I waited years to buy this because I really cannot afford it, but it was on sale for a decent price, so I bit the bullet. For all the wonderful things I heard, I really expected it to be wonderful, but it is just okay. It is so loud, I cannot use it when my kids are sleeping. I tried making the "ice cream" recipe from the website, but it did not blend even using the ice cream button. I drink a smoothie almost every morning for breakfast and find that there are almost always chunks that did not get blended, sometimes after running the smoothie cycle twice. I also find it very difficult to get clean, I don't have a clean button on mine, just pulse for 8 seconds, but it doesn't get it clean, so I have to scrub it and it still looks "foggy" in spots.
It is great to help you eat foods you would not normally try, We did return the item soon after purchase as we discovered there were more steps to prep and it was expensive to buy produce off season and the machine is overpriced. There are some pretty good ones on the market for half that. Nice, but not for us. Besides, I have always been told it is better to eat the whole fruit, etc. than juice. Much too easy to drink a lot of extra calories without feeling full.
I bought this a month ago and I am loving it. I love making my own smoothies and this blender does it perfectly. The motor is powerful enough to blend the frozen fruits. Have not tried the ice cream and soup options yet. This is an expensive blender, but it comes with 8 years of warranty and works much better than I expected. So I highly recommend this.
The blender looks sleek and doesn't take up much counter space. It's not bulky unlike some other blenders on the market. It's really powerful and useful for making soup/smoothies and batter. The only downside is that it's really really loud!! If the noise bothers you then don't pick this blender but otherwise really happy with the purchase
I've had 70 blends with the machine so far! Breaks down all the hard frozen ingredients really well and has no problem making thick mixtures. Also makes good batters, although quantity has to be large enough or else flour will be pushed towards the sides and then you have to scoop it back in to the middle of the blender. I use it to coarse grind coffee beans as well, and has replaced my coffee grinder for space on the kitchen table. Now all that's left is for the Blendtec to make my coffee as well (joking).