This past spring, my husband and I got on a much needed health kick. We decided to incorporate daily smoothies into our new kick and the 20 year old blender we have wasn't cutting it. After a lot of research, we went with the NutriBullet Pro. Since May of 2018 I have been making 32 ounce smoothies every morning for the two of us. I've never used ice but I do blend frozen fruit just about every day including hard as rock strawberries. I add water or coconut milk as the liquid, always up to the fill line, you can add more after your initial blend if you need to. Some Pros and Cons: Pros: -Very easy to use -Convenient - makes me want to make smoothies every morning which is great -Small, takes up very little space/storage space -Powerful, will blend just about everything Cons: -Super difficult to clean! You'd think it's just soap and water and that's it! No. These plastic cups stain and hold smells just like any plastic food container. The four ridges that run down the cups to aid in blending, forget it. I use a green scrubby, a bottle brush and a regular sponge to get these areas clean and that's after a nice super hot water and soap soak. Still doesn't get them clean all the way. Seeds, little bits of fruit and veggies get caught up in there. I use a toothpick to really scrape them down if I need too. Toothpicks have quickly become my friends. A yellow tint has formed on both cups - they are stained and you can smell the 'leftovers'. I've tried all the tricks, the dishwasher just bakes it on so it's not worth putting these in the dishwasher. -The Blades: Cleaning the blades is fun. I clean this part right after I blend. If you use chia seeds, they will stick to the plastic. The blade also has a gasket, this gasket will pop out when you try to remove the cups from the blender if there is too much resistance. You'll have to either smush the smoothie covered gasket back into place or clean the entire thing before blending again. I recommend cleaning rather than smushing. Basically - if you blend anything that's too frozen or thick, the gasket tends to come dislodged and you will have to fight the blade cap to get it off the cup. Toothpicks help scrape the junk off the gasket and from the little tracks around it as well. When you do finally get the blades off the cup, you'll hear a little 'phizzzzz' letting you know there was some pressure building up in there. Please google bullet explosions for details on that one. Whatever you do, don't hold it by the plastic cup's top while blending. Always hold it by the base for obvious safety reasons. -Travel Caps: These are an awesome nightmare. Great for travel, my husband tosses his cup with this cap into his backpack, he takes his motorcycle to work. Never a spill, the cap's mouth piece locks perfectly and tight. The rubber gasket in the mouth piece part is easy to clean, pop it out with a fork tine to give it a good wash. The gasket around the base of the lid is a bit tougher to clean. Like the blade gasket, these are just overall really difficult to keep clean in general. The lid gaskets are also tough to get out to clean. Again, toothpicks are great for scraping the junk here. -Timer: No timer so you have to watch the clock to make sure you're not over-blending. No biggie the only downside is the longer you blend, the more pressure you have leading to potential problems. YOU DO NOT WANT TO BLEND MORE THAN 60 SECONDS! Seriously. Be careful. -If you blend heavy stuff or really frozen stuff, the blades tend to stick. Stop the blades, add more liquid and try again. I found this to be the best solution. Sometimes you'll be like, What the Heck? I don't have anything in there that should be causing this issue!? And you really don't! It's just the nature of the beast. Try the add more liquid deal, it's not failed me yet. -Oh last thing - bad UX design of the cups 'Max' line. It's in black and it's so hard to read once you fill the cup up. Unless you have it full of lightly colored food and liquid that is. If you're like me and use a lot of leafy greens and veggies and darker fruits - good luck. I will spin that cup around looking or the 'max' line over and over again. My husband will stand there watching like it's a game until one of us screams - I see it! The prize? A smoothie! Another one in a lighter color elsewhere on the cup would be super helpful. A larger line would be helpful as well. I can see how someone could easily overfill the cups because of this. Please don't let my cons persuade you against buying it though. I do really like our NutriBullet and it's been wonderful to have fresh smoothies every morning, we've noticed the positive difference to our health over all. So far, everything has run smooth enough for me not to hate the thing, it just bugs me a little but so does the dishwasher and the fridge so... The pros far outweigh the cons and my biggest complaints are cleaning ones, not function or quality. If you take care of your NutriBullet and follow the blending guide, it should last you a few years. That's not to say there are defective ones out there! It happens. I would recommend this to friends and family and I have. Of course I do tell them what my cons are, what kind of friend or family would I be if I didn't? In general, none of these machines are perfect, they all have their issues. What it really comes down to is what is right for you. For us, this a great little machine that hasn't failed us yet.
