I love my Ninja. It makes the best smoothies. I use frozen fruit such as berries, mangos, peaches, etc. I buy the fruit fresh, wash it and freeze it, and then when I'm ready to make a smoothie, I just take out my small packages of fruit, add yogurt and fruit juice and what ever else I want and plug it in. It chops and grinds the frozen fruit in seconds and I don't need to water it down with ice since the fruit is frozen. When I used this method with a regular blender, the motor died, just did not have the power. A word of caution: the blades are VERY sharp and can cut easily without you being aware of it.