Gorgeous, affordable, mediocre performance
This blender certainly looks beautiful on a counter. If you're looking for something functional that is going to look nice and don't mind too much if it can't *really* crush ice, then this would be a great buy. It is also pretty reasonable cost-wise. That being said, it is really a mediocre blender as far as performance is concerned. There are several settings, but there isn't much to distinguish between them. One doesn't really work better than the other and they all blend *fairly* well. The blender tends to have some issues crushing ice. It will blend the majority of it, but there is almost always one big hunk at the bottom, so if that's something you will be doing a lot of, this is probably not a good choice for you. It is pretty easy to clean, though the bottom is sometimes hard to unscrew (the seal for liquids & such is not great, so, while it doesn't leak *out *of the blender, it will sometimes sort-of 'glue' the bottom to it, if it is something sticky). Overall, it has functioned perfectly fine for my family's purposes. We do not use a blender often and, when we do, it is generally enough that it tends to blend most stuff pretty well. We don't always mind picking out the ice chunks from the bottom. This blender has also lasted (so far) for over 6 years with little change in performance. But, if you use a blender a lot, do want something that can crush ice pretty well, I would recommend looking elsewhere.
Nemoturtle
Sandy, OR