It is everything you would want in a Blender-my only complaint is that there is no description for each button on my machine. The pictures included are not the same so it makes a bit of trial and error when following recipes through the book included.
I was in the market for a smoothie blender, and Blendtec received high marks in several recipe books. I watched a demonstration of the product at Costco and picked one up there after visiting the Blendtec website. I'm very happy with it.
I bought blender less than 2 years ago and with light use I am already on the second jar replaced under 8 years warranty. Blade assembly has flawed design or manufacturing and failures are common. Though jars purchased with base are covered under 8 years warranty and replacement seems to be non issue, at least now, using smaller jar purchased separately and covered only with 1 year warranty makes me worry. It is used less but since the design is identical no doubt it will fail. Then what to do next ? Probably you would have to go through 2 small jars at cost of app $ 200 in in the life span warranty of base and wild side jar. Is it worth it ? I would say no. Jars are expensive and redesigning it with exchangeable blade could lower replacement costs. I can accept expensive item only because of high quality or excellent warranty attached to it. This my only problem with Blendtec otherwise when it works it is really great appliance to have.
I just purchased a second Blendtec after 3 years of daily use of my first. It still works great but is now used by my daughter. The new one I think works even better as far as consistent performance. Daily smoothie of fresh fruit and frozen Costco berries. Prepare the night before and crank it every morning. Love that while the blades devour whatever I put in it, they are not sharp on your fingers so cleaning is safe and easy. You will not cut yourself as you multitask over the kitchen sink. Also leftover ice cream with Amaretto is spectacular.
We had heard about Blendtec on the Food Network and YouTube demonstrations. On a visit to the Costco we saw live the Blendtec in action. We bought it, tried it and gave away the VitaMix. It can do everything we were used to with the previous unit. It's the things we can do that would have been impossible with the old system. It's perfect for pie crusts or small batches of pizza dough. Thank You For The Blendtec.