Vitamix 5-Speed vs Braun MultiQuick 5 Side-by-Side Comparison

Pureeing hot soup wasn't challenging the Vitamix thanks to its powerful motor and razor-sharp blades. Although it wasn’t any faster than its counterparts in pureeing time, it warranted the higher cost by providing us with a nutrient-dense purée of silky smooth texture. It also stood out from the rest with a non-suction performance that helped keep splashing to minimal.  

Indeed, the Vitamix is the most suitable hand blender for preparing restaurant-quality soup at home. It’s a great bargain for any recipes that involve fibrous food, too. If you’re now looking for a tool that can consistently ensure the smoothest blends, we particularly love and recommend this blender.

The quality of blade’s material is impressively sturdy for the price, and that combined with a heavy-duty motor give the Braun MultiQuick-5 a great pureéing capability. As hard-to-blend as it was, our hearty soup wasn’t a challenge for this blender. In the span of 30 seconds, a two-serving pot of chunky soup became soft and creamy. For most people, this result might be fine enough, but draining it was still necessary to separate the remaining solids if you want the most silky, restaurant-quality soup.

The Vitamix took only 1 minute and 5 seconds to complete this test. By comparison, its counterparts such as the UTALENT 5-in-1 and the Hamilton Beach 2-speed required nearly double the time. 

Regarding the smoothie’s texture, of all the blenders we tested, only the Vitamix could churn out a thick, creamy smoothie with almost no solids left behind. Plus, despite being longer and heavier, it operated well in our 24-oz blending jar while the BPA-free plastic bell guard helped prevent scratches on the jar’s surfaces.

The Braun’s 13,700 RPM motor did a fine job at this test. It even worked as fast as higher-priced models, namely the Vitamix 5-speed, Breville Control Grip, and the All-Clad, churning out a serving of icy smoothie in only one minute. 

Most importantly, of all the blenders we tested, this blender is the only one that blended without too much trouble. With the remaining blenders, some had a hard time blending through the frozen fruits, while others created tight suction that made it pretty difficult for us to lift the blending shaft. The texture and consistency of its smoothie was also better than most. It was nearly as silky as the Vitamix—our best value immersion blender, with just a couple tiny chunks of unprocessed mango.

In this test, most of the blenders produced acceptable outcomes and only our culinary expert could tell the differences between them. However, the Vitamix didn’t have the fastest performance, requiring about one minute and forty seconds to incorporate all the ingredients. This was around 30 seconds slower than the winners, including the Cuisinart Smart Stick, KOIOS 4-in-1, BELL 10-speed, and Chefman cordless. 

This is because when the mayonnaise emulsified and started to thicken, the blending wand generated a suction force, pulling itself against the container’s bottom. That made movement more difficult and slowed the whole process down. We don’t necessarily consider the time to be a deal-breaker. Since the blender itself is quite heavy, though, the longer the process takes, the more it will fatigue your hands. 

In conclusion, despite this drawback, the Vitamix is an acceptable alternative to a hand mixer for preparing mayonnaise or other emulsified sauces. Still, it is not the best hand blender for this job and ideal results may require extra effort.

The Braun’s manual instructs that its whisk attachment should only be used for whipping cream, beating egg whites, making sponge cakes, and ready-mix desserts. This is certainly an unusual specification, as whisks are commonly used for other purposes - such as making mayonnaise.

Regardless, we stuck to our plan and used the whisk to make mayonnaise. As it turned out, it performed about as well as its competitors’ blending shafts in terms of emulsifying time and texture. 

Most importantly, our mayonnaise was rich and very creamy. It was a great example of how this blender can be an alternative to a hand mixer to top off your favorite meals with inspired sauces.

The Vitamix took just 40 seconds to yield one serving of drinkable almond milk.  

That said, from start to finish, its crushing process didn’t go very well. The almond skins, along with peeled chunks, became lodged in the blade guard. We had to stop the blender temporarily and use a spatula to dislodge the food, which we didn’t have to do with other models, such as the Braun MultiQuick-5.

That said, from start to finish, its crushing process didn’t go very well. The almond skins, along with peeled chunks, became lodged in the blade guard. We had to stop the blender temporarily and use a spatula to dislodge the food, which we didn’t have to do with other models.

Not only that, but because the Vitamix couldn’t create a consistent vortex, everything got close to overflowing when we increased the speed. 

Suction was a problem again as well. As a result, we got some almond spatter when we tried to lift up the wand. Most of the splatter-related issues could probably be avoided, though, if we blended it in a taller or larger jar.

In this test, the Braun MultiQuick -5 took just 47 seconds to produce one serving of almond milk. It grinded relatively evenly to dissolve the nuts’ sugars and proteins into the water. Thanks to that, even when our recipe is sugar free, we got a drink with a mildly sweet and creamy taste. Suffice to say, this blender will have you ditching store-bought plant-based milk without reluctance.

The Vitamix could be a great all-around blender if it included a whisk attachment. This is because, in our test, there was no way the immersion blender could beat egg-white with its ordinary blending shaft. Unlike a whisk attachment, the blending shaft can’t force air into the egg whites, which is the way to create an even, bubbly foam. Consequently, the result was a cloudy liquid with two separate layers of bubble film and eggy water. We awarded it no points for this test.

Of all the blenders we tested, the Braun is among a few ones that passed this test, as it included whisk attachments ideal for beating egg whites. Using the ordinary blending wand, the remaining blenders couldn’t draw enough air into the egg-whites, which prevented the egg-protein from forming a stable foam. 

Compared to the rivals, our Braun MultiQuick-5 was 30 seconds faster at creating an airy, fluffy egg foam. Although there was barely any difference between their outcomes, the speedy whisking process of the Braun MultiQuick-5 did help it avoid overheating, which should make it more reliable.