The Vitamix Immersion Blender is designed for blending hot ingredients into soups, purees, and more. Its long shaft can help you blend ingredients in deep dutch ovens or pots, but unfortunately, it doesn't have the same premium build quality as full-size Vitamix blenders like the Vitamix 5200. It doesn't come with jars or accessories like a whisk, although you can buy them separately.
Our Verdict
The Vitamix Immersion Blender is okay for multi-purpose use. It's intended for blending hot ingredients directly in a pot or pan, and it's best suited for processing softer ingredients into soups and sauces. It struggles to make a smooth blend with fibrous fruits and vegetables, so it's not ideal for soup with broccoli or kale or smoothies with fruit like blueberries. It's not suitable for crushing ice, like most immersion blenders. It also doesn't come with a beaker you can use for blending or any extra attachments like a whisk.
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Can hot blend.
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Easy to clean by hand.
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Struggles with fibrous ingredients like kale.
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Can't crush ice.
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Motor body can get very hot.
The Vitamix Immersion Blender isn't good for single-serving smoothies. It's intended for blending directly in a pot or pan and isn't as convenient for smoothies as a personal or full-size blender. It doesn't fully blend fibrous additions like fruit and leafy greens, meaning smoothies can turn out with a grainy texture.
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Easy to clean by hand.
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Struggles with fibrous ingredients like kale.
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Can't crush ice.
The Vitamix Immersion Blender struggles to make a completely smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like leafy greens and fruit, especially when working with bigger batches. The blade guard can prevent the blades from reaching ice cubes and similarly-shaped ingredients like frozen strawberries. You also need to use your own beaker or jar since it's intended for blending directly in a pot or pan and doesn't come with one. That said, it's easy to clean by hand and blends ingredients fairly quickly.
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Easy to clean by hand.
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Struggles with fibrous ingredients like kale.
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Can't crush ice.
The Vitamix Immersion Blender is poor for crushing ice. The bell-shaped blade guard makes it difficult for the blades to reach the ice cubes.
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Can't crush ice.
The Vitamix Immersion Blender is excellent for soups. It's intended for blending hot ingredients in a pot or pan, so you don't need to transfer your recipe into a blending jar when you're making soup or sauce. While it doesn't make a completely smooth blend with stubborn ingredients like raw kale, cooked ingredients and vegetables like carrots or potatoes are easier to process. The detachable blending arm is easy to clean by hand, but it isn't dishwasher-safe.
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Can hot blend.
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Easy to clean by hand.
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Struggles with fibrous ingredients like kale.
The Vitamix Immersion Blender is decent for professional use. It's not a very versatile blender but has a long blending shaft that can reach the bottom of most pots. It's detachable from the motor body for easy clean-up. However, it doesn't make a completely smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like kale or broccoli. It's not suitable for crushing ice and isn't ideal for spreads and dips like nut butter, which is typical for immersion blenders. It's decently well-built but doesn't feel particularly sturdy or premium, especially compared to full-size Vitamix blenders.
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Can hot blend.
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Easy to clean by hand.
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Struggles with fibrous ingredients like kale.
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Can't crush ice.
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Motor body can get very hot.
- 6.2 Multi-Purpose
- 5.8 Smoothies (Single Serving)
- 6.4 Smoothies (Multiple Servings)
- 4.1 Ice Crushing
- 8.9 Soups
- 7.3 Professional Use
- Updated Feb 16, 2023: Updated text to match Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Jul 28, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Feb 25, 2022: Retested 'Almond Βutter' and 'Crushed Ice'.
- Updated Feb 16, 2021: We've updated the Speed Dial test results.
- Updated Nov 30, 2020: Review published.
- Updated Nov 24, 2020: Early access published.
- Updated Nov 20, 2020: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Nov 18, 2020: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Nov 10, 2020: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Vitamix Immersion Blender is only available with a stainless steel finish. The model we tested doesn't come with any jars or attachments other than the blending arm. However, you can also buy a '4-Piece Immersion Blender Bundle' with a whisk and blending jar or the 'Deluxe Immersion Blender Bundle' that also includes a food processing bowl.
You can see the label for the model we tested here. If you come across another variant, let us know in the discussions, and we'll update the review.
Compared To Other Blenders
The Vitamix Immersion Blender has a long detachable blending arm meant for blending directly in your pots or pans. It's well-suited for turning ingredients into a smooth blend to make soups or purees but doesn't completely liquefy fibrous elements like raw kale. Unfortunately, unlike Vitamix's full-size blenders like the Vitamix 5200 or Vitamix Explorian E310, it's only decently well-built and doesn't feel very premium. Unlike many immersion blenders, it doesn't come with accessories like a beaker or a whisk included. However, you can buy extra accessories like a whisk, blending jar, and food processing bowl separately from the manufacturer.
If you're looking for other recommendations, check out our lists of the best blenders, the best immersion blenders, and the best Vitamix blenders.
The Ninja Foodi Power Mixer System is better than the Vitamix Immersion Blender. The Ninja has a better build quality, comes with a jar you can use for blending, and makes a smoother puree of fibrous ingredients. It's also easier to clean by hand and comes with beaters, meaning you can convert it into a hand mixer.
The Breville Control Grip is better than the Vitamix Immersion Blender. The Breville is sturdier and better at processing fibrous ingredients, meaning it can produce a smoother fruit smoothie or vegetable soup. It has various accessories, including a beaker for blending, a whisk, and a food-processing bowl. The jar and blending arm are dishwasher-safe.
The Braun MultiQuick 9 is better than the Vitamix Immersion Blender. The Braun has a better build quality and makes a smoother blend with fibrous ingredients like leafy greens or broccoli. It comes with a jar you can use for blending, and its blending arm is dishwasher-safe.
The Braun MultiQuick 7 is better than the Vitamix Immersion Blender. The Braun has a sturdier build and does a better job of blending fibrous ingredients like kale or broccoli, meaning it can make better-blended soups and smoothies. It comes with a jar you can use for blending, a whisk attachment, and a food-processing bowl with a variety of accessories, including blades for shredding and chopping.
The KitchenAid Variable Speed Corded Hand Blender is a better blender than the Vitamix Immersion Blender for most uses. The KitchenAid makes a smoother blend with fibrous ingredients like kale. It's much quieter when it's running and comes with a jar you can use for blending. However, the Vitamix has a much better build quality.
The Braun MultiQuick 5 is better than the Vitamix Immersion Blender. The Braun has a better build quality and makes a smoother blend with fibrous ingredients, making it more suitable for pureed soups or fruit smoothies. It's quieter when running and comes with a beaker and whisk attachment for making whipped cream or salad dressing.
The Vitamix Immersion Blender is better than the Bamix Mono M133 for most purposes. The Vitamix's blending arm is detachable, which makes it easier to clean and store, and it makes a smoother blend with fibrous fruits and vegetables like kale. On the other hand, the Bamix has a much better, premium build quality. It's quieter when it's running and comes with a jar you can use for blending.
The Vitamix Immersion Blender is a bit better than the All-Clad KZ750DGT. The Vitamix has a significantly better build quality, and it's quieter when it's running. The All-Clad isn't well-built but makes a smoother blend with fibrous ingredients like kale.
The Cuisinart Smart Stick Two-Speed Hand Blender is a bit better than the Vitamix Immersion Blender. The Cuisinart makes a smoother blend with fibrous fruits and vegetables, which is important for smooth pureed soups and sauces. It comes with a beaker for blending, which is nice if you want to blend something like a smoothie. However, it's not very well-built, and the Vitamix is sturdier, as well as much quieter when it's running.
The Cuisinart EvolutionX RHB-100 is a battery-powered immersion blender, so you might prefer it over the Vitamix Immersion Blender if you want to move around your kitchen without worrying about a power cord. The blenders perform similarly when blending recipes like pureed vegetable soup, but the Vitamix is capable of tougher blends like nut butter.
The NutriBullet Immersion Blender is a better blender than the Vitamix Immersion Blender. The NutriBullet makes a smoother blend with ingredients like kale. It's quieter when it's running and comes with a whisk attachment for making whipped cream or emulsions like hollandaise sauce.
Test Results
It has a long shaft that can reach the bottom of most dutch ovens. You can easily store it in a kitchen drawer when it's not in use. Also, the shaft is removable for easier storage.
This blender has a decent build quality. It's mostly made of stainless steel, with a rubberized handle on the motor body. While these materials seem durable and solid, the plastic transmission feels cheap and may easily show signs of wear and tear. The matte plastic bell guard doesn't feel very premium, either. Also, the stainless steel part of the motor can become extremely hot if you try to process tough ingredients like almonds.
Six blades are fixed to the blending arm. The arm can be detached from the motor body but isn't dishwasher-safe.
The power cord is long enough to reach an outlet near your stove or counter.
It makes a passably smooth blend with small batches of fibrous ingredients, but it's not the easiest to use for that purpose. Besides holding the blender for the whole process, you need to keep the power button pressed down to blend. It's important to move the blending arm up and down for the best results. It processes the ingredients faster than the All-Clad KZ750DGT but makes a less smooth puree with fibrous ingredients like kale.
It's not good for blending big batches of fibrous ingredients. When you're working with more ingredients, it makes a grainier blend with more unprocessed bits left over. While it takes less time to get the best possible result than immersion blenders like the Breville Control Grip, it makes a less smooth blend. However, like all blenders, softer cooked ingredients are easier to process.
It isn't suitable for crushing ice. The bell-shaped guard at the end of the blending arm is too small to fit ice cubes, so they can't reach the blades.
It's adequate for nut butter. It can produce smooth, spreadable nut butter, but it's a time-consuming and annoying process. After the nuts are crushed into a paste, it accumulates around the blades and under the blade guard. You need to stop and clean the blades with a knife or another tool, which can be messy and adds a few minutes to the preparation time. The motor body also heats up quite a bit by the end of the process, which involves around seven minutes of actual blending. It can become hot to the touch if it heats up too much, and it's possible to burn yourself.
It's loud for an immersion blender. You might find the noise becomes annoying more quickly compared to quieter blenders like the KitchenAid 5-Speed Hand Blender and the Braun MultiQuick 5.
It offers a fairly wide range of speed settings, so you can adjust the blending speed to suit your recipe.
This blender has a variable speed control button that lets you cycle between five different speeds. Once you've set the desired speed, hold down on the power button to blend. You can also simulate a pulse mode by pressing and releasing the power button multiple times.
It's very easy to clean by hand. You can blend in a beaker with soap and water if necessary to dislodge food caught in the blades. You need to wipe the blade guard and the blades with a sponge or brush, but it's not a tedious process, especially because the blending arm is detachable from the motor body.