Review: Ninja Professional Blender

I look at budget blenders with a little bit of skepticism because low prices often mean low-quality materials and/or an underpowered motor. That doesn’t automatically make all blenders in this category terrible but they do often come with major limitations related to the types of food you can blend with it—leafy greens and frozen fruit being the biggest hurdles. The problem is, using budget blenders outside of their capabilities often results to non-repairable damage to the pitcher or motor. Professional blenders are a better long-term investment as the extra money translates to added years in doing just about anything with the blender. Ninja has a couple of these types of blenders including the Ninja Professional Blender 1000 (also known as Ninja Professional BL610) which has a rather budget-friendly price at around $140 CAD. So is this blender worthy of the “Professional” label or is it a budget offering wearing someone else name tag? In this review I’ll look at what it’s like to use, how well it works, any special features it has, and if I can recommend it for you. Plus, be sure to watch the video review below to see the Ninja in action.

What’s in the box?

The Ninja Professional Blender 1000 BL610 package includes 4 parts—the base, the pitcher, the stacked blade assembly, and the ‘Easy Lock’ Lid. Excluding the base, the other three parts are also sold separately on Ninja’s website in case you need replacements and are all dishwasher safe.

The pitcher has a glass-like transparent look but is made of rigid BPA-free plastic. The front of the pitcher has some measurement labels in both ounce and cup units at half cup or 8-ounce intervals maxing out at 9 cups or 72 ounces.

The lid completely locks and seals the pitcher shut providing some basic leak protection. However, there is a chance of spillage if you try to blend a mixture above the 64-ounce mark.

Ninja advises against using this for storing or blending hot liquids such as soups.

The stacked blade assembly consists of three layers of curved blade pairs for a grand total of 6 blades. These blades are very sharp so be careful when handling it especially when trying to clean it or take it out from the dishwasher! One nice positive about this part is the fact that several other Ninja blenders use the exact same one, making it easier to find spares.

Locking lid

The lid has a clever handle which doubles as the locking mechanism when attaching it to the pitcher. You just use the arrow as a guide for aligning and then press the handle down to lock the lid in place. Removing the lid is as simple as pressing the “Release” button to pop the locking handle out. The lid also has a small covered opening that you can lift so you can conveniently pour your mixture through the pitcher’s spout.

Attaching the pitcher to the base is also simple as the base has an indicator showing the direction you need to twist the pitcher in to lock it. Combined with the base, the blender measures slightly more than 17 inches tall and weighs 7 pounds which is pretty light given the capacity. The base also has a dedicated spot for coiling the power cable when you aren’t using it.

How well does Ninja Professional blend?

The Ninja Professional Blender 1000 comes equipped with a 1000-watt motor which sounds good on paper as it matches the wattage of pricier blenders like the Vitamix S55.

3 speeds only: is that a problem?

But, this Ninja blender only offers three blending speeds as opposed to ten. From my testing with this device, that actually doesn’t limit the blender’s versatility because the stacked blade assembly provides some muscle to the motor’s three speeds.

Having three blend settings makes the Ninja Professional Blender 1000 a bit more straightforward to use.

Consider the “Low” setting as the budget food processor setting as you can use it to do basic food processing or mixing of ingredients. The “High” setting is what you’ll use for liquefying and pureeing ingredients which works for just about any smoothie recipe.

3-level blade

The blender also has a “Pulse” button which you can use to max out the blender’s power to chop down tough ingredients before you use the High speed to blend the mixture. For crushing ice and preparing all other kinds of recipes like soups and dips, the “Medium” setting is the one to use.

Regardless of the speed I chose, the Ninja Professional Blender 1000 handles large amounts of ingredients quite well because all the blades contribute to finely chopping and blending the ingredients.

Several other budget blenders only have bottom blades which means you need to pulse more often to blend the bottom ingredients and wait for the top ingredients to drop down.

I made a variety of foods with the Ninja including a pumpkin soup and smoothies with frozen fruit and kale. Inferior blenders often leave my purees chunky, but I was surprised to see the Ninja liquified everything, meaning I got a a very sooth smoothie and a lovely creamy soup.

Safety Features

Ninja designed the blender to not function if the lid isn’t snapped in place. Whenever you remove the lid, the power indicator on the power button will flash giving a clear sign take action. If you’re having difficulty getting your blended to turn on, the lid is likely not locked fully in place.

Overall review: Ninja Professional 1000

With a well-rounded package and most of the parts replaceable, the Ninja Professional Blender 1000 is a solid budget-yet-professional option. The only real compromises you’ll get from getting the Ninja Professional Blender 1000 is the limited speed options and plastic pitcher and lid. Calling this a “Prosumer” blender would be more accurate because it still has a large capacity and the blade array really contributes to amazing blending power.

Overall I was surprised at how powerful it was and how well that stacked blade array obliterated chunks or frozen fruit, leafy greens and veggies too. I can definitely recommend the Ninja Professional Blender 1000 to you. It sells for around $140CAD/$99USD and you can get it from Amazon.

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