It has taken me awhile to getting around to posting a review of my Froothie Optimum 9400 blender. Not because I haven’t been using it – far from it. I have been using it most every day for one thing and another – smoothies (of course), dips and spreads, soups, desserts, nut milks, nut flours, sprouted grain/seed flours, nut butters, and even ice cream (well, frozen yogurt). So, yes it has been getting a bit of a work out.
Being a fairly methodical person I really wanted to make sure that I had run it through its paces before I passed on my assessment. And I wanted to do a couple of side by side challenges against my Vitamix to see how my two machines compared.
The Optimum 9400 is designed to bring professional level specification to the home cook, and I have found it immensely useful for work – using it to make foods really smooth for my cancer nutrition classes. Some people I see need foods to be very smooth, and this machine makes that result guaranteed. I don’t have to keep blending until I get the result I want. And no sieving either. It is right first time. And within 30 seconds.
I can make soup pretty much instantly as the friction from the super-fast, six-prong blade heats the contents the longer it blends. But thirty seconds of blending is perfect for cold soups and soups where you are adding warm stock (it heats further as it blends). Anything else is ready in 30 seconds: dips, creams, flours, butters – you name it. Can you believe you can make chickpea flour – or any flour – in just a few seconds?
And it doesn’t just pulverise things to perfect smoothness: if you want to keep something nubbly – say nuts to top Pad Thai noodles – just pulse the pulse button and you get evenly crushed nuts for a restaurant-style finish to your dish. You have complete control.
For my head-to-head challenges I made today’s smoothie, a double batch of beetroot and cashew hummus, some frozen yogurt and sunflower seed butter. Both machines performed very well – as would be expected of high level machines. But there are a few points that may tip the balance in the Froothie’s favour:
- cost
- quietness
- ease of blending
- blending time
The cost difference alone would swing it for me: £599 for the Vitamix Pro 500 versus £329 for the Froothie Optimum 9400.
Plus the Froothie is that much more powerful “under the bonnet”: 1492 watts for the Vitamix Pro 500 versus a whopping 2238 watts for the Optimum 9400. That explains the quickness and thoroughness of blending. The Vitamix took 45 seconds to make this smoothie super smooth, while the Froothie took 35 seconds. Not too shabby for either, especially when you consider I deliberately choose tough-to-blend ingredients.
It really is quite amazing. Although it has both a tamper and a scraper I have only used the tamper once, and this was really because I put too little into the generously proportioned (and BPA-free) jug. My mistake. Silly me. The Froothie is also stunningly quiet for something that can blend rocks, if you are in to that kind of thing. Here is a comparison chart with the Vitamix Pro 500 (from the Froothie website): 
Other practicalities: although not for the dishwasher, all you do to get it clean is add a few drops of washing up liquid to the jug, a little water and pop it back onto the machine to blend on High for 10 seconds. That’s it. No waiting around for the dishwasher to run its cycle. And the jug is very easy to fit onto the base, sitting just over the four rubber prongs. With my Vitamix I was never quite sure if it was on correctly.
The Optimum 9400 also comes with a really good, very health-oriented cookbook (mainly raw foods). If you prefer your recipes and advice to be online, they have a Facebook page; and FroothieTV has loads and loads of recipes, advice and videos to peruse. Their head-to-head challenges are good to watch, too. And the rock crushing video. 🙂
If you already have a high speed blender it would be silly to upgrade to the Froothie Optimum 9400 – unless yours breaks. But if you are anything like me and want to get as much goodness into your diet and your family’s diet as possible – and quickly! – this machine might be for you. It comes with a generous 10 year international warranty, upgradeable to 12 years if you order via this link. Plus they ship worldwide at UK delivery prices (i.e. the same price to Sweden as it would be to Swansea).
Do you want to see it in action?
I am an ambassador for Froothie and some links in this article may be affiliate links. However, as always, all product reviews are based on my honest opinion. If you’d like to know more about Froothie health products, or this machine in particular, please visit the Froothie website for more details. Any purchases made through this/these link(s) are at no extra cost to you but give Food To Glow a small bit of money to keep the site afloat and developing healthy recipes to share. Thanks!
Green Passion Smoothie
5 ice cubes
Double fistful of chopped kale (even the ribs are fine if using the Froothie)
1 passionfruit – seeds and gooey flesh
1 nectarine or mango – roughly chopped
1 carrot, trimmed – roughly chopped
1 pear – roughly chopped
½ “thumb” of root ginger – peeled
½ lemon, peel removed and flesh roughly chopped
1 tbsp chia seeds or flax seeds
Put the ingredients into the jug, press on the lid and blend on low for a couple of seconds and then gradually turn up to 10, and blend for about 35 seconds. Drink!
Really thorough review Kellie. I love my Vitamix but it’s good to know there’s another top-of-the-line blender out there if I ever need to replace mine. And this smoothie looks amazing, especially since it’s combining late summer and early fall produce. 🙂
Thank you, Katie. I felt very pro doing the head to head tests. And of course I had loads of food! I do think that they are both about equally fantastic and I am hugely blessed to have both machines. I am glad you love your Vitamix. But if yours ever breaks? Well, you know where to come 🙂 But I hope it doesn’t!
Now this is exactly the advice I need right now as my husband is hooked on juicing every vegetable he finds in the fridge, especially kale. I wish I could take to it, he is in the best health right now since, well forever. In fact his weight is now back to when we met about 15 years ago. It is just the bitterness but I am definitely trying your gorgeously creamy looking potion as I really enjoy passion fruit x
A husband willingly juicing and eating kale!? He’s a keeper, Deena!!
He’s lost 9kg! I’m all for it, I’ve been waiting over a decade for him to sort his health out x
Wow – that’s so impressive! I guess you could take his weight gain as a compliment?
Ha! Yes I told him I want some recognition x
What a great review, Kellie! And a fabulous smoothie to boot!
I’m liking fact that its quietish to run x
Don’t think I didn’t notice you put Sweden in the shipping info! And now I’ve read you’re review I’m even more curious about whether they make this thing with a two-prong plug. Gah!
It went with Swansea! Honest!
It really is a great machine and has so many uses. Great review Kellie (and lovely smoothie)
Reblogged this on Simply Seana. and commented:
Love this!!!
A good review and I agree it is a ep up from the Vitamix, which I used to think was wonderful.
It’s a fab machine isn’t it, I love mine so much! Your recipe sounds divine!
I’ve been wanting a vitamix for a while, but have been swayed by the optimum. Can you tell me, will the optimum actually make smoothies and hot soups as well as the vitamix?
Hi Kara. Yes, friction of the incredibly fast blades creates a steaming hot soup. It’s pretty amazing how this happens, actually. My favourite soup in my Froothie is roasted tomatoes and garlic blended with fresh thyme, spring onions and stock. It takes just a couple of minutes. The Froothie is faster and has a higher wattage than the Vitamix but is quite a bit less expensive. Both machines are excellent though. I hope this helps!
I must say that after 2 times i used the optimun for a hot soup (carrot and sweet potatoes) – it takes about 10 min for the soup to be hot for serve, while the Vitamix does that in 4 min.
Still, Optimun is half price, but we can’t say that both machines are the same…
I have both machines but have not done the same exact soup in both as a test of late, but I find my Froothie to be very quick to to heat. Certainly much faster than 10 minutes. I’m wondering why the difference?
I am about to have my large bowel and rectum removed because of ulcerative colitis and bowel cancer, and have an ileostomy. I found out that a lot of my favourite foods will be impossible for me to eat, at least for quite a long time, until I discovered high speed blenders. I had almost decided to get a Vitamix when I found the Optimum, and have decided to go for that instead – faster, more powerful, and cheaper! (How do they do that, I wonder!!) This machine will make all my favourite foods available again once I have recovered from the surgery, even if they are in a different form, which makes the thought of having this operation a lot less unpleasant. I can’t wait to try the delicious smoothies, nut milks and butters, and the self-cooking soup! Thanks for an excellent review, which confirms all that I found out on the Froothie site.
Thank you for posting this review! I am currently looking for a high speed blender and of course I have been oggling the Vitamix for a while now. Since we’ll be moving house in the summer I would love to find an alternative that is a little bit less pricey and I will definitely consider this blender!
Do you know what, I have both but honestly can say that the much cheaper Froothie is my favourite as I can do everything in one jug and it is substantially quieter too. I’m giving my daughter the Vitamix though. She will love it.