Customer Reviews

Vitamix 1363 CIA Professional Series, Platinum

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have had my platinum Vita-Mix 1363 CIA (Culinary Institute of America) model blender for just over a month. So far, I am loving it! I have definitely increased my consumption of fruits and vegetables since getting it. I start most mornings off with a smoothie now. I throw in whatever fruit is in season (I love berries, but I've used peaches, nectarines, plums, grapes, apples, bananas and various frozen fruits), a scoop or two of protein powder, milk or water, a couple handfuls of fresh spinach, a couple handfuls of ice and sweetener if needed. Surprisingly, the spinach doesn't noticeably change the flavor, but it does boost the nutritional content of the smoothie. In less than 10 minutes I can have my smoothie made, poured into a "to go" cup and have the machine all clean (just add warm water and a couple drops of dish soap- turn it on for 30 seconds, then empty and rinse the container). The smoothies always turn out 100% smooth- berry seeds, apple seeds, ice and other hard bits are totally pulverized and drinkable. I've made great low-cal salad dressings using fresh herbs, garlic, low fat cottage cheese, a splash of milk and salt (if you prefer, you could use Ranch dressing mix with cottage cheese and milk). I made a very satisfying tomato soup with home grown tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, onion and salt. I've made great blended piña coladas, too! I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with different recipes. Because the Vita-Mix processes foods quickly, I'm actually finding that I'm making healthier eating choices. It's faster for me to put together a salad with pre-washed greens, veggies and homemade dressing than it is to go to the nearest fast food restaurant... and in the end, it's more satisfying and a LOT healthier. Yes, this is an expensive machine, but I think it will pay for itself within the first two years by reducing my spending on going out to eat.

This is a heavy-duty machine. It is loud when it's in use, but generally you won't need to run the machine for more than a couple minutes at a time. This is definitely a professional quality machine and will yield professional quality results. A regular home blender cannot compare!

The Vita-Mix 1363 CIA model and the Vita-Mix 5200 model are essentially the same machine. The CIA model has some different color choices and comes with a HUGE recipe book called "Create", a smaller "recipes and techniques" booklet and an hour long cooking class DVD. The 5200 model includes a different booklet and DVD. Both have the same 7-year warranty. If the color of the machine and the recipe book don't matter to you, save yourself some $$$ and go for the 5200 model instead.

Why, you say, should I spend this insane amount of money for a blender? My answer: Because it's worth it. There is simply no comparison to other blenders. The Vitamix is the best. It really does crush ice effectively, make ice cream in seconds from frozen fruit and cream, and produces drinks and sauces that are utterly smooth, plus soups to die for. I make my own hummus and used it for baby food regularly, guests love it for silky frozen drinks, and it lasts--with zero problems. It's a quality device. Advertising is geared to health food because you can make drinks or soups from fresh produce and take advantage of the natural fiber that juicers take out, and they're right, but that's not why I bought it. I bought it because I hate the odd chunky bits of fruit in my smoothies, I hate taking blenders apart for cleaning and I wanted something I could depend on to do what I wanted each and every time. I've not been disappointed.

Update 3/18/10
I've had my Vita-Mix for many years and treasure it. My daughter has eyed it longingly so I finally bought her family one for Christmas, most especially so the little kids would get their veggies via tasty smoothies. I mean how else would you ever get a kid to eat raw kale (or me either, for that matter :). I found the current cookbook that came with her unit had so many terrific new recipes, I bought one for myself and am enjoying many new types of smoothies. The Autumn Harvest smoothie has sweet potato in it and is sensational. The Basil Lemonade is really delicious and the green smoothies are so packed with nutrition (plus taste good!) that we all feel energized. I can add flax seeds, sunflower kernels or other nuts to smoothies for an extra boost and know they'll always be completely smooth. I make some of my own whole-wheat flour now (although prefer my food processor to make the dough) so my bread is much healthier too. Yesterday when I had the little kids after school and we made a grocery store run, I was amazed and delighted to see them pick various types of fresh produce for smoothies right along with the expected pizza and cookies. We have a new generation of Vita-Mix fans in the family.

This is the Mack Truck of countertop kitchen appliances. Ideal for making blended ice drinks, smoothies and vegetable purees for soup. We first noticed this mighty machine being used in a major coffee chain, then in fast food places, and finally at most restaurant bars. We were delighted to learn that the very same commercial kitchen equipment is now available for home kitchen use.
It comes with an astounding amount of great recipes in a cookbook as heavy as the machine itself. Surprised to learn that it is possible to make soup in this machine without cooking. Just the intense friction caused by fast-moving blades chopping and grinding vegetable ingredients heats soup to serving temperature as fast as heating in a microwave.
The Vita-Mix is more than a blender, it is a professional kitchen food prep machine that is endorsed by chef instructors at the Culinary Institute of America.
We have also used this amazing American-made machine to puree our own baby food, because we trust locally grown produce more than what comes pre-processed in grocery store jars of baby food.
This is a lifetime investment in great equipment.

I ordered Vitamix 5200, but was upgraded by kitchenuniverse because they were out of it. It's the same machine except for an upgraded book and different color base.

things I can now do (or not do)with my Vitamix:
1. dont have to section oranges or lemons. healthier this way too. (just peel and remove seeds)
2. don't have to peel garlic (healthier? maybe. definitely more whole)
3. don't have to chop carrots (still a good idea to quarter apples)
4. sell my ice cream machine, and juicer
5. make smoothies while baby is asleep in the next room(can go as fast as variable 5 w/out much noise at all, it can still crush ice effortlessly at this speed). Even at the highest speed, it's as noisy as a regular vacuum, and I usually don't need to go full speed for very long anyway. The only time you need to go long (5-7 minutes) is for heating up soup, but why? adding hot water before blending is a greener alternative.
6. make as little as a cup of smoothie at a time (vortex action still works well, and so easy to clean, why not? there are so many good recipes to try in the included book and I only want to make a little bit at a time to test them out)
7. fill it to the top and make smoothies for everyone (the tamper is needed when I make this much strawberry daiqueri, but it comes out perfectly smooth from top to bottom)
8. don't always need to add liquid to a recipe before blending. (tamper comes in handy when not using liquids)
9. grind peppercorns, coffee beans.
10. turn ice into snow in less than 3 seconds (havent' done it personally, but it's on the demo dvd)

for those who wonder why it's so easy to clean: there are no parts to disassemble and reassemble. just add water, a drop of soap and turn on high. Sometimes it'll still leave bits that dried on, but just wipe it manually, no big deal. It's the assembly and disassembly that makes people not use their regular blender as often as they want or should.

some say the blendtec (competitor) doesn't need a tamper because it blends so well. Don't believe it. The only reason it doesn't need it is because the machine automatically raises and lowers the speed at intervals to get things into the spinning vortex. Umm...you can do that w/the Vitamix manually and you can do it better than a pre-programmed machine. The blendtec boasts 3 HP while Vitamix is 2 HP. I cant even imagine needing to go any faster than the Vitamix already does, and trust me I have a big imagination. The blendtec is even preprogrammed so you can walk away from it while it prepares your recipes, but do you really want to walk away from a machine this powerful? I believe in simplicity and that is the major advantage of the Vitamix over the blendtec. Yes the blendtec fits under the cabinets and a Vitamix does not, but that's not a big deal to me because my Vitamix takes centerstage on my kitchen island.

Overall, if all you need to do is make a couple smoothies, this blender will disappoint you because of its price. It can do so much more, but you can only appreciate it if you are committed to changing your lifestyle too. I've been transitioning to raw vegan for about a year and I wanted a Vitamix since the beginning but wasn't ready to take the financial plunge. Let's just say when I finally bought this machine, it brought me to a whole nother level. I can't imagine going raw without it. Try buying the following books along w/your Vitamix "green smoothie revolution" by Boutenko, or any of the multitudes of raw food cookbooks on Amazon. The books will help you appreciate your machine even more, inspiring you to keep up with a healthier, more conscious lifestyle. This is truly a machine that you can fall in love with.


**update** I've had this Vitamix for 2 months now and I've been using it at least twice a day. I noticed some peculiar things which I would like to share.

- took it to my mom's house...it was significantly louder. I'm not sure why, my counter is made of granite, hers is a laminate type material. ceiling height is about the same. *shrug*
- decided to keep my ice cream maker. It makes sorbets just fine, but ice "cream" tasted very watered down (at least the ones in the included book did). I may adjust by freezing the milk or cream cubes instead of using ice cubes.
- I put two cups of flax seeds into the regular bladed container, turned it on and it became flour in a few seconds. (it was beautiful) I'm confused why a dry blade exists or why it's even needed. I can get rid of my coffee/spice grinder now.
- something fun....turn the dial from 1 to 10 and back and forth...it really does sound like a Ferrari engine!

I bought my first Vita-mix in the early 1990s. It was expensive (even more than the current price, adjusting for inflation) but I spent the money since my mother swore by hers.
It had a metal container with smooth sides and a spout near the bottom. The base was huge.
It would chop/blend anything, no matter how full you filled it (the ad showed it chopping blocks of wood. After a very happy party we tried that with a box of 2" pencils - the kind with no erasers. We ended up with sawdust.)
This was my vegetable juice period - I would fill the Vita-Mix with carrots, celery, raw beets and turnips up to the top of the unit; in 15 minutes it had ground them up with such velocity that I had hot soup. I could fill it with 3 lbs of cold cream cheese, six eggs, and a cup of sour cream and it would liquefy them for cheesecake.
I go into this detail because:
When I arrived in NYC a couple of years ago, I found to my dismay that my Vita-mix had been lost in transit. Since it was a major part of my kitchen, I immediately ordered a new one. I was quite shocked when it arrived with a plastic container with ridged insides, and a smaller base. However, I immediately used it to make a cheesecake. It tried for a minute - at which time I smelled something burning. Then it shut itself off. I called the company and was informed that this was a safety feature. It seems I had overloaded the blender. I told them that this had never been a problem on my old machine, but since it was probably made before the young lady helping me was born, she could offer no comment on this. I then tried my vegetable juice and had the same result. I sent it in to be serviced; they said nothing was wrong with it.
It has failed me on many subsequent occasions. Jobs that were routine with my old machine would elicit the now-familiar burning smell and 'safety shutoff'. Today I threw it out.
I guess if you've never experienced the old one, the new one might be OK, but I certainly don't think it's worth the exorbitant price. It is, sadly, another example of an established company cutting corners to boost the profit margin

This Vita-Mix blender is amazing. Well made, extremely versatile and quite large... this machine means business. The included dvd and recipe book are top notch and include many recipes to showcase the machines abilities. Beware, this machine is very powerful... start on low and then "rev" it up to high speed as the instructions indicate. I've created Jamba Juice quality smoothies and Sbucks quality frappuccino's for houseguests and they are always impressed. Worth every penny.

My wife was completely skeptical of us getting one of these, but from the moment we got it, we have been using it non-stop. We even talked about all the other "gadgets" in the kitchen, and how we've got over $3K worth of kitchen stuff that we never use....this product is awesome!

We've made the soups, which come out ready to serve in under 5 minutes; experimented with all natural smoothies; natural ice-cream (that took a couple of tries---lesson learned, everything must be FROZEN); and even batter mix for pancakes, waffles, Proatmeal (yes, a combination of oatmeal and protein powder), etc. When I don't know how to make something, I go to this website: [...] Very easy stuff, even I can do it!

We've got three coffee-makers, a juicer (which is great if I want just juice with no fiber; but it takes forever to clean); two food processors (never use them), three blenders (you know, the smoothie one, the stainless steel one, and the one that doesn't die but also doesn't work right!)

I use the Vita-Mix every morning for the green smoothies, which is what Doctors recommend for patients with different diseases, because of the high anti-oxidant content. I am not suffering from any condition, but why wait to treat our bodies the right way?

Finally, as of today I've lost 10 pounds by starting the morning with the green smoothie, proatmeal, and have been eating about 5 other 350 calorie meals throughout the day...and this is just my third week using it.

I have been eying this product for about 10 years, and I wish I would've bought it when I first saw it.

I own a centrifuge-type juicer and a very nice auger juicer as well, but I began to realize I was not getting the fiber of the fruits and vegetables I was juicing. Yes, all those infomercials you watch on 2am television tell you that with their juicer you can collect the dried pulp and work it into your soups or muffins or whatever. Let's be honest; I've never done that, and I seriously doubt many other people do, either. All that dried pulp gets tossed onto the compost heap.

I decided I wanted to try a blender rather than a traditional juicer. That way, I would get all of the benefit of the fruits and vegetables. Search around, read reviews, and like me, you quickly come to realize that for a top end blender you really have about 2 choices; Vitamix, or Blendtec. Waring also has a rather expensive model out, but it had enough negative product reviews that I confined my research to the Vitamix and Blendtec.

Eventually, I opted for the Vitamix for a couple of different reasons I'll not go into here. Once I'd crossed that river, the next question was, "Which model do I pick?" There's no such thing as an inexpensive Vitamix, but some will take a bigger bite out of your wallet than others. They range from $384 to just over $700. I ended up going with the model that had virtually all 5 star reviews. It was a gamble, but it was a calculated gamble, and I have not been disappointed.

The biggest complaints about these kinds of blenders is that they, A) Are much larger than a normal blender, and, B) They make a fair amount of noise.

Well, guess what? They aren't your garden variety blenders. They process what you put in them with a thoroughness and efficiency that a standard blender could never even pretend to match. This baby is 20 inches high. Many people don't have that much space beneath a cabinet on their counter top. If that's you, find some other place to use and store it. If your sole reason for not purchasing one of these is because it takes up a little more space than you like, in my opinion you're making a terrible mistake. The benefits of this unit far outweigh a little space inconvenience.

As for the noise, they do make some. Perhaps it is slightly louder than a standard blender, but not by very much. It's not as loud as your typical vacuum cleaner, and you'll normally have it on for less time that you use a vacuum cleaner. It isn't as though you're going to turn this on and leave it running for hours at a time. You typically use this guy for only a couple of minutes at a shot, so the whole "It's too noisy!" complaint is, to my view, not really much of a reason to complain.

We make juice every morning, and sometimes in the evenings. It does an incredible job of liquifying vegetables, including the ones that often don't want to completely liquify in other blenders, like the skins of tomatoes. You can toss in whole garlic cloves, peel and all, and it renders them into a smooth paste with no lumps or bits of skin to get in the way. It works its magic very quickly. I seldom need to crank it up for more than 20 to 30 seconds to get my vegetables liquified.

One of the selling points touted with these units is that you can use them to produce hot soup. The "how" of that is not always explained up front very clearly. The basic idea is that you turn it on and leave it on for several minutes, and gradually the contents heat up due to friction. We have found this is not a good way to make soups. That much friction destroys delicate enzymes and vitamins. It's far better to heat up water on the stove and add that into your Vitamix-liquified vegetables. You still end up with hot soup, but it takes less time and it preserves those vitally important enzymes.

We're told we need 5 servings per day of fruits and vegetables. This Vitamix makes it a breeze to get that several times over. With the jar being 64 ounce capacity, if you fill it by juicing an assortment of vegetables, you'll have far more than 5 servings.

It would be difficult to say enough good about this machine. When I first set out to research blenders, I boldly proclaimed, "I'll NEVER spend $400 on a blender, that's ridiculous!" Well, I didn't. I spent $500, and I haven't regretted it for an instant in the 20 months we've owned our Vitamix. Give this one a go if you can at all afford it.

One last thought; we talked to the guy who occasionally does Vitamix demos at our local Costco. We mentioned the model we have and he commented that all Vitamix blenders have essentially the exact same motor. So if $500 is just a little too steep for your budget, you'll probably be just as happy as we are if you opt to buy one of the less expensive Vitamix models.

The Vita-Mix is in a class of its own, and can't really be compared to a "traditional" blender which will pale by comparison.

We juice, and I purchased a Breville Juice Fountain Plus (not the top of the line Breville, which would be the "Elite"). The Breville's are true "juicers" which remove the pulp. What I didn't like about the BJFP is that it took about 3 times the amount of produce to make a serving. Plus, the cleanup process was time-consuming and a hassle. What I LOVE about the Vita-Mix is that I can do the cleanup in just a few minutes (just put 5 cups of warm water and a couple of drops of liquid dishwashing soap and turn it on). Wa La! I don't have to deal with the cleanup of the pulp and I'm good to go in half the time. Plus I get the fiber and benefit of the "whole" veggie or fruit. Of course the downside is that rather than "juice" you are getting more of a "smoothie" consistency. I must admit, I prefer the taste/consistency of juice, but it is outweighed by the savings in produce, the ease of the process, and the easy cleanup.

If you want to check out the consistency, go to Jamba Juice. I believe they use the Vita-Mix (commercial version). The consistency is the same as what I produce at home. I happen to not mind it, as most of our "juices" are a combo of veggies and fruit and ice....

Lastly, I purchased mine at COSTCO. While not a regular product at COSTCO, they periodically have demos and sell the Vita-Mix for about $400, cheaper even than Amazon.... I wonder if this review will get published since I added that note??? We will see....

Great machine! Probably my favorite kitchen appliance. I use it EVERY day.

I spent about a year looking at the 5200 (almost the same as the CIA model; the 5200 is sold at Costco, the CIA model sold on Amazon, Sur La Table, etc.) and comparing it to its competitors before buying it several months ago from Costco. I cook every meal from scratch, and I'm very interested in eating healthier meals. I'm not a vegetarian (more like a "flexitarian"), but I have been eating more of a raw food diet and have been feeling better since. The Vitamix makes it so easy and extremely tasty to eat 3-5 servings of veggies and fruit in a single smoothie.
A few points I've run across researching and in my own experience. The 2 hp motor compared to a 3 hp motor: I love my 2 hp and I'm pretty sure I would not spend the extra money for a 3 hp motor. The key to performance is not the watts or hp, but the ability to perform the task at hand. The science and math geeks calculate work using hp or watts, torque, heat, and other numbers. Since no company (Blendtec, Vitamix, etc.) provides the full specs of performance for their motors, it's unfair to say "A 3 hp motor is better than a 2 hp motor". Just look at car engines... a high hp engine may have low torque or high torque, and be faster or slower, or better gas mileage, etc. So, in terms of performance, the 2 hp Vitamix has been fantastic. To properly calculate "performance", you need to get numbers like the rpm and watts used against a certain resistance and include heat generated/lost in the process. If you don't have *all* those numbers, you're just speculating and making up stuff. Not a fair comparison.
The Vitamix seems much quieter than the Blendtec. Both are loud, but the Vitamix is not a piercing deafening loudness. Even if you see YouTube videos, you can still hear people talk over the noise of the Vitamix, so it's not that bad.
It is difficult to scrape every last bit of food from the Vitamix, especially when it's thick like hummus or peanut butter. I've ground raw cacao beans with some water, coconut oil, and honey, and the motor handled it just fine (it sounded like it was going to break since it was so loud and whiney, but it didn't overheat). But once it was done it was difficult to get the thick goop out. I did buy a spatula that was long and thin with a silicone scraper that fits in between each of the 4 blades at the bottom. It takes a little extra time but I've found I don't waste any food anymore using it. The Blendtec container makes this whole process of getting food out much easier. BTW: Blendtec won a lawsuit against Vitamix since Vitamix stole their Wildside container design. However, Vitamix never intended to use the WildSide container on home blenders, only commercial ones, so it doesn't even affect my decision.
I love using the variable speed control. If you like keeping in touch with your food, controlling how you want it done, chopped, blended, and having very quick responses with the manual controls, then the Vitamix is perfect. People have said "there's no pulse button" on the Vitamix, but you just flip the switch on and off quickly and it works the same. No need for another button or knob that says Pulse on it. If you don't care how your food is made, as long as it gets done right, get the Blendtec. It's more "set it and forget it" kind of technology. I have a friend that just bought the Blendtec and loves it because she does not want to be too involved with her smoothies... just throw everything in, hit the button, walk away, come back and its ready. Personally, I like to play with it more and make it work how I want it to.
Blendtec doesn't have a tamper, and Vitamix does. Some people gave me the impression that you must use the Tamper for Vitamix to work properly when making smoothies and ice cream and such. That made me think Vitamix was inferior since Blendtec would do all that without a tamper. However, now that I have a Vitamix I've realized that thinking like that is incorrect. I rarely use the tamper in the Vitamix as long as the ingredients are in the right order and as long as there's enough liquid. Also, I can vary the speeds to get the mix blending better on the Vitamix. The Blendtec uses that variable speed approach as well, but it just does it automatically. Many reviewers said they had to add extra cycles or use the pulse on their Blendtec anyway, even after their preprogrammed cycle ran. So I figured I'd get the Vitamix since I can just do it all correctly from the beginning. When you make sticky thick items (again, like raw chocolate from cacao beans, or peanut butter, or hummus), the tamper is essential. The Blendtec users have to stop the machine, open it, use a spatula or scraper and scrape down the sides every few seconds. Vitamix just keeps going while you redirect the food or smash it down into the blades. The tamper also is more efficient for redirecting food, not necessarily beating your food into the blade. It's primarily intended to prevent air pockets from forming. Air pockets form in the Blendtec too, so you have to stop it, open it, and use a spatula anyway.
The Costco price for the 5200 was $395 when I bought it. I thought that was great, but then I realized as I walked out the door that tax was 8%. Brought the price to $427. Keep that in mind when budgeting. Some online deals or a deal direct from Vitamix may be cheaper if you factor in the tax at a store.
The height of the Vitamix doesn't bother me. I just set the container on the counter next to the base. I put the container lid on top of the motor base. Looks fine. If counter top space is a deciding factor, get the Blendtec, it's shorter.
I also like the history of Vitamix products. Its been around a long time, and has always been a top branded product.
The warranty on the Vitamix is 7 yrs standard, can increase it to 10 years (turns out that inside the package I found a coupon that says they'll do the extra 3 yrs for only $75, which is a huge savings from the $120 online). The Blendtec does 3 yrs standard, but Costco negotiated with them to include 4 extra years free just to be competitive with Vitamix. That's a great deal, but my concern was why they don't just do 7 yrs standard in the first place. I guess it's to keep their price lower than Vitamix. Plus Vitamix's warranty is simple: the whole thing's covered, motor, container, blade, everything. Blendtec seemed to split everything up. The motor, container and blade assembly have separate durations of their warranty.
As far as preprogramming, Blendtec claims that Vitamix doesn't do that and that Blendtec is so technologically advanced. Well, Vitamix does it, but it costs more, since it's in their professional and commercial versions. I'm not sure if it's true, but I feel like I'm getting a solid workhorse from Vitamix without the bells and whistles of a preprogrammed circuit board, and that Vitamix has such higher quality that if I wanted to get preprogrammed cycles I would have to pay extra for a good quality product. Blendtec offers the technology, but its so much less expensive that I'm concerned that they're doing it cheaply. Again, just speculation, but that's kind of how most businesses work.
I've seen Blendtec and Vitamix demos on YouTube. One video showed Blendtec as blending faster and effortlessly compared to a Vitamix. In my experience with the Vitamix, I have not noticed a difference in speed. It blends and destroys everything I put into it within seconds, and makes a beautiful, super smooth smoothie in about 20-30 seconds. Vitamix suggests blending smoothies for 1 minute most of the time. I have rarely needed to blend anything that long. I've made smoothies with kiwi, carrots, apples, spinach, ginger, lemon, honey, ice, and water (all in the same container), and it blended everything perfectly within 20 seconds (no tamper either, just make sure you add enough water to get it's vortex working).
Cleanup is as easy as they say. Few drops dish soap, fill it halfway with hot water, blend on high for 30-60 seconds, rinse, and your done. I generally wipe it with a soap dish cloth as well, but I don't think it's necessary. I usually just do that with oily and thick stuff. Make sure you clean it immediately though, don't let it sit for 5 minutes or a day later and expect cleanup to be that easy!
I also bought a dry container from Vitamix. The reviews said both Vitamix wet container and the Blendtec container can do grains and dry goods (make your own wheat flour, rice flour from rice, even blend popcorn kernels into a corn flour), but just does not create a super fine flour. The down side was that all plastic containers get foggy or cloudy over time because the hard kernels smack into the walls and cloud it up a bit. If you want to keep your wet container clear and new looking, you need another container anyway. The dry vitamix container does a better job grinding ingredients than the regular Blendtec container. But, Blendtec makes a grain mill for $199. If you grind more than a pound or so of grain daily, then get the Blendtec grain mill. The dry Vitamix container is $99-$120. The blade is different than the wet container, so don't interchange them. I use the dry container for flax seeds (some people through the seeds into their smoothie while its blending, but I like to grind it to a powder first, either in the dry container or a coffee grinder, then add it to make sure it's ground up properly), rice, and chick peas. You can also make bread dough in the dry container. I haven't tried that whole process yet, it looks a little inefficient, but looks like it will work well.
I thought I'd use the Vitamix 5200 a few times each week. Now that I own one, I use it 1-3 times/day, sometimes 5x/day if I'm doing a few different recipes. I absolutely love it!