Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had an old Osterizer blender with 12 push-buttons, none of which matched the speed of this Braun powerhouse. I bought this to make protein shakes, which includes crushing a couple ice cubes, and so far, it has produced uniformly smooth shakes, with no lumps of unblended powder or pieces of uncrushed ice. The blades circulate the mixture quickly and thoroughly, and clean-up is simple; removing the bottom allows easy access to the (heavy) glass jar, or you can put some water and detergent in the jar and use the pulse setting. One minor design flaw caused me to downgrade from 5 stars to 4. The lid has a removable center part for adding items while blending, which is a good idea. But even when this piece is fully closed and in place, there are openings at the edges. This is not a problem for the shakes I make, but the first time I used the pulse setting to clean the blender, I had soapy water all over. The easiest work-around is to put a kitchen towel on the lid when cleaning, but I do not know why Braun's designers left openings in an otherwise tightly-fitting lid. Even the old Osterizer with its removable center part sealed completely. If not for that, a 5-star product!