I bought this to replace a Kitchen Aid.
The Kitchen Aid uses a coupler on top of the motor which spins the blade that's made out of rubber over metal which will break if you make lots of frozen fruit drinks. That's what I had happen.
The Waring uses the same type of design, but the difference is that you can buy a replacement ($5.95) and put it on yourself with a wrench If it were to ever come apart. The Kitchen Aid has to be serviced, take apart the motor to get to it from the inside etc.
This Waring Blender is very powerful! It's loud and spins very fast. It blends in a fraction of the time of others. It makes my old Kitchen-Aid seem like a childs toy in comparison.

Note: You don't load the thing up with frozen fruit or else it may just jam and won't spin. Also you're supposed to drop the ice in from the top while it's running.

It's much more obviously commercial through heft, simplicity of design and function and servicability.

It has only 2 speeds. Professional chefs say that's all you need. it has a simple toggle switch, no multiple speed electronic gimmics. Just very functional.

I originally really wanted a glass container. It provided some heft to my old Kitchen-Aid and I thought that it was a sign of higher quality.
For a commercial application you would prefer the unbreakable quality of the polycarbon plastic as well as the lack of weight. It's light as a feather.

One of the first things I noticed was that the container doesn't lock to the base. I was originally concerned, but in a commercial setting you'd just keep your hand on it since it's not going to take long to blend, and then you just quickly pull it off and pour.

I was also concerned that the blade being permenantly mounted inside the container would be hard to clean. (actually you can take it apart with a deep socket and extension, not for cleaning but blade replacement). My Kitchen Aids came apart for cleaning and I could put it in the dishwasher. I find the cleaning instruction are easy with the Waring, actually simple to clean you should just do it right away once your done mixing. Less time to clean and assemble.

What I see now with comparing this to the kitchen-Aid besides what I've already mentioned, is that the Kitchen-Aid looks simple through it's visual design. It's over designed through what appear to be valuable features which only make it more complicated. You have to do more work from cleaning, assembling and servicing.
The Waring on the other hand is bare bones functional. It was designed to blend and be easily serviced and quickly cleaned.