Vitamix Ascent Series A3500 Blender

Like many people and maybe even you I have debated for probably ten years (literally) about a Vitamix blender and had bouts of what could only be considered self-abuse in even considering such a costly small appliance and that I must be a horrible and shallow person for even considering purchasing one when there were people starving elsewhere and that the world is a complete disaster thanks to us humans. This year however, I’ve decided I am not more horrible than most others on this planet and in my experience, less horrible than most so I decided, “Yes, this will be the year I buy this thing and I WILL use it daily.” So my debate over buying one turned into a debate of which one. This feature, that feature, what will I use it for, what won’t I use it for etc. I don’t like to overbuy and I don’t like feeling like I am being snookered into overbuying. I don’t tend to fall for hype… I am just too analytical to do so. This is how I decided on this particular model. Will the preprogrammed buttons be that useful? Maybe. Do I want the touch button or the flipper switch. I was thinking that the switch would give me more control and less prone to breakage but with the warrantee would it really matter because I’d just get it fixed anyways. Do I like the look of this one better than that? In my mind the switch took away from the clean lines an the ease of cleaning and therefore settled on the (debatable) top of the line loaded one. So I bought it and here’s what happened. I love it. I use it daily and sometimes many times a day. I have made all the standard things everyone else mentions and uses it for (smoothies, quick ice cream, soups, salad dressings, salsa etc. I made an amazing tortilla soup that was the best I ever had. (It was not the Vitamix recipe). But you know what this excels at? Cost savings. Yes I had to spend a heap of money to save money but there you have it… it is actually saving me money. Why you might ask? Produce. I have a great juicer (which I still use). I LOVE to cook. I eat an organic diet but I have always found myself caught in a huge and costly dilemma. I would buy produce and it would go bad before I could use it. For just one example. Cilantro. I buy some for a specific meal, do not use it all and then I find it brown and rotting in the produce bin in my refrigerator because I am not cooking something that requires cilantro again before it goes bad. Guess what? That doesn’t happen to me any longer. Why you might ask? Because I make and drink healthy smoothies every day. Not that crap loaded with fruit and sugar but real healthy smoothies. In those healthy smoothies, I can throw in whatever I have in the refrigerator and use it in my smoothie. Lettuce left over from that HUGE salad but not enough left to make another meal out of? In it goes. Cilantro after making burrito bowls and having already eaten all the leftovers so nothing else to use cilantro for this week? In it goes. That half an apple that my dog didn’t get as a snack? In it goes. And the savings just keep coming. My produce drawer is no longer filled with rotting or wilting produce just because I don’t have anything to use it for because now I do. I also now can buy organic berries when they are on sale and freeze them for use in my smoothies. I don’t need to say to myself, yeah they are on sale but I can probably only eat a pint of these blueberries before they go bad. I’m not saying that this is not a very expensive small appliance (blender) because it is. But it beats all other blenders I have ever had to a pulp and saves me money too. This machine will literally, for me, pay for itself within the year because I had out of laziness wasted so much money on produce I never used that in the end it literally would be more costly to not get it. It saves me money and time. Time waiting in lines for smoothies. The markup those smoothie stores have on their ingredients. My health for the sheer fact that I know everything and exactly what quality of things I am putting in my body. Everyone needs to justify it for themselves and it took me a long time to do so but I am very pleased. I’m healthier and I have more time and money for the more important things.

My wife and I were so excited! At long last we had made the decision to bite the bullet and buy our dream blender, the top of the line Vitamix A3500. $550. The day it arrived we couldn’t wait to try it out. As we unpacked it we remarked at the substantial nature of the machine, heavy and solid.

We followed the instructions through the cleaning process and then set out to get margarita makings for our afternoon happy hour with the neighbors. Giddy with the prospect of making our frozen margaritas, we told our friends they were in for a special treat! Finally the time came. The ingredients were loaded and everyone was gathered around the Vitamix. I hit the button and…error, error, error, over and over again. What a disappointment!

So we get online. Unplug, toggle the on off switch, unplug, toggle the switch…who needs this with a $550 “top of the line” appliance. My wife who is much more patient than I tries to call customer service as instructed by the owners manual. After an hour on hold (during our happy hour) she finally leaves a message for a call back. NO CALL BACK, EVER!

After a few more unsuccessful calls to customer service and days of disdainful looks every time we walked by the thing, we decide to give it another shot. Who knows, maybe it doesn’t like alcohol. This time a power veggie smoothie with fresh juice, kale, carrots, cucumber, ginger…the works. The moment of truth! I press the button…error, error, error. Arrrrrgh!! Back to try customer service. NO ANSWER! Bound and determined, my resourceful and patient wife, decides to call Vitamix commercial division. They actually answer. She explains what’s happening and they say they don’t deal with private customers but they would have someone in consumer customer service call us back which they finally did. Unfortunately they were short, surly and couldn’t be bothered. Their best advise was to just handle it with the company we purchased it from.

Needless to say, we sent it back. After our experience we began to research more customer reviews about Vitamix and the performance of the machine is somewhat mixed but mostly good. However, their customer service gets very poor reviews and we experienced exactly why. Maybe we got a lemon but a product is only as good as the people who stand behind it. In our case sadly neither the product nor the people behind it were any good…In my experience, I would steer clear of Vitamix unless you like paying a lot of money for a lot of aggravation.

The best of the best. I’ve been wanting a Vitamix for awhile now and I’m so happy I finally made the purchase. I use this thing everyday and can’t help but smile with amazement everytime. This thing is a workhorse! As a peanut butter junkie, Vitamix scratches that itch. Making homemade nut butter is so easy with this and it’s done in less than a minute. Not to mention peanut butter taste so much better homemade than store bought. You can control what goes in to ever batch. Ice cream and smoothies are also a breeze with this machine. I was afraid of a learning curve, but the A3500 makes blending so easy. My favorite feature is the set and walk away or maybe it’s the use of the Vitamix app to control my blend? Either way this thing has changed my nutritional life and I’m so happy I pulled the trigger on it. I also purchased the 48oz wet container as it is much better for smaller portions and I would recommend that you do the same if you’re only blending for one or two people most of the time.

This is the first Vitamix blender I’ve ever owned. I had always wanted one but I just couldn’t justify spending the money. I never really understood the hype; don’t all blenders do the same thing? I honestly thought I’d be paying 5x more for a blender just because of the brand name. So I stuck with my Ninja blender for more than a decade. It did the job just fine but I was never truly satisfied with its consistency of crushed ice. It was grittier than I would have liked. This prompted my search for a newer, more powerful blender.

Initially I only cared about whether the new blender crushed ice into a smooth texture so I could replicate Starbucks Frappuccinos and slushies. As many folks do, I gravitated towards buying a brand I was already familiar with. In my case it was Ninja. So that’s what I initially bought. A more powerful version of what I already had. I will say that it DID manage to impress me with its ice crushing ability, but I was less impressed at how little Ninja’s design had changed since my last purchase 10 years ago. Water gets trapped in the container handle, and I just hate the blade that takes up so much space in it. So I started looking into alternatives. That’s when I decided to learn more about Vitamix and whether it really was worth hundreds of dollars more than my Ninja.

Long story short: the answer is yes. Yes, it is worth it. There were three features in particular that really sold me: the blade design, its ability to make hot soup right in the container, and the 10-year warranty. I cannot stress enough how much better the Vitamix blade design is compared to the Ninja. There are two main blade types that you’ll find in a blender: those that chop, and those that pulverize.

Blades that chop are cheaper but will wear down over time requiring you to sharpen or replace them. Blending hard items like ice cubes can be particularly rough for chopping blades and will cause them to dull faster. Ninja blenders use chopping blades. Vitamix, on the other hand, uses pulverizing blades that are dull by design and never need sharpening. Instead of taking up the entire container, the blade sits compactly at the bottom. It blends by pulling ingredients down towards the blade and pulverizing the heck out of them. Trust me, this makes a HUGE difference in the texture and consistency of your blends.

For example, I added mandarin slices one time to a smoothie I made using my Ninja which uses chopping blades. It tasted fine but it couldn’t fully break down the little white fibers that hold citrus fruit segments together. I didn’t really like that texture so I just considered it a faux pas on my end for using an ingredient that maybe isn’t ideal to put in a blender. Turns out that while not ideal for my Ninja, the Vitamix A3500 had NO issues whatsoever pulverizing mandarins into a completely smooth texture. That’s the moment I thought, “Ok, I totally get the hype now.”

The type of blade also determines how much liquid you need to add for it to perform its best. Chopping blades typically need more liquid to keep them moving. That can result in watered down results. With the Vitamix blades, you don’t need to add as much liquid. My personal experience is that everything just tastes better coming from the Vitamix, hands down.

Ultimately what you’re paying for when getting a Vitamix machine is quality blades, a powerful motor, solid construction, and with the Ascent series a 10 year warranty. Ninja offers a one year warranty. Vitamix can pulverize just about everything you put in it into a completely smooth texture. It’s actually impressive. But the blades alone are not enough, the motor needs to be powerful enough too…

The motor in this thing IS very powerful. People complain about how loud this machine is, and that powerful motor is the reason why. If you want quiet, look for a cheaper blender with less power. But for me the noise is a more than fair trade-off due to the consistently amazing blends it gives me. And to its credit, it’s only really loud when used on its highest settings. Having said that, the loudness is not intolerable, at least for me. You’ll also notice a kind of “burning” smell when you use it the first few times. Don’t be alarmed by this. It’s a brand new motor and needs time to cure (or “break in”). The smell will go away after you’ve done a few blends on its highest speed.

The power cord is very short, I think it’s 3 feet long. So it’ll need to be placed close to an outlet. The length of cord makes sense though given how much power it puts out. It’s not ideal to use long cords with high powered appliances, so I don’t recommended using an extension cord. If there’s no other way, then I’d say use the shortest extension cord possible and make sure it’s rated for appliance use. Also, despite its low profile design, it would not fit under my cabinets. To be fair, I think my cabinets sit lower than average. Luckily I have one section of counter space that sits lower which makes it the only place I could put it. Otherwise I would have to store the container instead of keeping it on the base.

What started out as a quest for better ice consistency evolved into a more complex obsession with blending. I use the Vitamix every single day. Sometimes more than once. I’ve made smoothies in it. Frappes. Soups. You name it. It actually got me excited to blend, try new recipes, and encourages me to eat healthier. I’m not someone that enjoys spending a lot of time cooking or preparing elaborate meals, and my laziness led to eating unhealthy (but zero effort) food. But I can make an entire soup in five minutes now using fresh ingredients by just throwing some vegetables and broth into this thing, blend, and eat. It’s almost TOO easy and I no longer have an excuse to avoid eating better.

What can I say. I am absolutely obsessed with Vitamix now and a total convert. I do think it’s absolutely worth the price if you can afford it, because you have to consider that Vitamix is guaranteeing that it’ll last at least 10 years. Plus, I’m not sure if any other brand is going to give the exact same results. I had no idea what I was missing until I tried it myself, now I can’t ever go back.

I had been wanting to purchase a Vitamix for years, particularly because it was advertised to make soup. But I hesitated due to the price. I mean, who can justify paying $600 for a blender. But recently I got into a whole food kick and I decided that eating soups made from fresh vegetables would be a helpful. So I took the plunge.

I decided on the Ascent A3500, because I like all the bells and whistles. I like the fact that I just push a button and it does all the timing and speed transitions for me. I can set it and walk away, where as with some models, you have to manually control the speeds and settings while you are blending. It also got a lot of good reviews and recommendations. So for me, this was the model I decided to purchase.

I also decided to order the blender through Amazon Prime, so I could send it back if I didn’t like it. I like the safety net of being able to change my mind if I decide I don’t want to keep something. Especially now that I can just drop it off a the UPS store to make a return.

Anyway, out of the box, I really liked the blender. Yes, it smelled like it was burning at first, as the motor was broken in. And, yes it is loud (don’t expect to have a quote conversation standing next to it). They say the Accent A3500 is quieter than other models. I can’t imagine how loud they are if that is true. It is also really big. But I found a place on my counter for it, and left it there. Right away I made a smoothie. And, I was impressed with how smooth it came out. I had put in spinach, flax and chia seed, as well as frozen fruit and ice. It can out so smooth. Unlike some smaller blenders that left small bits of ice.

I next made some Leek and Artichoke soup that was delicious and it had me convinced I had made a good choice. Although there are some soups you can just blend straight in the blender (tomato soup for one), most soups you have to do some prep work and cook the ingredients on the stove first to meld flavors. But after that, you just throw everything into the blender and voila! Pureed, hot, steaming soup. The friction of the blades is what heats the soup. And, again, so smooth. I like drinking my soup (think Campbell’s Creamy Tomato), and this blender gets the ingredients blended so well that you can do just that. No chunks.

I continued using the blender almost everyday in some fashion. However, after a few days of use, I started getting an error code E 1, that would keep the blender from working. After doing some research, I learned that it was a sensor error; the blender was having problems reading the container connection. The literature said just to turn it off and turn it back on. That worked at first, but I started getting the error code a lot and turning it off and on didn’t work.

I looked on line and found this was a problem for some of the Ascent blenders and people had been instructed to send the blender back for repair if it persisted. Since I bought mine on Amazon, I returned it and ordered another. The first order was a package deal with a book. Wanting to see if I could get a blender from a different batch, I ordered it without the book.

The new blender has been great! I have had it for a little over a month, with no error codes so far, and I use it almost everyday. My main uses are smoothies, soups, and a new one for me, nut butters. I’ve made three batches of cashew butter and it was delicious!! So much so, I had to quit making it, as I was eating too much. Note: I had the blender plugged into a power strip and it would trip the strip when making nut butters. However, when I put it in a regular plug (no strip) it did fine. I think the power strip was too sensitive.

The other thing I really like is the the self cleaning feature. While you may have to take a wash cloth to the inside once in a while, for the most part, the self cleaning does the trick.

So, bottom line, is the blender worth the bucks? Yes. However, there appears to be an issue with the sensor on some Ascent models (a bad batch?), so you may have to send it back or send it to Vitamix for repair. If that sort of thing makes you crazy, I would use caution. Other than that, I really love the Vitamix A3500.

Amazing, so happy with it. My family and I have been using it to make smoothies everyday and amazing ice cream too! Great speed and super smooth consistency. This is our first Vitamix. I used to juice a lot but found the juicers a hassle to clean. Vitamix is so easy to clean that I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a cold-pressed juicer again :p Plus this particular model is also dishwasher safe.
One thing though, I tried using it to cook hot soup by dropping freshly cut veggies into it, but I didn’t know Vitamix cooks it differently from the normal process… The ingredients don’t get properly “cooked through” like they would if you were to cook them in a pot, so some veggies like onion could be really bitter if dropped directly into the Vitamix. Understanding that I have to cook them in a pot before dropping them in, I just didn’t use the hot soup function as much anymore. That said though, other functions work perfectly. The smoothie function actually works better at fast cleaning than the actual cleaning option.
Am looking into buying a smaller container for smaller batches of food like icecream & spreads, etc.
All in all a great product and can’t be happier with it 🙂

I purchased the 5200 model exactly a week ago and started having some buyer’s remorse. First of all, using the manual controls, I could never seem to get the consistency exactly right. Secondly, all of the upgraded features from the 5200 to this the a3500 is WELL WORTH the $100 price difference and I started feeling a little ripped off when I looked at it from that perspective. This blender is just superior in every single way.

It works with your phone and you don’t even have to pair it; they just recognize each other when you’re standing next to the blender with the app open. You put the ingredients in there; skin, pulp, seeds, and all, and select the smoothie button on the blender or the phone (or tell Siri to make a fruit smoothie!) and 40 seconds later you’ll have something that has the taste and consistency of a silky chocolate milk. Cleanup was under a minute as well.

Also, unlike the tall 5200, this one fits neatly under my cabinet and has a little acrylic stand for the tamper so it doesn’t roll round the counter.

Lastly, this model has optional attachments, like a food processor and a Bluetooth scale, both of which I will absolutely be getting, making this the definitive choice if you’re stuck trying to decide which model to buy.

We purchased the A3500 primarily to have very smooth fruit smoothies because some in the house won’t drink healthy smoothies due to the bits of berries etc left by our Ninja Professional Blender.

Things we love about this one are
1. Smoothie is VERY smooth and it has no issues with Frozen Mango, Strawberry, Blueberry mixtures.
2. The 64oz container on the base fits easily under the overhead cabinets on our countertop whereas our Ninja didn’t.
3. Smoothie preset where it adjusts the speed and auto shuts off when done.
4. Easy to clean. I rinse it out after use.
5. Nice food processor attachment that we haven’t tried out yet.
6. Easy to assemble. It just sets on top of the base with no catch or particular way to click into place like our Ninja.

Things to be aware of,
1. It is NOT quiet and will make you jump when running at highest speed of 10. It is really turbulent inside so definitely doing the job.
2. The 64 oz requires about 24oz of drink to get it above the blades so more than a single serving unless you like a large smoothie like I do. I use for single use.

I wanted to use this for a while before I made any reviews or judgments. I purchased on 11\2021.
TL:DR
I will never use another blender again. It does everything that the I need plus more. if it lasts as long as it claims to it is well worth the investment and with the warranty on the motor I am not worried in the least.
I can make creamy ice cream, smoothies, raw food juicing, milks, nut butters, soups, drinks and much more.

I was an avid fan of Nutribullet. I started out with the magic bullet and progressed my way to the 1200 w Nutribullet that claimed it could blend any fruit or vegetable into a creamy smoothie.
Wrong. I would always have small chunks of ginger and baby spinach in my smoothie. I have an aversion to certain textures so this was not acceptable. So I began the deep dive into finding the perfect blender for me. For my household needs I needed a blender that was capable of doing multiple things well ( smoothies, drinks, nut butters, milks, soups, actual blending, whole food juicing, etc.)At first I thought 549 dollars for a blender? Hard pass.
Then I noticed I kept coming back to the this blender. I then deep dived unbiased reviews of this blender vs the Blendtec vs the ninja blender.
While in the videos the vitamix came out on top about 80% of the time, the only defining qualities the other machines had were a lower price point.
i decided against the NInja because the 3 towers of detachable knives peaked my Final Destanation senses and in a head to head blend off in real time the spinach was still separated from the rest of the blend.
i veto’d the blendtec bc the reviews weren’t that glowing.
That left me with the decision of which vitamix to purchase. I was torn between this one and the original. I choose this version because of the timers and the bells and whistles. i don’t know sometimes how long i am supposed to blend something and this version gives me the option to add ingredients, sync up to the app and let the machine take it from there. there has not been on recipe when i let the app control that has come out wrong. also if i want to be experimental i can with the dials.
Buy it. you wont regret it.

My niece has been having health issues. Trouble swallowing and stomach problems. Had to get a feeding tube. Tired all the time and losing weight. Had this VitaMix, blending cup and bowl, and food processor delivered to her door. She started blending regular food to a pureed consistency enabling her to actually swallow her food. She has quit using the feeding tube, and gained a little weight. She is happy to be able to taste her food. Her outlook is much improved. She has been having a good time trying out new “Recipes”. She consults with a Dietician, and loves the VitaMix recipes on the website. I live 1,000 miles from my niece, Amazon made it possible to get it to her door, and VitaMix has given her the ability to improve her life! I thank you from the bottom of my heart!