BE WARNED: Now on my third set of blades!!!
This blender works very well. I make smoothies at least 3 times a week and if you put the wet ingredients in first, then the frozen, the smoothies come out blended very nicely. Yes, it's powerful, BUT, it is absolutely true that the teeth on the blade break off. I've had this blender for about 18 months and I am now on my third replacement blade. At about $15 a pop, this blender is becoming exceedingly expensive. The only reason I'm not throwing it out is because I don't want another piece of electronic filling up our landfills. Be warned that you WILL need to replace the blade mechanism with continued use.

Plastic Gears broken after 4 months!
I don't know who to be more disappointed in. Consumer Reports for placing this on their short list of best blenders or Braun for making plastic gears which have broken on a very nice product after only 4 months. As other have stated, I will not be purchasing Braun appliances in the future and will cancel my membership to this leading consumer research org.

Great for frozen fruit smoothies - but you have to learn the tricks!
As one other reviewer said, at first I had challenges with this blender when making frozen fruit smoothies. It seemed I was always using a spoon to push more of the fruit down towards the blades.

Then I learned a similar trick to the other poster - put in your juice along with any softer fruits at the bottom of the blender, then have the frozen stuff at the top.

For example, I love to make my strawberry (frozen), banana (fresh), blueberry (frozen) smoothies.

I used to put in the apple juice and strawberries first, then toss in bananas and blueberries in no particular order. This approach was not effective.

Now, I put in the apple juice and bananas first, then blueberries, then strawberries on top.

It blends like a charm, and unlike the other poster, I don't have to keep adding fruit over and over. I put it all in once, occasionally give the blender a shake if it seems to get a little stuck, and then go.

When you first get this blender, have a little patience for finding the right combination of juice and fruit. Once you hit that magic combination, it works perfectly every time and I am VERY pleased with the blender as compared to others I have tried.

Braun PowerMax Blender
Excellent value for money - the blender chops, grinds, blends, and crushes ice perfectly. The jar is huge and convenient to handle. The next best model would be Oster Fusion technology which is priced $40 more - this Braun blender is ranked equally high in consumer reports - hence the best value for money.

Quiet power
Bought this model based on Consumer Reports rating. In our smoothie-loving family, blenders don't last too long. This one appears to be solid, powerful and much quieter eating ice cubes than its predecessors.