I just tested this state-of-the-art $179 Ninja blender — but it performs like a Vitamix

Screw suspense, I’m just going to come out and say it. The Ninja Detect Power pro with BlendSense is one of the best blenders I’ve ever used, if not the best. There. It’s out. Review over.

I jest, but I seriously adore this blender. It performs like it should cost over $500 and have a nice shiny ‘Vitamix’ label. Everything I threw in the 72oz pitcher blended in seconds — it even made smooth liquid gold peanut butter in 3 minutes. I know, I wouldn’t believe it either.

I can’t fathom how Ninja keeps the price so low — the Detect Power Pro with BlendSense is just $179 (although you can buy extra attachments for extra costs, of course). This is by far one of the most impressive blenders I’ve ever used, regardless of price. I’ll go through everything in full in this Ninja Detect Power Pro with BlendSense review.

Ninja Detect Power Pro with BlendSense review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A blender with serious muscle (and kind of cool ‘BlendSense’ tech that apparently ‘senses’ food in the blender… hmm)
• Who is it for? People who need to blend with serious muscle
• What does it cost? $179 / £175
• What do we like? Besides it being so powerful it can turn nuts into liquid in 3 minutes, the blades are removable, meaning you can get into all crevices when scraping out food
• What don’t we like? The blades are removable, but they also don’t lock into place

Ninja Detect Power Pro with BlendSense review: Specs

Ninja Detect Power Pro with BlendSense review: Price & availability

The Ninja Detect Power Pro with BlendSense is $179 from Amazon U.S. and £175 from Amazon U.K.. While this is a pretty reasonable price for a blender of this caliber: Vitamixes can go for around $379 (some over $600) and Breville’s Super Q is a massive $549.

With the Ninja Detect Power Pro with BlendSense, you’re kind of getting two blenders in one. The blender comes with the massive 1800W blending base, a huge 72 ounce pitcher, and a personal cup with a blending lid (think smaller Nutribullet).

I really think this is a great price for a blender of this power. The Nutribullet Smart Touch blender is $99, but it’s nowhere near as powerful. When I tried to make nut butter in the Nutribullet, it did not go well.

While I was testing the Ninja Detect Power Pro, I was also running through some tests on the $299 KitchenAid K400 blender and the £290 Magimix Power 4 blender. Guess which blender came out on top every time? The Ninja.

Ninja Detect Power Pro with BlendSense review: Design & controls

One of the most impressive design features on this blender is that the blades are 100% removable. Yes, gone are the days of trying to play acrobat to get your cleaning cloth under stiff blades and in weird little crevices.

Why is this not more common on pitcher blenders? Why only food processors? It makes life so much easier. I cleaned the Detect Power Pro quickly and easily with no food residue left in hard-to-reach places.

The blending base is quite large at 8 inches high and 8 inches wide, but it has sticky feet so it won’t vibrate off of your kitchen counter. In the center of the motor base is a bright LCD BlendSense dial you can turn to select blending mode and length of blend.

If you have the dough blade, you can even make pizza or bread dough with BlendSense's ‘Dough’ mode. The same goes for the additional food processor bowl and the chopping blade, meaning this can be easily turned into a food processor too.

Surprisingly, the Detect Power Pro doesn’t come with a tamper or food pusher, so you’ll need to buy one. Ninja’s Foodi tamper is $13, but the Power Pro’s lid only has a small opening for liquids, so it wouldn’t fit in a central hole like on other Nutribullet, KitchenAid, and Magimix blenders. That’s probably the biggest design flaw with the Ninja, but the blades do push food inwards as they move so I found very little need for scraping during testing.

The jug is a huge 72 ounces, so it will be able to make smoothies, sauces, or dough big enough to feed the whole family. And unlike other blenders, the blades are removable so there was very little residual product left inside after blending, so I got the most out of my ingredients.

Ninja Detect Power Pro with BlendSense review: Blending performance

Now, one of the biggest selling points of the Ninja Detect Power Pro is its ‘BlendSense’ technology. But, I hear you ask, didn’t Ninja already have an AI-tinged feature called AutoIQ? Yes, yes it did.

Well, what’s the difference between the pre-existing AutoIQ and the new BlendSense? Ninja says AutoIQ has “unique timed pulsing, blending and pausing patterns”, whereas BlendSense can actually ‘sense’ ingredients and “identifies fresh or frozen ingredients and recipe size, then automatically adjusts time, speed, and power for perfect results”.

So, in essence, AutoIQ just automatically blends based on a specific, pre-determined time and power, whereas BlendSense blends based on the hardness and volume of ingredients. While these two features, on paper, appear to be different, I found that in practice BlendSense didn’t behave all that differently. Well, how different can it be? It’s a blender, blending. It just blends.

I put the Detect Power Pro with BlendSense through three different tests to analyze its blending prowess. Its max volume was 90dB while blending frozen fruit. This is 3 decibels louder than the Magimix Blender Power 4 and 2 decibels quieter than the KitchenAid K400.

The classic — berry smoothie

I added one cup of frozen mixed berries and 1 cup of coconut milk to the blender and selected BlendSense. Immediately it started blending, and meanwhile, the LCD dial pronounced it was ‘sensing’. After a few seconds, this changed to ‘Thick: 84 seconds’ and counted down from 84 to 0.

Despite this countdown, I could see that the smoothie was actually finished after about 20 seconds, but for the purpose of science, I let it run down to 0.

After the BlendSense’s recommended 84 seconds, I had one of the smoothest smoothies I’ve ever drank. Yes, I would have stopped it after 20 seconds and drank a bitty smoothie, but I’m so glad I put my faith in the Ninja. There were no pieces of ice whatsoever, and even the fruit seeds were gone. That’s something even other impressive blenders (KitchenAid and Magimix) failed to do.

The appetizer — hummus

Hummus isn’t a challenge in the same way that a smoothie is a challenge. Hummus relies on a careful blender that folds its ingredients in towards the blades rather than spray the pitcher with chunks of chickpeas.

To blend, I selected ‘BlendSense’. After the standard 15 seconds of thinking, it chose ‘Crush’ and blended for under a minute.

As you can see from this picture, the Ninja Detect Power Pro made light work of hummus. It didn’t even break a sweat. I added one tin of chickpeas, a tablespoon of tahini, a tablespoon of olive oil, and ice water during blending.

I didn’t have to scrape the sides of the pitcher or shake the blending base. The Ninja blended inwards, so the hummus blended evenly and did not require a massive amount of cleanup. I was super impressed with this, and the hummus was delicious.

The challenge — peanut butter

Now, I’ve never owned a blender that can capably make nut butter. I’ve tried and failed with my Nutribullet, so I was beginning to think it was a me problem. When we tried to make nut butter with the $649 Vitamix A3500, it overheated. While it still made nut butter eventually, it suffered while doing so.

In contrast, the $179 Ninja Detect Power Pro barely batted an eyelid at the thought of making peanut butter. I poured in around 14 ounces of roasted peanuts and selected ‘BlendSense’. Like the smoothie, it chose ‘Thick’ and blended for 85 seconds. I let it run down, then scraped the sides and selected BlendSense again. It blended for another 85 seconds and I was left with this golden beauty.

Look how gorgeous this texture is. It’s so liquidy and smooth. The lumps you can see aren’t peanut lumps, they’re air bubbles. I cannot describe how utterly delicious this peanut butter was. It was one of the best peanut butters I’ve ever tasted in my life. I must confess I ate this by the spoonful.

Ninja Detect Power Pro with BlendSense review: Storage & maintenance

Word of warning: the blades are really sharp. I know it sounds obvious, that blades are going to be sharp, but they are markedly sharper than other blender blades I’ve used. I cut my finger while cleaning them, so don’t do what I did.

The blades are completely removable, which means the blender itself is much easier to clean than other blenders I’ve used. I was able to get into all four corners of the pitcher and under all the blades with a sponge to prevent any gross build-up.

You can buy alternative blades for the Detect Power Pro, like the dough blade and chopping blade, for $16 and $23 respectively. For an extra $75, you can also buy the food processor bowl, so the Detect can technically become a blender + food processor. You can even buy a replacement blender motor base for $99.

Unfortunately sacrifices must be made in the search for power, and, as a result, the Ninja Detect Power Pro’s blending base is a quite bulky 8 x 8 inches. This means it won’t be able to stay out on your kitchen countertop (unless you have a massive kitchen!) and might also be too big to put away in the average cupboard.

Should you buy the Ninja Detect Power Pro with BlendSense blender?

If you want a stellar blender at a price so reasonable I had to check it three times to believe it then it’s a no-brainer. I cannot believe how affordable the Ninja Detect Power Pro is. As I mentioned earlier, I tested this alongside two $200+ blenders and the Ninja still came out on top every time.

The motor base works with Ninja’s personal cup, 72oz pitcher, and food processor unit, so it can be super versatile. I am positive that you would not need another blender, as the Ninja will be able to handle everything you throw at it. While, no, BlendSense can’t actually sense what specific ingredients you’re trying to blend — it seems to work on frozen/not frozen and volume — it does blend darn well.

I’m so confident that this is one of the best blenders I’ve ever used — confident enough to assert I think it would hold its own on a resurrected ‘Will It Blend?’ segment.