Vitamix makes some of the best blenders on the market — our testing at Tom’s Guide consistently proves it — but the brand’s premium price tags often put them out of reach.
However, that just changed with the launch of the Vitamix Nano. The brand is re-entering the single-serve market with a compact, personal blender design for the health-conscious in mind, and it’s available for $199 at Vitamix.
Single-serve smoothies
The compact Nano isn’t designed for big elaborate feasts. Instead, it focuses on the essentials: creating smoothies and frozen drinks with a small footprint that won’t overcrowd your countertop.
Although you don’t get all the multi-functions of other Vitamix blenders, such as the Vitamix Ascent X2, which takes the top spot in our best blenders buying guide, you don’t get short-changed on performance. The Vitamix Nano has a single purpose.
Intelligent blending
At the heart of the Vitamix Nano is SmoothiePilot — the brand’s first adaptive smoothie feature. So what exactly does that mean? It senses what’s happening inside the cup and automatically selects the optimal blend program, adjusting the speed and duration to deliver a smooth result, whether making a smoothie or frozen cocktail.
Laura Ostenkamp, vice president of sales and marketing at Vitamix, says, in short, it "blends every time with no guesswork required."
Does this put an end to pausing mid-blend to check and stir the ingredients, and to finding unexpected lumps in your cocktails? We’ll have to see how it performs once we receive a unit to test.
The Vitamix Nano: What do you get?
So what does this compact 20-ounce cup blender offer, and is it worth paying $199 for the privilege? Vitamix says it comes with a high-powered 1,000-watt motor and hardened stainless steel blades to tackle tough ingredients like ice and frozen fruit.
What’s more, the technology takes away all the hard work, making the controls simple: select SmoothiePilot for a perfectly smooth drink, or select variable speed for your preferred texture.
You also get two cups with lids, so you can blend your drinks and go, or keep one in the refrigerator for later.
Cleaning a blender can be notoriously tricky, but once you’ve made your drink, clean up is easy. According to Vitamix, it self-cleans in 30 seconds; just add hot water and a drop of dish soap; there’s no need to disassemble the unit. But, for an easy life, it’s also dishwasher-safe.
And if you’re wondering whether you have enough space for another gadget on your countertop, the Vitamix Nano is mini. It measures just 8.5 inches x 5.5 inches at the base, and stands 15.3 inches tall.
The only choice you’ll have to make apart from selecting SmoothiePilot or the variable control is whether to buy the white or black version. My money is on the black, although I’d like to see a few punchy candy colors introduced in the future.
