I love our BlendTec Home blender. It was $399 (with 2 blender jars), but worth it. We blend ice/frozen fruit smoothies daily, so wanted something to do a good job and last. So far, so good. I even crack grains with it, and it blends things like veggies into salad dressing so smooth and thoroughly so fast.

For one more in your price range, I've read a lot of good about the Breville blender. We have the Breville panini grill and have found them to have amazing customer service. (We bought our original grill off Ebay for about $25. The kids dropped it and broke the handle. I contacted Breville to buy a new handle. The grill was an older model, and they replaced the whole grill with the newer, $100 model...for FREE.)

I know what you mean about blenders that are just OK, but could do a lot more with more power. I think that's what your choices are at the $200 price point, although I hope someone here can point you toward something that will do all you want for that money.

If you don't find anything, I'll share my experience with the Vita-Mix. After years of so-so blenders, I finally spent the extra to get the Vita-Mix, and I've been so glad I did. It makes fabulous smoothies, but also does so much more. For example, it is powerful enough and spins it blades so fast that it will actually cook (to near boiling!)fresh soup right in the pitcher. Also makes great ice cream, sorbet, salsa, guacamole, and frozen drinks like margarirtas and coffee drinks. After using mine for while, I bought another one as a gift for my son . There is another brand called BlendTec which is similar and also very powerful. If you have a Costco near you, they sometimes have them on demo.

(Your husband may be fsmiliar with Vita-Mix since it is the unit most often used in bars and smoothie counters.)

I googled it - looks like Will Smith used the Kitchen Aid Ultra Power Blender in that movie. Check out consumersearch.com for blenders -the reviews pretty much match what I've heard -Vita-mix and Blend-tec are tops for high end, Breville, Kitchenaid, Cuisinart, Waring and Oster for blenders in the popular price ranges.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blender reviews

To followup on Smiling's post, I think the BlendTec Home and VitaMix are very similar in power and abilities. My niece has run several coffee shops that do the blended ice smoothies, so I asked her. She's used both and considers them equal in durability and performance.

The reasons I chose BlendTec over the VitaMix:

1) $100 savings, since I would've wanted the 'dry blender,' too (an added expense), and with BlendTec you get 2 blenders for the price that both do wet and dry.

2) The blender jar is wider and shorter on the BlendTec, which helps it fit better under upper cabinets, and is easier to clean out.

But both are great units.

I've been very happy with the several KitchenAid blenders that I've owned. I would recommend KA in this price range.

You're probably tired of hearing from me, but I got my dd a KA blender for her college apartment from the refurbished area on the KA website for a comparatively amazing price. I just asked her and she is quite happy with the job it does for ice smoothies, etc.

I have the Kitchen Aid one that was in the Will Smith movie even though that's not why I bought it. It works fine for what I need but if your DH used to be a bartender I would go for one of the higher end ones unless you think he would want the Will Smith one. Buy the movie and wrap them together!!

I vote for the Vita-mix for sure. I've been using it for years at home and at my work. Blend-tec good too. I just prefer pitcher and lid of Vita-mix. My test for blenders is ICE. I hate chunks of ice in my smoothies and margaritas. Kitchen-aid left chunks. Costco sells Vita-mix occasionally. Worth the money for sure.

DH bought our VM at Costco this year. He saw the salesman presenting it and bypassed it but when he came back down the aisle, he caught the words "seven-year warranty". He was hooked and reeled in. We have enjoyed it so far. I've mostly used it to make baby food but we've made a couple of soups and drinks. I think he got it for around $400 but I can't remember.

my husband makes smoothies every morning. And we have an Oster. Spent Didn't know there were $400 blenders.

I like the movie + blender idea. He'd probably be thrilled!

I have an Osterizer Classic.

Trish

We've had the Breville for about a year & love it. It even has a "smoothie" button. I think it's in the $200 range. You can read the reviews on Abt.com.

We also have the Breville and love it---so much that I ended up buying several of their other products.

I had a Breville blender that I loved, but then I broke the jar and found it impossible to find a replacement, so I bit the bullet this year and bought a Vita-mix. Wow. I love it!! Very powerful, nice warranty, and the container is virtually impossible to break. It's all one piece, so no having to wash all the separate parts, which I love. Just buzz it with hot water and a drop of soap, rinse, and you're done. I do not put the parts in the dishwasher, though. I've come to the realization that appliances with plastic parts (like my Kitchenaid food processor bowl) just last longer if I handwash them.

If I didn't get the Vitamix, I would have gotten another Breville, although the parts availability thing really turned me off. Vita-mix has been around for years, making virtually the same product, so the chances of finding replacement parts if/when needed is better, but again, it has a 7-year warranty. It IS a lot of money, I'll admit--but I figured, even if the blender only lasted for 7 years, that would still come out to be less than $65/year, which I was spending close to that replacing mine almost every year anyway. (Ice in smoothies is so brutal on them!) Can't beat that! The way this thing is built, though, I'm sure I'll have it for much longer! Good luck!

I have a Vitamix too. I have an older model though...it still has the metal cannister. It works so much better than my regular Oster type blender. I got a refurbished VM so it was less expensive. If you do get one, make sure you get the manual to tell you how to use it.

My favorite thing to do with the Vitamix is to make hot soup. I can make a brocolli-corn chowder in 9 minutes....piping hot and ready to serve. It also makes gravy in about 6 minutes and I don't have to stand and stir. Of course the margaritas in it are pretty amazing too.

tanders, you got me wondering about finding replacement parts for the Breville since it seems that it would be fairly common to need a new jar or gasket. I went to the Brevilleusa website and didn't see any obvious list of replacement parts for the benders. Did you try contacting customer service? I'm really curious because one of the things that really sold me on trying the Breville 2+ years ago was a thread here where it seemed there were some great experiences with customer service.

Thanks so much for all the great recommendations! I feel much better that I'll be out blender shopping today armed with information.

And rhome, I could never tire of hearing from you! :)

Thanks, Holligator. ;-)

Best wishes on your blender hunt!

I know this is really late, but the blender used in Enemy of the State was a Breville Blender. It's one of my favorite movies and I've seen it so many times.