Nutribullet Review

After thoroughly researching everything about the Nutribullet, I came to the conclusion that this is a very popular blender. From the moment I started paying attention to this blender, the rankings in Amazon.com has changed from fifth to second and then to third best seller amongst blenders. But like with any other product, though many people left great reviews, others left some negative ones.

I hope this review will make clear the good points and the bad points of this powerful blender. The Nutribullet is made by the same company that makes the Magic Bullet.

Read the Rest of the Review Below:

The Nutribullet is a countertop blender, compact enough to take it with you when travelling. The jars (cups) are small enough to be used as drinking cups. You could just blend, take the cup and go. It is more a personal blender, you can only prepare one or two servings at a time. The good thing is that it comes with several cups which gives you the option of preparing a different drink for each person.

The Nutribullet is quite powerful. Whilst the Magic bullet has a 250 watts motor. The Nutribullet is more powerful. There is no doubt that this is a powerful and convenient blender/juicer and you can do much more with it as well. There are two versions, the standard version and a Pro version. The standard version comes with 12 pieces:

• Base Unit
• Large Blending Cup
• 2 short cups
• Handled comfort lip ring
• 1 comfort lip ring
• 1 (flat) blade
• 1 extractor (cross) blade
• 2 resealable lids
• pocket nutrition guide
• user guide

There you have it, 12 pieces. The nutrition guide comes with recipes and there are plenty of smoothie recipes around the web. If you have been following a plant based diet I am sure you have plenty of recipes.

In a hurry? Find the Nutribullet here 

 Versatility / Functionality

  The Nutribullet is quite simple to operate. Like the Magic Bullet, it does not have any buttons. The cups or containers act as what you would call a button. You just press on the cup to pulse the blender or lock in the cup for the blender to work continuously. You will hear people talking about the Nutribullet as a juicer. It is not really a juicer. A juicer separates the pulp from the juice. The Nutribullet leaves the pulp inside the drink, but it emulsifies the pulp.

The manufacturer claims that it is also not a blender nor a juicer because it basically breaks the cellular wall to release more nutrients for better absorption. From their manual this is what they say:

I personally do not see the difference between this and a blender. It does make a puree out of the ingredients, liquifying everything, but so does a good blender If you follow the McDougall or Dr Esselstyn, you know that they do not like smoothies. They believe the chewing of the food is an important part of the digestive process. But not many people take time to chew the food properly.

When you chew the food properly, you are breaking the walls, and that allows you access to more nutrients. Blending is a way of breaking the cell walls, facilitating the absorption of nutrients. I also think blending is great for kids, as you can hide so many vegetables that they would not eat otherwise. I will be writing about this in another post.

Back to the Nutribullet, the manufacturer says that this blender does not make smoothies, but they call it Nutriblasts. This is more a marketing technique and I think the smoothies are just smoothies.

If you add too much water to the smoothie, you will get a juice type consistency, but it is not actual juice. If you add less water you will have a thicker smoothie consistency. But take into consideration that the Nutribullet needs water to process the food. So the less water you add,  the more difficult the blending process will be. So if you think the bullet is struggling to blend, add a bit more water.

The manufacturer claims the Nutribullet is good for:

• nutriblasts
• Green nutriblasts.
• Shakes.
•  Frozen drinks.
• Crushing ice- It will crush ice if you start from small pieces of ice. If you start with larger pieces it will not crush.
•  Grinding coffee, seeds, grains, citrus rim and spices.
• Soups – Prepare soup with cold water and then you will need to transfer it to a microwave safe container to warm up, or to a pot to warm up. Do not add hot water to the Nutribullet.
• Dressings.
•  Dips.
• desserts
• natural ice creams.

Most people use this blender to prepare smoothies, or make purees. But there is so much more you can do with this. Same as with any blender. I use my blender for so many sauces and dips. The Nutribullet is very convenient. It is easy to use and easy to clean.

There are no buttons whatsoever, and not many instructions to remember. It takes little space, and you can just make your smoothie, get the cup and off you go.

The Pro version comes also with a flip top lid, which makes it easier to take the cup with you. Unfortunately the tall cup does not fit a standard cup holder.

As said before the Nutribullet needs water to function, unless you are grinding. If you are using the extractor blade you need liquid. The cups have a max indicator which indicates the maximum level of liquid that you can add. If you add liquid past the max indicator the risk of leakage increases.

Note: The veggies and fruits can go above the max line, but the liquid should be below the max line.

When adding liquid also consider what type of fruit you are intending to blend. If the fruits have high water content then I would rather reduce the amount of liquid added to the cup.

There were many complaints about leakages and then the motor and blades being rusted. Some people said that the rust got into the smoothies. I would also be concerned if that happened. Having said that the key is: never fill the liquids above the max line, never to put the blades in the dishwasher, and also dry the blades before putting them away. Also ensure that you tighten the blade in the container and that the gasket is correctly placed inside the blade.

The manufacturer has made some improvements to avoid the leakages. They have reinforced the blades, so that it does not leak through there. They have also reinforce the back of the blades, so it does not leak through there, and also reinforced the inside of the motor.

Still some people claimed that they took care of the blade properly, and they got rusted.

One concern with the Nutribullet is that you should not remove the gasket to clean it up. There is a risk that some food gets trapped under the gasket, and this may leech and contaminate the drink.

When preparing your smoothies, you still need to cut the veggies, and fruits. It will not handle a whole apple, or a whole big carrot. So cut it in pieces before processing.

When filling up the cups of the Nutribullet , start with the greens first, then add some fruits like bananas, apples. Leave the hardest ingredients to the last. For example, add frozen berries and nuts last. This way they will be closer to the blades.

The blender is not powerful enough to pulverize the blackberry seeds which are hard.

When it comes to grinding, the Nutribullet does a great job grinding coffee, grains, and some seeds. The things you could do with this grinder are only limited by your imagination. You can grind coffee, seeds, grains, citrus rind, spices, do a combination of spices, dehydrated garlic with other spices, and many more.

This blender seems to be very popular, but the durability of it is questionable. It is made out of plastic and at some stage things may break ,but you can always get replacement parts in amazon.com.

The Nutribullet comes with a user guide and some recipes. The user guide has lots of suggestions on how to eat a healthier diet. But you probably are already following a healthier diet and that is why you are here. The Pro version includes also a hard cover book with more recipes.

There were mixed opinions on how this bullet handles ice. Sometimes the ice just spins around and does not get crushed. Rather use smaller ice cubes and add some water.

The Nutribullet is easy to operate. Just load the ingredients in the cup, Twist on the cross or flat blade until the blade and cup have a tight seal. Line up the tabs, place the bullet on the power base and press down on the cup to turn it on.

Like the Magic Bullet, the motor of the bullet is at the bottom. If the cup leaks the motor will get dirty. And as said before, there were many complaints about this unit leaking. I think some of it happens because the jars are too full, and some of it happens because of faulty units. So in this regards it seems a bit of a hit or miss issue. The Nutribullet also has a Pro version with 17 pieces (including the voucher cards and manuals).  Click here to learn more about the Nutribullet 900 series.

https://youtu.be/tm6tTrg2oRw

The Nutribullet Jar

The Nutribullet standard version comes with three non-toxic high-impact plastic cups. The cups will not shatter when dropped. The shapes of this resemble a bullet and that is where the unit gets its name from. In the standard version you get

• 2x short cup size 18 oz (0.53 liters) – used mainly for grinding and preparing food. This one is too small for smoothies.
• 1 x long cup size: 24 oz (0.70 liters) – used for smoothies.

The Pro version comes with 4 cups:

• 1x 18 oz cup (0.53 liters)
• 2 x 24 oz cups (0.70 liters)
• 1 x 32 cup (0.94 liters)

The cups are NOT microwave safe. All cups and lids are dishwasher safe on the top rack of the dishwasher. Having said that, sometimes the lid got damaged in the dishwasher. It is so easy to clean that you do not need to use the dishwasher.

Both, the standard and pro version, come with 2 resealable lids, one lip ring, and one lip ring attached to a handle. The lip rings are to screw to the cup. This allows you to drink comfortably from the cup. The handle is to hold the cup as you would hold a normal cup.

The Pro version comes with one flip top lid. This lid is hinged, so it should not break easily. Check it out here.

You can always buy extra lids and extra cups. Check the accessories section.

The cups all have little tabs at the top of the cup/mug that locks into the base. If those tabs break then the blender will not work. They do happen to break but you can buy additional cups without having to purchase the entire unit.

In a hurry? Find the Nutribullet here 

Motor Power

The blender is suited to be used with 120v-60 HZ. Do not attempt to use unit with other voltage. Every country has their Nutribullet representative there. If you are not in the USA, you might be able to get this unit from the dealers in your country

The motor is very powerful, it has 600 watts. The Pro version comes with 900 watts, which is more powerful. There have been comparison made between the standard and pro version, and honestly there was not much of a difference between them. So the standard version is good enough.

It is a bit noisy, but nothing out of the ordinary and it is actually quite bearable.

if you are running this unit for over a minute the motor may overheat. So rather run it less than a minute and give it a 15 seconds break. Then start again. If it overheats, the manufacturer says you need to wait for an hour before using it again.

Blender Controls

The Nutribullet,  same as the Magic Bullet has no buttons at all. The cups act as a button when you pulse it. Place the ingredients in your desired cup. Twist on the selected blade until it fits tightly. Lining up the tabs with the base place the bullet (cup) on the base and press down to pulse it.

The Nutribullet also works without hands. Press down and turn the cups clockwise until the tabs lock. Now the motor will run continuously until you unlock the tabs. To do that, then press the bullet down and twist it counterclockwise.

If somehow you see that the bullet is a bit stack during the blending process, then stop it, remove the cup and give it a bit of a shake. Then continue blending.

Blades

The standard version of the Nutribullet comes with two types of stainless steel blades. One cross and one flat.

The extractor blade that emulsifies everything. is good for blending and then the milling blade (flat blade) is for grinding. The extractor blade is different than the Magic Bullet cross blade. It has more blades than the cross blade. It actually has six blades at different angles.

The Pro version comes with two extractor blade. It does not come with a flat blade, but you can purchase that separately.

Both blades are not microwave safe and they are not dishwasher safe.

The gasket should not be removed from the blades. There is a concern that this is not hygienic. This may be true. Food can get stuck under the gasket.

If you remove the gasket ensure that it is dry before placing it back and that it is well positioned under the blade.

Blades are sharp, but they seem to go dull after a while. You can buy extra blades separately.
Some reviews also mention the rusting problem. Blades get rusted, and this may leak into the drinks. This is a concern. Always clean blades quickly and dry them before putting them away. Remember that you can always purchase extra blades when you need them.

Below is a video on how to use the Nutribullet Pro 900 series.  Please note that in the video, the lady is using some protein powder. This does not reflect my views on Protein powders. I believe we do not need it. I just posted this video to see how the blender works.

You will see also towards the end of the video the gasket falls out of the blade. This seems to be a common problem sometimes, especially if you ever removed the gasket from the blade. So do not attempt to remove the gasket. If it falls by itself then put it back in its place.

Ease of Cleaning

All cups are dishwasher safe but only in the top rack of the dishwasher. Blades and motor base are not dishwasher safe.

The best way of cleaning it is by hand. This way you will avoid any potential damage that can happen in the dishwasher. If you clean it soon after you have finished using it then the cleanup process is so easy. Just rinse it and you are done.

If you let ingredients dry in the cups, add some warm soapy water (not hot) and blend it for a minute.

The ridges of the cups can be difficult to clean I suggest you use a brush.
Sometimes the cups leak inside the motor base. You will need patience to clean that. Use some q-tips but try to clean it quickly to avoid getting rust.

Ensure the blades are always dry before you put them away, to prevent them from rusting.

Overall the Nutribullet is quite easy to clean.

Attachments

For some accessories  click here.

There are a couple of versions of the Nutribullet.  The base comes in different colors: gray, black, blue, green and orange. The price varies a bit according to the color, but we are talking of few dollars up or down.

There is a limited blue version, where the base is blue. This is only available through the manufacturer site. This is at a higher price than the classic Nutribullet, but it includes the Natural Healing Foods book.

As stated above, you could also get the Nutribullet Pro 900 series. The motor power is 900 watts, and this is what comes in the box:

•  A base with a 900 watts motor
•  1 18 oz cup
•  2 x 24 oz  cup
•  1 x 32 oz cup
•  1 x flip top lid: The lid is hinged so it should last without any problems
•  1x lip ring with handle
•  1 x lip ring with no handle
•  2 x lids
•  2 x extractor blades (there is no flat blade included)
•  User guide and recipe book
• quick start guide
• pocket nutritionist guide
•  Natural Healing Foods Book – Hardcover book with over 300 recipes
• voucher to get an extra extractor blade

The lids are now reinforced with a seal. This will avoid leaking when you shake the cup, with the lid on. I read some reviews where people were comparing the standard and pro version. The feedback was that you can hardly notice the difference in the power. So the pro and the standard version perform the same.

If you are wondering if you should buy the standard version or the pro version, here is a list of advantages and disadvantages of the Nutribullet Pro 900 series against the Classic Nutribullet.

The Nutribullet Dimensions and storage

The dimensions for this blender are not specified in the manual.

The base is compact enough to leave it on your countertop. I have found some dimensions in a review:

Height (including the tallest cup): 14.75 inches (37.46 cm)
Width: 5 inches (12.7 cm) Power Base
Weight: 3.5 pounds (1.58kg)

Storage of the base is really easy. You can leave it on the counter as it takes little space. But the accessories, cups, lids and blades can take lots of space. I think it comes down to being organized. You can get a wire basket and store them all in a basket.

I suggest you do not keep the blades attached to the cups. If you leave them separate it will keep the air flowing and keep them dry.

Features:

The unit is to be used with 120 volts.

The product carries a one year warranty. If you register your warranty online you get an additional 3 months.

You could also purchase an additional warranty for 4 more years. This can be purchased through the Nutribullet website.

There seems to be a problem if you purchase through Amazon. It looks like the warranty is not valid if you purchase through Amazon.com. So take that into consideration.

Accessories

Replacement parts are easily available. Almost every part of the bullet can be purchased separately. There are also lots of different accessories and superfoods being sold as an accessory. Below is a list of items available:

Pros

•  Low Price.
•  Portable compact and convenient.
•  Easy to use.
•  Simple Operation: It has no buttons.
•  Great job breaking down pulp, seeds and nuts.
•  Good blending performance.
•  It is small enough to leave on your countertop.
•  Powerful.
• Easy to assemble.
• Easy to use, no buttons, hand free blending.
•  Easy to clean.
•  Dishwasher safe (not the blades and power base).
• You can blend and serve in same container.
•  It can be used as a personal blender.
•  Can prepare customized drink for each person.
•  Two different blades for different functions.
•  Great for grinding coffee, spices, grains and seeds.
•  Can be used to prepare soups and dips.
•  Does a great job of breaking the cellular walls for increased nutrition.
•  Parts and accessories are readily available

Cons

•  Cheap materials.
•  It does not have a long lasting life.
•  Performance decreases with age.
•  The blades become dull with time.
•  Needs space to store parts and accessories.
•  It does not replace a food processor.
•  No speed selection.
•  One extra pulse might leave you with undesired results.
•  There is not always enough space to fill up water, so smoothie may be quite thick (depending on ingredients).
•  Single serving machine, not for large family.
•  It does not do a great job with hard seeds like blackberry and guava.
•  You cannot put the whole fruit in the cup. You need to prepare fruit cutting it certain order.
•  If you intend to use it as a juicer, the juice is watered down, since you need to add water to process it.
•  Plastic containers can easily break.
•  If the plastic nubs that are used to lock the container break off, then the container becomes useless.
•  It would have been nice to include 2×24 oz containers instead of 2×18 containers.
•  The tall cup does not fit a car cup holder
•  The quality of the smoothies compared to the Vitamix is debatable.
• The Power is good, but not exceptional
•  It may leak and /or rust
•  Gasket cannot be removed from blade
•  Noisy
•  Bad customer service from the manufacturer.

Nutribullet Consumer Ratings

This product is very popular with a rating of 4. 72% of the ratings were 4 and 5 stars. This indicates that people are happy with it. Having said that many people have changed their mind after they had used this for a while.

Nutribullet Price

The price of the bullet is really low. If you compare it against high end blenders, the price is very affordable. Understand that you cannot expect this product to last for years. It may or may not, but for the price, the risk is really minimum.

My overall opinion

My review conclusion is that if you do not have another blender and food processor and cannot afford one,  then this one will be good for you.

Like I always say you need to take into consideration what you would like to do. If you really want to juice, without the pulp, then this is not a juicer.

If you want to prepare smoothies, and you cannot afford a more expensive one that would last longer, then the Nutribullet is a good option.

This will be a great blender if:

• You currently do not have a good blender and do not want to pay a high price for one.
•  If you are too lazy to use your big blender. 
• For quick and small food preparation (sauce, dips, soups, etc)
•  If you drink smoothies often.
•  If you grind your own coffee and spices.
•  If you travel often and like to have daily smoothies.

There are many reviews that indicate that people are very satisfied with this blender. Take into consideration that this will not replace a real juicer or food processor. It will probably not last more than five years, but at a low price you can always replace it. Be aware that if your blender lasts longer, you will need to replace some parts, like the blades.

Now if you cannot even afford this blender, you can look at the Magic Bullet. Another option is to be creative. If you already have a blender that fits mason jars, then you can make your own Nutribullet or Magic Bullet.

Overall, I believe this is a great option to start if you do not have anything, and even to complement your big blender. Sometimes you need to prepare something quick, and this is so convenient. In my case I do not have one, but I am seriously considering getting one, simply because it is much quicker than your regular blender. 

If you already have a food processor or blender and affordability is not a problem, then you may want to spoil yourself to this one as well.