I bought this blender to make fruit smoothies (mostly strawberry) for my athletic husband and son. I bought a "top-of-the-line" because I knew it would get heavy use. It worked perfectly for about 2 months, and then I had to take it in to the authorized repair shop in our city for a new blade assembly because it no longer blended the frozen fruit; this was done under warranty at no cost to me. The repairman said to add the liquid first, and then add the fruit through the hole in the lid while the motor was running because the blades don't grind frozen fruit--they cause it to "explode". I took the repaired blender home, where it made 2 or 3 good fruit smoothies before going back to its old trick of not blending the frozen fruit again. It will still make shakes with ice cream and the like, but forget the fruit smoothies. So I guess I'll be going back to the repair shop and seeing what can be done--or asking for a replacement.