My son loves to make smoothies. He usually uses frozen fruit, milk or yogurt, sometimes other ingredients. My little Oster blender is not working that great for him. His 18th birthday is coming up and I’d like to get him a good blender of his own for smoothies.
I know Vitamix is a great brand, but I’m not seeing them for less than $300 (base model). I would like your thoughts on a decent blender for smoothies at or under say, $200. I don’t mind spending a bit of money for something that would last since whenever he moves out, I would expect he would take it with him.
This model is the one Cook’s Illustrated recommended a couple years ago (which was the last time they rated blenders.)
The top-rated one was the Vitamix, but they said this one was just about as good. They mostly chose the Vitamix as the top pick for durability, mentioning that for commercial or heavy use you might want to go with that one. Otherwise, the Breville performed just as well.
You said you have an Oster, but not what model. After my wife made the white smoke come out of two cheap blenders, we went with a Oster professional series. Our model is out of production, but there is a newer one. Then one we have is listed cas 600 Watts and just has a toggle switch for pulse/high speed. And it it’s loud. But it’s been making smoothies reliably for 5 years now, almost every day for the last 2 years.
Check at Bed Bath & Beyond. Their Antioch store is getting rid of Blendtec Designers in red (only red) for $239. With one of their ubiquitous 20% coupons, I picked it up for about $190 plus tax. This thing can eat Oster blenders, and at regular price, it’s a good blender. At under $200, it’s fantastic!
No idea how long this deal is going, but it’s been active for a couple of months and was still going last week