Last updated on July 17, 2024.
Overview
- Introduction
- Why a Vorwerk Thermomix at all?
- The Thermomix Party system
- Thermomix representative lied
- Commissioning and initial experience with the Vorwerk Thermomix
- The Thermomix as a data octopus
- What good is the guarantee of success and guided cooking?
- Conclusion: Is the Thermomix worth it?
Introduction
Either you hate him, or you love him. In between, there seems to be hardly anything on the net. Some say that you can buy something for a lot of money that you could do with a stove and good pots, others say that it is a huge relief in their lives and they don’t want to miss it anymore. We are talking about the Vorwerk Thermomix with all its accessories. This article is about the previous model of the current version, and some points have become obsolete: The WLAN module, for example, is now already included from the factory, but this was not the case with our TM5. But anyway, here is the original article!
Even after two months with the TM5, I find myself somewhere between anger about how dubious the business practices of the Vorwerk participants are in some places and what bad experiences have been made with the Thermomix, and the admission that cooking yourself is also satisfying and, above all, cheaper than delivery service, etc. The thought that you can save money by cooking more and ordering less, I can say that right away, you should get rid of it. It is very unlikely that the acquisition costs will ever be amortized,
Why a Vorwerk Thermomix at all?
One of the worst questions for me is “What are we going to eat tonight?” This means that you probably still have to go shopping and then spend 1-2 hours of the evening shopping, walking home and cooking with something, which at least I usually don’t feel like doing. And then you can alternatively go to the Chinese man around the corner or try out one of the hipster burger shops. That costs money, and it’s not healthy either.
For a while I had liked to cook, also because there is a wonderful cookbook for computer scientists (affiliate link). But that also means preparation. Buy the right ingredients. I hate spending time in the supermarket or at the weekly market. I would love to have everything delivered and spend as little time as possible on something like this. But I don’t decide that alone. And then you also have to think about what you want to cook and when, so that the ingredients don’t rot. Since the number of family members had doubled from one day to the next, this approach of culinary haphazardness could no longer be maintained. Quite apart from the fact that if everything is supposed to be organic, visiting an organic market and buying baby food there seems to equate with financial ruin.
The Cookidoo system, which is connected to the Vorwerk Thermomix, is supposed to help here. You select the recipes in an app, a shopping list is automatically created, and then the recipes are also transferred to the Vorwerk Thermomix via WIFI. Guided Cooking is the name of the assistant that is supposed to save the kitchen and me from disaster. Insanity. This saves me a lot of work, at least in theory. So it’s a well-rounded thing, and everything that saves time and nerves is worth money to me. The Cookidoo subscription costs €36 per year after 6 months, but you also have the guarantee of success (Note in July 2024: Attention, that was the previous price! Vorwerk now demands more money for more functions!). And 36€ a year, that’s a little more than ordering pizza once. What to think of the guarantee of success, more on that later.
The necessary cook key costs 129€ if you buy it later, or 100€ more in the premium package together with the Vorwerk Thermomix. 100€ and more for a Wi-Fi adapter? This is quite brazen, especially since it later turned out in the forums that the WLAN adapter also seems to be weak on the chest. But good. We are talking about Vorwerk here. Vorwerk is not cheap. But here I have a bit of a family background, even if there were bad moments, and after several vacuum cleaner robots, it has also become a Vorwerk here. In the meantime also version 2.0 (Update: We no longer have a Vorwerk vacuum cleaner, as the market competitors now build better products).
The Thermomix Party system
I would have liked to buy the Vorwerk Thermomix in the store. We have a Vorwerk store on Jungfernstieg, so why does “person-assisted direct sales” have to be used here? By the way, used is not an option, because the warranty is ALWAYS tied to the buyer. So it’s no use if you read on eBay that there is still a warranty on it, because if you buy the device, then the warranty does not apply to the used buyer. In fact, I had a case where the saleswoman presented me with a letter from Vorwerk that the warranty would be transferred, but in that case it was a device that was still packed. But the lady still wanted too much money for it.
But back to the Thermomix party: If you think about it, an old sales trick becomes obvious. For example, customers as well as potential customers are invited to events by companies. And when asked who is already using Google AdWords, for example, half of those present wonder why the other half is further ahead than they are.
And so at a Thermomix party you meet people who want one anyway, and those who are not quite determined. After delicious food and usually one or more glasses of wine, even those who are undecided are more likely to buy if they see that other participants are doing the same. Even if they don’t know that there is no other option. “Peer pressure” will also work here, and who wants to admit that 1,200 to 1,300€ is too much for a food processor?
Thermomix representative lied
Fortunately, there was very good and also enough wine at the Thermomix party, which we attended. Because it was hard to bear. Of course there was a risotto, and all the ladies present said “Yes, yes, risotto, that’s always a lot of work, it’s great that it’s not like that here.” But the example of the Vorwerk Thermomix is ALWAYS a risotto. How many times a month can you eat risotto without it hanging out of your throat? Everyone was allowed or had to operate the Thermomix once to see how easy it is. Unfortunately, I had also prepared myself and asked the Vorwerk consultant, who is officially called “Representative”, whether the Thermomix would be able to achieve the set temperature in the meantime and whether they had worked on the volume problem. The lady seemed a bit pissed off and tried to play everything down. She had never heard of it, but if you looked for problems, you would find something. By the way, more about the problems of the Vorwerk Thermomix TM5 in this report on YouTube, it’s worth watching!
And then came the hammer. The lady always talked about how great it was with the Cook-Key and Cookidoo, and I dared to add that you could buy the Thermomix without it. However, this is no longer offered. Excuse me? Is that still available on the website? Yes, but that is no longer actually offered. On the order form, there was also a box for the Vorwerk Thermomix without Cookidoo to tick. Addressed again: Yes, no, she wouldn’t offer that, because that wouldn’t make sense. Interesting.
By the way, we opted for express delivery within 48 hours. It costs extra money, but at least I was able to work with it before the weekend. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. The Vorwerk representative assured me that I would not have to pay the fee, but Vorwerk did not know anything about it. Instead, after a short discussion, I was written: “As a gesture of goodwill and without acknowledging a legal obligation, we are writing off the express costs at our expense.” Wow. Thank you. You messed up the express delivery and now it’s goodwill that I don’t have to bear the costs for it?
Commissioning and initial experience with the Vorwerk Thermomix
At some point, the Vorwerk Thermomix came along, and half of my colleagues made fun of the box, the other half were interested. Here, too, the division into two camps. The device was quickly set up at home, and my first experience was that the spatula quickly gets damaged when it touches the blades. I hadn’t seen a warning about it, maybe there was, but good. Quickly rinse all parts clean, read through the instructions so that nothing goes wrong, and then the thick power button is pressed for the first time.
After switching on, you will be guided through the setup, and surely everyone will read the privacy policy carefully first. Or not. But you should. More on that later.
Of course, I chose simple dishes at the beginning. The homemade rolls were just ok, one of the salads has become my favorite salads. 100% satisfaction looks different, see also below the section on the success guarantee. The Cookidoo app doesn’t have as many recipes as it seems at first, but you can also switch to other countries and try out their recipes, provided you know the language. Cookioo’s shopping list is a real added value, but not everything that could be aggregated is aggregated here either. Sometimes you are allowed to run 2x. The weekly planner is exactly what I’ve always wanted. So you only need to run to a supermarket a maximum of twice a week. There are already cooperations with food delivery services such as Hello Fresh. However, our experience with these services has been underwhelming. Vorwerk now offers Rewe as a delivery service in the Cookiddo app.
The usability and performance of the Cookidoo app are under all cannon. Almost every time I use the app, I’m asked how I find it, or I’m told not to make TM5 recipes with the TM31. Unfortunately, the app does not remember this. Worse still, it often doesn’t respond at all, and only restarting the Cookidoo app can help. It is slow. It is anything but intuitive in some cases. It has bugs. The date does not jump along. Why should I still look at the recipes from two weeks ago when I open the app? Dear Vorwerk Cookidoo product managers and developers, please use your app yourself. I pay for it and get annoyed with the app every time I use it. By the way, it doesn’t matter if it’s a new iPad or iPhone 7.
There are also problems with the Wi-Fi of the Cook Key. Sometimes it took ages for the Thermomix to connect to the WLAN. In the forums, there is sometimes heated discussion about why you should have the Thermomix close to the router. But the argument doesn’t count for us. Less than 3 meters away is a repeater. And then came the day when the c582 error struck. A quick google and it was clear to set everything up again. It’s not fun. By the way, the Vorwerk representative said that she had never heard of anyone who had ever had problems with it, it works perfectly for everyone. Must be due to our network. Of course. Over time, one is confronted with the strangest errors, for example C 590: “Could not access pre-installed data. Please restart your Thermomix.” Wow. For just under 1,300€ you can get a device in the kitchen that constantly shows some strange error messages, preferably when you are in a hurry yourself and actually just want to heat up something quickly, etc. In terms of software stability, the Vorwerk Thermomix is more of a problem child. I wonder how the normal housewife who has not studied computer science copes with this.
But there were also positive moments. For example, when I made potato pancakes for the first time, with homemade applesauce. Pure childhood memory. The salad mentioned above, which I even posted on Instagram because I was so incredibly proud. I usually think my rolls are quite good, even if they never turn out like in guided cooking. And then there was the moment when I only had homemade things in my lunch box. rolls, salad, meatballs and something whose name I can’t remember. I was very proud. And yes, it is noticeable in the household budget. According to my calculations, the device will have paid for itself within a year.
My wife even claims that I cook more now than ever before since we have been together. I don’t quite think so. But I enjoy it more than before. I like technical bells and whistles. I like that I know what’s in my food (although I’m not quite so paranoid about it) and that I put it together myself. With some things, I was even amazed at how easy it is. The potato pancakes, for example. You can do it more often.
By the way, cleaning is not quite that easy. The first time I could hardly unscrew the lower bottom, but you have to do that to be able to clean the knife properly. The dishwasher is your friend if you want to buy a Thermomix, but the knife, especially the lower area, has to be cleaned very meticulously. A little trick is that you simply put some warm water with dish soap in the pot, put the lid on, spin for 30 seconds at speed 5, and cleaning is a little easier.
The Thermomix as a data octopus
This had already annoyed me considerably with the order form, because there was already a field in which you gave your consent with a cross to give all data to everyone, Vorwerk Germany, Vorwerk International and the representative. However, this is optional, i.e. it is an opt-in. If you don’t tick your box here, you have the opportunity to tick the box on the device itself.
Otherwise, until recently, you could apparently only scroll through the privacy policy on the device, but now it is also available online. And it has it all, if you just look at what the Cookidoo portal tracks:
Subject to your consent, these Vorwerk group companies will synchronize the customer databases and exchange the personal data that you have provided in the order form and when registering on Cookidoo between the Vorwerk group companies in order to keep all of the companies’ databases up to date.®
And further:
In addition to the foregoing, and again your consent as described below, provided that the Vorwerk Group Companies track, analyze and evaluate your visits to Cookidoo as well as your use of the App and when you viewed and purchased which products. They also track and analyse which functions of Cookidoo and the App you have used and how you have used them.®®
The Thermomix goes even further:
If you have given your consent, the Thermomix TM5 will transmit data about the use of your Thermomix TM5 to the Vorwerk Group companies defined in Section 1.1, and these companies will link this data to your user account on the Platform and in the App as well as to your customer data stored by the Vorwerk national company. The data collected by the Vorwerk group companies about the use of your Thermomix TM5 includes the Thermomix TM5 serial number (“TM5 Device ID“), your country and region, your customer preferences, the use of prescription chips, in the case of Guided Cooking, the recipe name and recipe identifier, and the date and time of each use. Accordingly, the Vorwerk Group companies track which recipes are cooked and which appliance functions are used at what time and on what date.®®®®
So Vorwerk and the companies belonging to it know when I cook what, how long it takes, and really exactly me. My data also leaves the German border, because Vorwerk International in Switzerland is one of the Vorwerk Group companies.
6.2.5 The Vorwerk Group companies will also provide your Vorwerk representative with the data about your use of the Thermomix TM5, subject to your consent. Based on the above information, your Vorwerk representative may contact you to present you with content and offers that may be of interest to you; You will only be contacted by phone or email if you have also given your consent to receive such phone calls or marketing emails.®
Real? The representative receives data on when I cooked what and how?
Honestly, this is pretty much the craziest privacy policy I’ve ever read. At least the Cookidoo website anonymizes the IP address for Google Analytics, but otherwise I have the impression that this is not a privacy policy, but simply an explanation of what to do with the data. It is positive that this is dealt with transparently. But everyone should consider deactivating the data collection in the Thermomix and objecting to the use of the data by sending an email to rezeptportal@vorwerk.de [Update: The privacy policy says that you can do this, but then you will only receive an email that you should please do so in the Cookidoo app]. I wouldn’t have a problem with Vorwerk using my usage data anonymously, but I think giving my data to the representative is really crass. She then knows exactly what we eat every day, or what exactly does she receive? Supposedly nothing. But Vorwerk is definitely leaving the possibility open.
What good is the guarantee of success and guided cooking?
To make a long story short. The guided cooking and the associated guarantee of success is sometimes ridiculous. Steps are poorly described, sometimes something is missing, and then we have had it more than once that the meat or fish was not cooked. The answer of the Vorwerk representative: Then you have cut the meat too thick. No I haven’t. I always stick to recipes meticulously. But of course, the fault always lies with the user with this Vorwerk representative, nothing should come to the Thermomix system. What do you actually get out of the guarantee of success if it doesn’t work out? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The preparation times are also sometimes extremely understated. 15 minutes of preparation (preparing vegetables etc) quickly turn into 45 minutes, and not because I’m so slow… it is simply not possible. If Vorwerk calculated the actual preparation times on the basis of the data collection frenzy and incorporated this into the recipes, that would be great. These are times that someone has come up with. Another minus point.
Since the introduction of the TM6 (the product development cycles are getting shorter and shorter, so you can expect to have bought an outdated model for a lot of money shortly after purchase), TM6 recipes have also been in Cookidoo. It’s easy to overlook. And then you wonder why the recipes are not synchronized! No wonder, a TM6 recipe is not synchronized to the TM5. It also seems that Vorwerk then “upgraded” a few TM5 recipes so that they only run on the TM6. Of course, if more and more recipes no longer work on the TM5, then you don’t need Cookidoo anymore. By the way, you can configure Cookidoo to have a TM5, but it still shows recipes for the TM6.
But not everything that went wrong was due to the Thermomix. Unforgotten is my Zuccini cream soup with gnocci. At some point I had apparently made a mistake, so instead of the zuccini I threw the gnocci into the Thermomix and produced an incredible mud mash. You laugh about something like that even years later. Fortunately, something similar happened to my wife.
Update after 2 years: After almost exactly 2 years, the scales broke. Vorwerk sent a box, we sent the device to Vorwerk, and within 5 working days the device was repaired back with us. Free.
Conclusion: Is the Thermomix worth it?
I believe that Vorwerk can actually satisfy a need with the Thermomix, namely to save time in the preparation of food that is cheap and good. Well, “cheap” should be seen relatively. The Thermomix is not a bargain with a price of about 1,350€ new. In addition, there is the money for the Cookidoo subscription, 36 euros per year (from 2022 it will cost 1 euro more per month, i.e. 48 euros per year). Whether it’s really worth it with the Thermomix depends on how often you use it. That should generally be the question when you buy something: What are the costs per use? If we assume that we have used the Thermomix once a day in the last 4 years, then that is 1,460 uses, the purchase price plus 4 x 36 euros for the Cookidoo subscription makes 1,494 euros. So I paid more than 1 euro per use. 30 euros a month for being able to choose recipes in a more or less usable app, synchronize them with the device and then cook under guidance. The more often you use it, the cheaper the purchase becomes. So you have to calculate whether it’s really worth it for you. I also think that you should think carefully about whether technology really helps you. To quote myself:
The profit you make from something has to be held against the cost of the lifetime you need to get that something. Conversely, a technology should be considered optional, as long as its temporary loss does not mean the collapse of one’s own (working) life.
I think that we had planned to use it more often at that time, so that the device would have paid for itself at some point. That didn’t work out, and I suspect that it will work for very few.
Does that mean that I could live without the Vorwerk Thermomix again? Yes, I could. But many things are easier with it. And sometimes it is actually a time-saver, unless some software problem strikes. Otherwise: Ingredients in, go for a run, when you come back take the next step, take a shower, and then you have a ready-made meal. Not bad. It doesn’t work for all recipes, but it does for some. Pizza dough, bread dough, everything on the side while tidying up the kitchen. Wonderful. It’s also nice that you can filter for recipes in the Cookidoo portal for which you don’t have to invest much time (even if that doesn’t always work, see above). It’s just a pity that you can’t automatically reduce the amount to 2 people. Apparently, the Vorwerk Thermomix and the associated portal are only intended for large families, less so for couples with little time for cooking. Other nice features: baby bottles and pacifiers sterilize in 25 minutes. Since the offspring has arrived, we have the Thermomix on more often. And dips for a party are usually actually made quickly, see on the left salmon cream cheese, sesame, eggplant… plus antipasti vegetables, pickled. Everything is already very tasty. And the guests are always amazed.
The Vorwerk Thermomix is a premium product, and I think that you can then also demand that everything around it is premium. This does not fit in with a Vorwerk representative who lies to you and does not admit problems transparently. As the name suggests, it represents the company. I don’t think Vorwerk wants to be represented like that. The premium idea does not fit in with a goodwill regulation, which is not one. And apparently Vorwerk also has problems with quality, if you take a look at this forum. However, our defective scale was repaired free of charge after 2 years without complaining.
I find the use of the data questionable. Maybe at some point they will work on a cooperation with a health insurance company: Only those who eat healthy food get a discount. A cooperation with MyFitnessPal would also be more exciting, so that you no longer have to enter the data of the meal. But here it goes too far even for me. I just hope that the data will actually no longer be collected if you deactivate the function.
By the way, we asked for another representative and got it. I hope that the old representative will no longer be allowed to lie to potential new customers, but after my previous experience with Vorwerk, I am not optimistic.
Comments
Lars says
- November 2017 at 18:18
Nice to read a differentiated review of this system. Thank you for that! I’ll take a closer look at the whole thing.Floey says
- March 2018 at 21:42
Thanks for this post! It’s really informative and well written!Mackie says
- October 2019 at 10:44
Hello, nice post, thanks for that. I think it’s great to read justified and constructive criticism about the device, also from the point of view of data protection (I’m also a computer scientist).