Vitamix Professional Series 200 Blender, Black

I use this machine two to three times a day. Yep. Really. That often.I can't cook, so I don't really do much else besides fruit and veggie smoothies.Here's how it works for me:BLENDING POWER: I think this is an older model, so I find that I use the stamper a lot! It doesn't like to grind ice without any liquids. That bothers me. I've seen these presentations of other blenders that turn ice to powder in seconds. This model of the Vitamix, not so much. It'll start whirring away and nothing is moving and I get that "REALLLY!!!???" feeling and have to go crazy with the stamper thing. Once it gets going, it's fine, but what if I wanted to make ice cream? By the time the machine starts to actually catch it all, the ice cream would have to be quite liquidy. Which is not cool.Blending when the fruit and veggies are fresh is unbelievably amazing. I have yet to see the like from other blenders. Which is why I have been blending the fresh fruit and veggies, then pouring them into ice trays and freezing that way. When I go for a smoothie, I grab a few cubes from each fruit I want, add a bit of almond milk, and off we go. Since it blends the fruit very well when they're fresh, when I blend them for the second time, as frozen ice cubes, they are ALWAYS completely smooth. Seriously, it's like silky cream when I'm done with it. Which is great, but still wish the machine handled frozen stuff a bit better. Again, I assume this is because I bought an older model and the newer ones should be better, but I'm not sure (note that the one I'm commenting on is the 1723 Professional Series 200).CLEANING: Since I only do fresh fruit and veggies and light stuff, like almond milk, or (once) a bit of yoghurt, cleanup is amazingly, incredibly simple and clean. I tried using some dish soap and blending it with water for a bit to clean it, but found this was totally overkill. I can wipe it down while I rinse hot water through it and it's sparkling clean again. Sometimes, bananas stick a bit, so I'll get some hot water and let it blend for a few minutes, rinse it out and it's sparkling again. I imagine that if you wanted to do sauces and things that might contain oils or hot substances, the cleaning wouldn't be that easy, but I would think the dishsoap and hot water would be plenty to clean even the worst of messes you can make in this thing.CONTAINER: Note that the plastic of the actual container does tend to scratch somewhat easily. I often use a spoon to encourage the last bit of the smoothies out and have noticed some scratches on the container. I try to be careful about that now and actually use a microfiber towel to dry it off once I've cleaned it. But I imagine that over time, I won't be able to stop all the scratches and the carafe will eventually become cloudy...it's plastic, not much you can do about it.THE LID: At first, I hated it! I didn't like the way it attached, I thought there should be a click, or a twist, or some way to let you know you'd gotten it on right. But now that I'm used to it, all those other ways of putting a lid on a blender seem silly. I can put it on from any point, it doesn't have one position it has to be in to lock. I did have to learn that you need to push it all the way down to completely seal it (thanks for that lesson, Spinach!!!), but it's very simple to put on and take off, no messing with lining up arrows, or turning enough times to get a seal, waiting for that "click," or doing maths to make sure you have it on right. It just goes on and comes off and that's that. Nice, neat, sweet!HANDLE: It's a rather big handle and if you have small hands (like me) it can feel a bit big. But I would guess that most people have normal sized hands and appreciate this. Even so, I have no trouble gripping it and have not had the feeling that I was going to drop it, or had trouble pouring or anything. It's just one of those things like a ball that you can't quite get your fingers all the way around, but you're still not about to drop it. The rubber grip is great, too.SOUND: It's a blender, it makes noise, but really not bad. It's not quiet by any means, but it's not super loud either.I don't use this machine for all the other cool things it can do. As I mentioned above, I can't cook, so chopping up fruit and combining them with stuff like spinach and kale and whatever veggies look decent, is about the extent of my "expertise." I imagine that anything else you set this machine to do would be great, though. I've seen it chop stuff up, as well as heat up, and it's quite plausible that if you know what you're doing, there are plenty of sauces and soups, and mashing and grinding, and mixing and fixing, and general mincing, that you could easily accomplish with the power this machine has. I just can't speak to all of it for sure as I don't and haven't done any of those things.

Yesterday, I received the Vita Mix 1723 Professional Series 200 blender. First impressions out of the box. The lid and perhaps the carafe handle impart a strong plastic smell that permeates the whole box. The carafe is BPA free not sure about the lid. The carafe looks beautiful. It is made out of a clear yet strong and light weight polycarbonate material. The base its a bit bulky but expected as it houses a 2HP motor. However it is not heavy for its size. Also included are a tamper tool, a recipe book, and a DVD.I washed the carafe and the lid with warm soapy water and noticed that the smell of plastic still lingers from the lid. I am thinking it will be sometime before it goes away.The overall height of the blender is about about 20 inches. I had no problem placing it on the edge of the counter. Thus it does not fit directly underneath the kitchen cabinets. The carafe has plenty of room to blend different types of fruits and vegetables at once, which is a huge plus.The first thing I made was an orange sorbet. This recipe puts the blender to the test. It calls out for two peeled oranges, two teaspoons of sugar, and four cups of ice. The blender had no trouble creating a deliciously smooth orange sorbet in about a minute. It will get loud while it grids so much dry ice without so much liquid for lubrication. Your neighbors might wonder was going on. However, this is the loudest it will get. I noticed that while blending other recipes, the noise is comparable to any other blender running on high.The recipe book is excellent. It has all sorts of easy recipes to follow with nice color pictures. The book has a hardcover binding, and the paper the recipes are printed on is smooth and glossy. The DVD shows about 16 live recipes with chef Michael Symon. The recipes in the DVD are different from those on the recipe book. This model does not come with the CIA recipe book that has an extra 26 recipes but saves you $50.Most recipes are done on high speed. The blender is turned on. The variable speed dial is started on 1 and turned to 10, and then the switch is turned to high and left there until the recipe is completed. However, some recipes are done at speeds as low as 3. So it is fine to run the blender at such low speeds when needed. It will not harm it. If you get this blender, make sure to watch the DVD. Chef Symon is great at showing the ins and outs of the blender while making some delicious looking food.Overall, this is an excellent blender. I cannot wait to try the other recipes in the book and DVD and experiment with my owns.*********************************************************************Update - 6/7/11After a couple of days, the plastic smell from the lid disappeared. The recipe book that came with the blender is amazing! It has so many great recipes. The last section of the book features about 40 recipes from well known chefs. I am thinking that about $100 of the total cost of the blender is attributed to the enclosed recipe book and DVD.

As expected !