita Mix 5000. The pro's for the K-Tec unit were more power and a lower height such that it fits below upper cabinets. The power issue was not decisive as the K-Tec, at 2 HP is more than adequate for any kind of smoothie/liquid, including sundried tomatoes and other tough items. I do not do grains or nut butters, and use a food processor and coffee mills for flax seeds and such; I did not buy the Vita Mix's grain carafe, so I cannot comment on that. The advantages of the Vita Mix over the K-Tec are the manual controls of the VitaMix 5000 provide much better control and are very intuitive. If the food has large chunks, like apples, and greens, I run it on lower variable speeds (using the cleverly designed tamper) until the chunks and greens are broken up to give that convective motion so the high speed blending happens smoothly and quickly. I read several complaints about the 4 (5?) programmed cycles of the K-Tec not giving much control. If the blending is incomplete, you have to run another of the programmed cycles. Maybe the programs are designed to let you walk away, but I can't imagine using these high speed blenders, for about 30 sec at most, and walking away while running them! The Vita Mix tamper (which K-Tec does not have) is put through the hole in the lid and has a flange such that the lid allows the tamper to get close to, but not touch, the blades. It is very useful to push in greens and fruit chunks in the initial variable speed blending. In fact, as I saw on a raw food video, I don't use the center insert of the blender lid, but just hold my hand over it. When I make a green smoothie, I put in the greens first (especially kale) with the liquid, and blend these thoroughly, then I add the fruit and other items through the hole in the lid (no spattering problem this way). The secure lid only goes on once, in the beginning. The VitaMix's guarantee (7 years for the one I bought directly from the factory) on everything including the carafe is far superior to the K-Tec's. I believe the K-Tec carafe warranty was (and may still be) only for 1 year!. I have read many posts about mechanical problems with the K-Tec, carafe leaking being the most common followed by gear failing, chewing up the O ring in the blended drink, etc, and unhappiness with the lid. One detailed post mentioned the deeper teeth of the VitaMix gears, and it's overall sturdiness(this reviewer used both machines), and many posts mentioned years of trouble free daily use with the Vita Mix. The reviews clearly indicate a much higher incidence of malfunctions with the K-Tec than the Vita Mix. I prefer the VitaMix's simpler controls and was concerned about failure of the programmed push button functions of the K-Tec; but mostly, I was swayed by the reliability problems with the K-Tec unit. I have no connection with the manufacturers of either blender.
Starla 67 posts Aug 02, 2007 10:38 AM	Thanks for that comprehensive review! I'm ever more convinced that I will just go ahead with the Vita Mix. Do most people using it in the home get the $350.00 one? I mean there are even more expensive Vita Mixes available.
celticmary 1 post Aug 29, 2009 5:35 PM	I have owned a K tec champ for five years. At first I thought it was a great blender. It came with two jars, but within two years, both of them were useless. The peg on the bottom that connects to the base of both of them completely stripped out. I called the company, thinking the jars were under the same 8 year warranty as the base. It turns out they only come with a 2 year warranty. How convenient! I had to purchase another jar for $50.00. I tried everything to cut down on the wear to the jar, even grinding up nuts or frozen fruit in my food processor first. I cut down on my use of once a day to only two or three times a week. This jar lasted 3 years and now is starting to do the same thing. I went online and I have read NUMEROUS complaints about the same thing. The company has been very unfriendly to me and many other people as well. I read a horror story about Blendtec on the rip off report website. I now really wish I bought a vitamix. I want other people to know about these problems so they can make a better decision than I did. This blender will just cost you a fortune in the long run. It is not worth it friends!

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