BEYOND A 5 STAR EXPERIENCE!I love my certified refurbished vitamix so much....so much..... Don't make me choose between it and a family member cause....cousins? Aunts? Mom? Who needs them I can whiz dry bay leaves in to silky smooth soups.It's like magic!MAGIC.I will admit to lusting after a vitamix for years. I do not exaggerate, it's been years but like most people a 700 dollar blender is a ridiculous amount to pay for a kitchen tool. Heck that's a months rent for people! It's serious money.Then I learned of the certified reconditioned vitamix blenders and that price cut in half and suddenly an absolute "not paying that" price became half and the possibility of actually owning a real vitamix and realizing all of my blended dreams was a possibility.Don't get me wrong, that's still the most expensive kitchen appliance we own...but it IS worth it.I scoured ebay, hoped that the fates would allow me to find one for like a dollar at a yard sale but then I realized....I don't like going to yard sales and vitamix is such a hot thing you can't find a "cheap" one on ebay....this only fueled my desires, realizing that their value didn't really drop much for a reason. A BEAUTIFUL REASON! They are awwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome.I have logged hours, ridiculous hours of youtube video watching of vitamix recipes and demos over the years...so when the time was right for us....we got a vitamix. Call it a late Christmas, early birthday, dream come true type deal. You know how people have bucket lists? I don't but if I did using a vitamix was on it.I.LOVE.MY.VITAMIX.It has a 5 year warranty.It's gorgeous.It's clean and looks brand new.I did some reading before purchasing and saw that the Vitamix peeps re-furbish/condiiton/work their mechanical magic on the motor base but the blender pitcher, tamper and cookbook are all new.I mean.....it's prettttty much a new machine.It all arrived in an official vitamix box, sealed up, packaged professionally, if you are squeamish about a "re-conditioned" unit, don't be. It's pretty much new, they just used an old motor base from what I can tell and I presume you won't be licking the inside of a motor base...right?Okie, there's already a huge fan club online for Vitamix blenders.Let me add a few details that I wondered about before purchasing and have enjoyed since I got my hands on one.It blends dry bay leaves in soups/sauces into a silky smooth pure bliss.You ever monkey around with bay leaves? They don't break down in soups so you need to fish them out. If you use "ground" bay leaves, they are sharp and pokey little leave saw dust bits all through your sauce/soup.I now blend them whole in my soups and sauces and it's like a whole new world.Also same can be said for dried coriander, I could never get theose little seed pods to break down enough in my soups to make a nice mouth feel, always sharp saw dust bits floating around...well NO MORE.HOT SAUCES!!!!You can make your own hot sauces in seconds by tossing whole, dried, chili pods in the blender, with some garlic cloves (leave the paper skins on cause the vitamix destroys them in to silky nothingness!!!!) some vinegar, salt, whatever and blend until your homemade hot sauces makes the bottle stuff look like ketchup.Homemade date shakes. YUM. My old ninja blender couldn't demolish chewy dates....the thing about a sticky, chewy thing like a date when you blend it with cold milk and ice they just get hard and knock around most blades...NOT THE VITAMIX....it makes the BEST date shakes,I use the cheap, tougher dates you buy in bulk, and the vitamix turns them in to a gorgeous smooth paste. Sometimes I stop processing early so my shake has a bit of chewy nuggets of pure date goodness in it.Since purchasing the vitamix in january we have had a gorgeous, hearty, healthy, delicious and filling fruit/veggie smoothie every morning.We have increased our greens consumption dramatically and it's a been great.Flax seeds!Normally a nightmare in regular blender smoothies but my vitamix turns them into silky smooth beautiful drinkable shakes!Because it's so great at breaking things down I add flax seeds, or whole dried oats or carrots or chia seeds or whatever to almost any sweet treat I make now just because it incorporates it so completely and smoothly why not add extra nutrition to the treat?I could go on and on and on and onnnnnn.I have used my vitamix literally EVERY day since purchasing, usually twice a day and some times more.It really is worth it.