Recommend a Blender?

In reply to Nate90LX :

I paid $350 at Costco for the Vitamix. Not cheap but not $500 either.

I think we have different definitions of "smoothie." My wife puts apples, beets, kale, etc in her smoothies. Whole. An Oster would not sufficiently smooth out a beet. Frozen fruit is a different beast altogether; you could almost smooth that out with a sharp spoon.

dculberson said:

I think we have different definitions of "smoothie." My wife puts apples, beets, kale, etc in her smoothies. Whole. An Oster would not sufficiently smooth out a beet. Frozen fruit is a different beast altogether; you could almost smooth that out with a sharp spoon.

That depends. I've seen my oster do it with kale and spinach and stuff before. I fully believe it would burn out before too long under heavy use, but all we ever really do with it is make rum smoothies and hollandaise. 

In reply to dculberson :

Yep.

Our standard smoothie is banana, avocado, frozen berries, yogurt, honey, lemon.

At some point I have to try Randy Pobst's recipe, which I'm pretty sure involves kale, but I don't see ever going to beets. Beets seem like a level up from apples and kale, which seem in turn a notch up from our berries on the blenderizing difficulty scale.

Our first vitamix got used to death, then they replaced it for free, then the bearings went bad in the hopper.   Both times they listened to it over the phone and sent new stuff.  

We moved that one to the cabin and bought the newer model.   We use it daily at least once for soups and smoothies.   Don't forget spinach in your smoothies, adds no flavor just nutrition. 

My wife cannot live with out one, she even threatens to take it on vacation with us.   

Pay attention to warranties, Vitamix has a good one and has no string s attached.