Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For a long time, I'd pick up a blender, look at the sticker, and walked away with one any time I needed to replace one (maybe it broke, got old, or was shattered on the ground, etc.). However, I'd heard of Ninja's blenders from others and they swore by them. So I thought I'd give it a shot. And WOW. In the past, I was used to non-uniform blending...occasionally a slightly bigger chunk of ice...and figured it was par for the course. This blender has THREE tiers of blades along the center of it and I'm finally enjoying a smoothie or protein shake that is completely uniform and smooth throughout. The carafe locks in very well and is very easy to place and rotate into lock. The lid itself has a locking mechanism that prevents the "blender is a confetti gun" accidents...another welcome feature. Buttons are very simple without the need for 1-10 settings that we so rarely used (...want a smoothie...10...get this over with!!). Instead, the type of drink you're trying to make is labelled without any guesswork whatsoever. The only minus for this blinder is that the carafe is plastic. This has both pros/cons, but I would have preferred a glass carafe. It's supposed to be top rack dishwasher safe, but this carafe is extremely tall so "top shelf" would mean either a tall dishwasher or your top rack could moved down to the halfway point on your dishwasher (I have a Bosch...not possible). Beyond that, however, the quality of the blender makes up for the shortfall in my opinion. We're really happy with this one.