I’ve been testing the Ninja Master Prep for the past couple of days and it has some pros and some very serious cons.

As often pointed out on most reviews, it does crush ice reasonably well (when using ONLY ice); however if you have ice above the highest blade you will have big chunks, it doesn’t circulate down very well. You will also have chunky ice in your drinks if you make a somewhat watery drink. The thicker you make the drink the better the ice will be crushed. In this instance, a more watery drink, a blender does better than the Ninja Master Prep.

In general it does mince food items rather well, but again you must not be higher than the highest blade which means that you have only a 3 cup (using the larger container) food processor/chopper–why they didn’t add at least one more blade to the large container is beyond me!!!

Cons: the size for food processing is small–2 cups max for the small container (really should be less than 2 cups to work properly) and about 3 cups for the large container (gained one whole cup). So it isn’t really for large dishes–you really will want to do the items separately and combine later.

The best way to use it as a food processor is really to do each item separately and then combine in a bowl. Example: tuna fish salad–process each item individually in the NMP and put into bowl, add seasonings and dressing in the bowl and mix and you will get a great tuna salad. . . unless you want it pureed, then you can just put it all in the Ninja. . . It will puree everything very easily. . . unless it is above the second blade level in the large container, then it will just sit there while everything below is pureed. lol That’s why in the infomercials you see them take everything well beyond “chunky.” They don’t want you to see how uneven things can come out when combining things of different densities.

Another con: it is meant only for short uses thus if you want to make. . . oh, nut butters then you have to have a little patience. It will do it but you may also overheat the unit. I made the base of a almond soup that uses rice as a thickener and it over headed the Ninja Master Prep–it was just to thick and needed a rather long running time to really puree the items into a very fine mess. Luckily there is a thermal cutoff to save the motor.

The biggest con: it’s all plastic. The containers and blade assembly should really be a little heavier than they are and glass containers would be 10x better. The blade assembly fits into the motor via plastic bits also and this is where people are seeing the NMP strip the “gears.” You have to be very carefully and really put a lot of pressure on the Ninja motor to make sure it doesn’t kick back when grinding hard items, like ice or frozen fruit. It can Kick back enough to cause the motor to lift up and strip the plastic parts. . . be careful, apply ample pressure with both hands.

The pros:
The pros are being touted everywhere on the net for this appliance. It seems that Euro-Pro has done a great job in marketing, even though they have had a very similar device (with glass containers) for several years. The stopped making it because the motors burned out. . . hint. . . hint. Don’t run for long periods.

It’s inexpensive, does a good job with small amounts of food and can work well as a blender as well as a food chopper/processor.

Like most “tools,” you will need to practice with it a bit to learn how to get the most out of it.

I purchased it at BB&B for $40 (with a CC that doubles the warranty;) and for that price I think it’s a decent addition, but I really don’t expect it to last that long. It can make a very thick smoothie using only frozen fruit and milk (leave out the ice because it isn’t “snow” in this instance) and it can do a similar type of “ice cream” using just cream and frozen fruit :) That and making nut butters makes it handy in the kitchen for me, not to mention easy salsa type items.

Just be careful when using it. It isn’t bullet proof and you want to make sure you keep the motor from kicking up and stripping the plastic gears!!! And don’t work it too hard. . . the motor is really under powered and under ventilated for long run periods or really dense items.

Hope that helps

Many thanks.

By the way, we mentioned your review on our site!