If you love whipping up smoothies, soups, and sauces in your kitchen, you may be looking to invest in a high-powered blender like the Vitamix E310 or a sturdy stand mixer like those made by KitchenAid. But which one is better suited for your blending and mixing needs? We’ve compared the key features and performance of these popular kitchen appliances to help you decide.
When it comes to blending performance, the winner is clear: the Vitamix E310. With its powerful 2.2 peak horsepower motor, the E310 can easily handle tough ingredients like ice, frozen fruit, nut butters, and seeds. It can even heat up soups and sauces while blending. The aircraft-grade stainless steel blades spin at up to 240 mph to pulverize ingredients into silky smooth purées and mixes in seconds.
Stand mixers like the KitchenAid Artisan or Professional series have much less blending power, usually less than 1 horsepower. While great for mixing batters and dough, they can struggle with thick mixtures like nut butters or ice. Blender attachments for KitchenAid mixers help but still can’t match the blending performance of a stand-alone high-speed blender like the Vitamix.
The Vitamix E310 is incredibly versatile, able to make smoothies, frozen desserts, nut milks, batters, dough, soups, sauces, nut butters, and more. Its variable speed control and pulse feature let you fine-tune the texture of your creations. With the right attachments, the E310 can even grind coffee and turn into a food processor.
KitchenAid stand mixers are workhorses when it comes to baking. Their planetary mixing action thoroughly mixes, kneads and aerates batters and doughs. With attachments like the whisk, dough hook, and paddle, you can cream, beat, knead, and stir a wide variety of ingredients. However, KitchenAid mixers lack the vessel capacity and power to blend drinks or make single-serve smoothies.
Overall, the Vitamix E310 offers more versatility, while KitchenAid shines for baking tasks.
Vitamix blenders are simple to operate, with a user-friendly variable speed dial and pulse option. The tamper lets you push ingredients into the blades while blending dense mixtures. Clean-up is easy too – just add water and dish soap and run the blender!
KitchenAid mixers have multiple attachments to switch between, which can be time-consuming. Their tilt-head design allows you to access the bowl easily. Clean-up needs more effort than a Vitamix, with bowls, whisks, paddle attachments etc. to wash. So the Vitamix edges out KitchenAid for ease of use.
With its compact size and low-profile 64-ounce container, the Vitamix E310 easily fits under most kitchen cabinets for convenient storage. At 11.5 x 7.5 x 17.25 inches, it has a small footprint on your counter too.
KitchenAid mixers like the Artisan are chunkier at 14 x 14 x 8.5 inches. Their larger 5-quart stainless steel bowl adds to the storage footprint. So if you’re tight on space, the streamlined Vitamix E310 may be a better fit.
A brand new Vitamix E310 retails around $350, while a KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer costs approximately $430. So the Vitamix comes in at a more budget-friendly price point. And it includes extras like a cookbook, tamper, and online tutorial videos.
On the other hand, KitchenAid mixers regularly go on sale for under $250. And their attachments like pasta rollers, spiralizers etc. provide more value over time. So in terms of long-term cost, it may be worth investing in a KitchenAid mixer.
For powerful blending and single-serve smoothies, the Vitamix E310 is the clear winner. Its superior blending performance, ease of use and versatility across food prep tasks make it worth the price.
KitchenAid mixers beat out the Vitamix for baking tasks, with their specialized mixing actions and wide range of attachments. Their larger capacity bowls are also better suited for bigger batch baking and meal prepping.
Ultimately, choosing between the Vitamix E310 and a KitchenAid mixer comes down to your priorities in the kitchen. If you’ll mainly be whipping up smoothies, soups, nut butters and the like, invest in the Vitamix for high-performance blending. For the home baker mixing up cakes, cookies and breads, a KitchenAid mixer is likely the better buy.
With the right choice suited to your needs, either of these kitchen workhorses will be your new go-to appliance for years of blending and mixing magic!
