Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Waste of money. My wonderful husband bought me this as a gift when it first came out because he knows how much I LOVE my 5200 and we travel a lot. I couldn't be more disappointed. When I first opened it, I was surprised at how large it was -- the base is not much smaller or lighter than the 5200. It's just as easy to travel to with my 5200. The s30 is difficult to clean, and must be taken apart to fully clean (one of the things I love about the 5200 is you can rinse and set it dry -- nothing to take apart). The contents 'leak' into the threads so you HAVE to clean it or it will dry that way and be impossible to remove. I make daily smoothies w/juice, yogurt, greens and 1 c. berries. No matter how long I blend, this machine never pulverizes all the frozen fruit. It always requires the tamper and as soon as I remove small cap in the middle of the lid to insert the tamper, the contents spit out all over my cabinets and me -- and the container is only about 2/3 full. I won't even talk about the single serve containers - worthless and I've not been successful at making a smoothie in it without taking it off several times and shaking it around manually. I wanted to love it, but I regret that I didn't return it. I'm seriously considering boxing it up and selling it on Craigslist to get any money I can out of it. I can only think that the people who are super happy with it have never had a REAL Vitamix. If you are looking for your first Vitamix and think this will be a less expensive alternative, DON'T! For the same money you can buy a refurbished 5200 (or other full size model). I guarantee you will be a lot happier. I'll be surprised if this model is around in 5 years.