Premium HealthMaster Elite Blender - 1500W High-Speed Countertop Blender with 6 Stainless Steel Blades, BPA-Free Jar - Perfect for Smoothies, Juices, Soups & Baby Food - Black

After reading so many bad reviews on this product, I was opting for the more expensive vitamix, but I just made my first smoothy and it worked flawlessly. It's pretty easy to use. I put some juice in first to give it a little bit of liquid to work with. Then loaded it up with spinach/kale and other greens 3/4 the pitcher. Then I put a banana, frozen blue berry, frozen mixed berries, frozen strawberries, small peeled and washed carrots and added some protein powder and I set to 5 min at setting 8. It all blended down to about half. Looked like a thick purple jamba juice. I added 4-5 ice cubes and set it to the ice setting and 2 minutes and it pulsed on and off by itself, it seemed to struggle and I thought it sounded like the gears were stripping, but after it was done, the ice was gone, it was all blended in smoothly and I checked the bottom of the pitcher and it wasn't messed up, nor was the gear at the base. No smoke, no burn smell yet. Worked great for a cheaper blender. I'm going to make smoothies all week, so will post back with updates.Update1: Since i bought it yesterday, i'm up to my 3rd batch of smoothies lol. Keeping the sugar down with stevia, but i feel a lot better today. One thing thats not good about this is the cookbook, the binder is not mounted to the backing well and the whole cookbook pages just fell out this morning. Well it's minor, so not deducting any points for it, but they need to do a better job on that. So far though, enjoying the blender a lot.Update2: It's been a month and i make smoothies at least every other day. Still i'm not having the problems others have encountered. Maybe it's because i always put about 1-2 inches of liquid at the bottom before i put in my vegies and frozen fruit. I use ice mode first to crush any hard frozen fruit and if i put ice, but still no problems, then i just use blend mode until it's all smooth, a few minutes. Definitely know i'm getting all this fiber which is good for me, but just drink more water as well if you know what i mean. It's a lot of fiber folks lol. I have not used any hot liquids in there by the way, as i know they claim to make soup in there. If you're using this to lose weight, it does replace a meal or two, but i feel i get hungry pretty quickly after. If you have another shake it's not bad, i lost a few pounds very quickly, but i feel by the end of the week, i crave something with oil like a pizza or hamburger lol If you can eat healthier foods with the shake and make sure you get protein through protein powders or tofu or beans or whatever, you will feel fuller and it will make you lose weight. It's just hard to stick to it daily, but so far so good.It's been 11mo since I purchased this blender and overall I have been very satisfied. I use it an average of once per day for smoothies. I blend frozen fruit normally with vegetables, and rarely use ice or whole frozen strawberries.Whole frozen strawberries are very hard, and present a challenge to even this very powerful blender. Usually there will be a few marble sized frozen chunks left after blending them even for 2mins on 4 (1/2 power). Could I blend it more...sure...but it starts to heat the mixture if you blend too long. I mean, there is even a way to cook soup in this thing. So, not wanting a warm fruit smoothie, I just deal with a few frozen strawberry marbles. However, when I use sliced or fresh strawberries it's not an issue. Veggies I have run thru it are always fresh such as broccoli, butternut squash, spinach, kale, etc. It produces a true 100% pulverized smoothie, not a chunkfest of yard clippings that is hard to swallow (frozen strawberries notwithstanding).There is IMO a design flaw of the lack of ability to disassemble the blades from the pitcher, like most blenders on the market. Because you can't remove the blades, it is a little harder to clean. Normal cleaning is blending water and soap in the pitcher...and sure that works ok. But because I use a lot of frozen blueberries, there is a permanent stain on the "stainless" steel blades, which I can't get 100% clean.The biggest problem is that a couple of weeks ago the blades seized up, and, I have to get a new pitcher. I have seen a couple on Ebay and for other models, but not for my JLA-8. The replacement pitchers appear in the parts and accessories page of the Health Master website, for $80...so this is not a trivial problem or expense. This model is (as I write this) is on sale for $118...I believe I paid $108 for mine here on Amazon last year...so now I'm looking at an $80 or $120 decision, unless I can find on one ebay.Would I buy this blender again? Not sure...weighing options. It handles the frozen fruit pretty well, and completely pulverizes greens and veggies. I think it's a very solid product. Perhaps a newer model has resolved the issues I have seen.I have had this blender for a month and have used it every day to make green smoothies. The thing about the HeathMaster is, it is NOT a vitamix or a blendtec... so don't treat it that way. Despite what the infomercial says, it will not crush concrete... so don't try, it will break. The motor is not as strong as the more expensive blenders, so if that is what you need, save your money and buy one of those. With all that said, I am very happy with the HeathMaster blender. I am giving it a 4 star review because based on other reviews I am afraid to see what it can really do in fear of it breaking. There for it's more work than it could be. Once you learn how this blender works you can do pretty much anything with it. Use the ice crush feature for anything hard, not just ice. Make sure there is some liquid in the blender. Cut up carrots don't put them in whole, same with apples and other hard foods. If you treat this blender like you would a cheap one in terms of cutting up food first, you will find that it can do a lot more than a regular blender. It blends green smoothies perfectly. In all I am very happy with my purchase.Unit is large enough and practical for most uses. It does not emulsify smoothies 100%.THE BLADES APPEAR TO BE TOO DULL.The price is reasonable for the value. If the unit lasts as long as some are warrantteed ( 7 Years) then the value will be good.Great machine for a dieter