This Kenwood SB200 smoothie maker was bought for our daughter who uses it to make her self and friends all manners of drinks, but it is also used by myself to create some awesome cocktails. The ease of use is evident to the fact that the whole family uses it and cleaning is a simple job as all the parts disasemble for washing and drying (the last to use must always wash, dry, asemble and store.)It crushes ice with ease though at this stage it does get a bit noisey it also has a safety feature that if content holder is moved or dislodged it stops working. There are two speed settings and a pulse button I find that starting at speed one then progress to two and finish before serving with a few blasts of pulse just to make sure all contents are smooth. Give a pulse after each glass is filled to mix contents as it does settle quite fast. Good luck with yours - we are happy with ours.