Kitchen head-to-head
Blendtec Professional 800vsVitamix A3500
Same ballpark on the average, 7.9 and 7.8, and nothing alike on the axes: Blendtec Professional 800 wins Quietness by 3.0, 8.4 to 5.4.
Blendtec Professional 800
Blendtec
7.9
A sealed sound enclosure over a 3.8 peak horsepower motor. Quiet is the thing you buy here.
Price and availability change constantly, so we don't quote them here — the link opens the current Amazon listing.
Vitamix A3500
Vitamix
7.8
A ten-year warranty, a tamper, and a self-clean cycle. Noise is what the drivetrain costs.
Price and availability change constantly, so we don't quote them here — the link opens the current Amazon listing.
Where they diverge
The widest gap is Quietness, Blendtec Professional 800 ahead 8.4 to 5.4. They come closest on Performance, 9.4 to 9.2. Left of center is Blendtec Professional 800, right is Vitamix A3500.
Which one to pick
Take the Blendtec Professional 800
Leads on Quietness.
- Early mornings in an apartment, where a full-power blender would wake the house
- Batches for four to six people in one pass
- You never want to think about a tamper again
Take the Vitamix A3500
Leads on Performance, Value, Durability and Ease of use.
- Nut butters, doughs, and hot soup — jobs that stall lesser machines
- You keep appliances for a decade and want containers still orderable then
- Frozen batches thick enough that a tamper is the only way through
What each one gets wrong
Blendtec Professional 800
- Counter depth is tight — the enclosure adds bulk on every side of the jar
- You want coarse results; blunt blades drive everything toward puree
- You blend twice a week, in which case the outlay never comes back
Vitamix A3500
- Thin walls or a sleeping household; this is among the loudest machines here
- You blend a single cup at a time — a 64 oz container needs volume to circulate
- Your upper cabinets sit lower than seventeen inches above the counter
Specs, side by side
| Spec | Blendtec Professional 800 | Vitamix A3500 |
|---|---|---|
| Motor | 3.8 peak horsepower | 2.2 peak horsepower |
| Jar | 90 oz WildSide+, 36 oz blending capacity | — |
| Controls | 11-speed touch slider | Touchscreen, variable speed dial, pulse, timer |
| Cycles | Six preprogrammed | — |
| Enclosure | Sealed sound enclosure | — |
| Warranty | 10 years | 10-year full warranty |
| Container | — | 64 oz low-profile with Self-Detect |
| Programs | — | Smoothies, hot soups, dips, frozen desserts, self-clean |
| Size | — | 11 x 8 x 17 in |
Rankings they both appear in
Questions
- Only 0.1 separates them. What breaks the tie?
- Quietness does, at 8.4 against 5.4. That axis covers operating noise — a higher score means quieter. Blendtec Professional 800 leads on Quietness. If Performance, Value, Durability and Ease of use matter more to you, take the Vitamix A3500 instead.
- Why are the totals this close?
- The total is the plain average of the 5 Kitchen axes, so opposite results cancel. Blendtec Professional 800 averages 7.9 and Vitamix A3500 averages 7.8, a gap of 0.1, while the individual axes run as far apart as 3.0.
- Which one ranks higher in "Batch size decides a blender before wattage does"?
- Blendtec Professional 800 sits at #1 in "Batch size decides a blender before wattage does", Vitamix A3500 at #2.