Blendtec Classic 575 Blender

This is a very powerful, useless blender. I was deciding betwixt the Blendtec and the Vitamix and chose poorly. As a man, I found it impossible to ignore my testosterone-fueled instincts and I went with the blender with the 3 horsepower motor. A mere 2.2 horsepower on the Vatamix? Pssht! I don't want to just make mere smoothies, I want to open a portal to Hades. Give me the blender that I can disassemble and replace a Tesla drivetrain, please. Unfortunately, my manly instincts were misplaced and I should have allowed myself to be lured by the razor sharp blades of the Vitamix. The Blendtec has a fatal flaw. It doesn't come with a tamper, Blendtec is so committed to telling the lie that their magic square shaped blending pot doesn't need one that they refuse to even make one and at the moment of this review, you can't even buy an aftermarket tamper for the current lid. The reason this is a problem is because the Blendtec will spin up and reach an RPM that creates an air pocket in the bottom of the blender that results in the super-powered motor spinning uselessly in the air while your frozen bananas and ice chunks lounge lazily upon a soft bed of half-mixed smoothie-goo. We have made smoothies many times in the short weeks we have owned the king of all useless blendy-boos. Not one single solitary time has that simple "push it and walk away" smoothie button worked. What really happens is that it starts to blend, the air pocket forms, raging RPM beats the air under your fruit into painful submission and you will have to remove the non-tampered jug, shake it, smack it, stick a utensil into it, cram those chunks back down, restart the motor and repeat this obnoxious process 4 or 5 times until you have the smoothie you were told would happen effortlessly and with one simple button push. And lest ye think that I am putting the ingredients in the wrong order, I say unto you,"nay!" I followed diligently the liquids, fruits, frozen and hard items order starting bottom to top. For all their bragging about power, automatic blending settings and ease of cleaning, they forgot to make sure this thing blended. I tried to figure out how the demo videos I watched could have been successful and I think they are just using tons of water to lubricate the mix. You might get a good blend out of that but the smoothie will be thin and not taste as good. Nor does all that power result in smoother mixtures. I have had smoothies made with the Vitamix and I was surprised by the lack of gritty seeds. Those sharp blades and high RPM turn them to dust. Somehow, the blunt Blentec blade, despite power and lots of speed, manages to leave them all intact for you to enjoy as scratchy, gritty bits to stick in your teeth and remind you that you should have spent a little more and got the Vitamix. Would I recommend the Blendtec? Obviously, no. But if you get stuck with one, you might consider making a home-built helicopter with the electric motor, I haven't seen anyone do that yet and least you will be able to fly yourself to a smoothie shop and get a properly blended treat.