Rating : - Total Blender - worth every penny and NOT overly noisy
I bought this blender several weeks ago for the purpose of making green smoothies and it is fabulous! Put in your ingredients, push the whole juice button, and the blender does all the work for you. I make green smoothies every morning using a variety of ingredients and it has worked perfectly every time. I am not sure I understand all the complaints about the noise - I don't find it to be any louder than my Kitchen Aid mixer.

This blender comes with 6 preset program buttons and I have tried most of them - let me give you a brief rundown:

"Ice cream/Frozen Yogurt" - This program makes ice cream instantly. I mean you put the ingredients in the blender, hit the program button, and you've got ice cream; no time in the freezer required! You can make low fat ice cream, or non-dairy ice cream with soy milk or tofu. Instant gratification!

"Ice crush/Milkshake" - I have never seen a home blender do a better or more consistent job of crushing ice. It also makes fabulously thick soy milk milkshakes.

"Soups/Syrups/Fondues" - You can make soup in this blender - I mean make and heat soup! I love this program for a super quick dinner. Put in your ingredients, hit the soup button one to three times and you've got hot soup to which you can add cooked vegetables or meats. This program also makes fantastic blueberry and strawberry syrup!

"Sauces/Dips/Dressings/Batters" - Make your own salad dressings, without all the artificial chemicals in the bottled brands. This program also does waffle batter, pancake batter and any other batter you can think of.

"Whole Juice" - Make green smoothies or your own whole juices like carrot juice, apple juice, pineapple juice, etc. My complaint about juicers has always been the waste of pulp - all that fiber gone! With the Blendtec, such complaints are gone! I make orange apple juice with 2 oranges, 1 apple and some water - juice with no wasted pulp and no pulp to clean out of a machine.

"Smoothies" - Makes the best fruit smoothies I've ever had out of a home blender. Makes great frozen cocktails too!

This blender also makes bread dough, pie crust, whipped cream, jams, salsa, nut butters and milk substitutes (almond milk, soy milk, etc.). The preset programs are so great because the machine slows and speeds itself up, assuring that all ingredients get blended without me having to stop and scrape anything. I can press a program button and walk away. Talk about convenient!

There is a Pulse button so you can control the blender yourself if you don't want to use one of the 6 program buttons. It also comes with a 244 page recipe and instruction book - it is the nicest recipe book I have ever received with any home appliance. I truly haven't noticed that this blender is overly loud, but I do have a kitchen towel under it (makes it easier to slide on the counter), so maybe that has helped muffle the noise. Clean up is breeze - a little hot water, a drop of dish soap, pulse for 5 to 10 seconds and rinse. That's it!

This blender is worth every penny and one of the best investments I have ever made.