We were in the same spot and bought a ninja. It was fine when it worked. Less than 7 months of daily use and the shear pin on the motor broke. We have to send the entire thing back to them to evaluate for warranty. Even our cheapo 1st blender lasted nearly 10 years. Haven't decided whether to send it back or move on.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta

I have an old Acme Supreme Juicerator 6001 that works like a charm! I picked it up at a garage sale probably 20 years ago for maybe $15. I use it daily.

I have considered going to more of a blender type so I get more fiber but the expense keeps me from doing so.

:Dspend the bucks and go with Vitamix YOU won't be sorry . I could not be happier with mine

Love, love, love my Vitamix. Today I decided I wanted some tomato soup for dinner and filled it to the fill line with tomatoes. I used the stick to push them into the blade and once it got started it just blended them to a nice soup consistency. I think next time I will add a cut tomato to it and get it started first, then add the rest of the tomatoes when there is some wet product in the blender container. Not one seed can be seen in this mixture, so I poured it into the pan and added the seasonings I wanted and "voila" tomato soup cooking on the stove. It is creamy and there is no need to add any fattening cream to it either. Yummo.

I will serve it with some salad and maybe a small sandwich tonight.

Sounds good, Robin. I would love to have one someday. :-D

Ok I read through the entire thread and nobody mentioned a thing about wattage.

Made in USA.
I just bought a pipe cutter and it was made in the USA.
It is a piece of crap, I couldn't cut one piece of pipe with it, it wont follow the cutting line and cuts spirals.
By the way I have cut miles of pipe.

Back to blender.

A motors power on small appliances is rated in wattage and sometimes horsepower along with amps.
What you would do is multiply the volts X the amps and it will give you wattage.
Here is a Vitamix blender wattage since they rate in horsepower which is really not the true horsepower.
Vitamix 5200 standard, at $449 on their website.
120 volts AC at 60 HZ and 11.5 amps.
To get wattage multiply volts times amps.
120x11.5=1380 watts.
This is a fantastic motor and it has a cooling fan.
The Ninja Pro blender has 1000 watts of power at a price of $99.00 on their site.
The Blendtec has 1560 watts at a price of $454.95 on their site.
My Oster Fusion has 600 watts at around $79.99 at Best Buy.
I got it on sale for around $65.00

I bought a Cuisinart blender a while back and my friend at work told me that his wife burned up 3 of them.
I got home and opened up the blender and tried to make a mixed drink.
It smoked the first time I used it.
I cant find this blender anymore and I wonder why.:no:
I took it back to Macy's and got my money back.
I had an Oyster for 30 years and broke the glass container.
So I found an Oster Fusion blender at Best Buy and bought it.

The truth is if I was going to run a bar I would but a commercial blender and be done with it.
The blender I have works really well at the price and the programmable motor reverses which is a real plus for sucking the ice back down to blend again.

Don't get fooled into a blender with a huge container with a low wattage motor.
It will burn up.
A blender with a powerful motor will only snap an inferior drive so get one that is strong through and through.
Don't be fooled by words like Pro and such, look at that wattage and how it is made.
A warranty is worthless if you have to keep sending it back.

I hope I shed some light on buying blenders and what to look for.:)

Worth

[QUOTE=rockyonekc;357528]We were in the same spot and bought a ninja. It was fine when it worked. Less than 7 months of daily use and the shear pin on the motor broke. We have to send the entire thing back to them to evaluate for warranty. Even our cheapo 1st blender lasted nearly 10 years. Haven't decided whether to send it back or move on. [/QUOTE]

Ninja ended up shipping me a new motor base free of charge, or at least they will when the next shipment arrives in a week. It was actually very easy to get them to do this. :thumbup: My Ninja was $159 and is 1100 watts based on Worth's comparison.