A first, the stick by cusinart seemed ok with nothing stongly recommending it to me. It came as a Christmas gift and I was eager to try it out. Limitation for the little machine are mostly size, if there is lots of stuff to chop or blend, one is better off with the standing blender or mixer.  small quanities are good with this machine.  Easy to clean, some parts are machine washable, some are rinse and pat dry.  The company offers a wonderful three year replacement program, which I used after the first year.  One note, the wisker attachement is too weak to mix any cake mixes or such, stick...