A solid blender, but a more durable pitcher would make it a superb appliance
I purchased this back in late 2016. So at current date it's about 20 months old (give or take). The machine has worked beautifully for about the first year. I use it, on average 2 or 3 times a week to blend smoothies. So mostly cutting up fruits and ice together along with other semi-liquids - peanut butter, etc. So not a significant chore and I'll say the blender cruises through the material today as good as it did during day one. A couple things I'll point out at this point that keep me from being above 3 stars. The pitcher is not scratch resistant. This is relevant to cleaning. If you use an abrasive cleaning utensil (rough side of a sponge, etc.) it will leave the glass looking foggy. Not a huge deal, but certainly makes an otherwise new pitcher look aged quickly. I used the dishwasher for the pitcher, blades, and top 90% of the time. This may be counter to what the manufacturer recommends, but for real life, I just don't think it reasonable not to use a dishwasher on a pitcher for an appliance. The bigger problem with the machine has been the durability of the pitcher and associated lid / latching mechanism. Over the past number of months I noticed the black outer part of the handle on the pitcher was coming apart from the clear acrylic portion of the underside of the handle. I figured it wasn't a big deal, just kind of annoying. Perhaps it's due to the multiple dishwasher cycles (hot water / heated dry) - I'm not sure. This became a real problem recently when the part separated enough that the lit would not fit down properly to engaged the safety switch that runs up the handle due to the handle separating. Instead the two plastic pieces (the lid latch and the separated handle) came into contact, preventing the lid latch from making contact with the lock mechanism that runs up through the handle. I was surprised/disappointed to find that this year warranty is expired (and I've seen numerous reports that the pitcher isn't covered anyway, completely) and the cost of a new pitcher is within about $10 of what I paid almost 2 years ago for the entire unit. I think I'll be more discriminating in the next blender I buy, and not sure I'd trust in Ninja for the next purchase. When dropping the kind of money they expect for these, I'd hope for at least 3-5 years of usability. In full disclosure I didn't call the company to complain or ask for a new lid. I may later, but for now I made a temporary fix myself that will get me through for a little while longer I hope. This entailed very intensive craftsmanship made up of zip ties to bind the handle back together and a dremel tool to zip off the hanging lip of the lid latch to prevent it from hitting the handle. (Even with the handle zip tied together, I couldn't get enough pressure to prevent contact). I've attached pictures to indicate what the issue was and my rudimentary (but effective, for now) patch job.
amazon reviews