Cuisinart SSB1U Soup Maker

Cuisinart SoupMaker does what it says it will do. It makes soup! I have not and probably will not use it for sauces, desserts etc but for making a small quantity of soup it does this well. Maximum hot soup quantity is 1.4 litres, which is a bit small but no doubt I will get used to this and reduce family portions! In all I think this is a great product, fairly attractively designed and is mostly 'fit for purpose'.
One major issue I have is that it is not all that easy/safe to clean; self cleaning is likely to be the method I will use in future.

I am delighted with the soup maker and have used it repeatedly since my husband bought it for me for Christmas. I have experimented and have found that you do not need to go through all of the cooking stages in the recipe book. You can just add all of the prepared ingredients, set it on high until it boils and then switch to simmer. It can then be left to it's own devices until you are around to stir it. I do however prefer my own recipes, rather than those in the recipe book.

.....but I read a lot of reviews before I did. Not only on Amazon, but on Lakeland's site (on which there's demo video) & others. The vast majority were positive, giving from three to five stars. Almost all the negative reviews seemed to concentrate on the difficulty in cleaning after use, overflow of ingredients when in use, whether or not it was easier just to make your own on the hob and the poor quality of the free cook book.
Well, here's my verdict on the above:
Cleaning - Clean it immediately after use; it only takes five minutes and is well worth the effort. Admittedly I haven't done much frying or sauteing in it, just good old-fashioned boiling and simmering, but I haven't had a problem yet. One review I read recommended using a dishwasher tablet, but I haven't had to resort to that yet so can't comment.
Overflow - read (and keep to) the instructions!! Only use a small amount of washing-up liquid when cleaning.
New Machine v Old-Fashioned Method - pays your money, takes your choice. I'm sold on the machine - it's all done in one place, particularly if you want to fry/saute, etc. as part of the process and there's only one bowl to wash up, and even that does itself (nearly).
Cookbook? - Yes, OK, some of the text could be difficult to read, given that it's colour-on-colour, and, Yes, there are only a few soup recipes, but hey, it's FREE and there are plenty of other excellent recipes out there. The few soup recipes that are included are very tasty and the Broad Bean Houmous is excellent.
But cheap it ain't - I decided that soup was healthy, nutritious and (sometimes - it's in your hands!) cheap, and that over the three years for which the gizmo is guaranteed I'd get my money back. Plus it's a reasonable blender, too.
It's not small, though - if you've got a compact kitchen, do take the trouble to measure it up - you might be surprised.
All-in-all, a well-made, efficient machine that I'm well pleased with.