I'm sure by now you've probably already made a decision. But the answer to your question is that it depends on the person. I will say that you could probably hand 10 out of 10 people a Vitamix and thanks to the tamper, they will be able to make a perfect smoothie just about every time. With the Blendtec, things aren't quite that simple. Because the Blendtec doesn't have assistance from a tamper, the user must be more careful to measure things. E.g. not enough liquid means the Blendtec will struggle and either one or two things will happen: 1. the person will have to add more liquid or 2. the person will have to find something to push, i.e. tamper, down the ingredients into the cutting path of the blade.With all of this said, the Blendtec can blend just a well as the Vitamix; it just has a slightly higher learning curve than the Vitamix. If you follow Blendtec's recipes exactly in their recipe book, then you'd never have a problem with it. Those recipes are designed to take advantage o the pre-programmed settings. But it's when you start to stray and do your own thing is when you'll soon find that the manual speeds are more beneficial than the pre-sets.So the learning curve on the Vitamix is lower, but the same results are achievable with the Blendtec either by experience or by doing significantly more work.The advantage of the Blendtec over the Vitamix is that: 1. the blade is dull and it's designed to be able to blend and grind hard grain. Vitamix recommends that if you want to regularly grind hard grain, you purchase the separate $150 dry container. This is because the standard/wet container's blades will become dull/damaged over prolonged grinding. 2. Because the Blendtec's blade is dull and is designed to work dull, it will never need sharpening, it won't cut or nick your fingers by accidents, nor will it damage your spatula as you're trying to get things out. And Blendtec has a lifetime warranty on the blade. If they can't fix it, then they will just send you a brand new container... this goes beyond the 7-year warranty. 3. the Blendtec generally costs less for a new unit. With the Vitamix usually being any where from $50-200 more expensive than the Blendtec, and that's not including the cost of the dry container if you need that, the Blendtec can be slightly or significantly cheaper than the Vitamix. And that's important because for some people even though the Blendtec has a high learning curve, some might be willing to deal with that if it means saving money. 4. The Blendtec is about 15.5" tall. It can fit on just about any counter, even ones that are lower than average. Most cabinets sit about 18" above the counter, but in the case of my counters, they sit 16.75". So even the "short" Vitamixes wouldn't fit under my cabinets.5. Because the Blendtec's digital timer, you know exactly how long you blend things. Also, because there is a time limit to how long the Blendtec will blend, you don't have to worry about baby-sitting your machine. For example, if you start a blend, but then you have kids running around and you have to keep an eye on them, you're free to do so. Where with the Vitamix, you might have to shut off your machine and then go attend to your kids.With all of this said, you really can't go wrong with either machine. I'd be lying if I said that I never thought some of my blends would be easier with the Vitamix. But then again, I do like that I can do everything in one container without the need for a separate and very expensive container. But I will say that I have owned the Blendtec Designer Series since Feb 2013 and I already have over 2300 cycles on it. The more I have gotten used to the Blendtec, the more I have 'mastered' the manual control, etc I have learned that things have become significantly easier. I can get the machine to do just about anything I want it to do now.

What is the difference between this unit and the TB-631-20? I think it may only be cosmetic, but am not sure if I'm overlooking something.

This has the same wattage and horsepower as the Total Blender. Difference between the two is this one has the Wildside jar and a touch screen interface. The Wildside jar has 5 sides for better blending for smoothies when compared to the Fourside jar that comes with the Total Blender. Both are great blenders and come with the standard 7 year warranty from Blendtec.

Original Designer Series Blender and 90 Oz WildSide+ Jar - Kitchen Blender Bundle - Stainless Steel

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