ASporkwithBravado

Thanks to everyone for the replies! The units found at https://www.webstaurantstore.com/search/stick-blender.html look very sturdy; however what concerns me is all the smaller units seem very severely underpowered, between 100-150 watts, and the higher powered units are much too large for my needs. So far, the best regular retail consumer unit I've used is the Cuisine art Smartstick 2 speed 200watt motor, which cost me about $50. Heidih: I use mine to blend meal replacement protein shakes. 10oz milk, 25g protein powder, and frozen fruit of various sorts; blueberries, bananas, strawberries, sometimes sweet potatos etc. and add spices/lemon or orange flavoured fish oil. Also I sometimes blend frozen blueberries with lowfat cottage cheese and erythritol- it makes a nice low fat/calorie high protein cream cheese substitute spread, tastes exactly like the Einstein bagels full fat spread. Re: those that own kitchen aid units- what Ive found is it's really hard to guage a units durability off time of ownership alone. Cos if someone uses it infrequently, the total run time may be actually very low. My mother had a 20 dollar unit that never stopped working over the course of 20 years, but she never used it on a regular basis. The Bamix has caught my interest; for those that own it, how many hours of total run time have your units had? Longevity is the most important factor for me right now. Price isn't an object if its lifespan/performance is congruent.

The link looks very interesting, I figure they have to last if restaurants use these.

I've never had a motor fail, even on the cheapest models. It's always been the shaft attachment bearing/seals for me (having used 15-17 blenders)

The most I've spent is $60. I've seen $100 plus units, but I would like to hear some anecdote indicating I could expect it last cost-proportionately longer than the consumer models Ive had. ie; would a $140 dollar unit last 7x longer than a $25 unit?

Hi all. I am a heavy user of hand/immersion blenders, have been for the psat 15 years. I use them 3x daily, for 30 seconds at a time, or 1.5 minutes daily x 365 days =547.5 minutes = little over 9 hrs 7 minutes per year. I find them much more convenient than full sized blenders due to the easy cleanup, and big time savers (when you use them as frequently as I do). Over the years, I've had immersion blenders by Oster, Cuisineart, Braun etc. as well as cheaper off brands. Most last about 18 months, (2 years is the all time record by the Cuisineart smart stick)- the weakpoint for ALL of them has been the bearings/seal that hold the blade shaft in place. When it fails, the blades/ shaft will drop extending out from its housing, and disengage from the motor connection, all the while leaking old grease/plastic bits into whatever I'm blending. It seems the vast majority of manufacturers do not sell replacement blade-wand attachments, and the ones that do, sell them at a price that is 75-%100 of the cost of a full new unit/set. So I end up tossing the perfectly working motor unit/accessories and buying a whole new set, trying a different brand in hopes of a more durable unit. Kills me every time. At this point, I'm ready to concede that physics prevents man from designing a longer lasting unit, but I'm hoping somewhere out there, a chronic hand blender consumer has discovered a supremely long lasting unit, OR a quality unit manufacturer that also sells replacement attachments at a reasonable price? Any thoughts greatly appreciated! Cheers