Vitamix Explorian E310 Professional Blender, 64 oz Low-Profile Container, 2.0 HP Motor, Black (Renewed Premium) - Perfect for Smoothies, Soups, Nut Butters & Home Cooking

In all my life I never thought I would be writing a review for a blender. But after having this Vitamix for several weeks, using it about every day. I wanted to share my opinions for anyone in a similar situation.First off, I will say that my wife and I make smoothies for our breakfast Monday through Friday. So our blenders get a workout. Our first blender was a standard Black and Decker, we quickly wore it out. We replaced it with an upgrade to the basic Ninja blender. And we were happy with it for 5 years, mostly. We knew about Vitamix, but figured it would be a case of diminishing returns. How much more blender could you get? $100 for the Ninja seems like enough money. But after wearing it out with 5 years of consistant use, it was literaly smoking when my wife made a smoothie one morning. We decided it might be worth it to spend a little more money.And that's where we are. I will be comparing this Vitamix to the base Ninja (I noticed a lot of people were in my situation when I was researching brands, so I thought this might help). Scroll to the bottom for a TL/DR.First off, POWER!!!! UNLIMITED POWER!!! at least until 10. The controls on this Vitamix are simple enough. There is a pulse switch, and a switch On/Off. Then a speed dial that goes to 10 (I'm waiting for the Spinal Tap version that goes to 11). The manufacturers suggest flipping it on at 1 and dialing it up to the preferred speed. Kinda feels like operating a spaceship, going into hyperspace. I rarely need to go above 7, but it can easily handle ludicrous speed (also known as 10). And even at the fastest speeds the base doesn't move and stays on the counter. The Ninja had a tendancy to dance off the counter if you didn't hold on to it. As stated earlier, I make smoothies. And this thing performs in that, silky smooth smoothies from the first time I used it. Comparatively the Ninja had good days and bad, but could never puree frozen fruit as well (lots of little chunks). I will note that for the first week or so the Vitamix had an ozone type smell while being operated, it was a little alarming at first but faded after repeated use.Second, cleaning. Now I work at home, where as my wife runs off to the rat races of a 9-5 day. So I clean the smoothie mess most days. And I really know about cleaning the Ninja, the blade comes right out and is sharp. I had it fall off the counter once and luckly betrayed my instinct to try to catch it. Plus even with the dish soap warm water and pulsing trick. I still had to scrub the fragments of fruit, and the grommet where the blade fit in the pitcher had to be cleaned with a tiny wire brush regularly or it got moldy. Needless to say, I hated cleaning the Ninja. But now I move to the Vitamix, and this machine was made to clean everyday. The blade is fixed, so nothing to clean there. You just fill it up halfway with warm water and put in a squirt of dish soap, run it on high for about 60 seconds and pour out and rinse. Only rarely do I have to scrub off bits of fruit, and then it's typically only on the spout or drips on the outside. The fitting on the bottom has a little hole for water to run out if you dry it upside down, small thing but nice touch. Simply put, I don't mind cleaning the Vitamix.And finally the noise level. I heard people complain about this. Now the Ninja was like a jet engine starting up, I live on a busy street so I don't mind noise. But the Ninja had such a high pitched whine that it irritated the tiny bones in my inner ear. But the Vitamix on the other hand, is relatively quiet. I wouldn't record a band with it running in the background, unless it was an experimental album. But the Vitamix is not irritating in the least. Just a steady lower WHIRRRRR!!!! But as I stated earlier with the power, you don't need to run it that long anyway. And I will state with my full confidence. It is the quietest blender I have ever used.So for my TL/DR conclusion. This entry level Vitamix blend was worth every penny I spent on it. And I was very skeptical. I have heard the models higher than this are even better, if this one ever conks out on me (in a reasonable amount of time of course). I will likely check out the higher levels. But for now, I would give the Vitamix Explorian my top marks. And a noticable upgrade from your standard entry level blender (that's a thing right?).I decided to go all-in on a blender. I also decided to go with a refurbished model. Even though it's only been a couple of days, I love this blender. It has so much power and I love the ability to adjust the blending speed. So far, everything I put in it, the blender managed with ease. I don't know what the fuss is about with noise. It's a blender after all. That being said, I didn't find it to be noisy at all. It's actually quieter than I expected. Cleaning is a breeze! Just fill it up halfway and use, literally, one drop of dish soap. Turn it on and a minute later it's clean. I'm beyond thrilled with it so far!I bought 3 of these and I have noticed that plastic blander tub is made with lower quality plastic. I have used one of them maybe 10 times to only make soups and tomato sauce. The inside portion of the blender is all scared up and when you pay good money you expect a good quality product. Not in this case.This is my 2nd Vitamix. What happened to my first one you may be asking. I gave it to my son that just moved out on his own. He loves it too and used more than I did. I let it go so I could get the red one. Ha! I had my original blender for years and it's amazing. Yes, it's pricey for a flipping blender but once you use it and see what it does you'll be happy with your purchase. Like I said this is my 2nd one cuz I went a few months without it thinking I would not miss it. I was wrong. In addition, the company, Vitamix, stands my their product and has great customer service. Have I ever had an issue with my old Vitamix? Yes, and the company fixed it with no BS or hassle. Probably why I bought another one. Pull the trigger and just buy it. You'll be glad you did.I'm coming from using a Ninja blender (the one with the tower of blades) and the first time using the Vitamix was impressive! I make and sell hot sauce, I use the peppers as my base instead of vinegar. I've been trying almost everything to get my consistency finer, and after blending my sauce for a minimum of 30 min, I still had to use a strainer to get some seeds and unchopped veins out so my bottle nozzles wouldn't clog. I blended my EXACT same recipe in the Vitamix for 5 MIN and I nothing left in the strainer! I was able to make a whole extra bottle of sauce because they're was no waste.A fraction of the time blending and an extra bottles worth of sauce means significant profits in the long run (even in the short run)!100% worth it (was on sale for $280) and I'll buy another real soon!Why oh why did I resist for so long! Nothing can compare to a Vitamix. The power, speed, and effectiveness is beyond!Tomato skins and seeds disappear, making tomato paste has never been easier! Great for milkshakes etc too. Definitely worth the money if you process veggiesUse My Vita-mix Daily … ❤️❤️????Prior to buying this blender I did extensive research and read tons of reviews. I was skeptical about buying a refurbished blender, but honestly I couldn't be happier with this product. I got a great deal during Black Friday and couldn't pass on it. The product was delivered quickly and arrived in great condition. It looks and works brand new. Based on my research I learned that the only "refurbished" piece of the product is really only the motor. For those who cannot or do not want to afford over $700CAD on a blender, this is a great option. So far I have used this blender to make my morning smoothies, sauces, pestos. I'm super excited to try nut milk and hot soups in the near future. All I can say is, what an upgrade from the Magic Bullet! I will update this review based on continued use. Thanks Vitamix!—+3 year update:As of February 2022, the blender still works great! I will only be buying refurbished blenders from now on!The part which turns and drives the blender broke this morning. I'm not sure how/where to get this fixed. I bought it only a few months ago from Amazon.ca.This is a very good investment for anyone who loves to eat healthy and wholesome foods.One issue I have had with it has been that if I’m blending something that’s a bit hard for the machine to blend, it stops and wouldn’t work. At first, I thought I burnt the machine. It later started to work again. This happened a few times actually. Now I know that it happens anytime the machine heats up... it doesn’t happen when making shakes... just happens when I mix nuts and it becomes too heavy for the machine to turn.AWESOME Blender!!!! Until now I was using a Ninja Blender. It blended well (so I thought) but it would take me an hour to finish my smoothies since they were so thick. This Explorian Blender makes my drinks as smooth as silk! Now I'm done my breakfast in a third of the time it used to take me. I'm blown away by the performance. I also do not find it as noisy as my Ninja so that is a bonus. And as many others have pointed out, it came out of the box looking brand new. I did notice it is missing the warranty card which stated should be included, by I'm confident a call to Customer Service will solve that issue. :)I was very hesitant to get a refurbished product – I never do – but the quality of this blender surpassed all of my expectations. The cost made it appealing and I have no regrets other than waiting so long. I’ve mostly made smoothies, nut butters, nut milks, and sauces with no problems at all.1) the size of the container is amazing. I previously had a BlendTec which is narrower. The shape here just creates a far better vortex and plows through frozen items for smoothies better. It’s fairly wide, which makes it easy to fill and clean. The texture of smoothies is much better.2) it’s SO easy to clean, it repels everything.3) I like the very manual controls over a digital interface.4) it’s very nice looking and stable on the counter.I’m over the moon happy and the price was right.