We're decades long Vitamix customers and serious gardeners. The food cycler looked like a great way to quickly reduce food waste to something you can put on plants without the time and trouble of composting. So far so good. We've used it through probably half a dozen cycles and it almost works fine. My only complaint is that we go through a lot of limes and it doesn't like citrus rinds much. That's the only problem we've had with it. It's a good investment if you hate to waste food scraps that could be feeding your plants!