They each have their plus and minuses. The VM with the more tapered jar pulls everything down quickly and the tamper is perfectly designed to not contact the blades. At the time I purchased the BT there was no tampe. The variable power control on th VM gives you great control of speed and the high power switch really puts it in overdrive
The BT wider jar design makes getting for out a bit easier. It is very powerful but the power levels are controlled by buttons that take it up in steps. I guess I like the rheostat type control of the VM better. The BT has preset buttons as well which I don’t seem to use. I bought only because I found a deal on it that was too good for me to pass on thinking I would hand it down to one of the kids. I like doing dried things in the BT, grinding roasted dried peppers and just made gazpacho in it the other day but the Vitamix gets most use for smoothies
I have a Vitamix with the shorter container, and am very satisfied with it. But I saw that there is a Blendtec container made for Vitamix, and I wondered for a while if I should get one. It would probably be insane on my part to do so, although that has never stopped me in the past.
So, it’s been almost a year now, and I love my Vitamix. I lived without a food processor for all this time just to get a good sense of if a Vitamix can really replace a food processor. With the tamper, it comes close, but there are times when even the Vitamix wide jar won’t cut it. For example, although I was fine making pie crust by hand again, it’s much harder in the summer. Chopping vs slicing never made sense to me because my food processor blade never seemed that sharp, but the difference is real.
So before I purchased a new $50 food processor that would be enough for my needs, I figured I would show the broken one to my father in case it was something simple. He hates throwing plastic into landfills, so two hours later…
… it turned out to be a blown heat fuse. It’s been another couple hours now as he tries to figure out how to clamp a new fuse in place. It’s a hobby for him, like how I’ll spend 4 hours laminating dough, but my mom’s not too happy I started him on this adventure.
Back on-topic, although it has more power, the Vitamix transfers heat to the ingredients much faster than the food processor, so you have to get a sense for if it’s okay to heat up your mixture and adjust your plan accordingly. Say, e.g., by blending a smaller batch in the Vitamix, or by layering the ingredients in a specific order to get a quicker blend.
Of course, the heating ability of a Vitamix can be a “feature” not a drawback for some applications: custards, for example, and yoghurt-based kadhi (where you Vitamix the yoghurt with a touch of water and turmeric till it’s hot – without curdling – then add a tempering mix of popped mustard seeds, etc).
But what modern technology gives with one hand, it takes away with the other: in both cases, custard and kadhi, you get a rather foamy final product from all the air that’s been beaten in.
Another drawback of both the vitamix and the food processor is that they cut, not grind. As with coffee beans, certain other things (garlic, peppercorns, etc.) taste different when crushed as opposed to cut. For some of these uses one needs a grinding type of “mixie.”
