I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

On sale for $25 at Big Lots. I couldn't pass that up.

It's ridiculous, top heavy, and doesn't seem to be built all that well
except maybe the motor and housing. And it works.

It turned half a tray of ice cubes into powder almost instantly with no
chunks. I added a frozen banana and it handled that too; not quite as
fine but still no chunks. A spoonful of orange marmalade, a shot of 151
rum, and a generous shot of lemon juice. Blend for a few seconds and I
have sort of a frozen daiquiri.

The real test will be a smoothie made with lots of frozen hard fruit,
like peach slices or papaya chunks. And raw vegetables just to make it
difficult. Maybe tomorrow.

Bob

I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

On 9/5/2012 10:26 PM, zxcvbob wrote:
> On sale for $25 at Big Lots. I couldn't pass that up.
>
> It's ridiculous, top heavy, and doesn't seem to be built all that well
> except maybe the motor and housing. And it works.
>
> It turned half a tray of ice cubes into powder almost instantly with no
> chunks. I added a frozen banana and it handled that too; not quite as
> fine but still no chunks. A spoonful of orange marmalade, a shot of 151
> rum, and a generous shot of lemon juice. Blend for a few seconds and I
> have sort of a frozen daiquiri.
>
> The real test will be a smoothie made with lots of frozen hard fruit,
> like peach slices or papaya chunks. And raw vegetables just to make it
> difficult. Maybe tomorrow.
>
> Bob

Let us know how it works! I'm interested.

I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

zxcvbob > wrote:
> On sale for $25 at Big Lots. I couldn't pass that up.
>
> It's ridiculous, top heavy, and doesn't seem to be built all that well
> except maybe the motor and housing. And it works.
>
> It turned half a tray of ice cubes into powder almost instantly with no
> chunks. I added a frozen banana and it handled that too; not quite as
> fine but still no chunks. A spoonful of orange marmalade, a shot of 151
> rum, and a generous shot of lemon juice. Blend for a few seconds and I
> have sort of a frozen daiquiri.
>
> The real test will be a smoothie made with lots of frozen hard fruit,
> like peach slices or papaya chunks. And raw vegetables just to make it
> difficult. Maybe tomorrow.
>
> Bob

What model ? Consumer reports tested two models, one recommended.
Big lots, I'll check it out.

Greg

I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

zxcvbob > wrote:

>On sale for $25 at Big Lots. I couldn't pass that up.
>
>It's ridiculous, top heavy, and doesn't seem to be built all that well
>except maybe the motor and housing. And it works.

Sounds like the one with 2 or 3 containers and the motor that goes on
top?

The small one is perfect for bean dip or salad dressings.

I put a couple cloves of garlic, some lime juice, salt & oil and
emulsify-[in about 30 seconds]-- add a can of rinsed & drained
black beans- and give it a couple pulses.

>
>It turned half a tray of ice cubes into powder almost instantly with no
>chunks. I added a frozen banana and it handled that too; not quite as
>fine but still no chunks. A spoonful of orange marmalade, a shot of 151
>rum, and a generous shot of lemon juice. Blend for a few seconds and I
>have sort of a frozen daiquiri.
>
>The real test will be a smoothie made with lots of frozen hard fruit,
>like peach slices or papaya chunks. And raw vegetables just to make it
>difficult. Maybe tomorrow.
>

I'm pretty impressed with mine-- Had it for 4-5 years. the
canisters started looking like they might die a couple years ago so
I bought a back-up. [another Ninja] It is still in a box in the
basement.

Be sure to make some 'ice cream'-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKceVYqijeE

Jim

I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

On 2012-09-06, zxcvbob > wrote:

> The real test will be a smoothie made with lots of frozen hard fruit,
> like peach slices or papaya chunks. And raw vegetables just to make it
> difficult. Maybe tomorrow.

I was sadly disappointed when I discovered my mom's older Vita-Mix
didn't do ice cubes fer dammit. A long line of blender's I've gone
through, none of which did ice fer crap. The old clover-leaf Waring
my parents used to have made killer dacquaris, but that was after you
ran whole large cubes through the optional ice-crusher attachement
which spit out snow-cone grade ice. I later bought a like waring and
found an original crusher attachment on ebay. It didn't work as well
as my parent's model. Bottom line, I gave up on blenders, smoothies,
and dacquaris.

What I fondly recall is a little ol' man who usta come to our county
fair every year. He was hawking a waring blender. It had a stainless
steel vessel. He would put in one fresh whole egg --unbroken!--, 2-3
fresh pitted unpeeled apricots, one whole stick of celery cut in half,
and 3-4 large ice cubes. He put the lid on, turned the one speed
switch on for about 30-40 secs, and turned it off. You could see the
SS vessel had frosted up on the outside. He then spooned the contents
into little paper cups, added bitty plastic spoons, and passed 'em out
to the small audience. A perfectly delightful veg/fruit ice/granita
was the results. Now THAT was a blender! By time I'd gotten into
cooking and gone through a couple crappy blenders, the little ol' man
was no longer a yearly fair fixture. :(

I don't know what model his blender was, but I suspect it was a
commercial bar blender or a low end lab blender. Whichever, waring
isn't giving those suckers away, they costing several hundred dollars.
He sold his for a pricey $100, but that was back in the mid 70s. I
might buy one if I could see it demo'd first.

nb

--
Definition of objectivism:
"Eff you! I got mine."
http://www.nongmoproject.org/

I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

On 9/6/2012 6:06 AM, Jim Elbrecht wrote:
> > wrote:
>
>> On sale for $25 at Big Lots. I couldn't pass that up.
>>
>> It's ridiculous, top heavy, and doesn't seem to be built all that well
>> except maybe the motor and housing. And it works.
>
> Sounds like the one with 2 or 3 containers and the motor that goes on
> top?
>
[snip]
>
> Be sure to make some 'ice cream'-
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKceVYqijeE
>
> Jim


It looks like the model in the video, with the motor on top (red or blue
housing, no black ones), but it only came with one medium-large jar. I
think it was the same size jar that he used for the strawberries.

Bob

I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

On Sep 6, 6:29*am, notbob > wrote:
> On 2012-09-06, zxcvbob > wrote:
>
> > The real test will be a smoothie made with lots of frozen hard fruit,
> > like peach slices or papaya chunks. *And raw vegetables just to make it
> > difficult. *Maybe tomorrow.
>
> I was sadly disappointed when I discovered my mom's older Vita-Mix
> didn't do ice cubes fer dammit.

The old ones, probably didn't do ice very well. The newer models
are amazing.

I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

On Thu, 06 Sep 2012 07:06:59 -0400, Jim Elbrecht >
wrote:

> The small one is perfect for bean dip or salad dressings.
>
> I put a couple cloves of garlic, some lime juice, salt & oil and
> emulsify-[in about 30 seconds]-- add a can of rinsed & drained
> black beans- and give it a couple pulses.

I love my little one too. So what if the motor is on top? You knew
that when you bought it. I especially like that it means there's no
hollow shaft (or whatever it's called) for liquids to flow over and on
to the counter.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

On Thu, 6 Sep 2012 10:11:16 -0500, Sqwertz >
wrote:

>On Thu, 06 Sep 2012 07:06:59 -0400, Jim Elbrecht wrote:
>
>> I'm pretty impressed with mine-- Had it for 4-5 years. the
>> canisters started looking like they might die a couple years ago so
>> I bought a back-up. [another Ninja] It is still in a box in the
>> basement.
>>
>> Be sure to make some 'ice cream'-
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKceVYqijeE
>
>I lost interest in video when it took him 18 seconds to put in 1 dozen
>strawberries one by one.

I knew where it went so I didn't watch the video-- My bad. There is
probably a better one. Pre-frozen bananas will turn into 'ice
cream', too.

>
>But I don't remember the motor being on top in the infomercials. Has
>it always been that way?

I never saw an infomercial. The one I got at Sam's several years ago
has the motor on top. I just recently started seeing the
traditional motor as base models.[for a lot more money!]

Jim

I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

On Sep 5, 7:26*pm, zxcvbob > wrote:
> On sale for $25 at Big Lots. *I couldn't pass that up.
>
> It's ridiculous, top heavy, and doesn't seem to be built all that well
> except maybe the motor and housing. *And it works.
>
> It turned half a tray of ice cubes into powder almost instantly with no
> chunks. *I added a frozen banana and it handled that too; not quite as
> fine but still no chunks. *A spoonful of orange marmalade, a shot of 151
> rum, and a generous shot of lemon juice. *Blend for a few seconds and I
> have sort of a frozen daiquiri.
>
> The real test will be a smoothie made with lots of frozen hard fruit,
> like peach slices or papaya chunks. *And raw vegetables just to make it
> difficult. *Maybe tomorrow.
>
> Bob

I think I got mine from Woot, but mine sounds very different. It came
with a blender pitcher, a food processor bowl, an immersion mixer, and
the motor that attaches to each of them. I think I paid about 30
bucks, and although I don't use it too often, I have been rather happy
with it.

I bought a Ninja blender tonight
 

On 6 Sep 2012 13:29:49 GMT, notbob > wrote:

>I was sadly disappointed when I discovered my mom's older Vita-Mix
>didn't do ice cubes fer dammit.


I thought those Vita-Mix blenders would liquify solid granite? I'm
shocked!