Compact Blending & Chopping System – Powerful Portable Blender for Smoothies & Shakes – Includes Chopper Attachment & Travel Cups – Ideal for Quick Meals and Prep

This is an outstanding product. I've been using this product for at least seven or eight years essentially every day. I'm now on my third set (I'll explain why later - even the first one still works). For the price, flexibility, and quality, it's about as good as a consumer product gets. Some of the things I like: * It's small, so I can leave it on the counter. It's powerful for its size. Yes, it's a small blender, and if you want a large blender or a food processor this probably ain't gonna do the trick. But for me it's perfect. * It comes with a terrific assortment of cups, two blending blade/bases (which screw onto all the cups and the "large" blender jar), and several lids. I like the flexibility this provides. There's always a clean base and cup around when I want to blend. * It's reliable. I've bought three sets because some of the accessories get lost or wear out over time, and the set is so inexpensive it's just a better value to buy an entire set than to replace a single missing part (which would cost, with shipping, between a fifth and a half of the cost of the entire kit). The motor/base units from the first of these I bought still works great after many years. * The quality is good. The parts fit well. The gaskets seal (my experience is much different than some of the negative reviews on this point) and while they don't last forever, they have lasted years for me in daily use. The plastic seems to be a good, high quality grade. The only parts that have failed for me are the grinding bases - but that's my own fault. I just read the instructions upon receiving my third set, and the grinding blades aren't supposed to be used for liquids. Ooops -- I've been using them to make milkshakes for years. Now I know why two of them failed. But even using them improperly, they lasted for years. There's only one thing I don't like about this set, and it's just a personal preference. It comes with four "sippy" screw-on lids for drink-sized containers. Those have holes and don't seal, so they aren't good for leaving stuff in the fridge or traveling. The kit comes with one sealing lid (you can see it on the bottom of the small cup). I would prefer four sealing lids and one sippy lid. But problem solved - I just ordered four sealing lids from Cuisinart (not available on Amazon at this writing). Yes, with shipping the cost was almost $40 - near the price of the entire kit. But the kit is such a bargain, it's well worthwhile to be able to blend things and leave them in the fridge (especially now that I have more than ten blender cups!) And, best I can tell, the products I received with my latest (third) order are identical to the reliable ones I bought years ago.

Update: I've had it five months now and still love it - I use the larger blender jar for making pancakes and waffles and I use the single cups for my daily smoothies. I notice some black plastic flaking from the OUTER rim of the blade unit (where it screws onto the cups, not inside where it would get into my drink). Daily washing of the blade unit removed the flakes and it wore off after a few weeks. The gears don't show any wear at all but I make sure not to force it in, if they don't mesh properly at first when inserting the cups or blender jar in the motor unit, I remove the cup and turn them just a bit, then put the cup back in. Still love the power of the unit, my smoothies come out very smooth, no bits to get stuck in the straw. I love this blender! I make a smoothie every morning and the cups are the perfect size for it. And for blending other things, the larger blender jar is just right - I'm single so I'm usually making smaller portions. Regular blenders were too big and too much hassle for cleaning, took up too much counter space. This one is just right and it's very powerful too, very sharp blades and it blends up my smoothie in about half the time that my old smoothie blender did and does a better job, no bits of fruit like before, all blended smoothly. It's a bit disconcerting at first that the cups/jar don't actually lock into the blender (they just sit in without any turning) but that hasn't caused any problems. Possibly the problems other people had with the gears getting ground down is that the gears didn't mesh properly when they set the cup or blender jar in the bottom unit. I've been taking care not to force it in. The top of the blender jar fits a bit tight but the tip in the manual to run cold water over it works great, then it slides in and out easily. I haven't had any issues with the gasket being torn up - I suspect that those problems came from overfilling the cups, I did that one time and it suction locked and the gasket came loose when I got it open so I'm careful to never overfill the cups. I also remove the gasket if I'm putting the blade part in the dishwasher (I also make sure the blades aren't touching the dishwasher rack so it doesn't dull them). All this may sound like a lot of work, but it's not, I just don't force anything when setting it in the bottom unit and I don't overfill - no problems!