Vitamix Explorian E310 Review

The Explorian is a smaller blender with a 48-ounce jug. It comes with a little recipe pamphlet and a tamper, which you will get a lot of use out of, as this blender requires some stirring and a more hands-on approach. Read on to see how it holds up to our rigorous testing.

Performance Comparison

Smoothies

The Explorian offers consistently great performance across all our smoothie and milkshake testing. It blends fruit easily and, after a few seconds of struggle, has no issue blending up oats and greens.

The green smoothie, berry smoothie, and oreo milkshake that the Explorian produces are evenly blended with a fluffy mouthfeel. We blended these drinks between the five and nine speed settings.

The Explorian initially shows some signs of struggle when blending our fruit and oats smoothie. It also requires some stirring with the pusher and a high speed of eight to nine, but once things get going, it produces a nice smooth texture.

Ice

The Explorian absolutely crushes our ice tests. You have to hold the "pulse" option rather than just turning the blender on to crush ice; however, the yield is perfect.

Blending your margarita ingredients on speed eight for about seven seconds, followed by speed six for five seconds, produces a perfectly creamy texture with zero ice chunks.

Convenience

In our convenience tests, the Explorian's performance gets a little rocky. Cleaning is a breeze with the clean setting and some warm soap and water, and drying doesn't take up much space as you can place the jug over the base at an angle, ensuring proper airflow.

There are no digital timers, buttons, or presets to offer a hands-off experience. But with the pulse option and the ten speeds, the Explorian is highly adjustable as you have complete control over how each drink is blended. It is also worth noting that this blender gets louder with higher speeds, which can be a little overbearing if you're operating at a 10.

Pureeing

Blending nut butter requires a lot of tampering and manual stirring for the first four minutes or so. That said, the result is smooth, creamy, and evenly textured throughout. It also requires a little extra oil to keep things moving.

The Explorian makes a decent soup that is evenly blended; however, it releases a strange electrical smell that suggests the motor is working very hard.

Grinding

Its grinding abilities are well above average, but again, without the presets requires a little elbow grease.

Sugar is turned into a light and fluffy powder in 30 seconds. Flour is blended nicely too, although a small amount did not pass through the sieve. Hard cheeses, like parmesan, require some tampering to ensure the blocks of cheese continue moving, but the result is a very fine, almost powdery consistency. It takes almost a minute to achieve this powdery cheese, but there are no uncut chunks left.

Should You Buy the Vitamix Explorian E310?

As long as you don't mind tampering, stirring, and manually adjusting the speed at which you are blending, the Explorian is a great blender. It produces creamy smoothies, decent soup, and stellar grinding abilities. The biggest downside is the lack of presets, which requires the user to be a little more hands-on in their blending.

What Other Blenders Should You Consider?

If you prefer the set-it-and-forget-it blending style, the Breville the Super Q is one of our highest-performing blenders with a plethora of effective presets. That said, it will cost you an arm and a leg. The NutriBullet is on the opposite end of the spectrum, with a very affordable price point and pretty effective blending capabilities. The Breville the 3X Bluicer is a juicing blender for those who like their appliances to be multipurpose.