Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I love that the Ace Plus does so much more than an ordinary blender! The Ace's optimized program for cleaning itself is right up there as one of its best features, but shouldn't diminish its other strengths. Its cooking is also amazing, as are the other programs! Just for soup, this is absolutely wonderful. We've been saying we wanted to have lighter suppers most of the time anyway, so this is a perfect addition to our kitchen. It is unbelievably easy to make soup! I can just cut up available leftover veggies, and ones which are just starting to get past their prime, along with onion, carrot, and potato, and toss them in with an otherwise too small to be useful piece of leftover meat or poultry (or not), add some favourite seasonings, pour in stock up to the maximum fill line (which creates a rather copious amount), or less, and push the soup button once or twice (the latter is for pureed soup). When it beeps 10 times, lunch or supper is ready. It's delicious, and it's essentially a free meal! The first time I made soup in the Ace, we went back for seconds and thirds, and still had a very little bit left. I was going to throw it away, but my husband rescued it to have with lunch. I will continue to make more! I also used the Instant Ace Plus to make some hot chocolate using a recipe from Instant Pot. The cocoa was great, and copious, but the cleanup was dreadful. The brush helped, but needs to be more bristly at the end. Finally, my husband suggested using Dawn Power Dissolver, and that shifted the coating of chocolate milk at the bottom so that the clean cycle was able to whisk it away. I may or may not make this again, considering; but it might be perfect for some occasion, so never say never. Next up was smoothies. Don't laugh, but I was never a smoothie maker, so this was a bit of an adventure. The first try turned out very well, but the results were quite copious for two people: we each had two very large glasses, and had a small amount left over. I've been making smoothies almost daily since then, which has helped us increase our fruit intake. The fact that we can make them at home without any added sugars is a big plus over smoothies you buy. We're not into alternate forms of "milk," and may be the only people in America who had never had any (since we don't have problems with regular milk, we haven't felt the need), but as this is meant to work well for them, I thought I'd try making almond "milk." I didn't realize I needed near boiling water, so I had to soak the almonds in hotter water for another hour before the skins were loosened. (Removing the skins would be the perfect task for kids who want to help. It isn't difficult, just takes a while.) Once they were off, the Ace went to work. I poured the resulting liquid out through the bag the Instant people had provided (which was easy to wash by hand later on), and had no difficulty squeezing the last of the "milk" out. It's creamy, and pleasant tasting, but other than colour, it doesn't bear a whole lot of resemblance to milk. I don't like water, and find this refreshing. I'll probably try the other varieties too. As for the bad: It can be hard to read the buttons when they're not lit up. A larger font would have gone a long way for people who are middle aged and older. My major complaints, however, are not being able to program the hot cycle for different foods; and that this version doesn't have a dessert/n'ice cream button. I'd love to be able to make sorbets, but will still try to find a way. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be any logic to the way the buttons are arranged. Yes, the blender jar is a bit on the heavy side, but I'm quite sure my mother could have hefted it at the age of 93, so I really don't think you need to worry that it would be unsuitable for the elderly, unless it's somebody who's decidedly frail. Quite the contrary, in fact, since its ability to make fresh soups would be particularly appealing to older people.