The Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System is a full-size blender with a similar design to the Ninja Foodi Power Blender & Processor System and the Ninja Foodi Power Pitcher System. Like the other 'Foodi Power' blenders, it comes with a 72-ounce main jar and a dough blade. This model comes with the biggest variety of extra jars and attachments, including blades for slicing and grating. There's also a personal jar for single-serve smoothies and a 'Smoothie Bowl Maker' for thicker recipes like nut butter.
Our Verdict
The Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System is decent for multi-purpose use. Its big 72-ounce main pitcher is great for large servings and crushing ice. It has various accessories that add to its versatility, like a personal jar for single-serve smoothies and a 'Smoothie Maker Bowl' that works very well for thicker mixtures like nut butter. However, you can't use it for hot blending. Also, while it can make a silky green smoothie in the 24-ounce personal jar, it makes a grainy puree with fibrous ingredients in the main jar.
- Good build quality.
- Extra blades for dough, slicing, and grating.
- Sharp blades can make cleaning by hand difficult.
The Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System is excellent for single-serve smoothies. It can make a silky smoothie with fibrous ingredients like kale using the 24-ounce main jar. There's a resealable lid included for the jar, so it's easy to bring your drink with you on the go. The jars and lids are dishwasher-safe.
- 24-ounce personal jar included.
- Dishwasher-safe.
- Noisy.
The Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System is good for making multiple batches of smoothies. The 72-ounce main jar can hold enough to serve a crowd, and it has no problem crushing ice. However, it does a mediocre job of processing big batches of fibrous ingredients, and the results aren't as smooth as with the smaller personal jar, even after several minutes of blending.
- 72-ounce capacity.
- Dishwasher-safe.
- Not ideal for big batches of fibrous ingredients.
The Ninja SS401 is a fantastic ice crusher. It has a sturdy build quality and can make snow-like crushed ice very quickly in its 72-ounce main jar.
- Good build quality.
- Makes snow-like crushed ice.
The Ninja SS401 can't hot blend, so if you want to process ingredients for soup, they need to cool down first. The main jar also struggles to make a silky puree of fibrous ingredients, so recipes with vegetables like kale or broccoli have a grainy texture. That said, the 72-ounce main jar is a good size for big batches of soup or sauce.
- Can't hot blend.
- Not ideal for big batches of fibrous ingredients.
The Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System is very good for professional use. It has a large 72-ounce capacity. It's well-suited for crushing ice and making small batches of nut butter. It's also okay for processing big batches of fibrous ingredients, although it doesn't produce a smooth puree in the main jar. Also, while it's well-built overall, it's not as sturdy as some other full-size blenders, which may be an issue if you plan to use your blender multiple times a day.
- Good build quality.
- 72-ounce capacity.
- Can't hot blend.
Changelog
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Updated Oct 18, 2024:
We've updated the results to more accurately reflect the blender's performance. The score for Fibrous Ingredients (Small Batches) processing changed from 9.5 to 8.5 because of the blending time, and the score for Fibrous Ingredients (Full Capacity) processing changed from 8.5 to 5.0 because of the blending time and the need to use a spatula.
- Updated Mar 13, 2024: Compared its performance for fibrous ingredients (small batches) to the Ninja Detect Kitchen System Power Blender's.
- Updated Oct 11, 2022: Added the 'Graphite' color to 'Variants'.
- Updated Aug 25, 2022: Review published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System generally comes in one color, 'Silver.' You can see the label for the unit we tested here. There's also a darker grey 'Graphite' variant available at Costco (U.S.). We expect our results to be valid for that variant as well. If you come across another variant, let us know in the discussions, and we'll update our review.
Popular Blender Comparisons
The Ninja SS401 is similar to the Ninja Foodi Power Blender & Processing System and the older Ninja Foodi Power Pitcher SS201 and Ninja Foodi Power Pitcher System. This model comes with the most accessories and attachments, including blades meant for slicing vegetables and grating cheese. It also comes with a 24-ounce jar that makes silky smoothies and a 'Smoothie Bowl Maker' that works well for making nut butter. Like most Ninja blenders, it can't safely blend hot ingredients. Its blade design makes it difficult to clean the main jar by hand.
If you're looking for a full-size blender, check out our lists of the best blenders, the best blenders for smoothies, and the best blenders for crushing ice.
The Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System and the Ninja Detect Kitchen System TB401 are both full-size blenders that come with a variety of additional jars and accessories for different recipes. In addition to its regular blending blades, the Ultimate System comes with blades for chopping and grating that you can use with the 72-ounce main jar. A 'Smoothie Bowl Maker' is also included, making it easier to use for thick recipes like nut butter. The Detect comes with a 72-ounce main jar and a separate 64-ounce food processing bowl. Both blenders come with personal jars that make well-blended single-serve smoothies, but the Detect does a better job of blending fibrous ingredients in its main jar, so it's better for big batches of smoothies.
The Ninja Mega Kitchen System and the Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System are both full-size blenders that are meant to act as food processors. They both include personal jars for single-serve smoothies. The Kitchen System is a little better for making single-serve smoothies since it makes a silkier puree with ingredients like kale using its personal jars. It also has a better build quality. The Ultimate is more convenient to make nut butter if you use its 18-ounce 'Smoothie Bowl Maker' jar, and it comes with a blade for grating cheese.
The KitchenAid K400 and the Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System have different strengths. The KitchenAid K400 makes a smoother blend with big batches of fibrous ingredients, and it can hot blend, so it's better for multiple servings of smoothies and soups. On the other hand, the Ninja comes with lots of extra accessories, including personal jars for smoothies and a 'Smoothie Maker Bowl' that makes it easy to make thick mixtures like nut butter. There are also extra blades included for tasks like forming dough and slicing vegetables.
Ninja Foodi Power Pitcher System and the Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System perform similarly, but the Ultimate System comes with more accessories for food processing. Both models come with a personal jar for silky smoothies and an 18-ounce 'Smoothie Bowl Maker' that works well for thick mixtures like nut butter. They each come with a dough blade for forming bread or cookie dough, but the Ultimate System also includes blades for slicing and grating things like vegetables and cheese.
Test Results
The Ninja SS401 is a few inches shorter than full-size blenders like the Ninja Mega Kitchen System BL770 or Ninja Professional Blender 1000. It's still quite bulky, so you need to store it on your counter or in a spacious cupboard.
The Ninja SS401 has good build quality. The jars and blades feel thick and sturdy, and it's easy to fit the blades into the main jar. The buttons on the front of the motor base feel clicky, and there are suction cups on the bottom to help it stay in place when running. However, like other blenders, we've tested in Ninja's 'Foodi' product line, the motor base is made of generic plastic, and the control dial feels cheap.
The Ninja SS401's main jar has a 72-ounce capacity. Also included is an 18-ounce 'Smoothie Bowl Maker with Built-in Tamper' with rotating arms inside of it to help with processing thicker recipes like nut butter, and a 24-ounce personal jar with a to-go lid intended for single-serve smoothies.
All of the Ninja SS401's jars are made of plastic and are dishwasher-safe, along with the lids and blade assemblies.
The Ninja SS401's main blade assembly has a spiral design, which is typical for Ninja blenders. There's a separate blade assembly for the smaller jars that fits on like a lid. There are also several extra blade assemblies that you can use with the main jar for food processing tasks: a dough blade for bread or cookie dough, a 'Reversible Slicing/Shredding Disc' for chopping or shredding vegetables like carrots and onions, and a 'Grating Disk' for grating cheese.
The lid for the main pitcher locks into place when you press on the handle and releases with a button on top. It's not a two-part lid that lets you add ingredients mid-blend, but it does have a spout opening to make it easier to pour. There's a second lid for the main jar to use when you're shredding or grating ingredients with one of the 'disk' blades. It has a food chute, similar to a traditional food processor, that lets you add ingredients without taking off the lid. For the 24-ounce personal jar, there's a sealable to-go lid and a storage lid.
The Ninja SS401's power cord is long enough to reach a nearby outlet on your counter. There's no place to stow or wrap the cable when it's not in use.
- Ninja SS401 motor base
- 72 oz main jar and lid
- 24 oz personal jar ('Nutrient Extraction Cup')
- 18 oz 'XL Smoothie Bowl Maker with Built-in Tamper'
- To-go lid
- Storage lid
- Stacked blade assembly
- Dough blade assembly
- Food Chute Lid and Two-Part Pusher
- Reversible slicing/shredding disc
- Grating Disk
- Disk Spindle
- Hybrid edge blade assembly (for smaller jars)
- Owner's guide, 'Quick Start' guide, and recipe booklet
The Ninja SS401 is excellent for processing small batches of fibrous ingredients. Using the 24-ounce personal jar, it can make a mostly smooth blend with ingredients like kale. Some blenders can do it faster, and the texture is slightly grainy compared to the Ninja Detect Kitchen System Power Blender or the Ninja Foodi Power Pitcher System, but it's not a huge difference.
It's mediocre for processing fibrous ingredients with the main jar at full capacity. It's slow and you need to stop partway through to clear any ingredients stuck to the sides of the jar with a spatula or spoon. It doesn't completely process the ingredients, and the result is a grainy blend.
The Ninja SS401 is fantastic for ice crushing. It takes less than 30 seconds to pulverize 12 ice cubes into snow-like ice.
The Ninja SS401's 18-ounce jar is superb for making nut butter. If you use the knob on top to rotate the 'built-in tamper', it doesn't take very long to create smooth nut butter.
Like most blenders, the Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System is noisy. It's louder at maximum speed than other full-size models, like the Ninja Professional Plus Blender with Auto-iQ.
You can adjust the Ninja SS401's speed to 10 different levels when using the main jar. However, if you're using the smaller jars, the speed is automatically set to the maximum, and you can't adjust it.
This blender offers a different set of blending programs depending on if you're using the main jar or one of the smaller jars. These 'iQ' programs automatically alternate between blending and pulsing. When you're using the main jar, you also have access to 10 different speed presets for manual blending. There's a dedicated button for pulse mode and a power button. The blender turns itself off automatically after a few minutes of inactivity.
Main jar programs:
- Smoothie (65 seconds)
- Chop (5 seconds)
- Dough (45 seconds)
- Bowl (40 seconds)
- Spread (75 seconds)
Additional jar programs:
- Smoothie (55 seconds)
- Extract (75 seconds)
- Bowl (30 seconds)
- Spread (45 seconds)
The control scheme is almost the same as the Ninja Foodi Power Blender & Processor System's, except that this blender has 10 speed presets instead of eight and offers one additional blending program ('Dough').
The 18-ounce jar is very easy to clean. Running the blender with soap and water in the jar takes care of a good amount of residue. The blade assembly and jar just require a bit of scrubbing afterward. However, if you're working with the main jar, it's harder to clean. The blade stack is tricky to clean because the blades are so sharp, and food tends to get caught in the small hole for the blade assembly. This jar isn't the easiest to clean by hand and is comparable in terms of cleaning performance to Ninja blenders like the Ninja Professional Blender 1000 or Ninja Mega Kitchen System BL770.