I bought this to replace a Hamilton Beach machine that I used to make a daily smoothie. Unfortunately the 5200 does not perform as well as the much lower priced machine it replaced. Certain smoothie recipes that the HB machine handled automatically with its smoothie setting require me to carefully modulate the speed knob and stir the contents by hand, otherwise half the ingredients float unblended while the ingredients near the blades over blends and heat up. Otherwise the 5200 seems to be a powerful and well built machine.

I've had my Super 5200 since 2008, when very few people had even heard of Vitamix. It's been my constant culinary companion for nearly 17 years and I still use it 2-3 times a week. I own several containers for both wet and dry use and they're all holding up well. I've never really had a problem with any Vitamix product. I've considered upgrading to a newer model with more features several times, but simply cannot justify it with my 5200 still performing flawlessly. Thanks, Vitamix.

Bought our first one in late 2020 and had to return it within 10 days with a burned up motor making protein shakes. Second died today making ice cream with a cup of frozen strawberries, following a recipe on the Vitamix site. It shut off, smelled awful, and when it was turned on about 20 minutes later, it sounds like a wind-up toy car. Barely more than 4 years of making smoothies and protein shakes, a few other recipes. It performed well enough with a few headaches here are there along the way where we had to add more liquid and shake or stir it manually to get it going again. Nothing like the chaos it was today. Too dang expensive to die making a recipe made for it and something so simple as milk and frozen strawberries. Come on, man. I am so disappointed in this thing.