Ninja BL660 Review

Ninja is one of several house-care brands developed by SharkNinja Operating LLC, a well-established company in the housewares industry. They produce not only household appliances, including blenders, but also home cleaning products, like vacuums. Driven by innovation and ease of use, plus competitive pricing, the company strives to impact people worldwide with helpful products.

Performance Comparison

Puree Quality

We blended various foods from soft to raw, including frozen, to compare the puree quality of each machine. Equipped with an 1100 watt motor and unique blade system (amping up the blending efficacy), this machine certainly has enough power and an innovative design to blend most foods. Therefore, it may come as no surprise that this machine was a top performer in this metric.

This machine excels at blending soft foods, like bananas and avocados, and prepared a puree of meats and grains that can work for most babies. Although kale and uncooked foods can cause issues for most machines, the Ninja BL660 did a fine job with these ingredients, only leaving behind tiny pieces like skins.

The container's design does not accommodate hot blending, so you'll need cool ingredients to room temperature. We consider this a drawback as food items are often hot while preparing baby food ingredients or family meals, so it can be inconvenient to wait for ingredients to cool. Despite having top scores in this metric, this drawback kept it from receiving an award.

Ease of Use

If a machine is easy to set up and use, it is more likely that you'll use it for your baby food-making adventures. Fortunately for the Ninja, it scored high in this metric. Out of the box, the machine is easy to set up and has a short learning curve before you start blending. You will need to cook or steam ingredients depending on what you'd like to prepare. But, once ingredients are ready to go and cooled, the blending task is quick.

Besides the base and BPA-free pitcher (72 oz. capacity, but MAX liquid capacity is 64 oz), you get two Nutri Ninja cups (16 oz.) and a blade unit to use with the cups. The Nutri Ninja smoothie cups work well to blend smaller portions, and they come with to-go lids so that you can stick them in the fridge. However, the to-go lids are not travel-friendly, with open drinking holes that are not sealable. So, if you prep a smoothie for the road and it falls over, a mess is unavoidable.

This blender has a few features of convenience that we appreciate, such as suction-cup feet and space for cord storage, which is handy when striving to keep your countertop tidy.

Health and Safety

Among other competitors, the Ninja has a rather high score for health and safety as it features a fair amount of safety mechanisms. For instance, the lid's handle locks down for the blender to work, and the two arrows must point towards each other, showing the cover is on correctly.

According to the user manual, you should not run the appliance beyond four minutes to prevent overheating of the machine. There is an internal motor thermostat, and if the appliance is being overloaded, the motor will stop. However, as a good rule of thumb, be mindful of how long you are using the blender.

The blade system on this Ninja is very sharp. While testing, we noticed that the blade rod scratched the inside of the pitcher, despite our best efforts to remove or place it without touching the pitcher (kind of reminded us of the game Operation). If this occurs, we worry about plastic entering the food. Therefore, we advise users to be extremely careful when handling the blades, and if you plan on handwashing it, use a bottle brush.

Ease of Cleaning

If a machine is easy to clean and maintain, it will positively influence your food-making experience. Again, the Ninja ranks high in this metric.

Contrary to all-in-one machines with steam tanks, this machine is much easier to clean with fewer concerns about potential mold growth. Also, The benefit of selecting a blender is that it cleans itself by blending water with a small drop of soap. Finally, keep in mind, washing the pitcher as soon as possible while food is moist will help ease the overall cleaning process as dried-on food can be stubborn and difficult to remove.