The Ninja Blast Max BC251 is a battery-powered personal blender intended for blending single-serve drinks like smoothies. It's the brand's second portable blender, and compared to the original Ninja Blast, it has a bigger 22oz jar and features a couple of blending programs, 'Crush' and 'Smoothie,' along with a manual blending option. Its blades are fixed inside the jar instead of on the motor base, which means you can carry the jar around without the motor base attached, and it also makes the blades easier to clean. The lid has a spout with a flip-up cover and a handle for better portability.
Our Verdict
The Ninja Blast Max isn't good for multi-purpose use, but it's not really designed for that. It works best for single-serve smoothies, as it makes a smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like fruit and leafy greens. It can also make snow-like crushed ice in small batches. However, it's not meant for blending dry ingredients without liquid in the jar, can't hot blend, and is generally slow at processing ingredients.
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Smoothly blends small batches of fibrous ingredients.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Well-built and quiet.
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Shaking and scraping required for best results.
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Can't hot blend.
The Ninja Blast Max is great for single-serve smoothies. It does an excellent job of processing small batches of fibrous ingredients, so it makes very well-blended smoothies with fruit or kale. It can make snow-like crushed ice and has a resealable drinking lid for its jar. However, it's slow at processing smoothies, and its battery can be depleted after blending just one, depending on the amount of liquid and how fibrous your ingredients are.
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Smoothly blends small batches of fibrous ingredients.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Well-built and quiet.
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Shaking and scraping required for best results.
The Ninja Blast Max is mediocre for multiple servings of smoothies. It's a portable personal blender mainly intended for blending for one, and its jar has a maximum capacity of 18oz. If your smoothie includes fibrous ingredients like fruit or leafy greens, it makes a smoother blend if you work with smaller batches instead of filling it to full capacity. Its battery is also likely to die after blending just one smoothie, depending on the consistency of your recipe. It's an excellent ice crusher, which is rare for portable blenders.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Well-built and quiet.
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Shaking and scraping required for best results.
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18oz blending capacity.
The Ninja Blast Max is adequate for crushing ice. Its jar has an 18oz blending capacity, so like most personal blenders, you have to work with small batches of around four ice cubes at once. However, using its 'Crush' program, it quickly makes uniform, snow-like crushed ice, so unlike most battery-powered benders, it's suitable for blending crushed ice for cocktails.
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Makes snow-like crushed ice.
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Well-built and quiet.
The Ninja Blast Max isn't suitable for soups. Like most personal blenders, you can't use it for hot blending, and its 18oz capacity means it won't fit most soup recipes in one batch. You can use it to make a mostly smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like kale or broccoli. However, using it for difficult ingredients depletes its battery quite quickly, so it's only really suitable for blending single-serve portions.
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Well-built and quiet.
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Shaking and scraping required for best results.
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Can't hot blend.
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18oz blending capacity.
The Ninja Blast Max isn't good for professional use. It's a portable personal blender and isn't intended for heavy-duty use. It's good for blending single-serve smoothies and small batches of ice, but you can deplete its battery after blending just one smoothie, depending on your ingredients. It has a maximum blending capacity of 18oz and can't hot blend or process dry ingredients like nuts without liquid in the jar.
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Smoothly blends small batches of fibrous ingredients.
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Well-built and quiet.
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Shaking and scraping required for best results.
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Can't hot blend.
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18oz blending capacity.
- 5.5 Multi-Purpose
- 8.1 Smoothies (Single Serving)
- 6.0 Smoothies (Multiple Servings)
- 6.8 Ice Crushing
- 2.8 Soups
- 3.4 Professional Use
- Updated Dec 02, 2024: Review published.
- Updated Nov 28, 2024: Early access published.
- Updated Nov 27, 2024: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Nov 22, 2024: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Nov 15, 2024: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Ninja Blast Max comes in four colors: 'Deep Navy,' 'Cool Grey,' 'Platinum Silver,' and 'Lavender.' We tested it in 'Deep Navy'. Here's a picture of our unit's label.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Blenders
The Ninja Blast Max BC251 is a battery-powered portable blender with a bigger capacity and a different design compared with the brand's other portable blender, the Ninja Blast, and similar portable blenders like the Magic Bullet Portable Blender. Its blades are fixed inside the jar, meaning you can drink from the jar without the motor base attached and clean them without worrying about getting water on the motor base.
It comes with a 22oz jar and makes a mostly smooth blend when small batches of fibrous ingredients, similar to the nutribullet Flip. However, it blends ingredients more slowly, and its battery can get depleted after blending just one smoothie. Still, it stands out from other portable blenders since its controls include blending programs, including 'Crush,' which works well for crushing small batches of ice.
If you're looking for a recommendation, check out the best portable blenders, the best bullet blenders, and the best personal blenders.
The Ninja Blast Max BC251 is a little better than the Ninja Blast. The Max can make better-blended smoothies with kale or fruit, as long as you don't fill it to full capacity. It's also much better at crushing ice. Its design, with blades fixed in the jar, makes it easier to clean and carry around. That said, you might prefer the Blast's more compact design.
The Cuisinart EvolutionX Cordless Rechargeable Personal Blender is a battery-powered personal blender well-suited for camping, RVs, or anywhere you don't have access to a wall outlet. It's more versatile. The Ninja Blast Max BC251 is a more portable option that you can carry around more easily and use for blending on the go.
The Ninja Blast Max BC251 is better than the Magic Bullet Portable Blender. The Ninja has a bigger capacity and makes a smoother blend with small batches of fibrous ingredients like fruit or kale. It can crush ice, and you might prefer its design, which has its blades fixed in the jar and is easier to clean and carry around.
The nutribullet Flip is a better portable blender than the Ninja Blast Max BC251. The nutribullet blends fibrous ingredients faster and makes a smoother blend at full capacity, which is important for well-blended smoothies. It's a little quieter and includes a straw lid, which you might prefer. However, the Ninja is much easier to clean and is much better at crushing small batches of ice.
Test Results
The Ninja Blast MAX BC251 is a small portable blender. It's not very heavy, although some portable blenders are lighter, like the Ninja Blast or Magic Bullet Portable Blender.
It has great build quality. It's made of plastic aside from the blades, but feels sturdy. There's rubber under the motor base that helps it grip surfaces, and the buttons on the motor base feel well-made and satisfying to press. The gears on the jar and motor base are made of rubber.
It's easy to assemble. The blades are built into the jar, unlike the Ninja Blast's blades, which are part of the motor base. There are a few other nice touches: the lid has a handle to help you carry it around, and the charging port has a hinged cover to protect it during cleaning.
The jar has a 22oz capacity, with a maximum fill line at 18oz. This gives it a slightly bigger blending capacity than the Ninja Blast, which has a maximum fill at 16oz. There's also a minimum liquid amount of 6oz indicated on the jar.
The jar (with the blades) and drinking lid are both top-rack dishwasher-safe.
Unlike the brand's other portable blender, the original Ninja Blast, its blades are fixed to the bottom of the jar. This means you can remove the jar and blades from the motor base and put the jar in the dishwasher, instead of having to carefully clean them without immersing the base in water.
The lid is easy to twist on and off the jar. It has a spout with a cover that flips up and down, so you can easily take a drink when you're on the go.
The power cord is much longer than most portable blenders at nearly six feet. The charging input has a cover to help prevent dust or water damage. It comes with an AC charger that you can plug into a wall outlet, unlike most portable blenders that come with USB-C to USB-A chargers that would require an adapter to plug into a wall.
The manufacturer doesn't advertise a battery life, only saying that it depends on your ingredients. Our unit's battery died after seven 30-second blending cycles during our fibrous ingredients (small batches) testing. However, kale is difficult to blend, so you might get a longer life with a different recipe.
It can produce a smoother blend with difficult fibrous ingredients like kale than many portable blenders, including the Ninja Blast, producing a mostly smooth blend with only a few specks left over. However, it's not an easy process. It takes several 30-second cycles with frequent shaking and scraping of the jar between each cycle to get the best results. It could possibly produce an even smoother blend, but our unit's battery died after seven cycles.
It produces a grainier blend at full capacity, with more unprocessed bits left over. Because of the bigger volume of ingredients, you don't have to scrape or shake the jar as often. Still, the battery is low after seven blending cycles.
It's excellent for crushing ice, which is unusual for a portable blender. If you use a small batch of four ice cubes, it only needs one 30-second 'Crush' program to make snow-like ice. However, you have to shake the jar during blending, so it's not an easy process compared to any decent plug-in blender.
The manual says not to blend anything without liquid in the jar.
It's quiet for a blender. However, you can find noticeably quieter portable blenders, including the nutribullet GO.
Like most personal blenders, it has only one speed setting. It's quite fast, which helps it blend fibrous ingredients smoothly.
This blender has three blending programs, unlike most portable blenders. The 'Smoothie' and 'Crush' programs are 'auto-iQ' programs, meaning the blender automatically alternates between pulsing, pausing, and blending. The 'Blend' button runs a 30-second cycle.
It's easy to clean by hand, especially compared to portable blenders with blades fixed on the motor base, like the Ninja Blast. You need a brush to reach and properly clean the sharp blades at the bottom of the jar, but it's easier than cleaning the blades without immersing the motor base in water.