OmniBlend V Blender Smoothie Maker Review

OmniBlend V Blender: Quality Blending Power

I confess, I love my high-speed blender. It has allowed me to eat healthier and live with more energy and vitality – more than I have experienced in the past twenty years! All in just one year after introducing green smoothies into my lifestyle.

The health benefits I have experienced personally, far and above outweigh the $400-$500 outlay I have made in purchasing each of the Vitamix and Blendtec blenders (oh the sacrifices I make to bring you the best reviews I can).

Having said that, it’s still a $400-$500 outlay of cash! My health is well worth the investment of course, but I do wish I would have come across the OmniBlend V during the search for my high-speed, green smoothie blender. I do believe it would’ve been my blender of choice for almost half the price! Yes, that’s correct, the OmniBlend V is priced at only $269 (with my coupon code) shipped! That my friends, is value.

But can the OmniBlend V stand up to the quality and green smoothie blending power of the Blendtec and the Vitamix?

Well, shall we find out?

Features

• 3 HP motor
• 6 stainless steel blades rotate up to 35,000 RPM
• Low, medium and high speeds; 35, 60, 90 second, and pulse one-touch buttons
• 64 Oz BPA-free container
• Square, smooth-side container – easy to extract food & clean
• 7 year warranty (base, controls & motor); 1 year warranty (container, blades)

Motor/ Controls/ Speeds

The OmniBlend V comes with a 950 W, 3 HP motor. This is more raw horsepower than either the Blendtec or the Vitamix, but slightly less wattage, which is actually by design. The engineers at JTC (manufacturer of OmniBlend blenders) have concluded that 950 W is the maximum wattage needed for optimal blender performance, motor cooling ability, life expectancy, and noise reduction.

This wattage is well below what the 3 HP motor can deliver, but their thinking is why use it if it’s not needed and can prolong the life of the motor? I like that consumer-oriented thinking. We will report how well they met those goals during this review.

The control panel consisted of seven buttons and one switch. Starting from the left there is a rocker on/off switch which is covered by a transparent rubber sheath which keeps it watertight. The switch illuminates while on. To the right of this switch are two rows of soft-touch buttons. The three buttons on the top row are 1-touch low, medium, and high speed controls while the three buttons on the bottom are programmed timers set at thirty-five, sixty, and ninety seconds each.

Each of the six buttons have individual power indicators to show they are ‘pressed’. To the right of these buttons is a soft-touch pulse control.

If the medium speed button is pressed the blender first starts out at low speed for 2 seconds before ramping up to medium. If the high-speed button is pressed the blender progresses from low to medium speeds (2 seconds each) before going to high-speed. This is a nice feature to prevent an immediate high-speed takeoff of the ingredients which could blow the lid off of the container.

If any of the three program timer control buttons are pushed the blender also makes a stepped progression up to high-speed which last approximately 3 seconds total.

I’ve only seen this stepped speed control on one other smoothie blender I’ve reviewed and I really like the feature, especially since I’ve twice blown the lid off on my Blendtec blender. While the pulse button is pressed the blender will immediately start on high speed and stay there as long as the button is pressed.

If either of the low, medium, or high buttons are pressed the blender will continue to operate at that speed until stopped by pressing any other button on the control panel. The pre-programmed timer buttons will run for their allotted time and then beep to indicate the cycle has completed.

The 60-second and 90-second timers have a pre-programmed slow down and stop few second pause built into their cycles. This occurs once during the 60-second cycle and twice during the 90-second cycle. This pause is designed to mix the ingredients better and allow heavier chunks of food to drop nearer the blades.

Dimensions

• height base + container – 16.5”
• height of container – 9.5”
• base – 8” wide x 9” deep
• combined weight – 9 Lbs
• cord length – 5 feet

Container & Base Info

The square shaped, BPA-free container is rated at 64 ounces, but maxes out at 70 ounces. The container is made from Eastman Tritan copolyester which is the same material that Vitamix uses on their containers.

The interior of the container has smooth sides which makes it much easier to use a spatula when removing thicker ingredients. There is also sufficient room at the bottom of the container (around the blades) to maneuver a spatula as well.

There is a plastic handle that extends from one of the top corners of the container and though I really like the rubberized handle on the Vitamix container (which by the way will fit perfectly on the OmniBlend V base), the handle is stout enough to make lifting a full container easy while saving on several ounces of weight.

It’s a little odd in that the markings on the container only go up to 50 ounces and 6 cups (metric measurements on the opposite side). As in the case of Blendtec, the manufacturers of the OmniBlend V do not recommend filling the container up to capacity. I assume to prevent the dreaded “lid blow off” and subsequent mess from happening.

Warnings – shmornings, fill the container up and keep your hand on the lid just like on the Blendtec. A small price to pay for an extra half quart of green smoothie I say. However, disclosure noted. Surprised

The lid is made of rubber and seals on the inside of the container when used. This is not a fail proof seal if you’re mixing anything over say, 48 ounces, so the one hand on top method is best. Kind of a pain I know, but if you never have to clean green smoothie from every kitchen crevice within a 2 footcontainer2 radius of the blender, you’ll thank me. You WANT to keep that lid on during the blend!

In the center of the lid is a 1 inch access hole for the tamper (yes, the dreaded tamper is used with this blender). At 1 inch, the hole is really too small for anything but powders or liquids to be added while the lid is on. I would dearly love a 2 inch access port, but I guess I can forgive given that $200+ price savings over the OmniBlend V competitors.

At the bottom of the container is the blade assembly which consist of six stainless steel blades that are approximately 1 inch each in length. Two of the blades face down towards the bottom of the container, two are horizontal, and two face up at an approximately 45° angle.

The blades are rated for both wet or dry ingredients though I’ve noted that the OmniBlend V does not quite match the grain grinding capabilities of the Blendtec.

As I mentioned before, the container of the Vitamix will fit and work on the OmniBlend V with no problems so JTC (the manufacturers of OmniBlend) did an excellent job of making a very stout connection between the container and base.

top baseThe base has a footprint of approximately 8 inches wide by 9 inches deep and is approximately 7 inches tall. The only color available in the US is black. The base is made of a glossy, wear-resistant plastic that is very easy to clean. Overall, the base has a nice quality heft to it.

On the bottom of the base is a storage system that will house all but the plug of the 5 foot cord. This is a nice feature that helps reduce clutter on your counter. The base sits on for rubber feet which are approximately 7/8″ in diameter each.

At the back of the base is a power overload button that can be pushed to reset the circuit breaker should the need arise. The presence of this button should not concern you for both the Blendtec and the Vitamix have this overload feature built in – I know because I have tripped it while using each of the blenders – but there is no button that needs to be pressed. You unplug the unit wait a few seconds and plug the unit back in to reset the circuit.

Use & Cleanup

Having made well over 700 green smoothies in both the Blendtec and Vitamix blenders, I feel quite at home using the OmniBlend V. There are no ‘surprises’ in using this blender as long as you can live with the 1 inch access port in the lid and having to rest one hand on top when blending large loads.

Just as with the Vitamix a tamper is included with the OmniBlend V, though its use doesn’t seem to be quite as frequent as with the Vitamix even when blending the same ingredients. The approximate 9 1/2″ tamper is designed not to impede with the blades as long as you use it ONLY with the lid on. Of course if your blending things like raw peanuts or almonds for a nut butter, fruit and ice for ice cream, or perhaps a couple sliced potatoes for homemade, fresh ingredient potato soup, you will have to use the tamper.blender2

Two things to note here: using the tamper is more of a pre-buying mental block then the post-buying use of it – it’s just not that big a deal. Besides, we’re talking about saving $200 from the price of the nearest OmniBlend V competitors.

The blend quality of a green smoothie made in the OmniBlend V is not a 100% match to either the Blendtec or the Vitamix (maybe 97%) however, I don’t think you would be able to tell the difference UNLESS you were quite familiar with drinking smoothies from either of those two manufacturers. Said another way, the ‘silkiness’ and smoothness is excellent, though not exactly the same as the other two, even when blending things like a pineapple core or a whole orange (with the skin on). No lumps. No chewing on the greens. It’s very, very smooth.

Bottom line, I would be perfectly happy with anything made in the Omni V and can only tell the difference because of the number of smoothies I’ve made in each of the competitors. You won’t be disappointed.

As I mentioned earlier, this blender doesn’t quite match the powder-perfect flour produced in the Blendtec when grinding whole grains. I believe this is due to the blunt-edge blade design of the Blendtec vs. the OmniBlend V. If the Blendtec scored a 10 out of 10 in this area the OmniBlend V would score an 8. Perfectly usable, but not exactly the same.

The one touch control buttons are nice, but it is a bit of an inconvenience not being able to adjust the speed once the blending starts. There is no speed up/down control button. This is probably the one feature lacking on the OmniBlend V blender when compared to its competitors. Is it a $200 detriment? Only you can decide that.

I mentioned in the Motor Section above that this cool blender has been purposely tuned to produce less wattage than the motor is capable of. Where this may impact you as a consumer is how long it takes to blend that perfect batch of green smoothies. Lower wattage = lower RPM = longer blend times. Slightly.

If something took you 60 seconds to blend in one of the other blenders it might take an additional 15 seconds in this one. Certainly not a big deal given the price difference, but I wanted to do my due diligence in this review.

The plus side to lower RPMs means a lower noise factor though. Now I’m not saying “quiet” folks, we’re comparing 85 dB on this baby vs. 100+ dB on the competitors. I certainly wouldn’t crank this thing up at 6 AM with the rest of the family sleeping next-door.

However, quieter IS better, especially when compared to the jet engine noise level of the Blendtec. I mean seriously, go bring your leaf blower into the kitchen, crank it up, and you have the equivalent noise factor of that blender.

Lastly, for all you who like to keep a tidy kitchen (me included), this blender will sit under most cabinets with the container placed on top of the base.

Cleanup is equally easy. Add a cup or two of water and a couple drops of soap to the container and let the container clean itself as it blends. I sometimes use Tahini (a sesame seed nut butter) in my recipes and this will occasionally stick to the side of the container during cleanup, but 90% of the time the jar is self-cleaning.

The base cleans up equally as well with just a damp dishrag and a few swipes. The control panel is completely sealed and only occasionally will you have to work to clean around the on/off rocker switch is something dripped on it.

Accessories

There are no accessories included with the blender, but it does come with a very nice recipe book title Deliciously Raw by Carmella Soleil. It contains 82 pages of 57 recipes which feature smoothie, shake, soup, salad dressing, spread, sauce, nut cheese, and desert recipes specifically for the Omni blender. A nice touch on a ‘discount’ high-speed blender.

Pros

• green stoplight
• Price
• Powerful 3 HP motor
• 64 Oz capacity jar
• Under-capacity motor load blends effectively yet yields less wear and noise
• One push blending with six preset blending functions plus a pulse button
• Very smooth drinks, even when blending cores, seeds & stems
• Space saving design – fits under cabinets easily
• Smooth, square jar aids in blending and is easy to empty and clean
• Looks good – contemporary styling
• Performs many functions – grind, kneed dough, cooks soups, ice cream
• yellow stoplight

Cons

• still LOUD
• Small access hole in lid means no adding most solid ingredients during blend
• No manual speed control
• grains aren’t ground to powder-fine consistency
• Not made in USA (China) US distributor/customer service/warranty however
• Somewhat shaky lid seal – use 1 hand on top with full container

I feel my job as a reviewer, trying to earn your trust, is to not only give thorough and unbiased opinions of the products I review, but also find the lowest price available for your blender investment dollars. Given that fact, you will see two review ratings below, depending on where the blender was purchased – Amazon or direct from distributor.

I hope this clarifies any confusion.

Overall, the OmniBlend V Blender Smoothie Maker has a:

• 3.9/5 star review on amazon.com (7 reviews)
• 5/5 star review on customerlobby.com (316 reviews)