Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro Personal Blender with Auto-iQ Review

Nin­ja BN401 Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender: The BN401 Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender is a new Nin­ja mod­el released in 2021 and replaced the very pop­u­lar Nutri Nin­ja Auto IQ BL480, BL482, BL487, and BL487T gad­gets. The BN401 Nutri Pro not only comes with a redesigned exte­ri­or but also has a few con­struc­tion­al improve­ments that elim­i­nate some old mod­els’ weak­ness­es and make the new blender more durable and reliable.

Read this review to find out if this blender is worth fit­ting into your busy life.

Would you like to look at alter­na­tive options? Check our arti­cle here: 

• Best pow­er­ful but afford­able per­son­al type blenders
• NutriBul­let Pro 900 vs. Nutri Nin­ja Auto iQ BL480 Blenders
• Best Blender for Smooth­ies and More – Buy­ing Guide 2022

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Functionality and Versatility

The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender per­forms very well on many tasks. It pul­ver­izes most of the ingre­di­ents into a smooth con­sis­ten­cy with no chunks and pieces.

Smooth­ie: This blender makes almost per­fect qual­i­ty smooth­ies from soft and hard food, though the car­rots will come out just a lit­tle tex­tured. It also works very well on many leafy ingre­di­ents such as raw spinach or kale and makes a good qual­i­ty, smooth drink with only small green bits. It dec­i­mates raw nuts and seeds very well in smooth­ies with­out any notice­able bits. The only prob­lem it has with rasp­ber­ry and black­ber­ry seeds is that this Nutri Nin­ja does not break them down well, and often, a sec­ond cycle is need­ed to get the accept­able con­sis­ten­cy with the berry seeds.

Ice-crush­ing, frozen desserts: This gad­get han­dles crush­ing ice very well and any frozen ingre­di­ents, even with min­i­mal liq­uid. It quick­ly deliv­ers chunks of free smooth­ies from frozen food and shaved ice to make decent-qual­i­ty snow cones and oth­er frozen desserts using a pre-set pro­gram to process frozen food.

Juic­ing: This machine will not squeeze text­book juice that is sup­posed to sep­a­rate the liq­uid from the fiber. But it can pro­duce a rea­son­ably smooth smooth­ie, aka “whole juice.”

Puree­ing and chop­ping: Equipped with two pre-set pro­grams and a pulse mode, it purees raw or cooked food and chops veg­eta­bles and grat­ed cheese. It also makes per­fect-qual­i­ty sal­sas, dips, and sauces. How­ev­er, it is unable to make nut butter.

Hot ingre­di­ents: This machine can­not be used with hot ingre­di­ents and does not have heat­ing ele­ments, so it will not make any hot soups. The blender is not suit­able for prepar­ing bul­let­proof coffee.

Grinding/milling: This blender comes only with one set of blades that is intend­ed for liq­uid food pro­cess­ing, so it does not per­form very well when grind­ing and powdering.

This blender is a great entry-lev­el gad­get for peo­ple who want to make indi­vid­ual smooth­ies to take out with them in the sim­plest pos­si­ble way. It is a com­pact and easy-to-store machine that does not take up much room in your kitchen and is designed to serve only one or two peo­ple. But it is not a ver­sa­tile machine that han­dles all of the func­tions a coun­ter­top blender does. As with all per­son­al blenders, it is also not flex­i­ble in adding ingre­di­ents dur­ing blend­ing because the jar is posi­tioned upside-down dur­ing food processing.

Base Unit and Motor Power

The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender has a pow­er­ful 1100-watt at-peak motor and a 21,000 RPM blade that, as already men­tioned, blends each job very well. How­ev­er, some of the dri­ve gear parts are made of rub­ber and plas­tic rather than steel. This affects the dura­bil­i­ty of the motor construction.

The base unit is also made of plas­tic but looks sol­id and pre­mi­um. It has real­ly nice suc­tion cups under­neath, so the machine does not trav­el or turn around dur­ing oper­a­tion. In addi­tion, the cord con­ve­nient­ly wraps away in stor­age under the base unit.

Speed Settings and Programs

The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender with Auto-iQ con­trol pan­el offers a count-up/­count-down time dis­play and 4 but­tons — START/STOP, CRUSH, SMOOTHIE, and PULSE.

The Auto-IQ fea­ture is rather a pro­mo­tion­al trick. In fact, it fea­tures two pre-set pro­grams — CRUSH and SMOOTHIES. These pre-pro­grammed timed cycles blend at dif­fer­ent speeds, paus­ing and puls­ing to ensure all ingre­di­ents are pushed down to the blade. In addi­tion, while pre-set pro­grams run, the time counter will count down the time left until the cycle ends.

The SMOOTHIES pre-set lasts for 50 sec­onds and is typ­i­cal­ly used for nor­mal smoothies.

The CRUSH pro­gram lasts 60 sec­onds and is used to blend ice, frozen, and hard ingredients.

If you want to stop the CRUSH or SMOOTHIES pro­gram before the end of the cycle, press the action but­ton again or the START/STOP button.

The START/STOP but­ton and the already men­tioned func­tion to stop the pre-set cycle before the pro­grammed time can also be used to man­u­al­ly set the blender’s sin­gle-speed cycle that lasts 60 sec­onds. Dur­ing this sin­gle-speed cycle, the timer counts up the time from the start of the cycle.

The PULSE func­tion is intend­ed for man­u­al con­trol oper­a­tion, and it puls­es until you press it down and the timer counts up by seconds.

Nev­er­the­less, these two Auto-iQ pre-set pro­grams are an advanced fea­ture for a sin­gle-serve blender, allow­ing more flex­i­bil­i­ty to the user than just blending.

Container

The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender comes with two (2) X 24-ounce BPA-free poly­car­bon­ate con­tain­ers and two sips and seal plas­tic lids ready to be tak­en out­side if need­ed. Both cups have a MAX line to ori­ent the user with the vol­ume of food need­ed to be filled. It also has black mea­sur­ing marks in ounces and ml that are easy to see.

The blend­ing cups are designed to fit eas­i­ly into stan­dard car cup holders.

Blades

The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender uses the stan­dard for all Nin­ja per­son­al blenders and attach­ments: 4‑prong and 2 addi­tion­al spikes in the cen­ter Pro Extrac­tor Blades Assem­bly. The blade is made of stain­less steel and is very sharp. Nev­er­the­less, the blades tend to wear out with­in 1 year and need to be replaced, even though they are stain­less steel. The blade assem­bly gas­ket is not remov­able; it firm­ly fits around the blade base.

The blad­ed disc and the post are made of plas­tic and nylon. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, plas­tic parts also reduce the qual­i­ty and dura­bil­i­ty of the blades.

The old Nin­ja Bl480 mod­el had a prob­lem with seal­ing part of the blades that could start leak­ing with­in 1 year. This mod­el is new and has not been checked by the time, but we hope the Nin­ja improved the design and elim­i­nat­ed this problem.

Ease of Use and Cleaning

Set­ting up and oper­at­ing: Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender is very easy to set up for run­ning. Fill the cup with ingre­di­ents and liq­uid up to the MAX line. Screw the blade assem­bly to the cup tight­ly enough to pre­vent leak­ing but not too tight; oth­er­wise, you will have the pain of remov­ing it. Turn the cup upside down and turn it clock­wise until you click to fix it to the base unit. Press the appro­pri­ate but­ton to run.

Once the Nin­ja Nutri Pro Blender is fin­ished blend­ing, you remove the blade cap, then pop on a sip­py lid, and it is ready to be tak­en away with you.

Clean­ing: The Nin­ja Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender clean­ing rou­tine is also not dif­fi­cult. If you blend thick ingre­di­ents, soak the blade assem­bly imme­di­ate­ly after use and fol­low with a clean water rinse. Please do not allow the blade assem­bly to dry because it will be hard­er to clean. If you blend­ed watery ingre­di­ents, it would be fine to rinse them with water.

Although the blade assem­bly and con­tain­ers are top-rack dish­wash­er safe, clean­ing them man­u­al­ly is rec­om­mend­ed to extend the blender’s durability.

Still, from time to time, you will need to dis­man­tle the blade assem­bly for prop­er clean­ing in order to pre­vent dirt from build­ing up between the blade and the plas­tic cap adden­dum. It is a very chal­leng­ing task since you can only remove the blade from the plas­tic cap with a thin, dull knife or an awl.

Ninja (BN401) Nutri Pro Special Features

Col­ors: The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender comes in one black and sil­ver color.

Cer­ti­fied Refur­bished: The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender does not yet have cer­ti­fied refur­bished models.

Use in coun­tries out­side of USA/Canada: The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender is sold in the USA and comes with a 110–120 volt­age sys­tem, which can be used only in the USA, Cana­da, most Cen­tral and South Amer­i­can regions, Japan, Tai­wan, and Sau­di Ara­bia (coun­tries sup­port 11–12- volts sys­tem). The machine could be used through a volt­age adapter, prefer­ably for a short peri­od. How­ev­er, this machine is avail­able in many coun­tries around the world and is bet­ter to be bought via local retailers.

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Noise

The Nutri Nin­ja Auto iQ with an 1100-watt motor pro­duces a lot of noise. It out­puts 100 dB (deci­bels). A hand drill pro­duces 98 noise lev­el deci­bels to under­stand bet­ter what that means, and a motor­cy­cle will out­put 100 dB. For those who can­not tol­er­ate this loud­ness for 45–60 sec­onds, I rec­om­mend that you place a rub­ber­ized table pad under­neath the blender, which should notice­ably reduce the noise output.

Warranty and Customer Service

The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender has a typ­i­cal 1‑year LIMITED War­ran­ty, which means you pay for replace­ment parts and ship­ping costs if you need a repair or replace­ment. Ama­zon sells this machine’s extend­ed war­ran­ty for 2 or 3 years for a rea­son­able price.

This blender war­ran­ty is not trans­fer­able and must be reg­is­tered with­in 10 days of pur­chase. It is valid only with the orig­i­nal receipt, so keep it safe in case you need it. The Nin­ja brand cus­tomer ser­vice has an aver­age cus­tomer sup­port service.

Optional accessories

There is a few extra acces­sories and attach­ment avail­able for this machine:

• Nin­ja Blender Cups, 32OZ Cup with Sip & Seal Lids — an extra set of two cups;
• 24 oz. pre­mi­um qual­i­ty poly­car­bon­ate East­man Tri­tan cups — these cups are more durable and will last much longer than typ­i­cal Nutri Nin­ja Auto IQ cups;
• Extra durable stain­less steel 24 oz. blend and trav­el cups — with a fit­ted lid, this trav­el cup has dou­ble-walled insu­la­tion and will keep your drink cold­er for up to 4 hours.
• Replace­ment Pro Extrac­tor Blades Assem­bly is com­pat­i­ble with the Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender.

Set Includes

Dimensions

This com­pact blender does not take up much kitchen counter space with a 6.34 inch­es X 6.93 inch­es foot­print, and it fits under tra­di­tion­al kitchen cab­i­nets at 14.29 inch­es in height. It also could be eas­i­ly stored in a cab­i­net or drawer.

 

This gad­get’s ship­ping box is 15.8 x 12.8 x 7.9 inch­es, with a weight of 6.28 pounds.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender is a pow­er­ful blender, and it makes a good qual­i­ty smoothie;
• The blender crush­es ice very well and is suit­able for pro­cess­ing iced drinks;
• It has a new and pre­mi­um exte­ri­or design;
• It is equipped with a full con­trol pan­el that includes 2 pre-set pro­grams, 1 con­tin­u­ous speed, and a pulse function;
• It is very com­pact and does not take up much of your kitchen space;
• It is also easy to store in any cab­i­net or even a kitchen drawer;
• This com­pact blender’s main ben­e­fit is that it can be tak­en straight out­side in the same blend­ing cup with the sip­ping lid with­out any extra hassle;
• The base has suc­tion caps and does not move or twist on the countertop;

Cons:

• The war­ran­ty is only for 1 year, and cus­tomer ser­vice is not very help­ful. The short war­ran­ty means that the pro­duc­er does not stand behind or believe in its quality.
• Many parts of the motor and blade assem­bly are made of plastic;
• It requires that you screw the blend­ing cup to the blade assem­bly very tight­ly, and some­times it is very dif­fi­cult to remove the blade from the jar after use.

Ninja (BN401) Nutri Pro Personal Blender Consumer Reviews

Nin­ja prod­ucts are very pop­u­lar among con­sumers, and Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender is not an excep­tion. Although this blender is a new Nin­ja release, it already has a very high rat­ing and demand. No won­der this machine seems well made and one of the most func­tion­al per­son­al blenders on the market.

Price

The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender is slight­ly over­priced for a gad­get with lim­it­ed ver­sa­til­i­ty and speed con­trols that serve only one or two peo­ple max­i­mum. Cer­tain­ly, it has its ben­e­fits, and it will suit peo­ple with kitchen space issues or some­one who trav­els a lot and needs a portable and easy-to-store blender.

How­ev­er, Ama­zon often offers the best price for this unit and may drop to a very rea­son­able price.

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Summary

The Nin­ja (BN401) Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender is a gad­get for busy peo­ple with hec­tic lifestyles. It is pow­er­ful, makes a good smooth­ie, and eas­i­ly crush­es ice. In addi­tion, this per­son­al blender has an advanced fea­ture for the sin­gle-serve device class, such as a prop­er con­trol pan­el, which offers the user more blend­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty. So if you need a blender to make quick qual­i­ty smooth­ies in a sin­gle-serve cup that you can take on a go, then this blender is a good option for you.

Ninja BN401 Blender with Auto-iQ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is the Nutri Ninja worth it?

Nin­ja offers a wide range of kitchen appli­ances, includ­ing blenders and per­son­al blenders. All the Nin­ja prod­ucts are man­u­fac­tured in Chi­na, and the qual­i­ty of coun­ter­top blenders, espe­cial­ly the blade tow­er design, is ques­tion­able. In con­trast, the Nin­ja per­son­al blenders are rea­son­ably qual­i­ty and per­form excel­lent­ly. Nutri Nin­ja sin­gle-serve is supe­ri­or to the Nutribul­let in all ways.

Are Ninja blenders high quality?

The qual­i­ty of the Nin­ja blenders depends on what to com­pare them. Cer­tain­ly, they are infe­ri­or to Vita­mix or Blendtec blenders. How­ev­er, they are bet­ter qual­i­ty than most oth­er blenders man­u­fac­tured in Chi­na. Gen­er­al­ly, per­son­al Nin­ja blenders are high qual­i­ty, with some mod­els being bet­ter than oth­ers. A review by RTINGS.com found that the Nin­ja Nutri Nin­ja Auto-iQ is a high-qual­i­ty blender.

How to use Ninja bn401 Blender?

The Nin­ja BN401 Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender is an easy-to-use appli­ance. Here are the steps to set up and use the blender:

1. Attach the cup and blade assem­bly to the base unit.
2. Fill the cup with ingre­di­ents and liq­uid up to the MAX line.
3. Screw the blade assem­bly to the cup tight­ly enough to pre­vent leak­ing but not too tight.
4. Turn the cup upside down and turn it clock­wise until you click to fix it to the base unit.
5. Press the appro­pri­ate but­ton to run.
6. Once the blend­ing is com­plete, fol­low these steps to remove the blade cap and enjoy your drink:
7. Remove the blade cap from the cup.
8. Pop on a sip­py lid.

It is impor­tant to note that the Nin­ja BN401 Nutri Pro Per­son­al Blender has a user man­u­al that pro­vides detailed instruc­tions on how to use it.

What are the main features of the Nutri Ninja Auto-iQ?

• The Nutri Nin­ja Auto-iQ fea­tures a pow­er­ful 1100-peak-watt motor that pul­ver­izes harsh ingredients.
• It has 2 pre­set Auto-iQ Pro­grams and a Pulse func­tion. Pre­sets com­bine timed puls­ing, blend­ing, and paus­ing pat­terns for more effi­cient blending.
• The blender comes with a 24-ounce cup, an 18-ounce cup, and two Sip & Seal lids, mak­ing it easy to take your drinks on the go.
• The Nutri Nin­ja Auto-iQ also has a dig­i­tal count­down timer that dis­plays how much time remains on the select­ed Auto-iQ pro­gram or the blend­ing time when using man­u­al speeds.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when setting up the Ninja Nutri Pro Blender?

• Over-tight­en­ing the blade assem­bly can make it dif­fi­cult to remove
• Not fill­ing the cup up to the MAX line can result in uneven blending
• Not attach­ing the cup to the base unit prop­er­ly can cause the blender to malfunction

How long does blending a smoothie with the Ninja BN401 Blender take?

The blend­ing time may vary depend­ing on the ingre­di­ents used and the desired con­sis­ten­cy of the smooth­ie. It is rec­om­mend­ed to refer to the user man­u­al or exper­i­ment with dif­fer­ent blend­ing times to find the opti­mal time for your spe­cif­ic needs.

 

Alter­na­tive­ly, check our articles:

• Best pow­er­ful but afford­able per­son­al type blenders
• NutriBul­let Pro 900 vs. Nutri Nin­ja Auto iQ BL480 Blenders
• Best Blender for Smooth­ies and More – Buy­ing Guide 2022