Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I drink a lot of smoothies that contain frozen fruit and various vegetables. I was using a standard blender that could be purchased anywhere for normal household use. It was not powerful enough to handle all of the frozen fruit and items that I threw in it and the motor burnt out very quickly. I purchased the Ninja Blender to replace it, and here is my feedback after using it daily for two weeks: Perks: It is very powerful. I can fill it full of frozen fruit, various vegetables and greens, and it blends them very quickly and effortlessly. For that, I love it! It has a large pitcher that is easy to pour from. It is easy to clean-no need to disassemble it, the design is brilliant in that the parts are solid and well constructed, and easy to remove from the base to wash. Downfalls: It DOES NOT blend to a smooth consistency! If the most important feature of a blender for you is that it blend the contents smoothly, this IS NOT the blender for you. It does break everything down quickly and efficiently-power is not a problem. But no matter how long you blend the contents, they will still be grainy or "minced" at best. In other words, I must still "chew" my smoothie a bit. I believe it is the shape of the blades that are the downfall of this blender. I also felt the blades were dangerous. I would not let my children operate this unattended. Because I blend daily and demand a lot from the blender, yet cannot afford the $300-400 units that would blend the way I need them to, I am opting to keep the Ninja. I am surrendering to the fact (for financial reasons) that it will not blend smoothly. I make my smoothies using a two-step process: cycle it through the Ninja first breaking everything up as much as possible, then pouring the amount I want to drink into my Magic Bullet and blending it again to a smooth consistency (I already owned the Magic Bullet, but rarely used it before because it simply wasn't big enough to suit my needs). This works for me because I make a huge Ninja pitcher full in the morning and put it in the fridge, then pour out and blend small amounts to drink in the Magic bullet throughout the day, "fast food" if you will. It would be a benefit to the manufacturer of the Ninja Blender to construct an additional blade that will fit on the base of the current unit that blends to a smooth consistency. ***UPDATE*** I decided to contact the manufacturer to find out if there was a better blade available for the Ninja Blender. I was unhappy that their customer support was a non-English speaking representative. I could barely understand what he was saying, he could not understand me...I THINK that I discovered there is not another blade available that will puree my food/smoothies to a smooth consistency. Ultimately, I returned the Ninja Blender. I grew tired of my two-step process described above, and felt it was not worth the money spent versus a less expensive blender that was perhaps not as powerful but would puree to a smooth consistency. Because of my unpleasant experience with the customer service, and the fact that the blender does not puree, I reduced the rating to 1-star, and would NOT recommend this product for the money spent. I would not recommend this product. ***SECOND UPDATE*** Wow, I just saw all of the comments on this review. To answer a lot of questions, the extremely cheap, yet "1,000 times better than the Ninja blender" I used was an Oster. I paid $20 for it 3 years ago after posting my original review, have made delicious and perfectly blended smoothies pretty much daily since (as well as nut butters and whatever else you would typically use a blender for), and it is still going strong! The Model Number on the base is MP-B00. Here is a picture of it: [...] It has a glass pitcher. It is older, so I'm not sure you can still purchase the exact same one. But here is what is KEY: metal-on-metal components for the moving parts that connect the base to the blades. Here is an image of what I'm talking about (I am embarrassed by the messy blender but am in a hurry and want to get this pic up. As I said I use it a LOT. And yes, that is green smoothie in there!) [...] So, look for that when you choose a blender that is not a blendtec or vitamix. Happy blending everyone!