The Vitamix E310 Explorian is Vitamix’s lowest-priced blender with a medium-sized container and is part of the Explorian Series of Vitamix blenders.
So will it still do what you expect your blender to do in the kitchen, and how does it compare with other Vitamix blenders?
Credit: Vitamix
We’ll answer that question here and satisfy your curiosity about Vitamix and the E310 at the same time in this review.
We have a table of contents below that allows you to navigate to whichever sections of this review most interest you, or you can just keep reading.
If you’re in a hurry you can see the Vitamix E310 on Amazon here with current pricing, shipping options and any discounts .
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What About Vitamix? Vitamix has been making high-performance blenders for a long time. It makes its blenders in Olmsted Township (Cleveland), Ohio where it is based.
Vitamix’s founder, William Barnard, popularized using blenders to blend nutritious foods and is where the name comes from, “Vita” meaning life in Latin. He also starred in their early television commercials.
Vitamix has grown steadily over its many years in existence and now sells commercial blenders to Starbucks and McDonald’s.
The current head of the company, Dr. Jodi Berg, is William’s great-granddaughter and is the fourth generation to lead Vitamix.
So What Is A Vitamix E310 Explorian Blender? The Vitamix E310 Explorian Blender is Vitamix’s entry-level blender. It’s also very simple to use, just like the other Vitamix Explorian blender, the E320.
Credit: Vitamix
The Vitamix E310 has a powerful motor attached to the same Vitamix blender blade design that you will also find in the more expensive Vitamix high powered blenders. The blender blade design is what makes Vitamix blenders work so well.
The stainless steel blades are designed to create a vortex in the middle of the blender, called the “Vitamix Vortex”, that will pull your blender ingredients away from the sides of the blender container, and into the vortex where the blades can get to work dicing them into creamy liquids.
The blender container that comes with the E310 is a medium-sized 48-ounce container with 3-inch diameter blender blades.
The large-sized container is 64-ounces with 4-inch blades and is the standard sized container for the Explorian E320 and other models like the Vitamix 5200 and the Vitamix Professional 750.
You can also read our detailed reviews of some of these other Vitamix blenders, the Vitamix Explorian 320 here Vitamix 5200 here Vitamix A3500 here Vitamix Professional 750 here Vitamix and other blenders here
How Do I Use My Vitamix E310? It’s pretty simple to operate your Vitamix E310 . There are only two buttons and a dial on the control panel the Variable Speed Dial, and one of the buttons is the “On/Off” button.
Make sure the dial is turned all the way to the left, in the “1” position before you turn the blender on (for some inspiration about what you can make with your E310, see our ideas here ).
Once you turn your Explorian on, use the Variable Speed Dial (see the image below) to control variable speeds. You have full speed control for variable speeds from “1” all the way up to “10” by rotating the dial to the right.
Credit: Vitamix
The button on the left side of the control panel is the “Pulse” button (see above), and this feature is known as the pulse feature. The pulse feature will operate the blender for as long as you hold the Pulse button down.
The Pulse button will work at whichever blender speed you’ve selected on the dial, from 1 to 10, giving you speed control even with the pulse feature.
Use the pulse feature when you just need a quick chop or blend or use when you don’t know how long it might take to process some ingredients like frozen desserts to see how the pulse feature blends in increments.
How Do I Clean My Vitamix E310? The Vitamix E31o is dishwasher safe, but you can also run the motor to clean it with some warm water and a drop of dish soap. This “self-cleaning” feature is more manual than automatic but still simple.
Fill the container half full with warm water and a few drops of dish soap and close the lid securely. Starting the Variable Speed Dial at “1”, increase slowly up to 10, the highest speed, and run the machine anywhere from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
Then drain the soapy water, rinse your container, and that is the “self-cleaning” function of the Vitamix 310, no more than 60 seconds.
What They Don’t Tell You About The Power Rating Of The Vitamix E310? The E310 blender motor is rated at 1,380 watts (120V and 11.5 amps). Vitamix uses “peak” horsepower when describing each model’s horsepower.
Peak horsepower is the power that the blender has right when you turn it on before the motor has any resistance to it. Peak horsepower isn’t really much help to you other than if you use it to compare other blenders that are only rated in peak horsepower.
Other Vitamix blenders like the Vitamix E320 or Vitamix 5200 have 2.2 “peak” horsepower, for example. The peak horsepower of the E310 is 2.0. So the rated power of the E310 vs the E320 or 5200 is 2.0 vs 2.2, but again, this measure isn’t very much help.
The much more meaningful power rating is operating horsepower or mechanical horsepower. Horsepower is calculated by the rated watts.
One unit of horsepower is equal to 746 mechanical watts, so 1,380 watts is 1.85 horsepower. so the Vitamix E310 has an operating (or useful) horsepower of 1.85 .
This 1.85 horsepower motor is a powerful motor in the E310, there’s only a small difference in power between the E310 and the E320 or even the E310 and the Vitamix 750 .
What Color Options Does The Vitamix E310 Have? The E310 comes in three colors: Black, Slate (or Gray), and Red.
These colors apply to the area in the blender base around the control panel, above the bottom, and not including the control panel or the lid.
You can see each color option here and use the link below each image to check current pricing and availability on Amazon.
Black
Slate
Credit: Vitamix
Red
What About The Medium Size Container That Comes With The Vitamix E310? The medium (48-ounce) container that comes with the Vitamix E310 is mid-sized or medium-sized container compared with the larger 64-ounce full-sized containers that come with the Explorian E320 or the Vitamix 750.
Credit: Vitamix
The Vitamix E310 medium-sized container is a good size for most blending jobs and has the advantage of fitting better under your kitchen cabinets than taller containers since it only measures 18 inches from the bottom to the top of the blender and most kitchen cabinets are higher than that.
You may decide, however, that you need a larger sized container. Vitamix does sell large containers separately but they are not designed to work with the E310 so Vitamix doesn’t recommend using them with the Vitamix E310.
If you still want to try using a larger sized container, go with the Classic 64-oz. container for the E310 rather than the low profile 64-oz. container since the Classic container has 2.8-inch diameter blender blades and the low profile 64-oz. container has 4-inch blender blades.
The motor of the E310 is better suited to the similar-sized Classic blades. It should still work with the Low-Profile container but not as well as a more powerful blender motor will.
You can see the Classic Container on Amazon here and make sure that you only use the tamper that comes with that container, not with the medium-sized container, or vice versa.
Also, if you will be blending a lot of dry goods, you should buy the dedicated dry goods container (see it here on Amazon ), it has a specially designed blade that is more efficient in blending dry goods and dough, even pizza dough.
The E310 container has a 2-part lid, one part is a smaller lid that fits inside and is removable from the larger lid, the other part, that covers the top of the blender.
The small part lid is removable so you can insert the tamper into the blender container while blending or to add ingredients while blending. The tamper is something you might use regularly while blending if you’re blending a lot of nut butter, ice cream or other chunky ingredients.
Credit: Vitamix
The tamper that comes with your E310 is designed to fit the medium-sized ounce container and not touch your blender blades while they’re blending by stopping it from going further into the blender with the Tamper Splash Disk (see the illustration above).
The smaller lid can also be conveniently used to pour ingredients into the blender, it’s marked with 1-ounce and 1/2-ounce marks to help you measure them out.
Credit: Vitamix
The larger part of the 2-part lid is what keeps everything inside your blender while you’re blending. To help it do this, the larger lid has two flaps on opposite sites of the lid to grab hold of the container.
What About The Warranty For The Vitamix E310? The standard warranty that Vitamix provides with each Vitamix E310 is 5 years. You can also buy an extended 3-year warranty direction from Vitamix.
That’s longer than most small appliances but less than the 7-year warranties that Vitamix provides with other blenders. The warranty period is a rough measure of how long each manufacturer expects its products to last, at least.
Vitamix warranties are pretty good, they cover you for a catastrophic failure or just wear and tear over the warranty term. Vitamix even covers shipping to their repair center and back to you after the repair, or replacement if they can’t repair it.
About the only things not covered by the warranty are cosmetic damage and or damage caused if you’re using your blender recklessly or commercially, that is not for home use.
What About Automatic Overload Protection? Automatic Overload Protection is a built-in feature on the Vitamix E310 that will shut off the blender if the motor gets too hot. This might happen if you run the blender too long at high speed, or even low speed (it is better able to cool itself at higher speed).
If Automatic Overload Protection is triggered, your Explorian will shut off and you won’t be able to turn it back on again until it cools off, usually about 20 to 45 minutes.
To keep it from overheating, don’t let it run unattended and use your included tamper to break up air pockets or push anything that gets stuck in the blender into the blender vortex or blender blades.
What Are The Vitamix E310 Specifications?
Dimensions With The Container : 11 inches deep, 18 inches high and 8 inches wide
Blades : 3-inch stainless steel “wet” blades designed to create a vortex, the “Vitamix Vortex” so that ingredients spin into the vortex and blades from the sides of the blender
Horsepower : 2.0 peak horsepower (when it starts) and 1.85 operating horsepower (when you’re actually using it).
Electrical: 120 V, 50-60 Hz, 11.5 Amps
Where Is It Made? : Cleveland, Ohio
What Comes In The Vitamix E310 Box? The Vitamix E310 box includes the blender base, the two-part lid, 48-ounce container, and cookbook.
The Vitamix E310: Our Recommendation So is the Vitamix E310 going to do what you want it to do every day in your kitchen?
Our short answer is yes! That is, yes for most of you blending as we suggest in the section above about what you can actually do with the E310. A lot of happy blending customers swear by their E310s. Some have even gone back to their Explorian blenders after trying more expensive models like the Professional 750 or the Vitamix 5200.
The Vitamix E310 is also the entry-level Vitamix blender, the least expensive blender . It still creates the important “Vitamix Vortex” that so many users love and believe to be what makes Vitamix blender food taste so good.
But, it has a slightly less powerful motor, a smaller container than other Vitamix blenders, and a 5-year warranty instead of 7.
So, if all you really care about is the Vitamix Vortex making great smoothies, nut butter, or hot soup, then the E310 may be the best blender for you. You can also buy a 3-year extended warranty from Vitamix after you buy it and when you register with Vitamix to give you 8 years of total protection (a strong recommendation).
Just make sure that you buy the extended warranty right away if you want one since it will cost more if you buy it after more than 30 days from purchasing your Explorian 310.
Go ahead and see latest pricing for the Vitamix E310 Explorian on Amazon now
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