Every morning, I put greek yogurt, a cup of frozen berries, half a frozen banana, a cup of frozen kale, a spoon of chia seeds, couple spoons of ground flaxseed, a handful of raw almonds, and a couple cups of almond milk in my blender. It doesn't even stutter - just chops it all up into a smoothie I can drink through a straw. Has never given me any trouble or failed to blend perfectly smoothly. Love this thing... especially for the price.

Edited to add: I've seen a lot of people complaining that it doesn't blend all the ingredients, gets stuck, requires stirring, etc. I've found that when this happens to me, it's usually because I didn't add enough liquid to compensate for the solid ingredients. I just pop the top and pour in a little more - water, milk, whatever - and it solves the problem right away. This isn't the blender's fault; it's operator error.

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This blender was purchased to replace a Cuisinart that I bought at Costco that had all the bells and whistles and cost more than double. When it broke down after a few years worth of work (and that was my second), I decided that I would just get a good blender with nothing fancy. I got this and I love it. I use it to make pudding, puree split pea soup, and some drinks and it's really a good blender. It surprised me how much better it does the job than my Cuisinart! I love the pouring spout on top as sometimes it was messy pouring from the corner of my old one. I've owned this for a while now. I don't like reviews from folks that do it right out of the box. I like to use the product for a while to test it out. This one definitely passed.

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This is the second time we have bought the blender. We thought the first one was a fluke. I did research and the description states that it crushes ice and frozen fruit.

It does crush ice and frozen fruit. However, after about a month the motor burned out. We tried a second as the manufacturer said that was a malfunctioning blender and the same thing happened. No amount of extra liquid helps. It doesn’t even crush it well. Unless, if you count it leaving big chunks of uneven pieces.

If you’re really looking for something where you need frozen fruit or ice crushed I would spend the extra money to get something that actually works. I will be speaking to the manufacturer on this one as well because it is doing the same thing as the last.

I would not mind at all if they did not say it was specifically for crushing ice and fruit etc. ( in the description of the item )

So beware, I would hate for you to have to go through what I have went through with burning out motors after just a few uses.

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The collar of this blender (the piece that holds the blade and screws the pitcher to the base) broke within two months. I probably used the blender 10 times. I called the customer service department which took a while to get a hold of, and they were not very helpful. The representative asked me what did I put in the blender. I told her ice, almond milk, flax seed oil, and 6 frozen strawberries. She asked did I thaw out the strawberries first, and I said no. She then informed me that I should let the strawberries thaw first. Hmmmm. It did a fairly good job of blending my morning smoothie before the collar broke, now I do not have a working blender.

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I have only owned 4 Hamilton Beach Blenders in 25 years. The last HB Blender, a housewarming gift lasted four months. This one I purchased last June but used less than half a dozen times. It has been a disappointment for all my smoothies, and I do not dare use it for any other processing. The part labeled collar is open and performs as a trap for food particles to lodge at the bottom of the glass jar below the cutting blades.

Nut, Fruits, Vegetables, Seeds, and Ice are trapped never participating in the remaining blending process. After cleaning, those particles are usually still trapped until they are sorted and individually picked out.

I do not recommend.

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I was really disappointed in this purchase. It barely blends fruits especially if they are frozen. You''ll have to pause the blending midway and stir. I noticed that the blender cup was hard to pull out of the base and today the piece got stuck and came apart leaving me with a smoothie all over my counter. JUST A WARNING.

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I bought this blender two years ago, mainly to make smoothies and occasional milkshakes. It was used, on average, once a day for less than five minutes. It was excellent for what I wanted and had a design which greatly helped the blending process without need for constant stopping to get unmixed material down to the blades. After about a year it started leaking and I discovered that the plastic 'nut' that attaches the blades to the glass jar had cracked. I tried to repair it with different adhesives but nothing worked. Thinking I had just been unlucky with the first one I purchased a second of the same model. It worked just as well as the first one until the same problem occurred. Now I was a little upset and so I submitted warranty claims for both to HB. They accepted the claims and agreed to send replacement parts but with a charge of $6 for S/H for each. I replied asking them if they would guarantee the replacement parts without charging for anything if they failed (since I suspected a manufacturing problem in general with that part) and have heard nothing back, which I take as a 'no'. Too bad--I'm now using an Oster which is supposed to be pretty bulletproof. It's OK, but I liked the HB better, except for the leaking part.

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Don't you love the lovely sound of construction workers drilling holes in the ground at 6 am in the morning? NO? Well me neither. And this blender sounds a lot like that. Everybody in my Building knows when I make a smoothie because this blender sounds like something out of a horror movie!
And on top of that it takes forever to blend or doesn't blend at all unless i stir it with a fork or spoon. AWFUL!!!!!!!!!
I didn't like that all the ninja blenders where plastic so I decided to get something different this time .. something made out of good old fashion glass. And that is the only part I liked about this blender. So I guess its just me because everyone loves this blender.

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I've used this blender more or less on a daily basis with frozen fruits and vegetables for about two months. I knew that I would be getting a lot of use out of it, and have had experience with both low end blenders (always disappointing) and high end blenders (from working at a smoothie making business), and was a little bit hesitant to purchase one at this price point, rather than investing in a higher end, more powerful one.

However, I was happily surprised by both the quality and easy of use of this blender. It has a very solid glass jar (I've had bad experiences with cracks in the jars of cheaper plastic blenders). It also comes apart for easy cleaning and can go in the dishwasher. It's so easy to clean and used so frequently in my household that I rarely need to put it in the dishwasher unless I'm in a rush. The motor may not be as powerful as some more high end blenders, but as long as you make sure to start with a liquid base, it has no trouble blending frozen foods.

The only caveat that I have is that, about a month into use, my unit started leaking. At first, I thought it was because I was putting it back together incorrectly, but then I noticed a small crack in the plastic/rubber ring in the cutter assembly. After wondering how difficult it would be to get the part replaced, I continued using it for a few weeks, but finally made the call to the Hamilton Beach office in Canada today.

The real reason that I had to post this review was the pleasant and quick service that I got while making that call. All I had to do was give them the product model/series and describe the part that was affected. There was no fuss about proof or purchase or anything else. The new part is free because of the 3 year warranty and they charged me $5 for shipping (which I knew I would be paying anyway because of the clear warranty policy). It should arrive within 7-10 days. When you purchase a product that is not so high end, you sometimes worry about the service that you'll receive if any problems come up. I will not hesitate to purchase similar products from Hamilton Beach in the future if they have such an easy to access warranty service.

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After less than 3 months the blades completely fell off randomly and my protein shake went all over the stove.

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I got this yesterday and have used it a few times. Out of the box, the base had some scuff marks and the blender seemed more like it was refurbished rather than new. Hopefully I don't have any problems but definitely a little disappointed in the condition it arrived in.

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Need more time as hasn't really been used. It is noisy just as all others are. Found placing a dish towel under it helped with the noise. Like the glass container over plastic. Package came in tact. Lid a little hard to get on and off. Other than that so far happy with it. Have only used it to make smotthies with fruit in it. no ice yet or bigger items than berries.

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I bought this blender after reading many reviews. It is a great blender however i find that i need to blend things for longer especially smoothies if i put a lot of frozen fruits in it. There are sometimes still clumps but overall pretty happy with the purchase. It is easy to clean. I have used it for over a year and it still works great!