The Blender I Actually Use (and the Cheaper Ninja I’d Point You To First)

Most kitchen appliances have a short life. You buy the thing, you use it hard for a few weeks, and then it goes into a cupboard and stays there.

This one did not. I bought a Ninja Foodi blender and processor a couple of years ago. I use it constantly and I would buy it again. That is the whole of my review, and it is also the only test that has ever told me anything useful about a kitchen purchase.

So this is not a roundup of the best blenders. It is one look at the machine I use, what the money buys, and the awkward part where Ninja sells a cheaper model with more reviews and a slightly better rating.

What the machine is

Mine is the Ninja Foodi Power Blender and Processor System, the SS401. A 1600 peak watt motor base, a 72 ounce pitcher, a small smoothie bowl attachment with a tamper built into the lid, a single serve cup, and a set of discs for slicing, shredding and grating.

It is big. About sixteen inches tall with the pitcher on, and counter space is the thing a kitchen runs out of first. Worth measuring under your cupboards before you order one.

What the wattage argument is about

Blender marketing is a wattage arms race and most of it is noise. What high power buys you is narrow but real: it gets through frozen fruit, ice and nuts without stalling or needing extra liquid to keep things moving.

If you blend soft things, you do not need any of this. A ripe banana and some milk will go smooth in a cheap blender and in a powerful one, and the expensive machine wins nothing.

So the test is simple. Frozen and thick, the power earns its money. Soft and wet, it does not, and a machine at a third of the price will do the same job.

The cheaper Ninja with more reviews

Here is the awkward part, and it is sitting on Ninja’s own shelf.

The Ninja Kitchen System Pro, model BL770, is the same basic idea as mine. Large pitcher, separate food processor bowl, single serve cups, one motor base running all of it. It lists at $180 against my model’s $260, and when I checked it was selling for about $135 against about $208.

It also has more reviews and a slightly better average. Mine sits at 4.6 stars across about four thousand reviews. The BL770 sits at 4.7 across about forty three thousand. The gap in stars is small. The gap in how many people have lived with it is not.

I have not used the BL770. I want to be plain about that, because the point of this site is that I vouch only for things I have bought, and this is not one of them. What I can tell you is what I would weigh. At that price gap I would want a specific reason before paying the extra seventy dollars.

The specific reason, if you want one, is the discs. The BL770 chops and mixes dough but does not slice, shred or grate. Mine does. If you want something that replaces a food processor, that is what you are paying for. If you want a strong blender that also chops, the extra money buys discs you may never fit.

What it is not for

A big countertop blender is the wrong tool more often than the box suggests.

It is not what I use for mayonnaise. That job goes to a Cuisinart stick blender I have had for years, and I have written about that separately. The short version is that mayonnaise wants a narrow vessel and a small blade, which is exactly what a 72 ounce pitcher is not.

It is loud, too. Every high powered blender is, and no spec sheet says so. If your mornings involve not waking somebody up, know that before the box arrives.

And cleaning decides whether any appliance survives. Ninja lists the containers, lids, discs and blades on this one as dishwasher safe, which is the first thing I would check on any machine I was considering.

One note on smoothies

Ninja calls the small cup a nutrient extraction cup, and the box says it extracts vitamins and nutrients from fruit and vegetables. That is marketing, and it is worth translating.

Blending does not add anything to food or unlock anything that was not already there. It breaks the food up, which is what your teeth do. The one real difference is fibre. Blending keeps it and juicing removes it, and if you are choosing between the two, that is the difference that matters.

A smoothie is a fast way to eat fruit and vegetables you would otherwise not get round to. That is reason enough. It does not need the biochemistry.

The picks

Quick questions

Is a two hundred dollar blender worth it?
Only if you blend frozen or thick things regularly, or you want the food processor discs. If you mostly blend soft ingredients with plenty of liquid, you are paying for headroom you will not use.

Which Ninja should I buy?
If you want the slicing and shredding discs, the SS401. If you do not, the BL770 is cheaper and more widely reviewed, and I could not make an honest case for the extra.

Is a smoothie better than juice?
Blending keeps the fibre and juicing removes it. That is the real difference and the one worth deciding on.

Can I make mayonnaise in it?
You can, but a stick blender does it better for a fraction of the price. Here is how I make it.

Is it loud?
Yes. They all are. Plan around it.

The bottom line

I use it constantly, and I would buy it again.

I would also understand if you bought the cheaper one. Ninja sells a model for about seventy dollars less with ten times the reviews, and unless you want the food processor discs, that is the machine the numbers point at. Mine being the expensive one does not change that.