For years I have been putting up with a poorly designed Kitchen Aid blender that always made a mess. I paid a lot of money for it too. After cleaning another mess the other day I decided to throw it out.Thanks to all of you for your reviews. I decided to get this blender.It's everything I wanted in a blender, fast, doesn't overflow, and, while it looks as tho it doesn't hold as much as my old blender, it DOES.Instead of having chunks of berries left in the bottom, it blends them in with smoothies. It's fast too.So, it's noisy. So what. It only takes seconds and I don't think you could have such a large motor and quiet. I'd rather have the horsepower.I don't think you can go wrong buying this blender.Almost 3 years later:The Blender is still performing, even grinds small amounts of grain like flax seed, oatmeal. Best blender I've ever had.