everything i read about this was true. it simply pushes food to container walls, forcing too much scraping pros - it costs 1/5 of a vitamix it does blend basic smoothies decently, albeit never smooth but with enough liquid, my spinach or kale smoothie was decent. has plenty of power for most tasks Cons it is CHEAPLY made - ive seen $60 oster blenders better built - in fact there is a $60 oster blender that is highly reccomended by many sites for a basic blender. The lid is hard plastic the lid seal is very thin silcone/rubber - i can easily see this deteriorating within months of even hand washing (despite claims to dishwaster safeness - many reviews state this melts or deforms in dishwasher) the lid is simply too complicated the lid does not let you add anything to blender without removing entire lid the lid while it does form a seal after you connect the lid to handle/pitcher, this makes it splatter smoothie all over the place when you remove the lid unless you very carefully remove lid - never had this issue with the kitchenaid blender (that blender had other issues). the motor and base are lightweight meaning cheaply made and compared against the kitchen $100 blender was too light. the ninja does offer a detachable plastic base to better secure this unit however, that base is not made for multiple disconnecting from main unit - connection pieces are again cheap plastic LOUD. but this is not really too bad of a con because all powerful blenders are LOUD. i wear ear plugs. the gear/connection piece on motor/base and pitchers are PLASTIC and very small grooves which means this could be prone to failure/grinding/slipping. the blades are attached to the plastic middle tower however, i'm not very confident in those blades remaining a part of that tower more than a couple years of heavy regular use but maybe its fine. i do not like having the rmeovable tower - it makes cleanup a real chore and its dangerous having those blades easily coming out of the pitcher. finally, the biggest problem remains the very design of the ninja: having the tower of blades in the middle robs the blender of the vortex action that occurs in EVERY major consumer and commercial blender on the market. I appreciate innovation but I also value not reinventing a perfectly good to excellent wheel. Smoothies are rarely smoothies but more chunky no matter how long you run it. Despite $20 worth of almonds and peanuts (two seperate trials) i could not get the ninja to make nut butter. this is probably user error as ive seen many videso accomplishing this task. but i want simple and this ninja is not simple. the verdict? avoid and buy a $60 oster. if you really want a real smoothie then id strongly recommend investing in a factory certified reconditioned vitamix as im about to do! $400 gets you a machine that will last a lifetime. search ebay - there are tons of vitamix's from the 60's still running strong! There is a reason nearly every reviewer, green smoothie expert loves their vitamixes. If you don't plan on making daily green smoothies like i do then maybe the ninja will do you fine...

It’s fun and the grandkids love it!!