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BlendTec Warranty: my response, and BlendTec’s . . . part 2 of 2


Robyn Openshaw - Aug 29, 2008 - This Post May Contain Affiliate Links


To:                     GreenSmoothieGirl.com

From:         Blendtec

Date:           8/29/2008

Re:                   Blendtec Warranty Information

Blendtec home blender warranty FAQ’s

 

Question – Is there any restriction on the number of times a machine can be used during the warranty period?

 

Answer – NO. There is no cycle restriction on the home machine warranty. It can be used many times per day without any concern about going over a usage limit. Some may be confusing the warranty for a commercial machine with the home warranty, but they are two different things.

 

Question – How is Blendtec’s home warranty different from other manufacturers?

 

Answer – Comparing warranty coverage across different types of machines with different features and components is a little like trying to compare apples to oranges. But when compared to similar home machines which utilize current technologies, Blendtec has a standard three year warranty on the critical motor and electronic components, whereas other small appliance manufacturers only offer a 90 day or perhaps a one-year warranty for machines costing almost as much as a Blendtec.

 

Some don’t offer any warranty at all on the jar or drive shaft, which are key components in a blender’s function, but Blendtec offers a one-year warranty on the blender jar, and a lifetime warranty on the blade and drive socket. And if a jar should need to be replaced after the warranty period, Blendtec’s jar is less than half the cost of other high end machines. Some manufacturers don’t even offer replacement parts, so if a jar goes bad, the entire machine is a loss. Not so with Blendtec.

Blendtec makes the world’s strongest blenders and has had machines in constant use for decades. The return percentage for machines needing repair is among the lowest in the industry. Blendtec’s machines are Made in the USA using the highest quality components and materials. Blendtec is a continuous improvement company which means as new technology or production processes become available, Blendtec’s engineering department incorporates those changes into every product it sells.

 

Some companies which rely on outdated technology and don’t offer the state-of-the-art machines that Blendtec does may have longer warranties, but they don’t offer the value, power, and functions that a Blendtec machine has.  

 

When you’re talking about processing whole foods, raw fruits and vegetables, whole grains, or ice, just ask the important question “Will It Blend?”, and with a Blendtec blender the answer is “Yes, it blends!”

 

Posted in: Tools & Products

13 thoughts on “BlendTec Warranty: my response, and BlendTec’s . . . part 2 of 2”

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Well, I dont need any more convincing.

    However, just one question. Is the main jar made of glass or plastic?

  2. http:// says:

    polyethylene, I believe (not glass)

  3. http:// says:

    I called Blendtec a few months ago inquiring whether there was a glass jar available because the plastic jar actually has BPA in it – which certainly has its concerns. Hopefully, they will come out with a glass jar for us!

  4. Anonymous says:

    I’m investigating the raw food lifestyle and I’ve stumbled through this blog a few times. This time I’ve decided to look around and like what I’ve seen. As someone who’s agonized what objectively seems to be a ridiculously long time over a blender, I have a few comments about the 7 reasons to buy a Blendtec because I had investigated each of those a while back (and before I saw them here) before I *finally* decided on a blender – the Vitamix Vita-Prep 3 (which is the 3HP commercial version of the Vitamix 5200). I paid ~$450 which is about $50 more than the Blendtec.

    1) Blendtec’s 3HP – the Vitamix 5200 is rated at 2+ (not sure exactly how much that is); the Vita-Prep 3 is rated at 3HP

    2) Blendtec’s 17 cycles – I’ve owned multicycle blenders for decades and *never* used all of the cycles. I’ve found it a lot more accurate for me to “read” the blender contents and adjust the speed myself. The result is I rarely experience the contents “jumping” and hitting the lid. The other issue I had with the Blendtec is the membrane control pad. My personal experience with flat panel controls is that *every* one of them has broken on me, from small appliances to dishwashers and ovens.

    Anecdotally, I’ve frequented several places to buy frozen coffee drinks (Starbucks and Panera Bread, who use Blendtec) and juice bars that used the Vitamix blending station. I have NEVER gotten a frozen drink from a Starbucks or Panera (and I’ve visited multiple different locations of each) that didn’t have at least very small chunks of ice; the Vitamix drinks have never had chunks. I’d guess manually controlling the Blendtec would prevent this (and I know on some Blendtec models you can custom program the cycles), but with at least 17 cycles available IMHO it’s inexcusable that you can’t get a hands-free perfect frozen coffee drink.

    3) Blendtec’s warranty on the blade is better but the jar warranty is not. I’ve also read on other sites of people having problems with the Blendtec container cracking, and the warranty on the jar is 1-year vs. 7 with Vitamix (3 years on the commercial Vita-Preps). Also, while the Blendtec jar/blade combos are cheaper than Vitamix’s, you can buy a Vitamix jar+lid without the blade and reuse the blades for less money than the Blendtec jar.

    BTW, if you’ve been having problems with blade detachment on the Vitamix, you may need the Vitamix wrench that’s used to change/install blades on Vitamix jars. I had this same problem on the Waring bar blender I used to use. Without looking further I’d suspect you also need something like Loctite on the threads.

    4) The Blendtec *is* shorter. However, if you don’t need the full 64-oz capacity of the Vitamix and height is an issue, you can get a shorter 32-oz jar and transfer the blade from the 64-oz jar (the 32-oz bladeless jars I’ve seen come with the wrench). I keep my counters clear and move everything off when I’m finished anyways, so the height wasn’t an issue.

    5) I personally haven’t had that much difficulty getting stuff out of the container to the point this is an issue. Curiously, the people that I used to buy frozen coffee drinks from seemed to have an unnecessarily hard time getting all of a thick frozen drink out of the Blendtec. I couldn’t see why, though.

    6) The dry container “myth” is one of my few beefs with Vitamix, because you definitely do NOT need the dry container to grind grains. In fact, one of the Vitamix-sponsored videos for the Vita-Prep 3 shows a chef making red lentil crepe batter completely in the Vita-Prep, starting with turning the red lentils into flour. Vitamix markets the dry jar for home use and not to commercial users.

    There’s another issue with grinding grains in a blender. Several raw food people I know say it’s a bad idea because the blades will heat the grains to over 118 ° and use something like the Nutrimill instead. I don’t know if this is true or not.

    7) The “Will It Blend” videos *are* neat; however, they’re also professionally done so if something goes wrong you’re not going to see it from Blendtec. If you DO want to see one where “Will It Blend” didn’t work, go search YouTube; Blendtec was doing a live “Will It Blend” demo and the Blendtec was jamming. Of course someone recorded it. Another instance – they claimed to “Will It Blend” neodymium magnets and they clearly were not neodymium magnets. A kid called them on it on YouTube as well.

    8) I’ll give you an eighth plus for the Blendtec – it comes in more colors than the Vitamix. If I got the Blendtec I was probably going to get a red one.

    9) The whole warranty issue – I find this one *really* annoying on Blendtec’s part. Business 101 (and common sense) state you can’t offer a long warranty period on an inferior product because the repair/replacement costs will drive you out of business. I find this “outdated technology” slam even more egregious after hearing that Blendtec has offered 7-year warranties to people who buy from their Costco roadshow. IOW, is a Blendtec/Costco 7-year warranty an admission of Blendtec’s “outdated technology”?

    The final factors for me were non-technical, and in the case of the Blendtec a few were circumstantial:

    1) Actual use of the blenders. I chatted with a few chefs; all of them had Vita-Preps in the kitchen. Out at the bar, there were either Blendtecs or Vitamix Bar Bosses or Blending Stations because each of these is better at consistency between staff/shift changes because of programming/timers. In the kitchen finer control over speed/power was preferred; an analog knob theoretically has infinite steps; a digital control does not. As an aside, interestingly enough, the Vitamix drink blenders have jars that resemble the Blendtec’s.

    2) The tamper (or as Vitamix puts it, “Accelerator”). If the Blendtec doesn’t need a tamper, why are people making tampers for it? IMHO, Vitamix’s provision of a tamper doesn’t automatically make their blenders wimpy; sometimes it can help a lot.

    3) The “Will It Blend” videos were fun and served their purpose to impress; the failed “Will It Blend” videos not only killed the buzz for me, it made me question how much the first ones were staged.

    4) Major, MAJOR one – BPA. Unless things have changed, Blendtec’s jars are made with Lexan, which can leech BPA. There’s a big difference in how Blendtec and Vitamix responded. Vitamix comes out with a Tritan BPA-free jar; Blendtec posts PDFs from the American Plastics Council on it’s website saying that low levels of BPA aren’t bad for you. “Nuff said.

    Anyways, I know this is long but I thought I’d share some of the stuff I evaluated on my blender journey. Now I just have to work myself up to some significant lifestyle diet changes.

    1. Joe says:

      Thanks! Very helful!!

  5. Anonymous says:

    Used to be true, Darlene, but the BlendTec jar is now BPA free.

  6. My BlendTec arrived today and the box states “8-year warranty”

  7. Anonymous says:

    Love to get one as a gift for my mothers 70th
    Please send the details.
    Thank you for sharing this info on blendtec.
    Melody

  8. Unfortunately BPA-free isn’t necessarily safer. Looks like they’re just switching chemicals on us. We all need to write and demand that they create glass jars for these “healthy lifestyle” products. http://www.anh-usa.org/is-bpa-free-a-lie/

  9. Jill DeVine says:

    I use my Blendtec daily, and would not be without it. My only problem with it is the plastic container. BPA-free or not, I don’t like plastic. The less plastic of any kind in my life, the better. Plastic of any kind, in contact with food, is not good. BPA-free products have something else in them that has probably not been tested for “safety”. Aside from that, all plastic is toxic to manufacture, it off-gasses, it’s toxic to recycle, and only about 2% of plastic is ever recycled. The rest becomes garbage in landfills, in the environment, in the ocean, and plastic NEVER goes away. It all breaks down into minute particles that get into the food chain. I’m sure that this company (Blendtec) could come up with a way to make a glass container. More people need to let them know that that’s what we want. I’m due for a new container, as the one that I have leaks from the bottom. I don’t want to invest in a new one if it’s going to be plastic.

    1. Robyn says:

      I agree, Jill, wish one of the blender titans would make glass jars. I will pass it along to BlendTec.

  10. Lynn says:

    Was just on a site where a huge debate over plastic vs glass. After having plastic mesh in me I have done a lot of research. One only has to look at the MSDS for polymer. Subject ends there. It is not safe!!! It is killing our world while lining the pockets of drug companies and manufactures.

    Wake up

  11. Marty says:

    k-tec Blendtec blades are not covered for lifetime. This was just confirmed on 2 calls to Blendtec customer service (801 222 0888). My warranty book (from 1998) has no indication of lifetime warranty. and Blendtec sites have no lifetime warranty stament (that I can find).
    I have a Blendtec jar #6233 that has a blade assemble and drive spline that look fine. The seal and jar do not leak. but the blade does not not turn when the drive spline is turned (even by hand). The drive shaft or blade have been striped where they connect. Blendtec says this in not covered. This is clearly a Drive/Blade fail.
    My jar was replaced in 2006 under warranty with a Blendtec branded jar. This item will not be repaired or replaced by Blendtec.
    Other then this warranty confusion I would recommend the blendtec.

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