NutriBullet Rx Blender Review

The NutriBuller Rx infomer­cials are so con­vinc­ing that con­sumers sim­ply rave about this machine. Its main sell­ing point is its ver­sa­til­i­ty — it makes nut but­ter, grinds things, makes frozen desserts, and even makes soup. The pro­mos also empha­size the blender is extreme­ly easy to use and clean. Is it just too good to be true for the brand that out­sources engi­neer­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing in Chi­na? Read our hon­est review to answer this question.

Con­sid­er alter­na­tive options. Check our articles: 

NutriBul­let RX vs Vita­mix S30/S50/S55

Best NutriBul­let Blender – All Mod­els Com­par­i­son 2020

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Functionality and Versatility

Smooth­ie: This blender has enough pow­er to make smooth smooth­ies from soft and tough ingre­di­ents, includ­ing leafy greens. Thus it suits well for mak­ing green smooth­ies. It also dis­in­te­grates rea­son­ably well blue­ber­ry and rasp­ber­ry seeds in the drinks. How­ev­er, hard food like car­rots and beet­root must be cut into small­er pieces before processing.

Crush­ing Ice: Despite being very pow­er­ful, this machine sim­i­lar to any oth­er NutriBul­let mod­el is not designed to han­dle frozen ingre­di­ents with­out liq­uid added. It blends well the frozen fruits and ice cubes with a con­sid­er­able amount of liq­uid (as clear­ly stat­ed in the user man­u­al). But it is not able to crush ice to pro­duce snow cones, frozen desserts, or ice cream.

Juic­ing: Although infomer­cials pro­mote this blender as a juice extrac­tor, it is not. It is just a blender that does not sep­a­rate pulp and fiber from liq­uid to extract the juice. How­ev­er, this machine can make smooth smooth­ies aka “whole juice”.

Soup: This blender is designed to pro­duce hot soup from cold ingre­di­ents and heats it via fric­tion up to 150 F. A spe­cial G but­ton on the base unit acti­vates a 7‑minute Soup-Mak­ing Mode. Since the blender is extreme­ly loud, most con­sumers find that heat­ing soup using the stove will do the job much quick­er and more efficiently.

Nut milk: The blender is pow­er­ful enough to make nut milk by blend­ing nuts with water and strain­ing the mix­ture through the nut bag.

Nut but­ter: Although the NutriBul­let Rx recipe book includes the nut but­ter recipes this machine can pro­duce only mess instead of prop­er nut but­ter which usu­al­ly requires the help of a tam­per. But the blender is not designed to use the tamper.

Puree­ing: This machine can process a thick mix­ture so it can make puree but only the run­ny ones with a lot of liq­uid added.

Chop­ping: It is not designed to chop food because it has one pre-set pro­gram that runs very fast. The machine is not even equipped with the pulse func­tion which is very use­ful for food shop­ping and oth­er food prep recipes. So this blender will hard­ly make any sal­sas, sal­ad dress­ing, or marinades.

Grind­ing: The gad­get can grind the herbs or cof­fee beans, but the pre-pro­grammed cycle is too long, and the user will have to stop it man­u­al­ly. The machine also will hard­ly mill the bak­ing qual­i­ty flour.

Dough: This machine is not able to knead dough or mix cook­ies batter.

Basi­cal­ly, this NutriBul­let Rx is not sig­nif­i­cant­ly more func­tion­al than the NutriBul­let Pro 900 watts. It only makes good drinks, includ­ing green smooth­ies, and adds the soup func­tion which is not very prac­ti­cal. As with all Nutribul­let machines, it does not crush ice with­out liquids.

Speed Settings and Programs

NutriBul­let Rx has a very prim­i­tive speed con­trol design. It has no usu­al pow­er­ful blenders on/off but­ton, speed set­tings, and pulse func­tion. Instead, the gad­get is turned on by drop­ping the cup with blade assem­bly on the base unit and auto­mat­i­cal­ly starts run­ning a 1‑minute pre-set cycle. This cycle slows down and speeds back up until stops auto­mat­i­cal­ly. But most­ly it runs at a very high speed of 25,000 — 30,000 rpm. Accord­ing to the instruc­tion, the user can stop the blender at any time dur­ing the cycle by sim­ply lift­ing the cup of the blender. That could be use­ful to add extra ingre­di­ents to the con­tain­er or shake it for help­ing vor­tex. The absence of an on/off but­ton is a real draw­back of this machine. The fre­quent inter­rup­tion in the mid­dle of the cycle may wear out the blender gear ear­ly and even could be not very safe for the user.

Still, this blender has one more pre-set for soup blend­ing. This soup pre-set can be acti­vat­ed dur­ing the 1‑minute cycle by press­ing the Green But­ton for 2 sec. And once it turns red the 7 min­utes soup cycle starts (called SOUPERBLAST). The machine will stop auto­mat­i­cal­ly at the end of the Souperblast 7 min­utes pre-set cycle.

Although, this machine has a pow­er­ful motor but does not give any con­trol to the user over the blend­ing process and allows the user to pre­pare only a lim­it­ed range of recipes.

Ease of Using and Cleaning

Oper­at­ing: The NutriBul­let RX is very easy to assem­ble and oper­ate. Fill the cup with all the ingre­di­ents, includ­ing liq­uid, screw on the blade assem­bly tight enough to avoid leak­ing (usu­al prob­lem with the blender), and drop it on the base. The machine starts run­ning auto­mat­i­cal­ly, ini­ti­at­ing a one-minute pro­gram. It also shuts off auto­mat­i­cal­ly at the end of the cycle. The user can repeat the pro­gram if not sat­is­fied with the result. It is also pos­si­ble to stop the cycle in the mid­dle of the pro­gram by lift­ing the cap from the motor base. When fill­ing the con­tain­er the user also has to remem­ber not to exceed the Max line. Oth­er­wise, the liq­uid inside the cup expands dur­ing liq­ue­fy­ing and as a result may leak out.

After blend­ing, the user has to dis­as­sem­ble the unit, which could often be a chal­leng­ing task and requires some effort because the machine builds up a lot of pres­sure inside of the cup dur­ing the operation.

Clean­ing: Cus­tomers believe that all bul­let-type blenders are very easy to clean. But it is not true with the NutriBul­let. Although the gad­get is top-shelf dish­wash­er safe (accord­ing to the user man­u­al), hand wash­ing is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed for this machine. Since clean­ing it in the dish­wash­er may often cause dam­age to cups and blade assembly.

Besides, the blade assem­bly tends to accu­mu­late mold under the gas­ket. Thus it is bet­ter to remove the gas­ket every time and clean it sep­a­rate­ly. The con­tain­ers also are quite hard to clean since they have plas­tic ver­ti­cal pro­tru­sions that tend to trap food.

Base Unit and Motor Power

NutriBul­let Rx comes with a very pow­er­ful 1700 watts motor and a very fast blade rota­tion speed of 25,000–30,000 rpm, but it is poor­ly built and has few design flaws.

This blender has the plas­tic motor dri­ve to blade cou­pling and the main shaft that goes into the fric­tion gear. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, all these sub­stan­tial­ly reduce the dura­bil­i­ty of the motor.

The gad­get has one more design prob­lem. It does not pro­tect the motor from spilled liq­uids. The motor has a few ven­ti­la­tion holes that are placed at the top of the base unit. While with good con­struc­tion, they should be locat­ed at the bot­tom or sides and derange the leaked liq­uid away from the elec­tron­ic part. Now all spilled liq­uids go direct­ly to the motor caus­ing its pre­ma­ture fail­ure and an aver­age lifes­pan of around 1–1.5 years.

Containers

NutriBul­let Rx comes with three (3) con­tain­ers – 34 oz. (1L) SouperBlast pitch­er, the short 32 oz. cup and the over­sized 45 oz. cup. The SouperBlast pitch­er is equipped with a two-piece vent­ed lid which is sup­posed to release steam dur­ing soup blend­ing. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, all the NutriBul­let Rx con­tain­ers are made from cheap, non-durable plas­tic that eas­i­ly scratch­es up and cracks. On aver­age, they last around 6–9 months if used every day and hand cleaned (with a dish­wash­er, they will last much less).

The 32. Oz and 45 oz. cups require a lot of effort to tight­en up prop­er­ly when screw­ing to the blade assem­bly. Oth­er­wise, con­tain­ers have a chance to leak. It was also quite dif­fi­cult to unscrew them due to the pres­sure build-up inside of the cups dur­ing blend­ing. The machine comes with a spe­cial wrench which is sup­posed to help remove the blade assem­bly once it becomes very tight on the con­tain­ers due to the accu­mu­lat­ed pres­sure inside of the cup dur­ing the blend­ing process.

Besides, both cups have quite seri­ous design flaws, they spill out eas­i­ly even when filled below the MAX line. The 32 and 45 oz. cups are sup­posed to be tak­en out and come with to-go lids but they have a han­dle on the sides that makes them impos­si­ble to fit into the car cup holders.

Blades

NutriBul­let Rx comes with one blade assem­bly sys­tem that is inter­change­able between all the con­tain­ers. The 4‑prongs blades and shaft are made of stain­less steel, while the rest of the assem­bly is made of plastic.

It turns out that the blade assem­bly has a major design flaw. The rub­ber gas­ket or o‑ring that goes between the blades’ assem­bly base and the cup tends to come off, wrapped around the blade, chopped up, and even can end up in the drinks. An inse­cure gas­ket often results in the con­tents leak­ing and spew­ing all over the place. The user, of course, can buy replace­ment o‑rings, but the oppor­tu­ni­ty to have the smooth­ie with a pul­ver­ized rub­ber gas­ket is not a very pleas­ant experience.

Also, the Mag­ic Bul­let Com­pa­ny rec­om­mends replac­ing the blade assem­bly every six months, which costs about $22-$30 includ­ing tax and adds up to the ini­tial cost of this machine.

Special Features

Col­or: NutriBul­let Rx is avail­able in black met­al col­or only.

Cer­ti­fied Refur­bished: This machine has the cer­ti­fied refur­bished mod­el avail­able, and they sold at a con­sid­er­ably low­er price than the orig­i­nal model.

Oper­a­tion out­side of USA/Canada: NutriBul­let Rx sold in the USA and Cana­da comes with a 110–120 wattage sys­tem. Cus­tomers out­side the region are rec­om­mend­ed to buy the unit local­ly. The blender is avail­able in many coun­tries around the world. How­ev­er, it may be used via a wattage trans­former for those who trav­el with the machine.

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Noise

Nutribul­let Rx is an extreme­ly noisy machine, and it also shakes and trav­els over the counter when run­ning. This is not sur­pris­ing because the even less pow­er­ful NutriBul­let mod­els are also very noisy.

Warranty and Customer Service

Nutribul­let Rx comes with only a 1‑year LIMITED war­ran­ty. It cov­ers only faults in the machine and repair and does not cov­er machine wear and tear and ship­ping for repair and replace­ment. The war­ran­ty is not trans­fer­able and valid only to the orig­i­nal con­sumer. The unit comes with 30 days tri­al peri­od, but the com­pa­ny charges $30 restock­ing plus applic­a­ble ship­ping fees.

The Mag­ic Bul­let cus­tomer ser­vice has a bad rep­u­ta­tion for its clue­less employ­ees and reluc­tance to replace or repair faulty products.

Optional Accessories and Attachments

There are not any addi­tion­al attach­ments avail­able for the NutriBul­let Rx machine. The mod­el con­tain­ers and blades are also not inter­change­able with Nutribul­let 600 watts and 900 watts mod­els. The Rx has a much larg­er cup open­ing and blade assem­bly than oth­er NutriBul­let mod­els. How­ev­er, it is pos­si­ble to buy replace­ment con­tain­ers and blade assem­bly for this machine from man­u­fac­tur­ers and many online retailers.

Set Includes

• 1700 watts Pow­er Base;
• One blade assembly;
• 1‑liter SouperBlast pitch­er and 2‑Piece Lid (max. fill 35 oz.);
• Short Cup and Com­fort Lip Ring 32-oz.;
• Over­sized Cup 45-oz;
• Reseal­able Lid;
• Blade remover wrench;
• User Guide
• 150-page Natures Pre­scrip­tion Recipe Book

The user guide and recipe books also include a lot of health-relat­ed infor­ma­tion and hype material.

Dimensions

NutriBul­let Rx is a great deal big­ger unit than oth­er Nutribul­let mod­els. The base unit has a foot­print of 5 1/2 inch­es in diam­e­ter, 10 1/2 inch­es in height, and weighs about 14.7 pounds.

It very tall blender. Its height is 17 3/8 inch­es with 45 oz. cups and 18 ¾ inch­es with the soup pitch­er on the top of the base unit. The machine will occu­py sig­nif­i­cant space on the counter. It hard­ly fits under a typ­i­cal kitchen cab­i­net and needs a lot of room to store all its mul­ti­ple accessories.

NutriBullet Rx Pros and Cons

Pros:

• NutriBul­let Rx has so entic­ing com­mer­cials that are able to per­suade a few peo­ple to start a healthy lifestyle;
• The blender is very easy to use and could suit com­plete smooth­ies beginners.
• It is a pow­er­ful machine and makes fair­ly smooth drinks, includ­ing green smoothies;

Cons:

• NutriBul­let Rx has a prim­i­tive design with­out any speed con­trol and even pulse func­tion, thus allow­ing very lim­it­ed user con­trol over the blend­ing process;
• It is a huge machine and requires a lot of space for storage;
• The blender comes with very bad qual­i­ty con­tain­ers that eas­i­ly crack, leak, and must be replaced often;
• The blade assem­bly has the design fault thus requires efforts to screw it to the cup, may leak if not con­nect­ed tight enough and blades seal­ing gas­ket often ends ups pul­ver­ized in the drinks;
• The man­u­fac­tur­er rec­om­mends replac­ing the blade assem­bly every 6 months, which will result in extra cost to the customer;
• The machine is not easy to clean because of many cav­i­ties in blade assem­bly and cups;
• The blender comes with only a 1‑year lim­it­ed war­ran­ty and a bad rep­u­ta­tion for cus­tomer service;
• This blender is cheap­ly made and not durable, with an aver­age life expectan­cy of about 1–1.5 years.

NutriBullet Rx Consumer Reviews

Despite mul­ti­ple design flaws, this blender has fair­ly enough pos­i­tive reviews. This fact could be only explained by the pow­er of very pro­fes­sion­al and appeal­ing com­mer­cials for this machine.

Price

It has a good price for the blender with the 1700  Watts motor and the abil­i­ty to heat the liq­uids with fric­tion. How­ev­er, con­sid­er­ing the few design flaws it has, the short life span, and only a 1‑year lim­it­ed war­ran­ty, this machine is rather overpriced.

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Summary

Nutribul­let Rx has a pow­er­ful motor and makes good smooth­ies but is much less func­tion­al than adver­tised. It hard­ly han­dles ice and is not able to crush it with­out liq­uid. The blender comes with only one speed and has very lim­it­ed con­trol over the blend­ing process, so not suit­able for prepar­ing a large vari­ety of recipes. Even the heav­i­ly pro­mot­ed soup-mak­ing func­tion turns out to be very unprac­ti­cal. It also has mul­ti­ple cups and blade design flaws that make this machine non-durable. Sim­ply, this prod­uct is way over-priced, and its pow­er­ful motor only turns out to con­sume a lot of ener­gy with­out adding any func­tion­al­i­ty to this machine.

The bot­tom line, as the alter­na­tive to the NutriBul­let Rx the cus­tomer will be bet­ter off if they con­sid­er the less expen­sive blenders; they do the same job. Those who look for a very pow­er­ful and func­tion­al per­son­al type blender should look at the Vita­mix s30, S50, or S55 mod­els.