Need Vitamix Help :-( (brand new--yay--and yes, already...)

[L.]

I have been really adamant about trying to heal arthritis the natural way... Well my boyfriend bought me a vitamix yesterday, as my Christmas present.  We were so excited... made two recipes today, a peach icecream and a raspberry pineapple smoothie.  It was supposed to be wonderful but already we have a problem with it :( I  didn't even know people could have problems with it!!

The Troubleshooting:

The first two recipes were recipes from the recipe book that we made a couple hours ago--our first time using the vitamix, and they seemed to go by flawlessly.  The second time we put in 1 carrot, cut into quarters, 3 celery rib halves, 1/2 cup chopped dill, 1/6 of an onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/8 cup torn up cilantro (4-5 inch pieces on their stems), and then 3/4 cup of heated corn, and on top of all this we slowly added around 3 idaho potatoes, cooked and chopped to 1 inch chunks.  We also added 1/4 cup of soy milk, and 3/4 cup of water.  We then pulsed all of this on low numbers gradually increasing from 1-4 until we thought the bottom was smooth enough and it was just mostly potato chunks at the top.  We added one more potato's worth of chunks to this, and 1/2 cup of water.  It was filled to 2-3 inches below the highest marked fill line on the blender cup (tall one, by the way), at this point.  Then we turned on the "Hot Soup" setting.

The blender started up fine, but then started rattling and shaking everywhere as it blended, before it just shut off.

We tried it again, after unplugging it for a few minutes, and it did the same thing.

Then, we poured half of this mixture into a bowl, and decided to give it ago again on the same function, thinking maybe it stopped because there was too much.  It again, did the same thing, shaking across the counter almost uncontrollably before shutting off.

Has anyone ever experienced something similar, did we screw something up, or do you think this is a malfunction of the blender?  Any advice would be SO greatly appreciated, you cannot imagine.

I have the Vitamix 6300 (same as Professional 500), which my boyfriend bought from Costco.

By the way the reason I am eating cooked food currently and writing about it is because I'm about to have an endoscopy and the doctor told me that it'd be best to start things like juice feasts/raw foodism after the procedure because if I heal something and then it comes back later, I won't know what I have and I'll be back to square one...so I've continued eating mostly as I have, in hopes I'll be diagnosed and be all the wiser for it as I continue on this hopefully natural journey.

Take care and thanks so much for reading everyone :)

Lyza

[L.]

No, because I gave up nuts for an entire year and still suffered flare ups...they just add on to an already existing problem :). Maybe I am just intolerant to almost everything but good old fruits and veggies :)

[Christina]

Maybe you have a nut allergy and don't it?
Maybe that is your arthritic trigger...

[L.]

I should try giving up gluten someday. I don't eat very much of it to begin with, as I tend to lean towards cooked versions of other whole grains, but maybe if I tried giving it up for a month I would see a difference. It's so hard for me to try it though because I will skip a week or two without eating gluten and not notice any changes. I have noticed a really drastic change in my health/flareups when I stopped eating peanuts and dramatically lowered my intake of other tree nuts, probably amounts to maybe two servings tops a month if that.

[Christina]

Oh yea.
I suffer (suffered?) From arthritis for the last 14 years. It started in my knee, then both knees, then my lower back...fast forward to last year when I seemed to attack every joint in my body down to my fingers.

A friend of mine threw the fibromyalgia card and I told her to suck it. She said "well, supposedly it is linked to gluten and dairy allergies," and I gave it up 5 das later and I have never looked back. I still have pain in my back, feet and knees sometimes, but NO WHERE as bad as before.

I am also asthmatic and have ADD. I feel more focused than I have in, well, ever, and I stopped using my pump 3 days after giving up gluten.

Gluten is an inflammatory as well as night shade foods. If you have bad arthritis, it is definitely worth looking into.

I turned out to be severely gluten intolerant. I have also discovered I have issues with corn (which has gluten) and dairy (more than I always thought). Stepping away from all of it has helped me considerably. It may be worth looking into if you are as severe as I was.

[L.]

Thanks Christina--it's good to hear that... I have been taking glucosamine tablets by the way--I didn't even think they were going to help and woah--they are helping.  Like, literally, if I miss my daily tablet, I feel pain again.  I was totally skeptical when I started taking them too, and had days in the first two weeks where I'd forget to take it and wonder why I was in so much pain, and then I'd think back to how the only thing that was different was I didn't take a glucosamine.  So I know it's not psychological.  Gluten inflamed you??  That is interesting and good to know.

Debi, that is good to know--it was thick but not as thick as a nut butter...more mashed potato consistency.  We had the machine on for no longer than 45 seconds before it started doing weird stuff... and the manual says it should be able to handle thick stuff for a minute, before you turn it off.  We did use the tamper as well...although maybe we should have been swirling it and beating the tamper in the vitamix the whole time, and not doing so and then taking it out every ten seconds.  I think we should give vitamix a call...because now our machine makes a really bad low noise every time we turn it on, and we are so worried that it's busted.  I really hope we can exchange it for a refund :(  I'd just die if we spent 500 dollars on something that we can't use :(

[Debi]

When I first got my Vitamix I had this happen when doing something thick like a nut butter or something. I forgot what I was doing.  It hasn't happened in a while  The machine over heats and shuts off.  What I found that remedies the situation is to make sure I'm using the tamper to keep pushing the food around.  This usually prevents the shaking and over heating from occurring.  You might also want to give Vitamix a call just to make sure.  They have great customer service!  Hope you get it sorted out.  Keep us posted.  

[Christina]

I have the 7500 series. I think something is wrong with your blender b/c that should not happen.

I have arthritis as well. I gave up foods that inflame me, mainly gluten. My flare ups are significantly reduced.

Good luck on your journey!