Vitamix's Wet Blade Liquids Container

The container that comes with the Vitamix 5200 is meant for liquids, but you do not have to add any liquid at all! Here’s a few things we tried in this container that you wouldn’t consider liquid:

Just put in a container of dry roasted peanuts and in minutes you’ve got the freshest, creamiest, tastiest peanut butter ever.

Put in ice, a couple of oranges (or any single fruit) and a touch of honey and you’ve got a smooth refreshing sorbet that’s eaten with a spoon.

Here’s a recipe called “Cindy’s Midday Green Smoothie”, this makes a thick liquid but has no liquid ingredients. Place an apple, orange, spinach, carrots, pineapple, banana, frozen strawberries and ice into the container for a refreshing drink. Totally healthy and totally delicious!

Get all your fruit and vegetable servings quick and easy first thing in the morning and you’re getting your day off to a much better start than with most any other breakfast. Watch this recipe in action as fruits transform to a smoothie in this video:

Vitamix's Dry Blade Container

We also tried the dry grains container, an optional 32 ounce container. The dry grains container is 9.8 inches tall and is constructed of BPA-free Eastman Tritan® co-polyester. The blades are laser-cut, stainless-steel dry blades measuring 2.8 inches and specifically designed for efficient processing of dry grains into flour.

The difference between the dry grains container and the liquids container, besides the shape and size of the container, is the blade. The blades point upward for the dry grains and downward for liquids.

With this container you can begin with natural seeds (no matter how hard) and end up with a lovely bread dough (which you will have to then bake). You can also use it to grind a massive amount of coffee beans, instead of standing in the store and spilling beans all over the place at the industrial grinder.

Watch the Vitamix 5200 turn hard solid kernels into dust …

Check out the results. Here we ground (left to right) white corn, red wheat berries and white rice to make uniformly smooth flours. No seed goes untouched with the Vitamix!

General Vitamix Information

Does The Vitamix Help Save Money?

We believe it does in many ways. If you are a fan of Jamba Juice and make your own instead of stopping there, you can probably save enough money in a year to pay back the purchase price of the Vitamix. We buy large bags of frozen fruit and then “throw it in the Vitamix” with whatever fresh fruit is in season. We throw whatever we have into the Vitamix and I mean throw – you do not have to skin your apples, you do not have to core your pineapples, you don’t even have to remove the white peel from your oranges. The only thing you really need to do is peel your bananas, how hard is that?

Your fruit does not even have to be the freshest or most beautiful (but please don’t use items past their eat by date – throw garbage in the disposal). And the great thing about smoothies is that you can secretly make them healthy – unless the kids see you do it, they will never know you’ve added in vegetables like carrots and cabbage. It’s a healthy way to eat – fresh and natural.

The reason we love the Vitamix 5200 so much is because it fits the recurring theme in our website – saving time and money. You can make an entire meal, each course in a matter of minutes. Go Mexican one night and start with frozen margaritas and some salsa, have a steaming bowl of chicken tortilla soup and then end with an ice cold fruit sorbet. You read that right – you can make a frozen drink, then hot soup and then turn right around and make a frozen dessert to eat with a spoon! No stove, no freezer – just your Vitamix 5200. Wham, bam and best of all.. NO pots or pans! (well, provided you had some cooked chicken on hand for the soup before starting) All these recipes and many more are contained in the cookbook which comes with every Vitamix 5200.

Is The Vitamix 5200 Easy To Use?

Yes! Gotta love a machine that just plugs in and is ready to go! You can’t miss with anything. The switches are right there in front and flip very easily. The containers each have a hole in the middle to either add ingredients without having to take the lid off or to insert the tamper. Having the tamper in place makes it so you can properly mix all ingredients without ever having to stir anything. Hands free cooking – gotta love it! One word of caution though – always use the lid of the vitamix and just remove the center piece to insert the tamper. If you try to use the tamper without having the lid in place, the Vitamix will indeed eat the tamper. The blades are extremely sharp.

Cleaning the Vitamix

To wash the Vitamix – Add one drop of dish liquid, that’s right just one drop of soap with water will fill the container with suds. Run the Vitamix on high for a minute or so and your Vitamix will be sparkling clean. Just rinse it out and it’s ready for your your next creation.

Any Complaints About The Vitamix 5200 Blender?

Our only complaint is the noise, it is a little loud but this new model is quieter than it used to be.

Our Final Opinion

Overall, we gave our product review of the Vitamix 5200 a 5/5 star rating. I should note that most of us are not new to Vitamix, I have a Vitamix 5000 that I’ve been using and enjoying for about 10 years. Prior to purchasing the Vitamix, I would buy a new blender about every 6 months (a year if I was lucky) because I would always put something in there (usually ice) that would burn out the motor. To fix this, the Vitamix has an auto shut off mode that kicks in if it is getting too hot. It knows enough to shut off before it overheats and then you can turn it on again after it has cooled down. This happened to me just a couple of times over the years, it’s not a regular thing but a much needed precaution mechanism.

We love the Vitamix 5200 and suggest you check it out if you are in the market for a blender, but you want more than just an ordinary blender!

More Info on Vitamix

For more information about Vitamin check out the Vitamix website for more information including great recipes, tips and frequently asked questions.

To Purchase The Vitamix 5200: Vitamix 5200 with 7 YR WARRANTY from Vitamix OR they carry the Vitamix 5200 at Costco warehouses and if you don’t believe our review you should try and catch the Vitamix roadshow which stops at Costco from time to time and makes their recipes for delicious sampling.