REASONS TO BUY
Easy to use
Touchscreen controls
Great for smoothies and soups
Shorter than other blenders
REASONS TO AVOID
Didn't grind well
No tamper
No cookbook
Expensive
Blendtec Designer 675 Review
A fancy blender with great overall results
Blendtec Designer 675
Credit: Blendtec
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Our Verdict
The Blendtec Designer 675 is about as sleek as a blender can get. Its low profile base and wider jar make it 2-3 inches shorter than most of the other blenders in this review. The touch-screen display works like a charm, with five presets and a variable eight-speed slider. It also has one of our favorite features, the “+10,” which allows you to add ten seconds to a preset function just in case things aren't quite done yet. But, while this blender is super fancy on the outside, it's what's on the inside that counts, and this model just didn't quite measure up to the outstanding Vitamix Pro 750, which won our Editors' Choice award. It's not that this is a bad blender, in fact, far from it! It'll make a great green smoothie, process your soups perfectly and make them piping hot, and it can even pulverize an iPhone. And if we lived in a small apartment and wanted to minimize countertop space usage, this would be our preferred pick. It also has a more modern aesthetic to it, so if you care about what your appliances look like, this could be the deciding factor. But compared head to head with the Vitamix, it was outscored in every category except for Ease of Use, and then only because the Vitamix doesn't have a digital timer. Ultimately, you'll probably be very happy with either of these blenders, but if you can't see yourself paying over $500 for one, then check out our Best Buy winner, the KitchenAid 5-Speed Diamond.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Blendtec Designer 675 has an 1800 Watt motor (3.8 Peak HP), making it the most “powerful” blender in this review. It has an illuminated touchscreen with a slider for the variable speed settings, along with five presets: Smoothie, Frozen Treats, Whole Juice, Hot Soup, and Clean. The base comes in three colors: Charcoal, Champagne, and Dark Roast. It comes with an 8-year warranty. There is a 16-page mini-cookbook included.
Performance Comparison
This blender had the dullest blades in this review. The edges are all rounded, but it still blends well because they move so fast.
Credit: Cam McKenzie Ring
Ease of Use
This was the highest scoring model for Ease of Use. The touchscreen display is easy to operate and the presets take the guesswork out of blending. The “+10” feature was very handy as well, letting us add a few more seconds to a preset when it appeared as though things weren't quite blended yet. We liked the lid on this model, which is made of a flexible rubber, as it seals well even if it's not pushed in completely. It's easy to put on and take off, and the large opening in the middle vents heats well so as to avoid pressure buildup.
The illuminated touchscreen display is pretty high-tech, but easy to use. A timer counts up or down when in use, and the machine even keeps track of how many cycles you've run.
Credit: Cam McKenzie Ring
Smoothies
Green Smoothie
This blender did an amazing job with our green smoothie blend. The preset function worked well and kept the contents moving throughout the container, and the resulting drink was perfectly blended and smooth. It was slightly thicker than the Vitamix, with a thicker pulp residue left in the strainer. This is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on how you like your smoothies, and you don't want to over-process them as it will result in a degradation of the nutrients inside it. With either machine you are sure to get a well-blended drink, but the Vitamix makes one that is noticeably smoother.
While all the ingredients were well-blended, the resulting smoothie was a little thicker and more pulpy than the Vitamix.
Credit: Cam McKenzie Ring
Berry Smoothie
This blender also made a great berry smoothie, and broke down the seeds almost as much as the Vitamix did. The skins were well incorporated and you won't find yourself catching chunks of blueberries in your mouth like we did with the Oster Versa.
There is very little berry seed and skin residue left in the strainer after this powerful blender had its way with it.
Credit: Cam McKenzie Ring
Frozen Drinks
We ran into the same problem with this blender as with some other high-performance models when it came to making a good frozen drink. The motor is so powerful that it can quickly liquify the ice, leaving you without much slush in your frozen margarita. This is the one category where less powerful models like the KitchenAid 5-Speed Diamond and the Nutri Ninja DUO outdid this blender and the Vitamix Professional 750.
While this frappe turned out great, it took a lot of practice to get the combination and blending time just right.
Credit: Cam McKenzie Ring
Puree
This model made a great pureed carrot soup. It was perfectly smooth with no pulp left over in the strainer and had a very creamy mouth feel to it. It was just a hair thicker than the Vitamix soup, which poured straight through our fine mesh sieve, whereas this one had to be pushed through just a little bit.
The soup puree was very smooth and passed easily through the strainer with no leftover pulp.
Credit: Cam McKenzie Ring
Grind
This was the one category that this blender did not do so well it. It took over ten minutes to get the nut butter mixture going, with a lot of stopping and scraping the nuts out from under the blades. Once it finally got going, we still had to do a lot of scraping on the sides, as the chunkier bits would get pushed into the corners and stuck there. Compared with how easy it was to grind in the Vitamix, this blender's performance was a bit of a disappointment.
The upturned sections of the Blendtec's blades kept pushing the chunkier bits into the corners, making it more difficult to process smoothly and resulting in a chunkier almond butter.
Credit: Cam McKenzie Ring
The Blendtec (left) could not achieve the same smooth texture of the Vitamix (right).
Credit: Cam McKenzie Ring
Noise
For such a powerful motor it never got too loud, peaking at 106 decibels during the grind test and with an average of 104.8. Compared to the Oster Versa and the Breville Boss, which had peaks of 123 decibels, this machine was noticeably quieter, though not quite as quiet at the Vitamix Professional 750.
Best Applications
This blender is perfect for most applications, including making green smoothies and processing tough vegetables in soups. The only area that it didn't do so well in was grinding nuts.
This blender is best used for smoothies and purees.
Credit: Cam McKenzie Ring
Value
The Blendtec Designer 675 costs $580. This is almost as much as the Vitamix Professional 750 ($600), but it lacks a few accessories that the Vitamix comes with, like a cookbook. They do have a lot of recipes on their website, and we're not buying a blender based solely on the included cookbook, but considering what comes with the Vitamix and The Breville Boss blenders, it was a bit of a disappointment. Compared to those models, it felt like Blendtec was being a bit “cheap” with their product, and yet it costs $580! But, should you want a cookbook or a spatula designed for the “Wildside” jar, you can purchase them separately for a whopping $25 each.
Conclusion
The blender blogosphere seems full of pages devoted to Blendtec vs. Vitamix, with devotees on either side asserting the value of one over the other. Having come to this review without previously using either, we had no allegiances either way, and found that the Vitamix performed slightly better in all of our testing metrics, besides Ease of Use, than the Blendtec Designer 675. That being said, this model is still a great blender, and an excellent choice if you want one with a smaller and shorter footprint, or with a digital timer.
Other Versions
Blendtec makes a Designer 725 and a Designer 625 blender, as well as a less expensive Classic 575 and a $1099 Professional 800.
—
Cam McKenzie Ring
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