A lot of hype April 3, 2004
Reviewer: A Customer from Maricopa, AZ

The container started leaking after about a year of use. Also, the lid will leak when blending watery foods like watermelon. Also, one has to constantly stop the machine and push the food down[when blending thick mixtures] because it does not have a plunger. And it has this dumb switch on the back of it to turn it off and on that gets all stuck with watermelon juice or whatever liquid that you are blending. The ONLY thing that this blender can do that most cannot is that it can blend dry beans and grains into fine flour. They claim that you can blend fruits and leave the seeds in but in the case of most fruits like watermelon and don't even mention grapes the seeds are ground like fine sand and create a very unpleasant texture. If you think that just because this thing has 3 horsepower it will grind anything that you throw in it effortlessly you are dead wrong. Even at Jamba Juice they are constantly beating the containers when blending frozen smoothies. And when the thing is on high, you HAVE to hold the lid down or the ingredients can go flying over. FORGET nut and seed pates unless you like them watery. Also the programed cycles are constanly turning the thing off before its done blending. Does not have cord storage underneath unlike the Vita-Mix which outshines this blender easily in my opinion. Although I have never used a Vita-Mix I know it has a locking lid to keep the food from flying everywhere[what's the use of having cycles turn off the hp3 when you have to stand there and hold the lid down the whole time?].