Best Blender?
 

My OLD faithful Oster blender bit the dust. My mom will buy me a new one for Christmas, but she would faint at the price of some of the professional ones. I'm looking to mostly make smoothies for my teens as they race out the door and I can hand them a cup of something healthy.

Does anyone have suggestions for blenders they love or hate. And nothing in the $300-400+ range. Less than $100 on sale would be great.

I just got a Oster 14 speed blender. about $25.00 I use it for the same reason you want one. I like it very much. I don't do heavy duty stuff with it but I didn't want one for that so I'm good with what I got. Oster has an excellent reputation.

Thanks, Bargoo! Maybe another Oster is the best bet.
Anyone else?

I adore my Vitamix, but it's not in your desired price range.

I have a Cuisinart stick blender that I got at Bed Bath & Beyond for about $50, and it is powerful enough to crush ice cubes for smoothies.

I love my tribest blender because it works with mason jars. I save various jars with the same size mouth as mason jars and buy the plastic replacement lids (8 lids for about $4). A mason jar is an individual serving and if it leaves the house and doesn't come back home it's no big deal since I always have more jars in the recycling bin.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. In my research, I found a video of a test performed by "Popular Mechanics". Being a mechanical engineer myself, I love the lab type test they put on. The results were quite surprising, the KitchenAid was the best blender of the 5 they tested, including the Blendtec and Vitamix. Breville was also very good. My mom ended up getting me the KitchenAid (with a 0.9 hp motor) and I have used it several times. Love it.

Thanks again for all the input. Happy Blending