Ninja bl942 Nutri Ninja Auto-iQ Compact Blending System (BL492), New, Clear

Chances are you are considering this or a Vitamix. Here is what I will say to you. Vitamix cannot be beat, it is an amazing piece of equipment that is an industry standard and absolutely beats all competition. However, the price tag of the Vitamix reflects that. Often, a Vitamix is overkill.To decide know this. The Ninja is better than your current blender. By a million times. It is an amazing machine that will tear through anything. If you live in an apartment with then walls, maybe you shouldn't use any of these things, but if not - blend away!This set came with everything we needed except for some shorter cups which were available on amazon as well. The metal cup is great for smoothies and icecream and the large blender is great for a lot of things as well. I do not use the mixer "blade" very often, but occasionally it has its place, if you do not have any other type of mixer, you will probably really appreciate that particular attachment.The best part of this machine is being able to prep and blend smoothies independently from one another, in the cups they blend in. It makes cleaning so easy!If you really are weighing between a Vitamix and a Ninja due to cost, get the Ninja, you will not be disappointed. If you want to run a little smoothie bar out of your kitchen every morning, the Ninja can do that, but maybe for the high yield user who is making smoothies for the whole family, Vitamix may be the way to go - but only if that extra cost doesn't matter to you.

OK it's been a few months - once a day use - this thing is a monster - When I think of Ninja I think of secretive, unseen, unheard. Whoa brother - this thing is like a 747 taking off. The suction cups on the bottom of this device are for a reason - to hold the bazillion HP motor from launching this device across your kitchen. It does EVERYTHING it claims. We have thoroughly enjoyed the device, had NO issues with leakage - we pay attention to the fill line (on both the cups and blender itself) never had an issue. It blends, it mixes, it slices, it dices, it rocks, just be prepared for the noise. That REALLY is my only negative comment, but I can't honestly call it a negative because the whole family enjoys the end product. It's great. Using it regularly with nuts and seeds and it truly does blend them into oblivious goodness. I was admittedly pessimistic about all the claims, but I am no more. I'm sold. I just wish I would have bought the full monty with the full size blender - then we could have recycled our regular blender and had an all in one kitchen tool. That's my only regret.

Disclaimer: I have only had this for 2 days. If I find out later on the line that this wonder doesn't deserve a 5 star rating, I will update.I was originally given another blender/food processor as a gift. Long story short, the Oster Versa got sent back. I did extensive research, read every review I could find and watched multiple YouTube videos for this one. I wanted to make sure that the next one I got would be the right one. After 2 days of use, I would say this system lives up to the hype. I make myself green smoothies every day. This thing cuts through frozen strawberries and other fruits very well. It has no problem finely chopping the spinach and kale. With my old blender I had to blend the green before I could put anything else in. With this, I throw it all in at once. The blender has different settings than what I am used to, so I haven't played with them all yet. I used the extract setting on try #1, it worked well. Today I used the chop setting and I would say that is what one needs to use for smoothies. It has a countdown on it, so it sets it at 75 seconds or whatever, and then does all the work for you. You can walk away while it blends and it stops automatically when its done blending.I haven't the 24 ounce cups or the stainless steel one yet, but after looking them over, I see no reason why they won't be great. The Oster Versa came with 2-go cups, but they had these funky little grooves in them, that made it impossible to clean. Even in a dishwasher those grooves never came clean. The ones that came with this Ninja do not have that, so I do not anticipate cleaning being an issue. One thing I really like about this is the blade set up. Most traditional blenders the blade is screwed in with the bottom jar cap and o ring. With this, the blade sits inside the jar (much like how a food processor works). To clean, you just take the blade out (no locking, or complicated system). You don't have to deal with taking the bottom off, and cleaning an o-ring.Yes it is loud, but I don't find it to be much louder than my previous blender. With any blender, I would try not to use it if someone was sleeping (but that is just out of common courtesy).If you are looking for a powerful blender to make drinks, salsas, hummus, cookie dough, then I would highly recommenced this product. Mine came with everything pictured and a small book of recipes.

I'm only giving this 4 stars for 2 reasons:1. It's loud enough to wake the dead, so I need to be really mindful of neighbors, living in an apt. building.2. The spout part of the prep bowl's lid doesn't seal liquid in, so stuff spills out during blending. I thought I might have gotten a defective lid, so I called Amazon and they sent me a replacement unit in 2 days, but, I'm seeing the same problem with the replacement prep bowl, so it seems to be a design flaw.The cups work great, so do the other functions on the ninja, well enough that I decided to keep it, but I am going to probably try a sealer tape on the spout of the prep bowl's lid to prevent leaking when I need to use the prep bowl. I did not get any discounts or compensation for my review, I just figured that others may be having the same issues as me, so my solution was to try to resolve this myself instead of returning it, simply because I love how it works in general.