Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was really excited about maybe having found a less expensive alternative to the Vitamix for making really healthy smoothies with lots of fruit and vegies. Unfortunately, I think that product has yet to be made. This particular product, although good looking and nicely packaged, does not perform as advertised and has a severe engineering defect to boot. My major complaints: 1. From day 1, using recipes that came with the machine, results were poor. They want you to toss in a few tablespoons of "power boost" to each smoothie, things like raw almonds, flax seeds, etc. What you end up with are small almond pebbles in your smoothie. It really doesn't even do a very good job with apples, and forget about grinding up the seeds in blackberries, etc. The whole point was that I was supposed to get a creamy blend, not that I should have to filter things before I drink them. 2. Several people had warned about these machines leaking. The first 4 times I used it, there were no leaks, so I though "Aha, they were just using it wrong." I was very careful to put screw the base on tightly and not overfill the container, so I thought I had avoided that particular problem. Not so. Today, it started leaking. Not only that, but the motor is not sealed in any way, so the leaks just went right down into the motor (which subsequently let out a high-pitched whine) and then on to the counter. I'm actually afraid to use the machine again. 3. After watching the informational videos on the Nutribullet website, I got the mistaken notion that the recipes in the included recipe book would result in really delicious smoothies. Nope. When you use the amount of "fresh spring water" required to grind the food properly, everything comes out in a sort of watered-down, foamy mess. I've been making smoothies all week tweaking their recipes, and finally got one today that was marginal. I'm wondering how much they paid all of those people in the video to nod their heads and smack their lips? Bottom line, I bought this locally at BBB for the price break and so that it would be easy to return if I needed to. Hooray! It is back in its box and being returned to the store today. Take home lesson: you get what you pay for. FYI, Vitamix sells reconditioned machines with full warranty and cookbook included on their website for about 1/2 price. Check it out.