Blendtec Total Classic Original Blender - WildSide plus Jar (90 oz) - Professional-Grade Power - 6 Pre-programmed Cycles - 10-speeds - Black (Renewed)

Blendtec TB-621-25 Total Blender Classic with WildSide Jar, Black (Certified Refurbished) This was ordered as a replacement for a very old "Oster" blender that finally gave out after over 13 years of service. So why did I replace it with Blendtec and not another Oster ? Very simple, they are two different breeds The Oster was a great general use blender but could not stand up to teenage kids smoothie obsession. I had used it for my protein shakes for years but ice crunching and lots of usage it just burned out. I had friends I lived with for some time that had a Vitamix, it is a healthy competitor to Blendtec but the price point is too high. Kids love Smoothie King and other places that make Smoothies and they all use Blendtec. We purchased a Refurbished unit as it met our budget. It arrived yesterday and we were anxious to try it out. I can truly say this blender is a "BADASS"! We created out first fruit, protein smoothing in no time and it was just as good as the ones in the shops. Is it noisy? Hmm as compared to what ? My old Oster would cause my dog to bark incessantly whenever I used it. So I was not surprised she barked upon using our Blendtec. What did surprise me is she stopped after about 10 seconds and the Blender process went on for about 90 seconds. So maybe the frequency of this is less for a dog than my old blender? The bottom line is, this blender is no noisier than most blenders. So the only minor issue I have to bring up.This was ordered as Refurbished and I fully understood what that meant / means. This refers to the main part of the blender and NOT the WildSide blending jar, (That was expected to be new). The blending jar we received was "scratched". The packaging was fine and not damaged so the jar had to have been packed and shipped scratched by the vendor. Now this is not a negative against Amazon as they have vendors that supply items like this, Also the reason why I gave this (5) stars and not less is because Amazon customer service was very good about this when I called and made things right. The vendor that supplied this Blendtec blender to Amazon, needs to follow up on their QA before shipping. This scratched WildSide blending jar should NOT have been sent out the door.

We bought a refurbished model. Pretty much everything about this blender is great. My wife really likes smoothies and I researched quite a bit to determine a good blender for our home use and the two in the final running were the Blendtec and the Vitamix. The Blendtec's shorter overall height and programed buttons were the two factors that led to our purchase over the competition. With almost 400 'blends' on our blender it is still working great! One note on the digital counter feature is that it will increase the count by one number during the pulse cycle or if you start and stop the blender for any reason it will advance one more number at the next start - not a problem in any way just a noted item. It blends everything well. We do smoothies daily and use mostly spinach / kale / ice / and varied fruits. We also purchased a twister jar for making nut butters and baby food in smaller quantities. Blenders with this much power are loud. LOUD. Can't have a conversation in the same room while its running loud. Just be prepared for the noise. I dont even like to have the baby in the kitchen when it runs. There are some aftermarket enclosures out there which I have been considering but have not purchased (or built) one as of yet. Our buttons are also pictures not words (just as shown in the product photos as of review writing) which differed from the included manual and I sometimes find myself going ok; which one stands for soup? etc. There is a power switch on the back which is nice but a switch on the front might have been a nice feature as we shut it off after each blend. It does not walk on the counter but it has blown the lid off once (maybe twice) if you run it unsupervised (which we do often). Overall, if you like to be able to blend basically anything you could want into a smooth form and retain the pulp that a juicer will remove this blender will work great.

Holy Smokes! I never thought a blender would change my life but that's what happened. I purchased this for health reasons. My doctor said I needed more raw fruits and vegetables. He told me to get a blendtec. I didn't even know what that was when he told me. He took me in his office and showed me on the Internet. I told him I was not paying that much for a blender. He looked at me and said I will thank him on the next visit. So against my better judgement I bought the Amazon recommended refurbished model. This thing is not a blender; it's a serious bad @ss kitchen tool. It completely destroys full jars with ice, hard fruits, vegetables, all types of berries; even chia seeds with complete ease. It has other functions but I have 115 blends using the smoothing and juicing function. That's all I need it for at the moment. However I am looking forward to some margaritas this summer. Clean up is a snap! Just add some soap and water, hit the pulse button, rinse and your done. That's my favorite feature. I do hand wash it once a week. It's not necessary I just prefer doing so. It's also nice because it's a big blender but still fits nice the counter top under the cabinets. I have read reviews about noise complaints. My blender is not louder than any other blender. You need to keep in mind this a 3hp peak motor. It's gonna make some noise when you grind up hard/tough items. With that being said I can't stand the thought of using another blender anymore........and I won't. I use tools and equipment to fix things every day and that's just what this is, not a blender, but a serious kitchen tool to help fix your health. Something to keep in mind during your purchase consideration. Thanks doc!

Update 1 year later- This is still the best blender we've ever owned. Long story short- it's the best bang for the buck if you get the holiday deals. It's not perfect and too thick a protein smoothie will over tax it- but it's much better than the other blenders (1500 powered Ninja) in the past. Highly recommend. We have been using this blender daily since we received it 37 days ago (60 blends total) I would suggest watching one of their sales demos on blendtec's website. . Pros- 1. No Plunger needed (The blender pulls down the ingredients and the Wild side jar helps to keep the 'vortex' motion going. The blender has not really gotten stuck with our ingredients which often happened with our old blenders- one was a Ninja Ultima and the other a Vitamix clone) 2. One button pre-set blending modes with a digital screen countdown timer. (I.E. Smoothie, Soup, Ice cream) 3. Super smooth results. (We used a Ninja Ultima 1500 for 2 years or so and had good results with that, we recently replaced it the updated Ninja Ultima 1300 based on the reviews. It worked but was too gritty and did not leave thick protein or green smoothies smooth. We then replaced it with a plunger based highly rated 3 Horse Power blender with amazing reviews. It was missing the one button press and would not suck down the ingredients into the blades requiring us to stop the blender, plunge and keep going. The Blendtec Total Blender Classic) 4. Great warranty for a refurb. (Feels more like an investment) 5. Much shorter than other blenders, taking up less space and fits much better underneath our kitchen cabinets. 6. USA Company :o) 7. Is this thing actually refurbished? It looks and performs like it arrived brand new. Cons- (Not many) 1. No single serving to-go blender cups like the nutri-bullet. 2. The lid works just fine, but it feels cheaply constructed almost like they designed it as an afterthought. I have not done and research as to why the designed it the way the did, but it does feel odd.

It's actually a real club, I'm friends with many members that are now no longer better than me. I used to make fun of people who spent absurd amounts of money on blenders. The vitamix people, the blendtec people, I assumed my 100 dollar nutribullet was just as good. I was wrong. I'll admit I always wanted one of these strictly because they scream "I have more money than you" from your counter top right next to my behemoth KitchenAid Pro 600 (i'm not even a pro). I like making people feel inferior. But I am also somewhat frugal given my upper class income, and didn't want to spend money on a blender I'll use a few times a year. I've had it for a day and I can guarantee I'll be blending more stuff, the possibilities are endless. Just Youtube "Will It Blend?" Pros: Everything, it looks great on the counter, it's super easy to clean, it will pulverize whatever you put in it to a smooth gritless consistency. The counter is also a cool feature, I'm considering getting a second one and isolating each one to alcoholic beverages vs healthy smoothies, so I can see which one gets a higher count. before I get to the cons, many reviews said this thing is loud. Having read this, my expectations were that it would be loud. you will not read about audible noise in my cons because it was nowhere near as loud as I was expecting. I'd go as far to say that I believe the nutribullet is louder. Cons: Cost of ownership. I was lucky that i caught this on a day where it was an amazon prime deal of the day. Additional jars seem necessary come days like Cinco de Mayo, but they are EXPENSIVE. Given the cost of the blender, one would hope that Blendtec would take it easy on people that spent a crazy amount on the blender and sell the jars at a reasonable price (there are several different types, but you'll want a second Wildside or fourside at the very least, and the twister looks like a good accessory too). Even on sale (i received an email that jars were 30% off after i bought one, I guess I'm in some club now) they are prohibitively expensive for someone that stretched to buy the blender in the first place. Overall: 100% worth it, but I have to dock the product a star simply because the cost of acquiring additional jars for convenience is insanely overpriced. I can't imagine how a hunk of plastic with a blade in it is of equal value to the blender base with a 3HP motor (actually more if you take into account what I paid for the blender on sale). Sell the full size jars for ~$50 and the mini/twister for a little less, and this would be a 5 star product line all day long.

I bought the Blendtec after losing my Vitamix in a move (later found.) I really liked my Vitamix, and I still do. But when I lost it for a while, and did not want to spend the higher price it would have taken to replace, I decided to try the Blendtec. I primarily use my blenders for smoothies. Pros: 1) Lighter and easier to move around, store in cabinets etc... 2) Creates a slightly "frothier" smoothie than the Vitamix did (blades are not sharp, they beat things into submission rather than slicing). 3) The smoothie program works perfectly for me. Although I do occasionally run it for a few seconds on manual after running the cycle. 4) Tamper free. Once in a while, I find that a hard cap will form high in the mixer that does not get blended during the smoothie cycle. I can usually tap the blender on the side a couple of times and get it back into the blade mix. I use frozen berries, I think this is just ice forming around them as I add liquids. 5) It does not look like a commercial appliance. 6) At least on the smoothie cycle, it is quieter than the Vitamix was when I used it to make smoothies. Still loud, but sounds more like a regular blender and less like a jet engine taking off. Cons: 1) Being lighter than the Vitamix, it moves around more. This has not been a problem so far. I tend to hang onto it anyway, just like I did with the Vitamix. 2) It has a rubber (or something like rubber) seal inside the blender, below the blades, that you have to keep an eye on. It can disintegrate into your mix. I haven't experienced this, but bought it knowing about this in advance. If it becomes a problem I will replace the mixer top. Overall I find it easier to use than the Vitamix. My wife and I have chosen to give the Vitamix to a family member so someone else can take advantage of it. It is an incredible blender, the Blendtec just works better for us.

I am sure Refurbished blenders are hit or miss - and our was a HUGE MISS. The blender came in an official Blendtec Box that says "reconditioned" all over it. When we pulled the blender out, there was no visible wear or tear. It honestly looked brand new. We were so excited! We went to the store and bought lots of ingredients for smoothies. We plugged the blender in and started blending. The first smoothy worked perfectly. Powerful blender, that blends well. Then things went wrong: 1. On smoothy attempts #2 - #7, the blender wouldn't blend. It would start for a second, and then the motor would keep running, but the blades wouldn't spin. We tried everything to fix it. Nothing worked. 2. On smoothy attempt #8, it magically worked again 3. On smoothy attempt #9, it worked, but the blender was so powerful that it tipped out (by itself) and the lid shot off. I guess you need to hold it down with your hand the whole time? 4. Smoothy attempt #10 - motor running, but blades not spinning. We decided to call it quits. This many problems in 2 days seems like a goo indicator of the next 3+ years. Buy at your own risk. The 3 year warranty is nice, but a huge hassle to deal with. We realized that our Ninja blender works about as good when you run it for longer cycles. We were blending for ~30 seconds with the Ninja, but then we realized all Blendtec cycles are 60 seconds plus. Now that we do 60 seconds on our Ninja, we are fine to keep it. We wont be buying a Blendtec anymore.

I don't really feel "worthy" of reviewing this, because I can see there are A LOT of Vitamix and Blendtec experts here who know far more about the technical details than I do. So my perspective is a bit more simple, and perhaps a bit more ignorant. But here's my general opinion for what it's worth: I DID do some comparison research between a Vitamix and Blendtec, but to be honest, I bought this last summer and by now I've forgotten half of the reasons that convinced me to that this would be the better choice for me. I do know one of the main things was the need for a 'tamper' to push things down into the Vitamix and that just seemed annoying. The Blendtec has yet to need anything pushed down or assisted in any way, it just sucks everything right in and blends things completely, first time, every time. I think there were some other factors about the power of the motor, etc., but again, I'm sorry that I did not review this back when it was still fresh in my mind. But you can see TONS of other reviews for the technical stuff. I just know I had a crappy blender and was sick of it not being able to complete the simplest of tasks properly, and wanted something high quality and versatile. I love the WildSide Jar because it's big and it's also easy to clean. I just take the jar off and rinse it out, along with the two-piece lid, that's it. With my old cheap blender I had to disassemble the blade unit at the bottom and there were more pieces to clean. I have a friend who uses her Blendtec for ALL kinds of things, including grinding grains. But she does admit that her jar becomes pitted as a result and so I am too chicken to try it with grains for now, I want to keep mine nice. I do like the various options: you can choose the type of item you're making and it seems to know just what to do, speed up, slow down, how long or short, etc., and takes all of the guess work out, while displaying a digital countdown of the time left in the cycle. It does also have the 'pulse' option if you're doing something that only requires some quick blending, as well as speed 'up' and 'down' buttons that I rarely need. I will say, this is LOUD. I was not expecting it to be so loud, and when I first turned it on it scared the heck out of both me and my poor dog who hit the deck like a airplane was flying through the kitchen. I'm used to it now that I know to expect it, but it was very startling at first. It also speeds up and down during certain cycles, and at first that was mildly alarming but now seems kind of exciting in a silly way, like I'm watching a magic trick in action. Also, HOLD the lid when using it. It fits nice and snug, but I decided to try my hand at homemade tomato soup (it even heats the soup!) and didn't think to hold the lid and it came flying off and I literally had soup ALL over my kitchen (much to my dog's delight, who spent the next half hour licking everything she could reach and decided this loud thing wasn't so bad after all). So be warned, it's powerful. On that same soup-disaster note, I did have the opportunity to appreciate the simple, seamless design of the control panel and body. It was very easy to clean all the soup off, since there are no old-style buttons for things to get stuck in. Just wipe off and voila. I had no issues with it being refurbished. No fancy box, just a plain white box, but it still arrived in sparkling new condition and I would have not known that it was refurbished by the look of it. It's a large, heavy unit and takes a good amount of counter space footprint-wise, but it's not terribly tall. In fact, I think that's another reason why I chose it over the Vitamix, I think it's shorter than the Vitamix, but don't quote me on that. It's heavy to the point where it stays out on my counter rather than getting put away after use, so consider that as well. Still, I'm very happy with it and I suspect it does far more than I have done with it, but it feels great to have such a quality and versatile appliance. It's amazing to be able to throw very largely cut carrots, etc into it with very little hand cutting first and watch it just liquefy it with no effort. It comes with a handy book that's quite nice, hardcover and spiral bound, with some recipes. I tried one of them reluctantly, a dough recipe, and couldn't fathom that it could do dough without making a sticky mess all over the blades. But it does! It made a neat little ball of dough that popped right out with very little left on the blades which I found to be very impressive. I have no real complaints, other than to warn of the loudness of it, but otherwise it's been fun to use and impresses me every single time I try something new with it.