Read First Before Buy Waring MX1000R Professional 3 5 Horsepower Blender
The torque of this blender can handle anything I throw at it; it has never bogged down. I mostly make fruit + vegetable + ice smoothies. The blender is no louder than other weaker blenders I've used. The blender-to-motor coupler is made of metal (cheaper blenders use plastic, which can wear quickly). The large size is excellent for big batches of smoothie. The tall lid has three layers of sealing stripes, making for a very good seal. The only small complaint I have is that "low speed" isn't low enough for me. The blades spin so fast that I never need "high speed" for my smoothies, even when making a full-load of smoothie. "Low speed" is still fast enough that non-liquids sometimes bounce/float over the blades rather than fall into the blades and get chopped. For example, if I cut a few large apples into quarters and put them in the blender, "low speed" sometimes juggles the apple chunks rather than blending them simply because the blades are spinning too fast. To solve this problem, I use very short bursts of the "pulse" button. This allows the apple chunks to settle back down in-between the blades so that they can be blended the next time I press "pulse". Once the items have been blended enough to form 2-3 inches of liquid at the bottom of the blender, everything blends smoothly.
Besides that small quibble, I am a happy customer and would buy this product again.