Vitamix Ascent X2 Review

With a 1440-watt motor putting out two horsepower of bladespinning fury, the Vitamix Ascent X2 is a high-powered workhorse of a blender. It features a 48-ounce pitcher, a tamper and detachable tamper holder, and measures 17.1" x 9.5" x 7.7" with its pitcher, which fits nicely on most countertops. Its classic styling and brand renown will add a touch of sophistication to any kitchen.

Smoothies

The Ascent X2 makes an exceptionally delicious smoothie, no matter what kind. It pulverized all of the ice, greens, and frozen berries we tossed in its pitcher. And it did all this in a shockingly quick 45 seconds per smoothie using its Smoothie preset.

The Ascent X2 almost completely broke down the greens in our green smoothie, leaving behind a small smattering of green flecks and a couple of small pieces of kale that clung to the side of the pitcher. The kale flavor was really subdued, which improved the overall taste of the green smoothie and pleased our taste testers.

The Vitamix demolished a fair amount of the berry seeds in our fruit smoothie, but not all of them, which gave the drink a slightly gritty texture. Aside from the seeds, though, it was as smooth as softened butter. All other ingredients were entirely liquefied, and the smoothie was easy to drink — not overly thick in any sense and packed full of juicy berry flavor.

Pureeing

Our peanut and almond nut butter turned out to be easy to pour from the blender and spreadable with a butter knife.

The Vitamix manual had specific instructions for this, which included starting the blender on its lowest speed and quickly ramping it up to the highest speed for 60 seconds. In the end, it took us a few minutes of blending to get the best result, which involved using the included tamper to push ingredients back toward the blades and adding a bit more coconut oil to make sure the blades would move the mixture, rather than spinning through it.

The mixture got quite hot during this process, up to 135°F. But the resulting nut butter was flavorful and mostly smooth with just a touch of grit. It was a bit thin when blending was done, due to the added oil, but thickened nicely in the fridge.

In pureeing a tomato soup that also involved hearty ingredients like chopped shallots, garlic, and fresh basil, the Ascent broke it all down to a sensationally smooth texture. Nothing was left in the sieve we poured it through. The Hot Soup preset ran for 7 minutes and 30 seconds, which caused a metallic burning smell, though the motor never appeared to struggle at all.

The soup tasted quite good, though it had a slight metallic tinge that may have been from the heat bringing out the metallic flavor of the canned tomatoes we used. The temperature reached a steamy and hot 147°F, which is close to the minimum serving temperature we sought.

Frozen Drinks

The Ascent X2 knocked it out of the park when crushing ice, serving up tasty, restaurant-quality frozen margaritas.

This machine is powerful. Full stop. It decimated all that ice like nobody's business, creating a luciously smooth texture that one of our testers said was “almost like sorbet.” Not a single ice chunk was missed; they were all broken down to very fine crystals. There was a tiny bit of liquid separation, which may signify that the heat of the blades started to melt the ice a tad, but overall, the margaritas turned out excellent and absolutely delicious.

Controls

The controls for the Vitamix Ascent X2 combine the best of both worlds. On one hand, you have a handful of extremely helpful presets for common needs. On the other, you have a few simple manual controls that are easy to use for customized operation.

There are four presets on the Ascent X2: Smoothies, Frozen Desserts, Hot Soup, and Auto Clean. At face value, they're very easy to interpret and don't require a dense manual to understand.

The same goes for the manual controls. There's a knob that's used to select one of the aforementioned presets or one of the different speed settings. Then you've got a switch for pulsing the blender, another switch to start or stop a preset program, and there's a digital time that counts up when running the blender manually and counts down when using one of the presets. It's all very intuitive and user-friendly.

Ease of Cleaning

Not only is the Ascent X2 well-built in terms of its capabilities and visual design, but it was also engineered to be easy to clean. The effort needed to keep a blender clean might not be the top priority for many, but it can suddenly become so when you're done blending and have a mess on your hands. But for the Ascent, the pitcher, lid, and blades are all dishwasher-safe, so general cleanup is a breeze.

It's worth noting that the tamper and motor are not dishwasher safe, so you'll have to hand wash those. Also, the blades are not removable. If the dishwasher can't remove all the grime, you will have to scrub them, but they're not too difficult to wipe under and around. There's also a built-in auto-clean feature. Add warm water to the pitcher, select the Auto Clean preset, and let it run for 35 seconds. It works very well and is all you'll need to do after most basic drink blends.

Should You Buy the Vitamix Ascent X2?

If you're already a fan of Vitamix, then the Ascent X2 is an easy choice. The power, performance, and reliability are all top-notch, and that 10-year Vitamix warranty is an amazing selling point given the high price tag of this machine. Of course, the price is likely to be the main deterrent for many. Some high-end competitor blenders do rival the blending prowess of the Ascent X2, and several can be bought at a lower price point.

What Other Blenders Should You Consider?

If you're looking for the best of the best, the Vitamix Ascent X2 is surely a top competitor, but we actually give the edge to the Breville Super Q. It's more powerful than the Ascent X2, has more presets, and makes even smoother smoothies, frozen drinks, and purees. However, if you're a Vitamix fan through and through, but the price of the Ascent X2 is a bit much, consider the Vitamix Explorian E310, which performs nearly as well in several respects (especially in the flawless quality of the blended drinks it made), but at a significantly lower price.