I just bought a second trainer, and my research led to the same recommendation as Twahl made. The base level fluid trainer from Performace is about $150, and its construction seems fine.

Our first trainer is a Blackburn fan model from about 10 years ago, and it's holding up fine, but the fan puts out so much noise it's almost painful. To listen to music while training almost requires blowing out the stereo speakers. Thus, we're moving to fluid just to save our ears.

As for "remote tension adjustment" on the more expensive models, I don't know why they're needed if you can just shift gears on your bike. I think the extra $50 is better spent on a heart rate monitor.