Apparantly the square edges (instead of the round edges of a blender) make the food "crash" instead of spin . so you have to rethink uses for it. The most unusual things it did for us is churn real butter (yes we had a milk cow) in just 4 or 5 pulses. Magic! It also exploded wheat berries and made whole wheat flour as good as our wheat grinder. Ours lasted over 30 years, then we gave it to our daughter and SIL who just HAD to have it!