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KackyK
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Anyone have one of these?
I have always seen them to their "road show" at Costco. And this past Spring I saw them and I stuck around to watch. The making your own nut butter, soups, smoothies sound great. What do you do with yours???
It's really rather a lot of $$$ but I was thinking of holding on to the rebate from Costco membership and using it on one when they come again. But I thought I'd better give it a good hard thinking over as to what all I'd use it for!
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KackyK
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Bookswithtea
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Depends on how often you need a blender. I had the old stainless steel Vitamix for years before finally buying a new one. I love mine. It can take whatever I put in it, but also blends eggs nicely for scrambling. We use ours every day (we do smoothies a lot).
You might want to look into a used option? They rarely go bad.
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Milehimama
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I inherited one from my FIL and they are POWERFUL! It's a good blender, but I don't know that I'd pay hundreds of dollars for it.
I use it to grind rice and oats for blender batter waffles. Yes, it grinds uncooked RICE into a pancake batter!
It also is very big - we have 7 kids, and I double the pancake batter recipe.
It also makes pretty good Ghetto Frappacinos. 
If your family is the type that uses a blender every day, all the time, it's probably worth it, but if you make smoothies twice a year, don't worry about it.
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onemoretracy
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The Costco thing got me very curious as well. Does anyone ever use it to make hot things? I can see us making smoothies I do make them almost daily but my blender recently broke. A used one would make more $$ sense for us though probably.
Oh and what pray tell is the recipe for Ghetto Frappacinos? That sounds right up my alley! 
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Anne McD
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onemoretracy wrote:
Oh and what pray tell is the recipe for Ghetto Frappacinos? That sounds right up my alley! |
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yes, please, inquiring minds want to know! 
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Milehimama
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Freeze your leftover coffee in ice cube trays, add sugar and or milk, and blend!
I've heard that cold brew coffee is fabulously better (put coffee in a jar, cover with water, let sit overnight) but haven't tried it yet.
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MarilynW
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Kacky - I got a Vitamix 4 years ago and it was one of the best purchases I ever made. I agonized over the price - justified it by the fact I have few kitchen appliances - and got it as Christmas/birthday gifts lumped together.
It us worth every dollar - I use it several times a day - smoothies, batters, baby food, homemade icecream and hot soup for example.
Service is great - I have had 2 problems - one was when one of my dc left a spoon in and turned it on - Vitamix told me the problem and mailed me a replacement part which arrived in 2 days. The second time my tamper cracked and as I was within the warranty period they sent me a new one within a few days.
I don't think you need the grain container - I did not find it great for bread making. I just grind my grains in the regular container.
My neighbor just bought a reconditioned one from Vitamix for less than half the price of a new one.
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Bookswithtea
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I really think they are worth owning, and buying them used is a great option. The first one I had I paid 50 dollars for (it was stainless steel) and I used it for 5 years, without a problem, before I got the new one. Believe it or not, I *sold* the old stainless model for close to $50 when I bought my new one. They don't lose their value.
I will admit to loving heavy duty kitchen appliances. The Proverbs 31 woman had servants to help her out. I have a vita mix and a bread mixer. They don't require feeding...
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KackyK
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Marilyn did your neighbor find it on ebay? Or somewhere else?
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MarilynW
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KackyK wrote:
| Marilyn did your neighbor find it on ebay? Or somewhere else? |
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Kacky - I get advertising information from Vitamix in the mail - I got a brochure about reconditioned blenders and passed it onto my neighbor as I knew she was interested. I think maybe if you check the Vitamix site they may have the reconditioned ones advertised.
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Mackfam
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Kacky-
We bought ours directly from VitaMix a few months ago!! I did a fair amount of comparison shopping and bought the reconditioned VitaMix. The savings was pretty substantial, and I had a coupon for free shipping. Comparatively speaking, the machine Costco offers at their demo is close to the online savings if you can wait for it to come around to your Costco again. They don't offer reconditioned ones at their shows, but the new ones are nice - just a little more expensive. Shipping took 2 days for me though!
I had the confidence to buy a reconditioned one because my Mom did it about 4 years ago and hers is a work horse and she's never had a problem.
I love ours. I'm with Books - it's definitely one of my kitchen helpers.
Mom has the dry container and does grind her grains in it. She likes it ok - its better than nothing, but it doesn't grind as fine as a wheat grinder, and you can't grind enough wheat berries for a 2 lb loaf at once, you have to grind in 2 batches.
I've only had it since early spring, so we've mostly been making smoothies, lemon slushies, ice cream and soon baby food puree's, but I know friends who have used it to make soup and enjoy it. **Are you out there, Kristen??** Kristen makes an awesome carrot soup in hers.
All in all, it is pricey, but one of those "you get what you pay for" scenarios and definitely worth saving for imo.
BTW, they send me a ton of coupons now that I've bought one - I don't know why??? Do they think I need a fleet of Vitamix's on my counter??? Anyway, I shared one with Jenn Sal - it was a great one - I think $50 off. pm me if you want me to keep my eyes open when they come in and I can send you the next coupon that comes my way!! 
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KackyK
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The reconditioned one I found on the site is $399 and I think if I remember correctly that Costco sold theirs for $389. So...yep, I'll wait till they come again (December) and check them out. My Costco rebate will put it at about half-price...so it may certainly be worth it. And Jen thanks for the coupon offer, but I don't think Costco will take it. They don't want you to have a "fleet" they want your "fleet" of friends to buy one!
Thanks ladies! Glad to hear some of you are using it for soup. I have never made soup in my life (pathetic I know) and it looked way easy at the demo. I like not doing all that dicing!
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aussieannie
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We have had ours for a few years now and it has been a much needed piece of equipment in the home. We are pretty rough on blenders and use to go through a few just from the wear and tear...It blends so powerfully, I put in all my stock bones (chicken) and vege and blend it to a pate and give it to my mum to feed her dog. We just use it for so many things....
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I love mine. I belong to a veggie coop and when I get stuff that my kids don't like too much - I just put in the vitamix - and they slurp it down. I save all extra fruit I cut up, and then toss that in. It is pricey, but Costco is so good about backing up their products.
Mary
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Milehimama
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I just wanted to share something I do with my vita-mix - healthy "ice cream".
Put a can of pineapple packed in juice in the freezer, when it's frozen, blend it! Use the tamper to push the chunks under the blades.
One thing you have to be careful with a vita-mix (mine at least) is that the friction of the blades can heat up your food - not so much with fruit, but when I'm grinding rice or oats my batter gets warm!
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Topic: Vita-Mix blender
