The Vitamix Propel 510 is a sturdy, high-end full-size blender with a 48oz main jar. It has simple controls, including a speed dial, pulse switch, and automatic blending programs: 'Smoothie', 'Frozen Drinks', and 'Hot Soup'. It has a versatile blending performance and overall, it's very similar to the Vitamix Propel 750, which is a little more expensive and comes with a bigger 64oz jar.
Our Verdict
The Vitamix Propel 510 is fantastic for multi-purpose use. It's very well-built and versatile, since it efficiently blends all kinds of ingredients, like fibrous fruits, vegetables, and ice cubes. It doesn't have a huge capacity for a full-size blender, since its jar holds 48oz, but it's very easy to use for recipes like nut butter or hummus. It can also hot blend and heat ingredients with a 'Soup' blending program, which uses friction from the blades. It's also easy to clean and dishwasher-safe.
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Smoothly blends fibrous ingredients.
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Very easy to use for thick recipes.
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Very well-built.
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Hot blends.
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No additional jars or accessories.
The Vitamix Propel 510 is superb for single-serve smoothies. It comes with a 48oz main jar that does a fantastic job with small batches of fibrous ingredients, which helps it make silky-smooth drinks with ingredients like kale or blueberries. It easily crushes ice and has a blending program for smoothies, so you can step away from the blender while your drink blends.
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Smoothly blends fibrous ingredients.
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Makes snow-like ice.
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Very well-built.
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No additional jars or accessories.
The Vitamix Propel 510 is incredible for multiple servings of smoothies. If you use the 48-oz jar to make a big batch, it quickly blends stubborn additions like leafy greens, making a mostly smooth blend with just a few unprocessed bits leftover. It's an excellent ice crusher as well. However, some blenders can blend a big batch of smoothies faster.
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Smoothly blends fibrous ingredients.
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Makes snow-like ice.
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Very well-built.
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Somewhat small capacity.
The Vitamix Propel 510 is excellent for crushing ice. The pulse switch makes it easy to use for crushing ice, and it quickly breaks down ice cubes into powdery, snow-like ice. It's also very sturdy, which is especially important if you often blend hard ingredients like ice. However, blenders with automatic pulse or ice crush programs make ice crushing a bit easier.
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Makes snow-like ice.
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Very well-built.
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Fairly loud.
The Vitamix Propel 510 is excellent for soups. It makes a very smooth blend with fibrous vegetables like broccoli and kale, even if you fill the jar to full capacity. It can handle hot ingredients and heat food over about seven minutes with its 'Soup' program, which uses friction from the blades. It's also easy to clean and comes with a two-part lid so you can easily add more ingredients. However, its 48oz capacity is smaller than many full-size blenders, which you may find limiting if you usually make multiple servings.
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Smoothly blends fibrous ingredients.
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Very well-built.
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Hot blends.
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Somewhat small capacity.
The Vitamix Propel 510 is fantastic for professional use. It's very well-built, which is helpful if you use your blender daily, and it offers a versatile blending performance. The 48oz jar is incredibly easy to use for recipes like nut butter or hummus. It also easily blends fibrous fruits and vegetables as well as ice cubes. It has a wide range of speed settings and all of its components are dishwasher-safe.
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Smoothly blends fibrous ingredients.
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Very easy to use for thick recipes.
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Very well-built.
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Hot blends.
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Fairly loud.
- 9.3 Multi-Purpose
- 9.0 Smoothies (Single Serving)
- 8.5 Smoothies (Multiple Servings)
- 8.7 Ice Crushing
- 8.7 Soups
- 9.0 Professional Use
- Updated Oct 11, 2024: We've updated the results to more accurately reflect the blender's performance. The score for Fibrous Ingredients (Full Capacity) processing changed from 10 to 8.5 because of the blending time, and the score for texture changed from 10 to 9.5. The score for Ice Crushing processing changed from 10 to 9 because it doesn't have an automatic ice crush program.
- Updated May 10, 2024: Compared its jar capacity to the recently-reviewed Vitamix Venturist Pro's.
- Updated May 09, 2023: Review published.
- Updated May 03, 2023: Early access published.
- Updated May 01, 2023: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Apr 19, 2023: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Apr 11, 2023: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Vitamix Propel 510 only comes in Black. You can see the label for the unit we tested here. If you come across another version of the blender, let us know in the forum discussions below and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Blenders
The Vitamix Propel 510 is a full-size blender with a 48oz main jar. It has a similar design to the Vitamix Explorian E310, but its dial includes a few automatic blending programs. It lacks features like a digital display or stopwatch that you see on some higher-end models from the same manufacturer. Still, you might prefer its simpler design and it has a fantastic overall blending performance. Compared to other smaller full-size blenders like the Breville the Fresh & Furious and the Smeg BLF01, it's more versatile, since it can heat ingredients. It's also an outstanding choice for recipes like nut butter or hummus.
If you want more options, check out our lists of the best blenders, the best blenders for frozen drinks, and the best Vitamix blenders.
The Vitamix Propel 510 and the Vitamix 5200 perform similarly. The Propel is better for difficult blends like crushing ice and making nut butter. It has a few automatic blending programs on its dial. However, the 5200's narrower jar makes a silkier single-serve smoothie.
For most purposes, the Vitamix Propel 510 is better than the Vitamix Explorian E310. The Propel is smaller and quieter, has a few automatic blending programs, and has a longer power cord. It processes big batches of fibrous ingredients faster and has a better ice-crushing performance.
The Vitamix Propel 510 and the Vitamix Propel 750 are very similar, and you may prefer either. The 510 has a smaller capacity and has fewer blending programs, but you might prefer it if you don't need a bigger jar and want a slightly smaller, quieter machine.
The Vitamix Propel 510 and the Vitamix Venturist Pro have different strengths. The Propel is smaller and comes with a 48oz jar versus the Venturist's 64oz jar. As a result, the Propel is a little easier to use to blend smaller batches of ingredients, like for a single-serve smoothie. The Propel's controls include onboard blending programs. However, the Venturist has a digital display that shows how long you've been blending. It's compatible with an app that offers blending programs and lets you set a timer. It's also compatible with a wide range of additional jars since it works with any 'Ascent' series jars and attachments sold by Vitamix.
The Vitamix Propel 510 and the Vitamix Explorian E520 are similar blenders with different strengths. While both blenders offer a fantastic overall blending performance, the Propel 510 is a lot quieter at max volume. However, the Explorian E520's jar is larger, and it comes with two tumblers and straws so that you can take your drinks with you on the go.
Though the Vitamix Propel 510 is better than the Breville the Fresh & Furious, they have different strengths. The Vitamix is sturdier and more versatile since it can hot blend and is more suitable for tough blends like nut butter and hummus. However, the Breville is more compact, quieter, and easier to clean by hand.
Test Results
The Vitamix Propel 510 is quite big and bulky. You probably need to store it on a counter instead of a cupboard or shelf. However, it's a little smaller and lighter than the Vitamix Propel 750. You can see a comparison of the two similar blenders here.
It has a superb build quality. The motor base is made of plastic that feels solid and sturdy and the transmission gears on the jar and base are metal. The dial and switches also feel well-made. There's a centering pad that sits on top of the motor base and helps keep the jar stable. It's removable for easier cleaning. Depending on where you buy it, it's available with a five-year U.S. warranty, which is long for a blender. However, the more expensive Vitamix Propel 750 is sold with a longer seven-year warranty. This model's build isn't as premium as some blenders, like the Vitamix 7500, which have more durable metal siding around the bottom of the motor base.
This blender comes with a 48oz main jar. Most full-size blenders we've tested come with a main jar that holds at least 60oz, so it's on the small side, which could be an issue if you usually blend multiple servings at once. If you need more capacity, Vitamix makes several models with 64oz jars, including the Vitamix Venturist Pro.
The jar, two-part lid, tamper, and 'centering pad' are all dishwasher-safe. The jar is very similar to the one that comes with the Vitamix Explorian E310 and has measuring marks in ounces, cups, and milliliters.
The main jar has four sharp blades that aren't removable. They aren't as sharp as some blender blades, like the Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System, which makes the blender easier to clean by hand. The blades are fixed in the jar with a nut assembly that you could remove, but doing so voids the warranty.
The two-part lid hooks onto the lip of the jar with two plastic tabs. The center piece can be removed so you can add ingredients or use the tamper.
It has a really long power cord, which is nice if outlets are few and far between in your kitchen. You can wrap it up under the blender when not in use.
It's fantastic for small batches of fibrous ingredients. If you use it for something like a single-serve kale smoothie, it quickly processes the ingredients into a very smooth puree. There are some very small specs leftover since some bits can get stuck on the jar's walls. When you're working with smaller volumes of ingredients, the extra room in the jar also allows more air to be introduced into the mix, so the final blend is somewhat airy or bubbly.
It's fantastic for processing fibrous ingredients at full capacity. Using maximum speed, it only takes a few minutes to blend a big batch of kale or broccoli into a smooth puree with just a few small unprocessed bits left over. However, some blenders, like the Vitamix A3500, can make an even smoother blend faster.
It's fantastic for crushing ice. The pulse switch makes it easy to use to crush ice cubes, and it makes uniformly crushed, snow-like ice for cocktails or blended drinks like slushies. Some blenders with automatic pulse mode or ice crush blending programs are even easier to use for ice crushing.
It's outstanding for nut butter. If you blend at a higher speed (around seven or eight on the dial) for most of the process, you don't need to use the tamper or stop the machine at any point. The smaller jar helps keep all the ingredients near the blades, so it's able to process the same volume faster than blenders with bigger jars like the Vitamix Propel 750.
It's fairly loud, so the noise when you're using it is more irritating than quieter blenders like the KitchenAid K400 and Wolf Gourmet Pro-Performance.
The speed dial gives you access to a wide range of speed settings with no set increments, so you can make small adjustments. The lowest speed is quite slow, so you can mix slowly to avoid over blending or splashing.
It has simple controls, with a speed dial, pulse switch, on/off switch, and a power switch below the main control panel. The dial has no set increments for speed, so you can make small adjustments. There are also automatic blending programs on the dial, including 'Soup', which heats up ingredients using friction from the blades, so you can make steaming soup in the jar. The programs stop the blender automatically at the end.
It's easy to clean by hand. Running the blender with soap and water in the jar helps remove sticky food from the blades and jar. You need to scrub the sides of the jar and use a brush to clean around and under the non-removable blades, but it's not a very long or difficult process.