Should I impulse-buy a Vitamix Y/N

OK so I'm at this conference and around the corner from the expo booth I'm staffing is a VITAMIX booth where they do demos and turn out tasty NN-approved foodstuffs all day long. Perhaps it is thin air or jet lag or just general exhaustion from traveling/conferencing, but omg I totally want one and am afraid I might cave in. . . but c'mon this thing is $450 bucks which is just crazy but but but WANT!

ILX what should I do?????? FREE SHIPPING if I order at the expo GAH.

Most people don't need a blender that strong even for NN foods.

OTOH they're AWESOME.

if you get one you can make one of these
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbIo9RNYhEs

Weirded out by a) shirtlessness and b) hairlessness.

Also that shake looks disgusting; I would not do that to my vitamix.

I wonder if it would be edible if you switched out the chicken for whey. Spinach mostly has no taste in shakes IIRC, so you're mostly fighting broccoli vs. yummy fruit.

Dude in the booth made the tastiest damn hot soup (hot thanks to hot water plus engine heat, no additional heating required) in like 4 minutes. I had two sample cups and will have more tomorrow, dammit.

that sounds like a good way to wear out the motor prematurely. i know those things are industrial strength, but still....

i know three people who have it and hardly ever use it, usually because the jug is so huge.
haha the soup never tastes as amazing as in the demo. (I suspect the spices are the secret)
the people who do tend to use it with any consistency on forums i've noticed have dietary concerns.

When I worked at Wh0l3 F00dz there was this Vitamix demo dude set up in the produce dept for like a week around the holidays and I stopped by that shit every single shift on my way to the time clock. Dude told me you can boil water in <10min for real coz of the friction. I would buy one on Amazon; last I checked they were $100 or so cheaper.

I have been watching many vitamix videos on the youtube and think maybe I just need to live vicariously through the raw food hippies. I will give it a week or two and see if my fascination passes.

you can get much cheaper and smaller blenders to test if liquifying food is something you want to incorporate into your life,
like buying a ninja star first before getting a much bigger ninja star.

yeah you can get like a magic bullet

Well see I already have an OK Waring blender, but c'mon it doesn't have infomercial marketing!!!

Recommend the 0.9 HP Kitchen-Aid blenders (~$90 internet or local on-sale). Perform about as well as any of the $400 3 HP on typical home-kitchen tasks, but most importantly, fits under standard height cabinets. Appliances that get stuffed on shelves in cabinets don't get used or thought about as often.

Best blender for really small kitchens, the Cuisinart immersion hand blenders. I use this at least twice a week to make faux-cream soups (saute an onion, cover vegetable + equal wt potatoes with broth, simmer 20 mins, puree in the pot, add almond milk, adjust seasonings).

As for the Vitamixes and Blendtecs of the world, I like their sponsorship (Vitamix) or entertaining marketing (Blendtec), but I think they will go the way of granite countertops or Viking stovetops. Conspicuous consumption that isn't terribly necessary for the realities of 99.999% of families.

Sanpaku has become, like, my favorite food poster ever.

Thing is I really like the hot soup thing--not sure the Kitchen Aid has the power to boil liquids like the Vitamix. And to be fair the things have been around since the '50s, so it has been a pretty lasting fad! But yeah I cannot argue that such a blender is in any way necessary.

Immersion blender, my friend. Gas->heat is more efficient than gas->heat->electricity->transmission->electric motor->mechanical friction->heat. And you'll still only have one pot/vessel to clean.

I have an el-cheapo hamilton beach immersion blender and have been thoroughly unimpressed by it--maybe I just need to upgrade that sucker.

But ain't no immersion blender gonna crush ice!

i'm probably gonna buy one of these someday (like when i pay off all my student loans lol) bc i have been making kale smoothies a lot and my cuisinart blender sucks

so it won't be an impulse buy because i am already planning 20 years in advance

Yeah i dont get the need for a blender when you can just use one of those Bamix sticks right in the pot. No mess, no fuss. I made purreed soups all the time that way. I made one last night: sauteed leek, garlic, thyme and rosemary, added chopped cauliflower and vege stock, 20 mins, blend it all up. With a blender, you'd be pouring and spilling and then have another bowl to clean.

The thing about the vitamix is that you don't have to cook stuff on the stovetop--run that puppy for 4-6 minutes and it is steaming hot! No transfering stuff from pot to blender (which I agree is a pain in the ass)!