I'm considering buying a Magic Bullet or a Nutribullet or a Nutri Ninja. Does anyone have any recommendations on which is the best to buy? I want to make fresh fruit & vegetable drinks and protein shakes (daily) and it has to be strong enough to crush ice without burning out the motor. Currently leaning towards the 1000w Nutri Ninja but at $200 I want to make sure I'm not forking out for more than I need. Thanks.
Bullet type blender recommendations
Comments
Hey, just a heads up I think the one you bought had a a product recall on it due to a risk of it causing fires.
I'll have a look into it - thanks!
I have a disabled family member who can only eat puree, so over ~8 years of pureeing every meal, we've got to know these things reasonably well ;-)
We had a buy-it-now-TV-only Magic Bullet first. It was good, until the bearings in the blending lids started to give out. The shaft just runs through the plastic - maybe in a nylon insert or something - but it's hardly surprising that this is the weak spot. They still work, just with more and more noise, until the seals get flogged out and they start leaking through the shaft. We got about 9 months out of that.
Another one the same (the inlaws had fallen for a two-for-one deal, gave us one and had never used theirs), the same result in about the same time.
Next one was a cheap $30 knock-off from HomeArt. It didn't last quite as long (about 6 months of near continuous use) before failing exactly the same way. Considering it cost about 1/3 as much as the brand name ones, that's a win.
I think we repeated that too, with the same result. Note that none of them ever gave any trouble with the motor base unit. Come to think of it, I've probably got a cupboard full of motor units that I should throw out.
Since then, we've moved on to the Ninja style units, where the blade spins on a fixed pin in the bowl, and runs through a non-sealed hole in the lid. No bearings and seals to give out. The first one was from Aldi for about $20… I've seen the same unit with more reputable brand names on it selling for up to $100. Single pair of blades in a glass bowl. Can't remember what happened to that, but it was great. Didn't blend as smooth as the Bullet type though.
Now we're on a proper Ninja branded Ninja. Same as the Aldi one, but with a bigger plastic bowl and two stacked pairs of blades on the chopper - fits more in a batch. After a couple of years (?) of daily dishwasher action, the plastic bowl is starting to craze a little and looks like it will get brittle and crack up soon. Again, it doesn't blend as smooth as the Bullets (because it has chopper blades more than blending paddles). That suits us because the purees are better with a bit of texture.
So… after maybe six of these things, I've never had a motor failure (unless that's what happened to the Aldi one, but I don't remember it happening). It's all about the bowl/cup/lid/blade system.
IF you want smooth blended smoothies, I'd say you're best off getting a cheap Bullet blender, and figure on needing new blender lids every year or so. But since it's cheap, that's not a big deal.
I'm not sure what benefit you get from a bigger motor; I've never wished for more blending power, but I see some of the expensive brand ones advertising how powerful the motor is. If the motor of your first $30 cheapie leaves you wanting for more power, then you know to spend the big bucks next time. When the bearings and seals give out, which they inevitably will IME.
Great review barefoot. I'm looking at the moment and it is great to read a review from someone who has used a variety of brands
recently bought a kmart "nutritional" blender for $49 - has a 700w motor apparently
works perfectly for what we need it for, and comes with four containers (two big and two small) as well as the dry and wet blades. why anyone would pay for a full-fat nutribullet is beyond me - they are just pure marketing.