****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
EDIT: 5 years later! Still going strong!This is just what I needed! It was pretty annoying having to use and then clean a full sized blender when I was only making a single portion of smoothie. This takes up significantly less space and makes making a single serving a breeze. It doesn't have any buttons, all you do is line it up, and then twist to make it blend, so you do need to be holding it while it blends. Since you're making so little though, it's not really annoying at all. I love being able to twist, blend, take it off the blender, shake it a few times and then put it back on, lets me get a nice even blend.I've read all the reviews here, and it seems like the best way to increase the lifespan of this blender is to realize its limits. It's not going to make super thick, milkshake consistency smoothies. It probably won't be able to handle huge chunks of frozen fruit. But if you give it a break and cut your fruit pretty small before freezing it, then it blends perfectly. I slice my bananas pretty thin and then freeze them, maybe just half inch slices or so- and it handles them with no issues. But I think a whole frozen strawberry would be too much for it.Another thing I read in the reviews is to never let it run too long at once. If you take my advice and make your frozen fruit thin and easy to handle, this won't be an issue. But if you use huge chunks and keep it running it will burn out this poor little blender pretty dang fast. It's a small blender with a small engine, be easy on it.Another thing I read is that it's best to, when done blending, unplug the machine before taking the cup off the blending engine. So you put it on the blender, twist, let it blend, unplug, take it off the blender. This means the engine isn't fighting you to keep the blades spinning, giving it a little more lifespan.It's a blender, so it makes blender noises, but I don't consider it loud. Since it blends pretty fast (if you take my advice above) it shouldn't bother anyone in the morning. And if you have multiple people who like smoothies, you can buy multiple cups (in multiple colors!) so everyone can have their own. That's amazing. They don't have to clean out a huge clunky blender container just so they can have whatever smoothie THEY want.Personally, I don't drink from the cup lid supplied, I just take it off and sip, or use a straw. It's mostly there to keep everything in. And the picture is a little weird, the lid goes where the blades are, so the bottle itself only has one opening. Don't know why they have the lid on top like that.Overall, it's a great little blender. Would recommend if you have kids and you want them to eat healthier. It's pretty safe, since you can't reach your hand into the blades while it's blending. Teach them the limits of the machine and it'll work great for them.My go to smoothie is frozen banana, almond milk, peanut butter and cocoa powder. Makes a nice, slightly sweet but not too sweet smoothie that rounds out at about 300 calories at most. Gives you things like potassium, iron, and protein, so it's a nice beginner smoothie for people who aren't a huge fan of fruit, like myself.If this blender dies on me, I'll get back to you with how long it lasted with the measures I have taken. Hope this review was useful to someone!
