The Blendtec Total Blender Classic is a full-size blender with a variety of blending programs for different recipes and ten manual speed settings. This model has a 90oz 'WildSide+' jar, although its blending capacity is 36oz. You can use it to hot blend or heat ingredients. There's a 2-part lid included for the jar, so you can add ingredients mid-blend.
Our Verdict
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic is excellent for multi-purpose use. It's fantastic for blending fibrous ingredients in soups and smoothies and has no problem crushing ice. You can use it to hot blend and heat ingredients with its 'Hot Soup' mode. However, it's not the best for small batches since they tend to splash around the jar. It's time-consuming to use for thicker recipes like nut butter. Unfortunately, it's also very loud compared to similar blenders.
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Makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Can hot blend and heat up ingredients.
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Very loud.
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36oz blending capacity.
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic is great for single-serve smoothies. It makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients common in smoothies like kale and fruit. It has no problem crushing ice cubes. However, it's not the most convenient to blend smaller batches since the ingredients splash around and you must stop and scrape the jar.
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Makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Very loud.
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic is fantastic for multiple servings of smoothies. If you use the jar's full 36oz blending capacity, it quickly makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like kale, with virtually no unprocessed specks left over. It quickly crushes ice cubes. It's easy to clean by hand or in the dishwasher.
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Makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Very loud.
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic is outstanding for crushing ice. Using its 'Crush Ice' automatic blending program can quickly make snow-like crushed ice for cocktails or blended drinks like slushies.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Very loud.
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic is fantastic for soups. You can use it to blend hot ingredients since the lid is vented to let steam escape. It makes a virtually perfectly smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like kale and broccoli at full capacity, so it can produce silky-smooth soups and sauces. You can also use its 'Hot Soup' mode to heat ingredients as they blend.
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Makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Can hot blend and heat up ingredients.
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Very loud.
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic is great for professional use. It's fantastic for processing bigger batches of soups and smoothies since it quickly liquifies fibrous ingredients with the jar at full capacity. It's also a fantastic ice crusher. However, it's difficult to use for recipes like nut butter or hummus. You have to stir often, and it requires a lot of blending to make a smooth mix. While its motor base feels sturdy and has metal gears, some parts of the design feel cheap, like the plastic covering the buttons.
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Makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Can hot blend and heat up ingredients.
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Very loud.
- 8.5 Multi-Purpose
- 8.1 Smoothies (Single Serving)
- 9.7 Smoothies (Multiple Servings)
- 9.7 Ice Crushing
- 9.7 Soups
- 8.3 Professional Use
- Updated Oct 09, 2024: Added a note that the Vitamix Ascent X4 is easier to use for recipes like nut butter.
- Updated May 10, 2024: Added a note that the Vitamix Venturist Pro is easier to use for recipes like nut butter.
- Updated Apr 02, 2024: We've changed the dishwasher-safe result for the blades from 'no' to 'yes' because of an error in the original results.
- Updated Mar 20, 2024: Review published.
- Updated Mar 13, 2024: Early access published.
- Updated Mar 08, 2024: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Mar 01, 2024: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Feb 23, 2024: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Blendtec Total Classic comes in a few variants that come with different jars. We tested it with the WildSide+ jar in 'Black.' You can see the label for the unit we tested here. This same model also comes in 'Red' and 'White'. Our blending performance results are only valid for the 'WildSide+' jar.
It's also sometimes sold with a smaller 'Four-Side' jar. This smaller square-shaped jar doesn't have an extra fifth side like the WildSide+ jar and has a smaller 75oz overall capacity/32oz blending capacity. The manufacturer says the WildSide+ jar is better for ice and bigger blends, while the FourSide jar can heat ingredients faster and is a better option for single-serves. The Blendtec Chef 600 comes with a FourSide jar and does blend small batches more efficiently, but performance also depends on motor power and speed, so we're not sure how that jar will affect the Blendtec Total Blender Classic's performance.
Some variants also come with a 'Spectacula,' a spatula to help clean the jar, and a 24oz 'Twister Jar' with arms attached to the lid that you can rotate while the blender runs. This jar may help with recipes that otherwise require stirring or jar scraping, like nut butter.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the forums, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Blenders
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic has more options for automatic blending than other Blendtec models like the Blendtec Classic 575 and the Blendtec Chef 600, including a 'Hot Soup' program for heating ingredients as they blend. Otherwise, it's quite similar to other models from this manufacturer. It's fantastic for big batches of smoothies and ice but less ideal for thick recipes like nut butter and smaller batches of ingredients. If you want to make single-serve smoothies, similarly-priced blenders like the Vitamix Explorian E310 and the Breville The Q are better options. However, its biggest downside is how loud it is.
If you're looking for a recommendation, check out the best blenders, the best blenders for smoothies, and the best blenders for frozen drinks.
The Vitamix 5200 is better than the Blendtec Total Blender Classic. The Vitamix has a much better build quality and does a much better job of blending small batches for recipes like single-serve smoothies. It's easier to use for recipes like nut butter. It's also significantly quieter. However, the Blendtec is a better ice crusher since its wide jar can handle more ice cubes at once than the 5200's narrow jar. It has automatic blending programs as well as a manual blending mode.
The Blendtec Classic 575 is better than the Blendtec Total Blender Classic. They perform similarly overall, but the Classic 575 blends small batches of fibrous ingredients for recipes like single-serve smoothies more efficiently. It's somewhat quieter, although both blenders are very loud. However, the Total Blender can heat ingredients with its 'Hot Soup' program.
For most purposes, the Vitamix Explorian E310 is better than the Blendtec Total Blender Classic. The Explorian is much sturdier and makes a smoother blend with small batches of fibrous ingredients in less time. It's also much easier to use for recipes like nut butter and hummus. The Explorian is quieter but still very loud overall. On the other hand, the Total Blender makes more uniformly crushed ice. It has several automatic blending programs.
The Blendtec Chef 600 is a little better than the Blendtec Total Blender Classic. The Chef comes with a smaller 75oz (32oz blending capacity) jar and is easier to use for recipes like nut butter. It makes a smoother blend with small batches of fibrous ingredients more efficiently. While the Total Classic crushes ice quicker and has blending programs as well as a manual blending mode, it's one of the loudest blenders we've tested.
Test Results
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic is smaller and lighter than similarly-priced Vitamix blenders like the Vitamix Explorian E310, which is helpful if you want to store it out of the way while not in use.
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic has a decent build quality. The gears on the motor base and jar are made of solid metal and fit into each other well. The base is made of sturdy plastic and has feet to keep it from moving around on your counter.
However, some design details hurt its overall build quality. The jar wobbles on the motor base, and the plastic covering the buttons feels like it could peel off. The buttons are mushy instead of clicky. No safety mechanism prevents the blender from running without the jar or lid installed.
The jar has a big 90oz capacity, but its blending capacity is 36oz. This refers to the volume of ingredients after blending.
The jar is dishwasher-safe. This information isn't in the manual, but you can find it on Blendtec's website. However, it doesn't mention the lid, so clean it by hand.
This blender has blunt blades that are fixed in the jar. They're dishwasher-safe.
The lid fits into place with friction, and it's very easy to remove. It's vented to allow hot blending, and you can remove the center piece to add ingredients or use the tamper mid-blend.
The cable is long enough to reach a nearby outlet, although blenders like the Vitamix 5200 have much longer power cords if your kitchen is short on plugs. There's nowhere to stow the cable or wrap it up when it's not in use.
It's excellent for small batches of fibrous ingredients. Overall, it's quite an easy process and produces a mostly smooth blend with small amounts of fibrous ingredients like kale. However, the ingredients slosh around a lot in the jar instead of being pulled into a vortex like the Vitamix 5200. You have to scrape the sides of the jar partway through. You can use 'Smoothie Mode' or 'Whole Juice Mode,' but neither program achieves quite the best result, so you have to manually blend for an additional minute or so. It makes a mostly smooth blend with just a few tiny unprocessed bits left over. Unfortunately, it also noticeably heats the ingredients. We blended water for one 'Smoothie Mode' program, and its temperature increased from 74.5F/23.6C to 86F/30C. You can see the process in a video here. Other ingredients may heat up at a different rate, but you may end up with a lukewarm smoothie after a few minutes of blending.
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic is fantastic at processing fibrous ingredients at full capacity. Using more ingredients eliminates the splashing and sloshing you get with smaller batches, and blending a bigger batch takes less time. You only need to use one 'Whole Juice' program to get an even smoother texture compared to the smaller batch. There are virtually no unprocessed bits left over.
If you use the 'Smoothie' blending program, it doesn't quite achieve the same smooth texture in one cycle, as you can see here, so another cycle or another minute or so of manual blending would be required for best results.
It quickly crushes ice cubes into snow-like crushed ice with its 'Crushed Ice' mode. The program pulses the blender automatically, which helps crush big chunks of ice and helps avoid ice forming around the blades.
It can make smooth, spreadable nut butter, but it's difficult to use for that purpose. The blender easily crushes the ingredients, but the mixture quickly accumulates in the corners of the jar, where it stops moving. It helps to alternate between low and high speeds, but you still need to stop the blender, remove the lid, and scrape the sides of the jar often. The blender also heats up a lot, creating steam inside the jar, so you may want to remove the center piece to help ventilate. The ingredients are also warm by the end of the process. If you put the work in, it makes creamy, smooth nut butter with just a few unprocessed pieces. However, some other blenders, like the Vitamix Venturist Pro and Vitamix Ascent X4, are a lot easier to use and produce similar results.
It's extremely loud, even compared to the Blendtec Classic 575 and the Ninja Chef, which are also very loud. It's loud enough that you may want to consider another model unless you don't care about how much noise it makes.
This blender's maximum speed is very fast, which helps it blend big batches of fibrous ingredients so quickly. The Blendtec Classic 575 and Blendtec Chef 600 both have slower max speeds. Its slowest speed setting is still much faster than similarly-priced Vitamix models like the Vitamix Explorian E310, which can be a downside when you want to slowly incorporate ingredients or make thicker recipes.
The Blendtec Total Blender Classic has plenty of options for both manual and automatic blending. There are ten manual speed settings, which you can cycle through with the + and - buttons. The selected setting will display on the LED screen. On the right side, you have a pulse button. The blender will run as long as you hold the pulse button down. On the second row, each button is for a different blending program.
- Whisk icon: Batters
- Margarita icon: Mixed Drinks
- Glass with straw icon: Smoothies
- Ice cream icon: Ice Cream
- Carrot icon: Whole Juice
- Bowl with steam icon: Hot Soup
The hot soup feature is meant for heating room-temperature ingredients as they blend. It heats 500 mL of water from 71.7F/22.1C to 118.5F/47.9C after 3 minutes of blending. However, different ingredients may heat up at a different rate than water.
There's also an on/off switch on the back of the motor base that has to be switched 'on' for the blender to run.
It's very easy to clean. Running the blender with soap and water in the jar helps remove debris from the sides and bottom of the jar. You still need to clean the inside of the jar and the blades with a sponge, but it's quite easy to do because the blades aren't sharp at all. However, the handle is hollow and takes some extra time to clean if there's any debris stuck inside.