We bought this as a replacement for our second inverted cup type blender from a week known brand. We were tired of the fiddly bits that kept breaking, the noise (the second one we had was dangerously loud in my opinion), and the fact we never felt you could trust it not to unscrew itself and dump its contents everywhere.This blender blends just as well, copes with frozen ingredients, and can be safely left to do its thing unattended. The controls are simple and intuitive, and seem robust.It isn't what I'd call quiet, but it's certainly much, much quieter than the jet engine it's replacing.