in which I give my humble opinion

I received a Blendtec Total for my birthday last month. (I cried with happiness. Not even kidding.) Here is what I have learned about it so far-- what it can and can't do, and for whom I'd recommend it.

A Blendtec rocks at these jobs:*
-salad dressings
-mayonnaise
-perfectly smooth soups
-coconut milk (and flour)
-grinding nuts
-pureeing squash
-chocolate milk . . . tee hee
-crepe batter
-refried beans
-hummus
-breakfast smoothies!!! (a cup of kefir or yogurt, a heaping tablespoon of almond butter, several large leaves of romaine, half a frozen banana, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, about 2/3 cup frozen peach slices . . . perfecto . . . we make smoothies an awful lot so it was worth the investment just for this)

A Blendtec is pretty good for these jobs:
-homemade larabars (it needs some prodding and some coconut oil to help it along)
-almond butter (you need to scrape it down frequently and also give it time to cool down in the middle of the process . . . but it does produce a fabulous end product after all that . . . and the forthcoming Twister jar would solve the problem)

The Blendtec fails at these jobs:
-dicing or chopping a la food processor (it is far too powerful and reduces food to tiny bits with one touch of the pulse button)
-blending very small amounts (less than a cup of material and you run into problems)
-being quiet

Other reasons why the Blendtec is awesome:
-it is very easy to get food out of the blending container thanks to the wide square base
-the dull blade presents zero danger of cutting yourself while washing
-speaking of washing, it cleans up easily with a bit of soap and water and has no annoying crevices to worry about
-it is surprisingly light and store-able (a food processor has a wider footprint, while a Vitamix is far too tall to fit under cabinets)

Reasons why you might not want one:
-if you don't make smoothies or any of the other things listed above
-if you are more interested in a machine that chops and slices than one that purees, blends, and grinds (just get a food processor)
-a Blendtec shuts off after each cycle (whereas you can program a Vitamix to run for a much longer period of time)
-keep in mind that it is friggin' loud (I call it the jet engine) but hey, so's a Vitamix, so if you are in the market for a high-speed blender . . .

*I am sure there are plenty of other things to add to this list-- I just haven't tried them yet.