Vitamix S30/S50/S55 Review – Is the Vitamix Personal Blender Worth to Consider?

Space Sav­ing Vita­mix S30, S50, and S55 blenders are the brand’s answer to per­son­al blender pop­u­lar­i­ty. All three mod­els have absolute­ly iden­ti­cal tech­ni­cal para­me­ters and only dif­fer by the pre-set pro­grams and col­or options. The S30 comes with only 10 vari­able speeds, S50 has addi­tion­al 2 pre-set pro­grams, and S55 has addi­tion­al 4 pre-set programs.

Yet, some con­sumers won­der why Vita­mix came out with the less pow­er­ful per­son­al blender prod­uct line, which is a down­grade to the rep­utable brand. These mod­els are very func­tion­al and able to per­form the entire range of tasks the full-size machine usu­al­ly does. They are an option for peo­ple with lim­it­ed kitchen space, con­sumers who want a portable gad­get for trav­el­ing, or pre­fer bul­let-type con­tain­ers for tak­ing drinks or hot soup out in a ready-to-go cup.

Check our arti­cles NutriBul­let RX vs Vita­mix S30/S50/S55  and Which Vita­mix to Buy? – Vita­mix Mod­els Explained.

Dis­clo­sure: As an Ama­zon Asso­ciate, we may earn an affil­i­ate com­mis­sion for pur­chas­es you make when using the links on this page.

Functionality and Versatility

Smooth­ie: S30, S50, and S55 machines out­put always smooth with no chunks drink no mat­ter you use fresh or frozen ingre­di­ents, soft fruits, or tough and leafy veg­gies like car­rot and kale. So, it is more than suit­able for mak­ing smooth and creamy green smooth­ies. This machine also pul­ver­izes well any black­ber­ry and rasp­ber­ry seeds in drinks.
Ice Crush­ing: These machines can per­fect­ly process frozen ingre­di­ents in the drinks, make frozen yogurt or ice cream, or pro­duce iced alco­holic drinks like mar­gar­i­tas and daiquiris.

Juic­ing: No blender will make text­book juice that requires the sep­a­ra­tion of fiber and liq­uids. The clas­sic juice could be extract­ed only with a juicer. How­ev­er, if some­one means “whole juice,” aka very smooth smooth­ies, then Vita­mix S‑series machines are more than capa­ble of mak­ing it.

Hot liquids/Soup: These machines can eas­i­ly process hot liq­uids for bul­let­proof cof­fee and oth­ers, prefer­ably using the larg­er 40 oz. con­tain­er because it is designed to release any ener­gy and pres­sure build-up (the usu­al case with hot liq­uids) through the vent­ed lid. This machine can also make soup like the full-size Vita­mix machine from start to fin­ish, from cold water and veg­gie to cooked veg­gies and hot soup in one con­tain­er. How­ev­er, it will take 8- 9 min­utes which is a bit longer than the required 5.5–6 min­utes for the full-size machine.

Nut milk: The S30, s50, and s55 machines are per­fect for mak­ing almonds, rice, cashew, hemp, or any oth­er nut or seed milk. For bet­ter con­sis­ten­cy, it is rec­om­mend­ed to strain it through a strain­er. How­ev­er, if the nuts or seeds are soaked before pro­cess­ing and the user does not mind some fiber in the drink, then the strain­er may not need it.

Nut but­ter: These blenders are designed to pro­duce the smoothest with­out addi­tives home­made nut but­ter. Sup­plied with set tam­per have to be used for pro­cess­ing it. Start with the low speed and grad­u­al­ly bring it to 10. When all nuts are chopped, then the speed should be reduced to 7–8 to bring con­sis­ten­cy to the silky smooth­ness. The Vita­mix per­son­al blender usu­al­ly requires the same time to make the nut but­ter as the full-size machines, but as an advan­tage, it needs a much small­er min­i­mum amount of nuts to make it pos­si­ble to process.

Puree­ing: This machine makes puree from raw or cooked veg­eta­bles, includ­ing raw car­rots and oth­er tough veg­gies. It is able to puree com­plete­ly smooth hum­mus out of chick­peas or make a large vari­ety of oth­er deeps.

Chop­ping: This sin­gle-serve gad­get has 10 vari­able speeds what more than enough for pro­duc­ing a wide range of sal­ads, dress­ings, mari­nades, coleslaw, or oth­er food prep recipes. It is per­fect­ly capa­ble of grat­ing even hard cheese if you cut the ingre­di­ents into small pieces before processing.

Grind­ing: It is suit­able to grind any herbs or cof­fee beans. As with any oth­er Vita­mix, this machine can mill all types of grain to pro­duce bak­ing qual­i­ty flour even from very hard ones like rice or tiny quinoa.

Dough: This machine’s stan­dard blade is able to knead the dough, and no doubt it can mix any type of batter.

Sur­pris­ing­ly, the Vita­mix S30, S50, and S55 mod­els can per­form the same func­tions as the full-size Vita­mix machine C and G series despite the fact they have the twice less pow­er­ful motor. How­ev­er, the tough and fibrous food must be blend­ed twice longer than in full-size Vita­mix to achieve a per­fect­ly smooth con­sis­ten­cy. In addi­tion, heat­ing liq­uids when prepar­ing soups will also require a longer time for processing.

The small 20 oz. the con­tain­er also requires cut­ting the ingre­di­ents into 1‑inch pieces because it has a nar­row shape and can­not use the tam­per. As a result, it may deal with big­ger pieces up to 2 inch­es, but they will not always be blend­ed into the per­fect con­sis­ten­cy. How­ev­er, once the user learns how to use this machine prop­er­ly, it will be a dream gadget.

Besides, these machines are able to process the small­er min­i­mum vol­umes that could be use­ful when pro­cess­ing nut but­ter or oth­er thick mix­ture, which usu­al­ly require a sig­nif­i­cant min­i­mum amount to start fro­For exam­ple, it is enough 1.25 cups to process decent nut but­ter with these models.

Speed Settings and Programs

The con­trol pan­el design is the only dif­fer­ence between the S30, S50, and S55 machines. In addi­tion, all machines are equipped with a dial knob that reg­u­lates start/stop mode, 10 vari­able speeds, pulse func­tion, and pre-set programs.

The S30 blender does not have any pre­set pro­grams. The S50 comes with two pre­sets – Smooth­ies and Pow­er Blends — and the S55 has 4 pre-set pro­grams – Smooth­ies, Pow­er Blends, Dips and Spreads, and Frozen Desserts. Pre-set pro­grams, the same as vari­able speeds, start/stop, and pulse modes, are locat­ed around the dial knob and acti­vat­ed by turn­ing it to the required pro­gram posi­tion. For exam­ple, pro­grams blend­ing speed and dura­tion are var­ied and auto­mat­i­cal­ly will stop at the end of a cycle. The avail­abil­i­ty of pre-set func­tion does not real­ly expand the blender’s func­tion­al­i­ty but gives some cus­tomers extra flex­i­bil­i­ty; thus, they are ready to pay extra for the feature.

The pulse func­tion is oper­at­ed at 50% high speed as long as it holds the posi­tion and is very use­ful for chop­ping func­tions or remov­ing air pok­ers, espe­cial­ly when thick mix­tures are blended.

This machine has a very good selec­tion of speeds, which gives the user excel­lent pow­er over the blend­ing process. The real­ly low min­i­mum speed (1,800 RPM or 13 MPH) and real­ly fast high speed (21,000 RPM or160) allow prepar­ing a wide range of recipes.

Ease of Using and Cleaning

Assem­bling and Oper­at­ing: The Vita­mix S30, S50, and S55 mod­els are assem­bled the same as any oth­er per­son­al type blender. The 20 oz. bul­let type attach­ment cup should be filled with ingre­di­ents first. Then the blade assem­bly with the seal­ing gas­ket must be attached to the cup by thread­ing tight enough to avoid leak­ing and placed on the base unit in the lock­ing posi­tion (mag­nets attached to the cup will direct the right cup-base unit posi­tion), and it is ready to run. The ingre­di­ents for the 20 oz. the cup must be cut into 1‑inch size pies because of the nar­row con­tain­er and no option to use the tam­per with it.

The larg­er 40 oz. the con­tain­er must be assem­bled first by con­nect­ing the jar with blade assem­bly, placed on the base unit to the lock­ing posi­tion the same way as the 20 oz. con­tain­ers and only then filled with ingre­di­ents because this con­tain­er is oper­at­ed in the stan­dard upward coun­ter­top blender posi­tion. The size of the ingre­di­ents is not cru­cial for 40 oz. jar as it is wider than the 20 oz. cup and may use a tam­per for push­ing food down and help­ing to cre­ate a vor­tex. Once the blender is placed the right way onto the base unit and filled with ingre­di­ents, it is ready to run.

The start/stop posi­tion light will indi­cate that the machine is assem­bled the right way. Then, the blender can start run­ning by turn­ing the dial knob to the 1st or 2nd speed posi­tion until the vor­tex grabs all ingre­di­ents and then increas­es the required speed.

This machine is equipped with a liq­uid-derange sys­tem locat­ed at the back top of the motor base. This fea­ture must pre­vent drip­ping liq­uid into the motor area due to some mis­use of the machine (for exam­ple, if the user for­got to place the seal­ing gas­ket when screw­ing in the blade assem­bly or screw it not tight enough).

Tam­per: This machine comes with a cus­tom-made tam­per that could be used only with 40 oz. container.

Clean­ing: All blender parts — con­tain­ers, lids, lid plug, tam­per, blade assem­bly, and seals — are top-rack dish­wash­er safe. It also could be cleaned fol­low­ing the self-clean­ing pro­ce­dure by run­ning soapy water in the blender. Before clean­ing in a dish­wash­er and after a self-clean­ing pro­ce­dure, the blade assem­bly threads must be prop­er­ly washed with a brush from the deep-down ingre­di­ents. It may seem incon­ve­nient to some cus­tomers, but it is usu­al for all per­son­al blender types with remov­able blade assembly.

Base Unit and Motor Power

S30, S50, and S55 mod­els are equipped with only 840 at peak and 790 effec­tive watt motor which is twice less wattage than full-size Vita­mix machines. But sur­pris­ing­ly, it is very pow­er­ful and able to per­form all typ­i­cal Vita­mix func­tions from ice cream to hot soups, although some tasks will require a longer time to achieve sim­i­lar results.

The motor is very stur­dy and con­struct­ed with base-bear­ing tech­nol­o­gy, which is known for its high effi­cien­cy and makes Vita­mix stand out from the rest of the blender crowd. The blade to motor dri­ve con­nec­tion is also made of met­al which ensures the dura­bil­i­ty of the system.

Besides, it is equipped with an auto­mat­ic shut-off sys­tem to pre­vent over­heat­ing of the motor and pro­long its life. Dur­ing the thick and tough mix­ture, the base unit is also quite sta­ble and will not move over the counter.

Containers

These machines come with 20 oz. (0.6 L) and 40 oz. (1.2 L) con­tain­ers, which shat­ter and tem­per­a­ture proofed and are made from Tri­tan copoly­ester pre­mi­um poly­car­bon­ate material.

The 40 oz. the con­tain­er is oper­at­ed in an upward posi­tion sim­i­lar to any oth­er coun­ter­top blender. It is equipped with a high-qual­i­ty rub­ber lid and a vent­ed cap in the cen­ter. This jar could be used with a tam­per, which is includ­ed in the pack­age and helps a lot in pro­cess­ing tough ingre­di­ents for cre­at­ing prop­er food circulation.

The 20 oz. the con­tain­er is the typ­i­cal bul­let-type cup and the sig­na­ture fea­ture of these S‑series blender mod­els. It is oper­at­ed upside down, and after blend­ing, the blade assem­bly could be replaced by the to-go lid and tak­en away in a car or out­side. The to-go lid is well designed for easy drink­ing and comes with a seal­ing gas­ket and clip to pre­vent any leak­ing when on the go. The 20 oz. the cup has dou­ble insu­la­tion and will keep cold or hot tem­per­a­tures 30% longer than ordi­nary cups.

Blades

These machines come with inter­change­able two con­tain­ers blade assem­bly, which is screwed to the need­ed cup and unscrewed after use for clean­ing. The 4‑prongs blades are made from the usu­al Vita­mix air­craft qual­i­ty stain­less steel and are 2.5 inch­es in diam­e­ter (as opposed to 3 inch­es for C‑Series and 4 inch­es for G‑Series machines). The blade assem­bly base is made of hard and qual­i­ty plas­tic, while all blade-to-motor cou­pling is made of met­al. Over­all, the blade assem­bly is very sol­id and well-made, and if han­dled with care and cleaned well, it will last for many years with­out wear­ing out and need to be replaced.

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Special Features

Col­or: The S‑30 and S50 mod­els are avail­able in black and red col­ors, while the S55 comes only in lux­u­ry brush stain­less.

Cer­ti­fied Refur­bished: The only S‑30 mod­el is avail­able in Cer­ti­fied Refur­bished con­di­tion and cur­rent­ly only from the man­u­fac­tur­er site. How­ev­er, the refur­bished mod­els are not eas­i­ly avail­able and may require join­ing the wait­ing list before the unit become available.

Oper­a­tion out­side of USA/Canada: These machines come with a 110–120 wattage sys­tem and could be oper­at­ed only in the USA and Cana­da. Cus­tomers from oth­er parts of the world with 220–240 volt­age sys­tems should con­sid­er local dis­trib­u­tors or those deal­ing with 220–240 volts gad­gets because an extend­ed oper­a­tion of these machines via the volt­age trans­former can com­pro­mise the per­for­mance of these machines and thus void the war­ran­ty. The cheap­est Vita­mix blenders with 220–240 volt­age sys­tems are avail­able through the UK offi­cial dis­trib­u­tors.

Noise

These per­son­al type mod­els are not loud as they have fair­ly low-wattage motors. They are slight­ly qui­eter than the flag­ship 5200 machine and out­put around 75–80 deci­bels (depend­ing on speed and blend­ed ingre­di­ents) which is com­pa­ra­ble to vac­u­um clean­er noise out­put. How­ev­er, the rub­ber mat placed under the motor base may con­sid­er­ably reduce the noise com­ing from the machine.

Warranty and Customer Service

All Space-sav­ing machine comes with a 5–year full war­ran­ty cov­er­ing ship­ments and all nor­mal wear and tear, which is the best on the mar­ket as no oth­er blender man­u­fac­tur­ers offer such a com­pre­hen­sive war­ran­ty ser­vice. Vita­mix Cus­tomer ser­vice has an excel­lent rep­u­ta­tion and is ready to repair and replace units or parts with­out any ques­tions asked.

Also, the unit has a 30-day tri­al peri­od, so if the cus­tomer decides that the machine does not suit the needs, then the unit could be returned for a full refund and free shipping.

Optional Accessories and Attachments

There are no addi­tion­al acces­sories and attach­ments avail­able for these mod­els. More­over, the C‑series and Next Gen­er­a­tion mod­el con­tain­ers and acces­sories are not com­pat­i­ble with S‑Series. The same S‑Series con­tain­er also can­not be used with any full-size Vita­mix models.

Set Includes

• 790-watt motor base;
• S‑Series Blade Assembly;
• 20-ounce portable con­tain­er with flip-top lid;
• 40-ounce com­pact con­tain­er with to part rub­ber lid;
• Two seal­ing gas­kets for use with blade assem­bly and 20 oz. flip-top lid;
• Cus­tom tam­per for use with 40 oz. con­tain­er only;
• Cook Book (S30 comes with Sim­ply Fresh-Whole Food book, S50 with Cre­ate and S55 Cre­ation books).

Dimensions

These machines take not have much space on the counter as they designed small­er per­son­al style Vita­mix mod­els. They have a foot­print of 5.9 x 8.34 inch­es and a height of 14.55 inch­es with the 20-oz cup and 15.66 inch­es with the 40 oz. the jar on the top of the base unit and lid on the place.

The motor base weighs approx­i­mate­ly 6.2 lb, and the base unit with a 40-oz con­tain­er weighs around 8.1 lb.

Vitamix S30/S50/S55 Pros and Cons

Pros:

• S30, S50, and S55 are easy to use and clean the machine, designed for pro­cess­ing the small amount of food that is avail­able to be tak­en out in the same container;
• These machines have all ben­e­fits of a portable blender but are able to per­form all the usu­al high-end blender tasks from mak­ing ice cream to heat­ing liq­uids via friction;
• The low wattage motor, togeth­er with full Vita­mix func­tion­al­i­ty, makes these machines very unique on the mar­ket that can be a dream gad­get for envi­ron­men­tal­ly-mind­ed people;
• These machines are equipped with the Vita­mix qual­i­ty motor that is famous for its long life and has a chance to last over 10 years on average;
• These machines come with an out­stand­ing per­son­al type blender with a 5‑year full war­ran­ty, which con­firms its durability.

Cons:

• These machines are still very expen­sive, which turns down many customers;
• The blade assem­bly threads clean­ing will require some effort, but it is typ­i­cal for per­son­al-type blenders.

Consumer Reviews

Sur­pris­ing­ly, all three mod­els have dif­fer­ent rat­ings from Ama­zon, even though they absolute­ly iden­ti­cal machines with the only dif­fer­ence in the choice of pre-set pro­grams. The major fault of these blenders seems to be their high price. How­ev­er, many cus­tomers find these machines very stur­dy and sol­id and hard­ly down­grade to oth­er brands once they try the Vita­mix ones.

Vitamix S30, S50, and S55 Price

This is a very expen­sive machine; the Vita­mix S30 mod­el is the cheap­est, and the S50  and S55 are 15–20% more expen­sive on the man­u­fac­tur­er’s web­site. How­ev­er, some retail­ers like Ama­zon often may offer this gad­get at a very com­pet­i­tive price.

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Summary

Vita­mix S30, S50, and S55 Space Sav­ing machines are an excel­lent choice for small house­holds (1–2 per­sons) who are look­ing for a qual­i­ty blender that occu­pies lit­tle coun­ter­top space but is ver­sa­tile and will last for many years. These machines are real­ly func­tion­al, and their func­tion­al­i­ty is supe­ri­or to any oth­er per­son­al type blender on the market.

How­ev­er, the high price of these machines turned out many cus­tomers. Still, Vita­mix is a durable gad­get and will not need to be replaced every 1–2 years like NutriBul­let or Nin­ja. This per­son­al blender is like­ly to last over 10 years with­out extra expens­es for the blade, cups, and oth­er part replace­ment because it is durable and comes with a full 5‑year war­ran­ty, which cov­ers all nor­mal wear and tears. Thus, it is a very worth­while invest­ment for those who are not very tight with cash.

It is cer­tain that once some­one owns a Vita­mix, this per­son will nev­er look for anoth­er blender. Vita­mix machines are built to last.

Would you con­sid­er alter­na­tive options? Check our arti­cles NutriBul­let RX vs Vita­mix S30/S50/S55  and Which Vita­mix to Buy? – Vita­mix Mod­els Explained.