Vitamix E320 Explorian Blender Review: How Does It Compare To Other Models Today?

The Vitamix E320 Explorian blender is a high-powered variable speed Vitamix blender with a very simple interface and an impressive 7-year full warranty and a full-sized container. It has the same powerful blender motor as the higher-priced Vitamix 750.

So is the Vitamix E320 as good as some of the higher-priced Vitamix blenders?

Credit: Vitamix

You can use the table of contents below to go to any section that you need to know immediately. Or just read through the entire review.

You can see the Vitamix Explorian 10-speed blender (Vitamix E 320) on Amazon now with current pricing, any discounts and shipping options here if you want to go straight to checkout.

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What Is Vitamix And Where Is It Based?

Vitamix is a U.S.-based blender manufacturer that has been in the same family since it was founded in 1921 by William Grover Barnard. William Barnard started selling Vitamix blenders in 1937 (originally Vita-Mix) when he understood the nutritional benefits of drinking whole foods after blending.

By the late 1940s, William had moved into the headquarters facility that Vitamix now occupies in Olmsted Township, Ohio. He has also starred maybe the first infomercial when he first pitched Vitamix blenders in a 1949 television commercial and showed how you could use his blenders on then new things like soup and ice cream.

The company has grown substantially since then, including in commercial and professional chef kitchens several professional chefs use a Vitamix blender and so do Starbucks and McDonald’s.

Vitamix’s long history has given the Vitamix brand a lot of prestige, which is reflected in Vitamix reviews, even Vitamix E320 blender reviews that continuously point out the quality of Vitamix blenders.

The company is still privately owned and the current president and CEO of Vitamix, Dr. Jodi Berg, is William Barnard’s great-granddaughter.

So What Is A Vitamix E320 Explorian Blender?

The Vitamix E320 is one of the Explorian series of blenders. The Explorian series also includes the Vitamix E310 (you can read our review of the Vitamix E310 here). Both Explorian blender models have a simple blender control panel with no automatic functions, just ten variable speeds, and pulse, but the E20 has a bigger container, among other differences.

Credit: Vitamix

The Vitamix E310 has a medium-sized blender container (48 oz) while the E320 Vitamix Explorian has a full-sized (64 oz) blender container, the same as the Vitamix 750 and the Vitamix A3500 (you can also see our review of the Vitamix 750 here and our review of the Vitamix A3500 here), the better to make large batches of smoothies, cocktails, or soup.

The E320 also has the same high powered blender motor found in the Vitamix 750 Heritage, the motor in the Vitamix E310 is less powerful.

You should also know that the BPA free Tritan container that comes with the Vitamix E320 is the “low-profile” container. The 64-oz low profile container is wider and shorter than the traditional 64-oz Vitamix container and will fit better under kitchen overhead cabinets. You can purchase the traditional container separately if you prefer.

The low-profile container blender blades that come with the E320 are stainless steel “wet” blades that are designed to create high quality blends.

Now that you know what the Vitamix E320 is, you should also know what kinds of things you can do with it.

What Can You Do With The Vitamix E320?

You already know some of the things you can make with your Vitamix Explorian E320 blender, but these might provide you with some more inspiration for even some of your heartier recipes for your regular family meals.

These are some ideas of what you can make with your Vitamix E320 “wet” stainless steel blade container:

• Milkshakes – Milkshakes may be the first thing you make with your Vitamix blender. Ice cream, ice, and milk are the base ingredients you need for any milkshake. A lot of happy Vitamix users think that their Vitamix machines make the best milkshakes. Here’s a fun milkshake recipe by chef Bobby Flay.
• Hot Soup – Hot soups can be made in your Vitamix Explorian blender by starting with whatever cold soup ingredients and broth you choose and blend to make thick vegetable soups, creamy mushroom soup, or pick any other of your favorite heartiest soups. The blender blades make enough heat chopping up ingredients to make hot soup after about six minutes of blending time.
• Sauce -Sauces of kinds like tomato sauce or Hollandaise sauce are how professional chefs mostly use their blenders, try your favorite sauce recipe.
• Frozen Desserts – A simple sorbet or frozen dessert can be made by starting with your favorite fruit, fresh or frozen, a sweetener of some kind, some ice cubes maybe add some lemon juice to taste for countless frozen desserts.
• Juice – Making juices was what Vitamix blenders did from the very beginning. Choose your favorite fruit or vegetable as a blending medium and blend after removing rinds, apple cores, or other parts that you don’t normally eat.
• Ice Cream – Make simple ice cream in your Vitamix E320 with milk and sugar added to ice cubes and some vanilla extract. Blend until you reach the consistency that you prefer. Experiment with fruits, nuts chocolate pieces, and have fun (if you really just want to make ice cream, read our review of Cuisinart ice cream makers here).
• Smoothies – Making smoothies are the only bleeding job for many people and a lot of smoothie makers love how their smoothies taste with Vitamix E320 blenders. Vitamix is known for making smoothies that are “silky”.
• Salad Dressing – A good dressing starter is an oil and vinegar to which you can add mustard, anchovies, lemon juice, strawberries, etc., and mix and match. Pulse until the ingredients are blended to your satisfaction.
• Baby Food – The best thing about making baby food in your Vitamix Explorian blender is that you get to choose what you feed your baby, and a blender is a nice way to control how thick or thin you want it to be. Just use the pulse button with your ingredients and water or another liquid to make baby food appropriate for your child’s age.
• Dips – Mayonnaise, sour cream, dill weed, salt parsley, and onion are a great way to start a dip in your blender. Alternatives include avocado or really any other fat as a base.
• Salsa – Simple chunky salsas can be made with onion, tomato, cilantro, and even jalapenos in your Vitamix Explorian E320.
• Layer Coase Chops – Use the pulse feature on your E320 to layer coarse chops of ingredients onto a smooth purée to add some flavor and texture to whatever you are blending.
• Smooth Purées – Blend cooked vegetables into smooth purées with the pulse feature and your choice of speed with the variable control dial. Blend until you’re able to make your smoothest purées.

What About Blending Dry Ingredients In The E320?

The “wet” container that comes with the Vitamix E320 can also handle dry ingredients like dough, whole grains, and coffee beans to grind, mill. But your wet container is not ideal for blending dry ingredients.

If you are going to be doing a lot of dry goods blending, like making dough every day or milling whole grains, then you should probably buy the 32-oz Vitamix Dry Grains Container.

Also, know that some dry ingredients like spices and coffee can stain your container over time and is another reason to blend everything dry in the dry container.

How Is The Dry Container Different?

The Dry Grains container has blender blades that are marked with a “D” in the picture below. These blades are designed to process dry foods and the blades are configured differently for dry ingredients and fits on your motor base just like your wet container does.

Credit: Vitamix

The standard wet blade container still works for blending dry goods, but just not as well as the dry container does.

Credit: Vitamix

You can take a look at the Vitamix Dry Grains Container on Amazon here with current pricing.

Here are some ideas of what you can do with dry ingredients:

• Flour – Start with whole grains or nuts and blend them until they are finely ground. Use high speed with the Pulse button to experiment with different ingredients to make almond flour or something interesting.
• Dough – The E320 will make a ball of dough when you blend flour, yeast, and salt together at the highest speed on the variable speed control dial with the pulse feature, then add oil or water, depending on your dough, and blend at slow speed with the pulse feature until a dough ball forms.
• Nut Butter -Choose a nut (peanut, cashew, almond, etc) and add at least a cup of them into your blender with your choice of neutral oil for your nut butter. Make sure you have your tamper ready to help the ingredient get unstuck while blending and blend until you reach your preferred consistency.
• Non-Dairy Milk – Choose your favorite ingredient to “milk”, a lot of people like to make almond milk with their Explorian blenders. Here’s a simple almond milk recipe that you can use.
• Ground Coffee – Start with your choice of whole coffee beans, blend with the Pulse button and variable speed control dial to control how fine of a grind you want or need for your coffee maker. This is one of those ingredients that can stain your container over time.
• Ground Spice – Start with whole spices and use the Pulse button and variable speed control dial to grind as finely as you want. Know that like coffee, some spices will stain your container.

How Do I Run My Vitamix Explorian E320?

The Explorian blenders (both the Vitamix E310 and the Vitamix E320) are really simple to operate.

The Pulse button is on the far left of the control panel (see the image below), the Variable Speed Dial is in the middle and the On/Off Switch is on the far right.

Credit: Vitamix

Pulse – Use the pulse feature to power the blender for only as long as you hold the Pulse button down. The Pulse button will run at the speed set on the Variable Speed Dial with 10 variable speeds to select. The pulse feature is good for a quick blend.

Variable Speed Dial – This dial gives you variable speed control with 10 speeds, set it anywhere from “1” (lowest) to “10” (highest) speed. You should always start the blender at speed 1, then you can rotate the dial clockwise to higher variable speeds.

On/Off Switch – This button turns the blender on or off, as you might expect on the motor base.

What Order Should I Use For Different Ingredients?

You should follow the illustration below that shows where Vitamix recommends that different types of ingredients be placed in the E320 container.

Credit: Vitamix

How To Clean The Vitamix E320 And Is It Dishwasher Safe?

The E320 is dishwasher safe, but you should also use the easy cleaning method of letting the blender clean itself. You can do this with some dish soap and warm water.

Fill the container half full with warm water and a few drops of dish soap and secure the lid. Starting at the lowest speed on the variable speed control dial, increase slowly up to 10, the highest speed on the variable speed control dial, and run the machine from 30 seconds to 60 seconds. Drain the soapy water, rinse and you’re done in about 60 seconds.

Even though the E320 is dishwasher safe, you should use this method if you can more often since the high heat of dishwashers speed up wear and tear on your blender, so yes dishwasher safe but use self cleaning as often as possible.

What Is Automatic Overload Protection?

Vitamix blenders have a thermal protection system that will self detect excess heat and will automatically shut down the motor if it gets too hot. It prevents your blender motor from permanent damage if it’s run for too long with stuck ingredients, for example.

Vitamix blender motors are designed to cool themselves through vents in the motor base and cooling works best at higher blender speeds, so long low speed blending can overheat your blender.

How Long Do I Have To Wait To Turn It Back On?

If Automatic Overload Protection shuts down your blender motor, you will have to wait up to 45 minutes for it to cool off before it turn on again.

What Don’t They Tell You About The Vitamix E320?

The Vitamix Explorian E320 blender has a power rating of 1,440 watts (120V and 12 amps) and according to Vitamix, has 2.2 “peak” horsepower (hp).

However, peak hp is really only a theoretical rating, since it is only that powerful when you turn it on, but before it is actually blending, and so does not really mean anything.

What really matters is the power or horsepower of the blender when it’s blending, cutting into ingredients.

That horsepower is operating, or mechanical hp, and it is calculated from the rated watts of the blender and by knowing that 1 horsepower, mechanical horsepower, is 746 watts.

So, since the E320 is 1,440 watts, the mechanical horsepower is 1,440 watts divided by 746, or 1.93 hp motor, the same as the Vitamix 750, and plenty of blender power.

What Colors Are Available For The Vitamix E320?

The Vitamix E320 has two colors on the motor base control panel: Black and Red.

These colors are just in the blender base around the control panel, and not the face or control panel, or the container.

You can see each of the colors here and use the link below each one to check current pricing and availability on Amazon.

Black Model

Credit: Vitamix

Check the availability and the current price of the Black Vitamix E320 on Amazon here.

Red Model

What’s Not Covered By The Warranty?

Vitamix E320 Specifications

What Comes With The Vitamix E320?

The Vitamix E320: Our Recommendation

The Explorian 320 is really simple to operate, just like the Explorian E310. Just a pulse switch and variable speed dial. There are no preset programs or automatic timers with the E320.

But unlike the E310, the Vitamix E320 has a full-sized dishwasher safe container with 4-inch blender blades and a powerful 2.2 peak (1.93 operating) horsepower motor. The Vitamix E320 has the same motor and container as the Vitamix 750 but is less expensive than the 750.

The Vitamix E320 also has the same warranty that the Vitamix 750 has – 7 years. The E310 warranty is 5 years.

Vitamix E320 reviews consistently point out the power of the motors, the smooth blenders produced by the famous Vitamix blender blades and the quality of the machine.

So, if you’re serious with your blending and you want a powerful, full-sized blender with a very long warranty and don’t care about timers or preset blender functions, then the E320 is what you should buy.

Check the latest pricing for the Vitamix E320 on Amazon here.

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