Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There are some products that just change your life. I wanted to get in on the smoothie thing, and there simply is no other way to do it than with a blender, and no better blender to do it with. The blender is mostly plastic, but it doesn't feel cheap. It is very secure. It locks onto the base with a satisfying click. The lid locks down with a similar click. Unless you have heard both clicks, the blender won't start. And good thing. The blades are very sharp. They are angled to create a vortex that instantly turns any fruits and vegetables inside into viscous liquid. I like that the spout has a lid that locks open so you can pour easily. The blades come out so that they can be cleaned easily, along with the inside of the decanter. I saw that another buyer was cut when the blades "flew out" during cleaning. I have looked carefully and my blade assembly does not appear to be capable of flight or even mild levitation. Nonetheless I lift it out carefully, and if I am going to use the blender again I just rinse the blades; if I want the blades completely clean I use the dishwasher and not my hands. It has been a long time since I used a blender. I stopped because they sucked. Old blenders leaked out the bottom. They were hard to clean. They had a ton of different buttons for blending speed with labels that required a thesaurus next to the cookbook. And however I parsed the gradations of perturbation between "emulsify" and "macerate", they didn't actually blend. What was at the bottom of the blender became angry and confused while whatever was in the top two thirds of the decanter remained beatifically serene. This blender has high, medium, and low settings. You can pulse. It is loud, which I take to be a feature and not a drawback. Even more than my espresso machine, this blender is extremely effective at ending unwanted conversations. For particularly persistent interlocutors, use the pulse setting. Neither my kids nor I particularly like fruits and vegetables and as a result we don't get nearly enough. And yet I can put in 10 bananas, two cartons of strawberries, two of blueberries, a bag of spinach (yes, spinach!), a cup of plain Greek yogurt, one interrupted conversation ... and: ambrosia! The decanter is huge, and yet between the three of us we can and do empty it in one meal. Yay!