Get a Vitamix. 5x the price and seems to last forever. In fact, there are even very old (decades old) used Vitamix’s on eBay that are still running and usually just need a new canister.
But that only says anything about the units that were sold decades ago. It's very common that quality brands with very good reputation are bought by some investors, and then they start selling the same crap as everyone else, but to the premium price that their brand and reputation allow them to. And it works surprisingly long before the new crap they sell destroys their reputation. (I know nothing about Vitamix, they may still be great.)
Anecdotally, new units are about the same quality for a higher price than 10-15 years ago. Nothing objective, could be wrong; in my late-2000's case, it was from Costco, so maybe it was higher priced elsewhere.
Modern Vitamix benders (roughly within the last 8 years) have the same declining quality issues.
Newer models are typically much lighter. This means they now have far less internal material to reduce noise. I can't use mine without ear protection since it's about chainsaw level of noise. The reduced weight means I also need to hold onto it during use otherwise it will vibrate itself off the counter.
The company seems to be most interested in selling smoothie recipe subscriptions for their blender companion phone app. Aside from subscription selling the app is pretty much useless -- who wants a phone app to remotely control a blender?
Seems like common problem. Some retarded React App developer gets hired. And now business is no longer making some solid, long lasting blenders but "Connected Healthy Solutions"®
I am sure some next generation developers are already demanding to install VSCode on fridges so one can code on Samsung Smart refrigerators screens.
Wouldn't it be great that while fridge telling about running short on Kale green also download a gigabyte of NPM garbage to display image of Kale green in a bag?
Retarded is a fine word to describe a person that is acting like he/she has a mental handcap. Americans are sooo annoying with the language policing mania, tou guys really need to chill.
I believe the parent was imploring GP to use stronger words more accurately depicting the aforementioned React App developer, such as "braindead" or similar.
> who wants a phone app to remotely control a blender?
Here's an idea: if you find the blender to be too loud, go into a different room, close the door, and remotely trigger the blender with your smartphone app.
We put our blender in our pantry because we can close the door and blend without waking up the baby. Otherwise it (Blendtec) is too loud!
EDIT: to the downvoters, this was tongue in cheek. It would obviously be better for them to spend more money on soundproofing and less on a useless app!
This is the worst part about all this smart phone junk and cooking. It's normalising leaving the room and then cooking something remotely a bit too much.
It all depends. Getting notified for time consuming things is great.
Having my smoker self-manage its temperature and graph the amount of heat it's dumped in is nice. Checking on the temperature ramp of the sous vide is nice, too.
I was just speaking about those specific cases. Running the smoker is a 8-20 hour endeavor. Sous vide is 2-6 usually. Smart devices are kinda nice for this.
I can second this motion. I've used a lot of blender-like products of various advertised levels of quality, and Vitamix is the only thing I've seen that can take massive levels of abuse for ages.
