At first, this blender worked very well. With 500 watts of power I expected nothing less. However, three years later, it really can't handle large volumes anymore. I'm not filling the jar portion until it's overflowing with hard-to-blend substances; in fact, even when I recently filled it halfway with baked sweet potatoes, it didn't seem to have the power to get everything. It pulverized the bottom portion but the top remained untouched. This tells me that the blade itself is fine, but there's something wrong with the design because it should be able to handle all the contents of the jar.

In fact, when I first tried to blend these sweet potatoes, it even stopped completely and I had to unplug it and wait a few minutes before it worked again.

This blender still does very well with blending liquids, which is the main reason I haven't given up on it. However, I would also not recommend it for pureeing small amounts of solids. I tried to use it to puree one apple into baby food, but most of it ended up stuck in the blades.

One positive is that it's easy to clean. The parts are easy to disassemble and they are all dishwasher safe. Another plus is the different types of blending available, such as crushing ice or pulsing (for dry ingredients). These functions do still work well on my blender.

I also like the sleek look of this blender, with a stainless steel and black theme. The touch-pad is easy to clean off when the inevitable food particles splatter.

If asked two years ago, I would be happy with this blender. But now that it has had time to lose some of its effectiveness, I would not buy this blender again.