If you've ever tried to make smoothies at home with a typical blender, you've probably seen first hand the difference in results. Your typical juice shop has a high-end blender that can crush ice easily and pulp just about anything in seconds. For a long time, there weren't many options for the person who wanted a similar experience at home. But more sophisticated and powerful models are now available, and they're much easier on the wallet than you might expect.
The Waring Pro MX1000R Professional Specialty Blender can handle anything you throw at it- soups, sauces, beverages, you name it. We made margaritas incredibly quickly with perfectly smooth ice crushed in seconds, and churned out gazpacho and puddings with ease. The heavy-duty 64-ounce unbreakable jar has the same quality that you associate with a pro-level blender, and the base itself is quite heavy for stability. As with most other commercial-quality appliances, you will definitely need to make room- it might not fit under your cabinets (or in them), and we've made a permanent home on the counter for it.
The motor speed here is measured in horsepower (3.5 total, up to 30,000 RPMs), and offers enough oomph to chop and dice anything. The controls are incredibly basic- just a pulse button, plus high and low speeds, and we missed the more controllable knob and adjustable settings (including a nifty smoothie option) on the Oster Versa which we recently reviewed. But we really liked the fairly easy clean-up, with safely integrated blades. As with the Oster, you will need to hold down the pitcher while blending. Both were loud enough to distract neighbors in our tests, but the Waring Pro was the less noisy of the pair, and the sound was less whiny and a bit lower-pitched.
The MX1000R is a solid, nice-looking, quality appliance that is perfect for the home user who wants serious results. With a five year motor warranty, you can be assured of durability as well, which is important for an investment. The Waring Pro Professional Xtreme Series MX100R runs around $330, available online and in stores, and we should note that they also make a nifty sound enclosure for it, a fairly unique accessory.
