The base housing material is PVC, but the jars do not contain PVC. All of the current Vitamix containers are made of BPA-free Tritan copolyester.

I do have a Vitamix 5200 and it pretty much does liquify the things I make but "sand free?" That may depend on what you blend. For me, the big deal has been that, with other blenders. I had to run my pureed soups through a fine mesh strainer to be sure they were properly silky and smooth. Have not had to use strainer since I got my Vitamix. "Sand free" is a pretty good way to put it.

On the subject of plastics and BPA, your source seems to have been misinformed. The containers are made from polycarbonate (a co-polyester), not polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

FWIW, the current BPA-free polycarbonate products (Eastman Company's "Tritan") are most certainly "up to current standards."

I used "FWIW" because your question got me thinking about how hard it can be to provide any reassurance about anything and how easy it is to find vehement arguments that "current standards" (on anything) are a conspiracy of lies and cover-ups.

The concern about older kinds of polycarbonates -- the ones used before Tritan --- was that they were made with Bisphenol-A (BPA). Such products, when heated to boiling temps or left to store foods for weeks or months, could leach detectable amounts of pthlates into foods. How dangerous those levels were was not clear but they were enough to be of concern. Plus, it was not so much blender jars as it was plastic containers used for heated applications (e.g., baby bottles) and long term storage (e.g. bottled water containers and linings in soup cans) that seemed to give rise to the biggest BPA concerns.

That said, the replacement polycarbonate for blenders (the Eastman company's "Tritan") which is made without BPA can still leach pthalates if heated excessively. Accordingly, the recommendations are that you not put your Vitamix containers in microwave ovens and that you not store food in them. Never occurred to me to do either, but those are the warnings and accordingly give some folks pause about using Tritan, at all. Other folks take that as conclusive proof that the companies are behaving like big tobacco. (I'm thinking that I've seen a Mother Jones article somewhere that tried to make this point as a scientific case of conspiracy and big-money bribery ala "big Tobacco."

As I'm sure you've found from trying to research this subject, every debate becomes shrill and politicized. Depending on who you read, it will be reminiscent of big-Tobacco tactics, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, reminiscent of the blind faith screeds against vaccinations because of Thimersol's purported link to autism, a link that turned out to be based entirely on self-promoting, falsified research.

Seems to me that, whatever techheads and scientists might know, there is always somebody somewhere who asserts scientific proof of the contrary and argues that the truth is being covered up.

For example, there was a recent thread on Chowhound.com where a poster was looking for "non-toxic cookware" because he or she had become "concerned" after reading "somewhere" that that stainless steel and cast-iron pans were leaching toxic heavy metals into any food cooked in them. I found that interesting for a lot of reasons but among them because I had just run across a petition to Vitamix demanding that the company return to using stainless steel containers and provide users with replacements for the current "dangerous" polycarbonate ones.

Elsewhere, I ran across a comment claiming that some studies showed that ten million Pyrex baking dishes had exploded because they were made of tempered soda lime glass from Chinese factories instead of the old American made ones that used borosilicate lab glass. (FWIW, the Pyrex baking dishes are mostly made in America). Somebody else then commented that other studies had found detectable levels of lead when the soda lime glass fragments were melted, so the Chinese products were likely to cause lead poisoning. Somebody else added that they had read other studies claiming that borosilicate lab glass would be even more "unsafe" because it "leaked" boron which is supposedly known to be teratogenic in some undetermined dosage. (This seems basically impluasible, but I mention it because of some advocacy that I seen that argues blender containers should be made of lab glass.)

Heck, I just ran into somebody preaching that root canals cause organ cancers. This apparently was based on some iffy study in the 1920s that was conclusively disproven over the following decades. The anti-root-canal preachers were convinced that the subsequent research was all a cover-up and a conspiracy to discredit a "real" scientist from long ago

So, you might not get much reassurance if us "techheads and scientists" opine about Eastman's Tritan product meeting "current standards."

This post was edited by JWVideo on Fri, Dec 5, 14 at 0:11

you don't want a glass container on a 2 horse power lawn mower motor. i love my vm. it's amazing.

sand free.....well if you were making nut milk, you'd still have to strain. i can get strawberry and blackberry seeds pulverized in my smoothies, though.

Cool! Elizabeth, that was a very good example. I can deal with strawberry seeds pulverized but straining nut milk. :) And JWVideo, that's my issue. The soup. So thank-you for addressing the soup. :)

Adamp & JWVIdeo, I couldn't find any mention at all on the Vita-Mix site yesterday, but today found it in a buy direct listing where they say it's the Triton copolyester I had seen on the Australian Vitamix site and on replacement jars. On Amazon and some other listings it says PVC jars come with the unit. I'm glad to know that it's a third party ad copy error.

The heat issue obtrudes because of the whole soup thing. :) Besides using friction to make it, you're supposed to be able to pour boiling water into it. Isn't that right? I'll check the manual if you don't know...

And JWVideo, I do find it reassuring that you think the Triton copolyester is okay. I've heard rumors about the replacement chemical for BPA in some plastics being bad, but I don't know much about it. I will put warm food in polypropylene, and as far as I know, the BPA issues with the older polycarbonates were about worker health in the factories. Doesn't it have to melt to release the BPA post-manufacture? But with a blender, there's also the issue of scratching and whether the micro bits of plastic will cause the release of bad things. Perhaps that was what was wrong with the polycarbonate...

Still, I don't use my beautiful lead crystal honey pot because honey, as well as wine, is one of the substances that can draw out the lead, I don't put PP in the microwave, though they say you can (but have no issues with pyroceram).

I don't expect more than their best efforts. If they're pretty sure that this new stuff doesn't pollute the soup, then I'm fine with it. :)

Is it possible that toxic heavy metals are leached out of iron pots? Sure. But isn't the iron pretty well refined? It would be a pretty rare pot. The rest of us are using stainless and cast iron and carbon steel on a daily basis without getting heavy metal poisoning. Young women are encouraged to use cast iron because enough rubs off on the food to improve their blood iron. Many more young women suffer from mild to severe anemia than get heavy metal poisoning from pots!

Speaking of which, however, I once saw a report on TV where a kid who had received a shot tainted with heavy metals had shown autisticlike symptoms, but they found the problem in a blood test or something and when they used something to draw the heavy metals out of the kid's body (it was many treatments over time), he became a pretty normal kid. It seemed like a credible report, and perhaps the hysterical rumors start with a situation like this as an originating kernel.

Anyway, thank-you all! I feel much better about wanting this thing. :)

The vaccine/autism link has been disproven repeatedly.

Mayo more cautiously says it isn't proven, but it's my understanding that disproven is a more accurate description.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/autism-spectrum-disorder/expert-answers/autism-treatment/faq-20057933

Personally I find this article fascinating if we're talking autism cause.... Seems like what lives in your gut has a lot of impacts on you.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gut-bacteria-may-play-a-role-in-autism/

I believe the substitute for BPA that was tried in Japan (and subsequently discontinued) was determined to be more of an endocrine disruptor than was BPA, although I don't recall what research led to that conclusion. The EU has not d/c'd BPA in plastics yet, but is trying to phase it out. Robot-Coupe-made Magimix machines still contain it. The company says they are looking for ways to phase it out. I think it has more to do with customer requests than any firm belief in the hazard of BPA. I honestly believe that it is of questionable concern and none at all in Tritan copolyester. Don't drink water out of plastic water bottles left sitting in the car to heat, use very little to no canned goods, etc. It is on cash register receipts and other thermal paper printouts, I have read. I have poured boiling soup into the Vitamix and made soup in it as well, as the friction-caused heat is the default mode. I don't let anything sit in it very long because I just don't let food sit in machines as a matter of cleaning and machine preservation habits. I wasn't a quick convert to the Vitamix after purchase, but we use it at least once a day now, sometimes more. I had never used a blender that frequently before (other than in the heat of the summer when I had a house full of adults demanding margaritas ;

I figure I have enough Teflon and BPA in my system from many years of Teflon pans and plastic.

I wasn't going to get a vitamix because I wanted glass until I realized not possible with the 2 HP as Elizabeth pointed out.

I try to avoid plastic, canned foods and Teflon as much as possible but did breakdown and love my Vitamix.

Thanks KD and A2gemini.

I'm sure I have had plenty of BPA exposure, too, but there's no point in encouraging it with expensive new stuff! It was the PVC error that gave me pause, though. I do have some concerns about BPA substitutes because the issues with a lot of chemicals are discovered after the fact because of factors that weren't accounted for in the beginning, but I'm willing to go with their best guess. :) I feel a lot better about the whole thing now. And I really would like something that truly liquifies. And cleans itself. :)

Pillog - I do try to minimize exposure after all of these years. I actually feel betrayed by the companies and the government that allowed the teflon and BPA to survive all of these years - yes we wanted non-stick but sure didn't realize the ramifications when I was younger.

The Vitamix does a great job of liquifying most items. If your solid to liquid ratio is too low, it won't liquify on round one. If you have a store around, check to see if they are having a demo. If not liquid enough - I will run it a second time if my ratio was off.

I linked a comparison of the Blendtec and Vitamin from the kitchen forum. It discusses how the VM (and BT) process the food.

BTW- someone was looking for you on the cooking forum but I think they figured out the answer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vitamix/Blendtec

Thanks for the link! I'll look it through when in the morning when I can see straight. :)

I totally get the need for liquid to liquify! I'm fine with that. :) And with adding a little if needed. It's the one thing that I think I need a Vitamix for, though. Not that I won't use it for lots of things, but I currently can do most everything else in another way. It'll probably take over a number of things I use my FP for, but the thing I absolutely can't do currently is liquify. I wish they'd make an electric sifter with changeable mesh sizes and a decent capacity (not like those little battery op ones, or the sift a bag of flour for extreme koshrut kind). But I have a big ol' crank sifter, and while it's a pain to use, and it gets clogged, and all, I can sift....

Thanks too for mentioning the shout out. I only saw it long after KD had said never mind and it had sunk, so I thought bringing it to the top again to say "okay" would be counter productive. :D It's kind of you to tell me in case I'd missed it.