Update: I've had it five months now and still love it - I use the larger blender jar for making pancakes and waffles and I use the single cups for my daily smoothies. I notice some black plastic flaking from the OUTER rim of the blade unit (where it screws onto the cups, not inside where it would get into my drink). Daily washing of the blade unit removed the flakes and it wore off after a few weeks. The gears don't show any wear at all but I make sure not to force it in, if they don't mesh properly at first when inserting the cups or blender jar in the motor unit, I remove the cup and turn them just a bit, then put the cup back in. Still love the power of the unit, my smoothies come out very smooth, no bits to get stuck in the straw.I love this blender! I make a smoothie every morning and the cups are the perfect size for it. And for blending other things, the larger blender jar is just right - I'm single so I'm usually making smaller portions. Regular blenders were too big and too much hassle for cleaning, took up too much counter space. This one is just right and it's very powerful too, very sharp blades and it blends up my smoothie in about half the time that my old smoothie blender did and does a better job, no bits of fruit like before, all blended smoothly. It's a bit disconcerting at first that the cups/jar don't actually lock into the blender (they just sit in without any turning) but that hasn't caused any problems. Possibly the problems other people had with the gears getting ground down is that the gears didn't mesh properly when they set the cup or blender jar in the bottom unit. I've been taking care not to force it in.The top of the blender jar fits a bit tight but the tip in the manual to run cold water over it works great, then it slides in and out easily. I haven't had any issues with the gasket being torn up - I suspect that those problems came from overfilling the cups, I did that one time and it suction locked and the gasket came loose when I got it open so I'm careful to never overfill the cups. I also remove the gasket if I'm putting the blade part in the dishwasher (I also make sure the blades aren't touching the dishwasher rack so it doesn't dull them).All this may sound like a lot of work, but it's not, I just don't force anything when setting it in the bottom unit and I don't overfill - no problems!