Consumers are raving about Ninja Professional BL660 because all the Ninja product infomercials are so enticing and persuasive. However, there are plenty of similar machines on the market that have almost no advertising but deserve customers’ close attention. BLACK+DECKER Performance is one of them. It comes with a personal blender attachment, has comparable technical parameters with the Ninja Professional BL660, and falls in a similar price category of under $100.
Read our honest review to find out which blender is the best option for these two gadgets.
Alternatively, check our article Best Countertop Blender Under $100.
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Table of Contents
BLACK+DECKER BL6010 Performance Blender
The BLACK+DECKER Performance Blender BL6010 has powerful 1100 watts motor, a large container with an inbuilt blade and single-serve attachment, digital control panel where BL6010. Hence, the BLACK+DECKER Performance Blender model set includes:
- Base Unit with 1100 watts motor and digital or analog control panel;
- 64 oz. Tritan copolyester container with inbuilt blade system and rubber vented lid;
- 20 oz. single-serve cup;
- Removable blade assembly for the single-serve cup;
- User Manual;
- Recipe Book;
- Laminated cards with instructions on how to use the digital control panel.
These machines come with shatter and temperature-proofed Tritan copolyester containers. Both of them are of good quality and have no leaking or similar problems. The large pitcher is 64oz. has an inbuilt blade system and vented cup and is designed to use with hot and cold liquids. The single-serve attachment cup comes with a removable blade assembly and to-go lid and is designed for processing single-serve drinks to be taken out in the same container.
Both of the machines are equipped with 5 speeds and pulse functions. The BL6010 has additional 5 pre-set programs — (1) soup, (2) nut butter, (3) personal jar/half recipes, 4) dry goods, and (5) smoothies). Five speeds and pulse function give a user decent control over the blending process and allow preparing a large variety of recipes. Thus, this blender is designed to accomplish the following tasks:
- Blend excellent smoothies with soft, hard, and leafy ingredients and suitable for making green smoothies;
- Process frozen ingredients and ice cubes in drinks with added liquid and also shave pure ice cubes into snow consistency for making snow cones, frozen desserts, and drinks;
- Designed to process hot liquids and suitable for making bulletproof coffee and processing hot veggies for soup;
- Chops veggie and suitable for such recipes as salsa, marinades, coleslaw, sauces, and salad mixes;
- Puree food well makes mash potatoes, dips, and spreads;
- Able to process nut milk and a little crunchy nut butter;
- Suitable for grinding herbs and coffee beans and milling baking quality flours.
The BLACK+DECKER Performance machine comes with 3 years limited warranty and very nice and helpful customer service.
Ninja Professional Blender BL660
Ninja Professional Blender BL660 comes with a large jar and single-serve attachment combining countertop and personal blenders in one gadget and quite a powerful motor. So, the typical BL660 package includes:
- 1100 watts motor base unit;
- 72 oz. main plastic pitcher with a lid;
- Blades assembly for the 72 oz. pitcher;
- 2 X 16 oz. single-serve cups with 1 sipping lid;
- Single-serve blade assembly;
- User manual.
The gadget has a fairly powerful 1100 watts motor but is not very well made and durable, and the coupling which constructed with too many plastic parts. The unit base is also made from quite cheap plastic that tends to break easily.
The main problem with this machine is the “unique” design of the main pitcher blade assembly, which is constructed the same as the processor blade system. This blade assembly is designed as a tower with 6 very sharp stainless steel blades staggered around it. The sharp blades usually become dull within 1 year of use. And such complicated construction of the blade system makes this machine quite difficult to use and clean.
The cheap polycarbonate containers are another weak side of the blender. The main pitcher and single-serve cups are not made to last and often develop cracks within 1 year of use.
This machine control panel has only 3 speeds and a pulse function. The single-serve attachment is operated only at one speed. Such a limitation of speeds does not allow much control to a user over the blending process. Anyway, this machine can perform the following tasks:
- Fairly textured smoothie especially from tough and leafy food, while the single-serve attachment produces decent quality smoothies;
- Crushes ice well with and without added liquid to snow consistency and ability to make frozen desserts and drinks;
- Able to make crunchy nut butter and not able to liquefy decent nut milk;
- Make a variety of food prep recipes such as chopping and mincing ingredients for salsa dips and marinades;
- Purees only cooked food and are able to produce only chunky purees and spreads;
- Only single-serve attachment can grind coffee beans and herbs and mill soft grains only.
In addition, the Ninja Professional Blender BL660 comes with a modest 1‑year limited warranty and not very supportive customer service.
BLACK+DECKER BL6010 Performance and Ninja Professional BL660 Blenders Differences and Features
BLACK+DECKER BL6010 | Ninja Professional BL660 | |
Motor | Well-made 1100 watt with some plastic (but anchored by metal) the blade to the motor drive couplings; | Non-durable 1100 watt with the plastic motor to the blade connections; |
Blades | Permanently inbuilt into 64 oz. jar blade assembly;
Removable blade system for 20 oz. personal blender attachment; |
Removable blade assemblies for both main jar and single-serve attachment;
The main jar blade assembly is bulky and not able to process well some of the ingredients. The personal blender blade system is reasonably well designed. |
Containers | Premium quality shatter and temperature proofed 64 oz. and 20 oz. copolyester containers; | Low quality and easy breakable polycarbonate 72 oz. and two X 16 oz. containers; |
Using & Cleaning | Simple to use and clean; all parts (apart of base unit) are dishwasher proofed; could also be self-cleaned or washed by hands; | Quite complicated to use due to a very unusual blade assembly, jar lid, and jar locking system design. Clean-up is also quite difficult and could be even unsafe because of very sharp blades; |
Control panel | Comes with 5 speeds and pulse function; the BL6010 model is equipped with additional 5 pre-programmed settings; single-serve attachment operates using 3 speeds and pulse function; | Equipped with 3 speeds and pulse function. The single-serve attachment is operated only on one single pulsing speed; |
Warranty | 3‑year Limited warranty and supportive Customer Service. | 1‑year Limited warranty with not bad reputation Customer Support. |
Performance |
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Dimensions | The footprint is 11 X 12 inches; the profile height is 18 inches with 64 oz. jar and 14 inches with 20 oz. cup on the top of the base unit. Weight is 10.3 pounds. | The footprint is 9.2 x 12 inches; the profile height is 14.6 inches with 72 oz. container on the top of the motor base. Weight is 7.6 pounds. |
How to Choose Between the BLACK+DECKER BL6010 and Ninja Professional BL660
BLACK+DECKER BL6010 and Ninja Professional BL660 both have similar motor power and combine two blenders (countertop and personal) in one. However, the B+D makes excellent quality smoothies even from the toughest ingredients with both attachments, while the Ninja produces decent drinks only with a single-serve attachment. The B+D is a well-made machine with good quality pitchers, a well-constructed motor, a blade assembly designed similar to the high-end blenders, and five speeds option. At the same time, Ninja has low-quality containers, a faulty blade system design, a non-durable motor, and only 3 speeds thus less versatile than a B+D machine. As a result, B+D makes a wider variety of food prep, dips, and spreads recipes, better quality nut butter, and most importantly, it can process hot liquids. In comparison, Ninja is not designed to handle hot liquids at all.
In addition, B+D is the quietest blender among the powerful machines under $100. And it is very easy to use and clean, while the Ninja is probably the most complicated machine to assemble/disassemble and clean on the current blender market.
Summary
Although Ninja Professional BL660 is very popular while BLACK+DECKER Performance is hardly known to the majority of consumers, it is clear that B+D is a much superior machine. It has not only a fine interior and exterior design but also will last for over 3 years while the average Ninja life expectancy is about 1–1.5 years. So, flashy advertising is not always mean a better product.
Thus the customers who are looking for durable and quality gadgets will definitely choose the B+D between these two machines. In contrast, those who opt for trendy and popular gadgets may go for the Ninja. Besides, B+D has a cheaper price, which also adds attraction to this machine.
However, if you are not sure about these blenders you can alternatively check our article Best Countertop Blender Under $100.