Of course these are great for making small-batch sauces and whatnot, but the main use I have for them, and for which they're ideal, is for grinding and powdering recipe components. Spices, teas, seeds, sugar, espresso powder for baking, you name it. I have a Krups coffee grinder that I'd been using for years before I got these, and now I haven't even touched it in months. I mean it's still fine for what it is, but these are faster and more effective since you can control the speed and see into the whole dome as it runs.
They're also easier to clean, which is a pain to do with the Krups. I find them to be way more versatile, too. You can measure ingredients right in the container, so that's one less thing to wash. They double as storage containers for whatever I don't use, or just for prep ahead of time. They're even easier to pour with compared to the Krups, since there's no electrical cord to wrestle with.
Protip - keep in mind that the self-cleaning cycle only cleans the interior. You'll still have to clean the threads of the bowl and base, for which a brush becomes extremely useful. And be sure to remove the rubber ring, because food particles WILL get under there. Fortunately, there's no trick to that as it comes right off and goes right back on.
Also, be aware of the fact that there's a minimum amount of ingredients you must use in order for them to blend properly. Not that I'm any kind of an expert, but it seems to me that this is true of pretty much any blender. So, despite that still being true for these, you probably can see the usefulness of an 8 oz. container vs. something multiple times its size. As mentioned, any leftovers can be stored in the container.
The fix for the self-detect issue these are known for is easily found with a quick Google search, and is effectively a non-issue anymore. It's just a matter of screwing the base onto the bowl far enough so the arrows are within range of each other. You run the risk of the container exploding open if you don't tighten it enough anyway, but I suppose some sort of a latching system would have been better for those who lack the sufficient hand strength. So maybe that qualifies as a design flaw for some.
Other drawbacks:
• You have to unscrew the whole thing if you want to add ingredients mid-process. A little foresight takes care of that, and you can still shake the bowl to redistribute the contents in lieu of a tamper, but it would be nice if there was a latch or something built into the bottom of the bowl for easy access.
• As with all Vitamix containers that aren't steel, I wish for multiple reasons that these weren't made of plastic. Vitamix claim glass poses a safety risk with high-speed blending, but I don't buy it for a second. There's bulletproof glass, high-temperature glass and multiple-atmosphere glass. There's no way you can tell me a little R&D couldn't produce a glass jar that would handle it even if their blender is faster than any other brand that do offer glass jars. You can bet that if plastic were to somehow suddenly become unavailable, they'd magically find a way.
Other than that, I can't really think of many downsides to these.
