My husband bought this for me for my birthday and I couldnt be happier with it!
It does everything and more that it's advertised to do. It comes with a fab recipe book and ideas and is on facebook to give advice and more ideas.
The hot plate works great for browning off onions and peppers, etc and heats up within seconds! No need for seperate pans.
The soup cooks so quickly and makes the vegetables really soft without losing any of the goodness. The blend mode works really well too and the lid fits so snuggly, none of the hot liquid can escape.
It reheats the soup really quickly when you're ready for it or if you set it to simmer mode it keeps the heat really well.
I have also used it for making cocktails and the blades are so sharp it crushes ice in seconds.
It's self cleaning by half filling the jug with warm water and a drop of washing up liquid. You just put it on blend and all the water washes out the jug.