I think we picked ours up for around AU $995 or thereabouts. It was a Christmas sale special offer price in one of the local major retailers instore, not online. It was on offer at the time with extras (we've 3 sizes of blending containers). It is, as
GadgetGuy stated the Vitamix Ascent A3500i model.
Certainly as someone who routinely purées nuts, it has been a great value for money. It is used several times a week at least.
We looked at the cheaper ones, but the need to puree nuts into a thick cream and the much stronger motor, came out as the deciding factor.
I would like to get the wet 1.2L jug for it which would allow me to blend smaller quantities more easily (as in 500ml). (There are 2 different blades in the 2 main jug sizes, wet blades and dry blades. The dry blades jugs allow you to find grain into flour for example. I've no use for those.)
The smoothie and the nut/spice grinder sizes (came with ours as a freebie) are just a tad too small for the cashew or almond cheeses or cashew cheese sauces and the standard 2.4L jug means I always have to double the quantity made but I'm not paying out AU$300 for a smaller jug. If I happen to drop on one for half that price, then yes I'll get it. In the meantime, I'll just continue with my current solution which is to make twice what I need and freeze half of it.
It's like all things in life though. You either buy cheap and often, or you pay $$$$ for something you know will last a lifetime. I prefer to buy quality once. That's my choice. We saved up for the Vitamix and it was well worth the money.
I'd not hesitate to replace it, if it were to fail outside of the 10 year warranty. But its still in the warranty period.
We did previously have a cheaper model from another company. It didn't do the job well at all and we often had bits of nuts left in the cashew cream/puree and it struggled to get anything smoot. I'd repeatedly have to stop and scrape the sides, mix by hand, then blend a bit more, add more liquid, blend again and so on. It could only blend soaked soft nuts as well and didn't do a good job of those. We bought it because we thought the Vitamix was too expensive. It failed after 2-3 years. The Vitamix was a gamble after a lot of research. Yes it was a lot of money but it has already lasted twice a long as the old one and still has 5 years left on the warranty. It also can blend any nut, not just soft nuts, and nothing needs to be presoaked.
Oddly though, I don't cook soups in it, but I do reheat them to serve in it if the portion size is correct (2 people, not one because of the jug size issues mentioned above).
I do agree. I think its own worth having if you make a lot of things from fibrous materials or nuts as it renders them perfectly smooth. I think maybe
SatNavSaysStraightOn has one and uses it for vegan cheese making (?).
Yes, I have one. And it was worth every (Aussie) cent
I had two cheapo vacuum sealers from Alibaba that both died after a couple of uses. so decided to pay more for the Food Saver which is still going strong!
