nutribullet Flip Portable Blender with Tritan Cup, Black, NBPB10350

Does exactly what it says on the tin. I got this due to the large flask and the fact I got told off for waking the household with my plugin nutri bullet. I can now do at work what I did at home…nice n fresh ! Very easy to clean

What a funny machine.This one cost me £62.77 and took 12 days to arrive. It came with an American USB type C charger. I could have got the same item next day for £87.66 - £25 more - I presume with a UK USB charger. I saved £25 by having one specially shipped - just for me - from the USA!It is useful - but has quite a few caveats …The oddities … are a little bit hard to get my head around.In effect you get two bowls and two caps.A bigger bowl - with a blending capacity of 450ml with a transparent end, and a much smaller black one, capacity about 150ml - medium coffee cup size.You can drink through a hole in each cap, after lifting a hinged plastic flap which has a bung with a rubber to seal the hole. Neither hole is round - and the two odd shaped rubber seals are of different sizes and profiles - but very necessary to seal the bowls when travelling, or when using the larger cup to blend. I would be very surprised if the seals can be replaced - so when they fail … the whole gizmo becomes a piece of junk.One of the caps has quite a heavy motor built into it complete with the blender cutter and batteries and a USB type C charger port. The charger port gets full of water when you try to clean the gadget. The water can be blown out of the charge port … I have done that several times and I can still charge it.The drinking hole through the heavy motor cap is 100mm x 10mm x 20mm, or 4” x 1/2” x 1” - and is not a perfect oval. When you use the gizmo the stuff you are trying to liquidize or grind fills up the drinking hole as you use it - so does not get liquidized or ground up. So you have to flip the machine over a few times to try and get the stuff that has gone into the deep drinking hole back into the mixing cup.The drinking hole is a real pain to clean, especially if the stuff you have been blending is oily or sticky.I suffer from achalasia - sadly I cannot eat solid food as the nerves in the bottom half of my throat, and the nerves in the valve at the top of my stomach, have died. So this little gadget is actually very useful.It succeeded in pulverizing some chicken vegetable soup yesterday. But at lunchtime today it failed to pulverize a chicken Jalfrezi with rice - even though I had cut the chicken up into 1/2” bits to help it. The motor jammed and stopped. And survived.My normal Nutribullet worked fine.Half an hour ago I struggled using it to grind 200 grams - 1/2 lb - of coffee beans. I had to do it in two batches - and each time had to turn the machine on 3 or 4 times - turning it over, shaking it and banging it on the table to get the unground beans out of the 100mm / 4” drinking hole back into the blending cup.In spite of all this the gizmo is actually quite useful because it does not need a cable. I have no idea how many blends it can do before it needs to be recharged - I have been using it half a dozen times between charges.The smaller bowl and cap are sort of pointless unless you plan to leave the motor behind - the smaller bowl then screws onto the motor cap and protects the blade. It rather defeats the object. If you always left the motor / grinder / cap behind - the awkward 100 mm / 4” drinking hole with hinged lid is a pointless nuisance.-Anyway - I am glad somebody invented it - I can take it with me a lot more easily than my usual Nutribullet - or my very heavy large 2 litre / 2 quart blenders. I just hope this gizmo keeps working for a few years. My rechargeable Philips stick blender is still working fine - it is at least 15 years old.-The 100mm / 4” drinking hole through the motor cap is pointless and makes life difficult. Difficult to clean, difficult to drink through. My Philips stick blender has a charging stand, and the motor unclips very easily from the stick blender part - which you can then clean easily and safely.-Maybe the drinking hole through the blending / motor cap is useful if you want to carry the whole gizmo with you. But it more than doubles the weight of a full large cup - the blending head on its own weighs 600 grams or 1.3 lbs.-So - a funny gizmo. Quite expensive - I hope it lasts half as well as my rechargeable Philips stick blender.-A further thought or two - a month or two later. To help anyone designing one of these - or redesigning this one.The thread on the bowl, cup, whatever, is on the inside. So if you use it with a simple cap, avoiding having to drink through the hole through the motor/battery unit, every time you use it you get the threaded bit covered in smoothie - and the cap. A pain - you have to clean the thread before screwing the cap back on. My normal mains powered nutribullet has the thread on the outside of the bowl. So for a redesign I would make the motor/battery unit dead simple - and give it a recharging stand and a USB C charging port. It should just clip onto the grinding head like the Philips battery powered stick blender - that way it never gets dirty, never gets near water, and can be really lightweight. When travelling you would carry whatever bits you need. Note I am using it at home - the wireless nature of the gizmo is really useful, like the Philips stick blender. But the motor head is far too complicated and difficult to clean - and use - bits of unblended stuff get stuck in the deep narrow drinking / pouring hole that bypasses the motor and battery.-So, in trying to make it super simple, the designers made it over complex. It is one of those situations where a perfect design is impossible - I sympathise with the designers. I would prefer a few more simpler pieces together with a charging stand - making it easier to use and clean. At home and travelling. I would increase the diameter of the bowl by a centimetre - giving it a bit more capacity - and making it easier to clean.