The Nutri Ninja Blendmax Duo is a cost-effective way to get the convenience of a single-serving personal blender with the power of a full-sized, high-power blender. This unit comes with one base but three pitchers for blending, two of which can be used for drinking, too. This was one of the best blenders we tested. It was good at most of our test smoothie recipes and crushing ice, though it was less strong at making fresh soup. If you want to use your blender to pipe hot soup, check out the Cuisinart Hurricane.
Nutri Ninja Duo: Design
This is a relatively quiet blender, especially considering how much power it has. With 1,600 watts, it is second in our review in blending power, so it would have the right to be loud, but it is the fourth quietest, averaging 93.5 decibels when it was making smoothies. When fully assembled, this blender falls in the middle of the pack, but it should fit under most overhead kitchen cabinets for easy storage.
The Ninja Duo stands out for the safety of its non-slip base. The suction cups help ensure they will not slip, slide, or tip over, even on a wet countertop. This blender almost takes that too far because it can be difficult to slide it over when you want. The suction cups on the base are that strong.
This blender has an Auto-IQ feature to sense when a recipe is under-blended. If it is, The Ninja Duo will automatically turn itself on again to further break down the food. Once you get used to it, this is a nice capability, but there is a learning curve at first. The Duo is not the most intuitive machine because of it. The pre-programmed buttons for smoothies and frozen drinks are one feature that adds to the ease of use, though, and you get used to the Auto-IQ feature.
This machine features flat controls that are easy to clean. If you are pinched for time, you can clean the pitchers in the dishwasher. Hand washing them can be even faster, though. This blender's cord wrap is nice for keeping your countertop in order when positioned close to the outlet.
The warranty is relatively short, which is disappointing. Some online deals for this unit come with an enhanced warranty, but the basic one out of the box is just one year. That's not much, especially when you compare it with the eight-year warranties on some competing products.
Nutri Ninja Duo: Performance
In our blender reviews, we used the preset buttons when that was an option on the machines. We used the Ninja Duo's smoothie button for the smoothie test and got good results, though this blender did seem to heat up the smoothie slightly in the process. We were looking for a perfectly smooth consistency, and we found a few larger chunks here and there in Ninja Duo's smoothies, but they were generally excellent.
In our comparison, both of the Ninja brand products do a really good job of crushing ice so that the pieces are all small and roughly the same size, the way you want them for frozen drinks. Ninja Duo has a specific button for ice that makes it very easy.
This was not the best blender for soup, though. It came out smooth enough but was not heated much, even after the full four minutes recommended in the recipe. There is no preset button for soup, so the Ninja Duo is not even designed to excel at making it. We prefer to have the option, though. The soup we got from this blender had decent texture and flavor, but you will want to heat it in the microwave to get the best results.
Should you buy the Nutri Ninja Duo?
Even with a short warranty and an underwhelming soup performance, the Nutri Ninja Duo is a strong contender when comparing high-power blenders. You basically get a personal and family-sized blender in one box, so you can make and take your smoothie in the morning or make a bigger batch of frozen drinks to share later in the day without having to stop and specifically wash everything.
