I recomend skipping the smoothie maker and buying a quality blender. My dh loves making smoothies, and he has gone through 3 smoothie makers. Besides the fact that they are built in a way that gunk is hard to clean out easily, the spiggots broke on all three of them. The company sent us a part once, but it was the wrong one. We waited for a sale on a good blender, and finally got a good deal. We have a Kitchenaid. It is normally $80-100, and we got it for $55. It works wonderfully, makes great smoothies, and is a snap to clean up (comes apart and put in dishwasher). I love that the top part is made out of glass and not plastic, too.