Vitamix E320 Explorian Blender - Professional-Grade Countertop Blender with 2.2 HP Motor, 64 oz Container & Variable Speed Control - Perfect for Smoothies, Soups, Nut Butters & Frozen Desserts

Love this blender . I use it for making smoothies , Acai bowls , health shakes , cooking . It's amazing !I use it every day. I’m happy with it.I finally caved and got a vitamix after I have been complaining about my ninja for 2 years now! Not even close..the vitamix is what a blender should be, no games just a perfect blender, my only gripe is the weird cover and no safety features at all..it just blends, sautees, mixes, smoothes, etc like it supposed to..highly recommended!This was a wedding gift for my granddaughter. She has not opened it yet so can't answer on this particular vitamix. But I will say that I purchased mine over 9 years ago and I'm still using it, just won't quit.Has lots of power, can blend anything. Also sounds like a jet engine when standing next to it.I bought my blender from Costco with a 7 year warranty. Price of a good blender is high for sure. I was sick and tired of blenders that never really blender things smooth, or so many had bad ratings. This blender is a dream, high quality and an investment. I had to bite the bullet on this one but glad I did. I haven't had very long but it blends wonderfully and its a bit loud, but oh well, its blending! Get over it people its powerful and its only on for a short time. Choose a quiet one that doesn't blend if noise is an issue. As for me, I love it and it has a great warranty. Should I run into any issues down the road I will gladly post and let you know.Not sure why Amazon has separate ratings for the red vs black blender - they're the same except color. Once I got over spending this much for a blender, I really think it's worth it. Paid $300 for a new one at Costco with a $50 off promotion. There's a seven year warranty, so no worries about breaking. I had a Ninja and returned it due to breakage of plastic parts. The Ninja was nice, but depending on the ingredients, my smoothies had the consistency of applesauce, some chunkiness. No chunks with the Vitamix. Smooth smoothies after blending for just one minute. The blades are built into the cup, so very quick cleaning - no breaking down parts. The only drawback is noise. The blender is super loud but I'm getting used to it. I sometimes have to hold the top because I think it may vibrate off the counter. I haven't tried other recipes but you can make hot soups, sorbets, nut butters, hummus, and more.Got this in the "deal pack" as a gift last year and have been super happy with it so far, although it is not without its caveats.I didn't expect it to actually heat up ingredients for soup, and it seemingly doesn't -- You have to have things a bit warm to begin with.Also, when blending frozen fruit/veggies for smoothies, you need to have them already chopped QUITE small or the blender will just "bounce" them around vs blending. Our Nutribellet and Ninja were better with frozen ingredients than the Vitamix, actually.My guess is that the Vitamix was primarily designed to blend and puree vs make smoothies, so the designers leaned more towards that function than people doing smoothies regularly.Even so, this thing definitely blends "softer" foods WAY better than any other blender I've had, which is nice for soup bases and sauces.