NutriBullet is in hot water again after a Kansas mom claimed that her blender exploded late last month, leaving her with second-degree burns.
Cristal Miranda says that she was preparing refried beans when she began using her NutriBullet RX to blend pinto beans that had been cooling down for more than two hours. The model she was using has a “souperblast” setting used to heat up soup while blending, but Miranda claims she was not using that mode. Despite that, when she went to remove the contain from the blender, it felt warm to the touch.
“I didn’t push the button for the heating. There’s a little circle that you click on. I didn’t do that because I was going to refry them,” she told 41 KSHB Kansas City. “When I went to open them, it felt warm. When I went to open it that thing burst like completely.”
According to Mirana and her 16-year-old niece Emily Sanchez, they heard a sound similar to a shaken soda bottle being opened just before the scalding hot beans exploded out of the container hitting Miranda in the face and the chest.
“I can sort of remember my screaming. Because I’ve never felt so much pain, immediately I dropped to the floor,” said Miranda — who added that doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital’s Burn and Wound care unit told her it could take up to a year for her to recover.
Miranda told GoodHousekeeping.com that she has retained a lawyer regarding her injuries.
This is not the first time that NutriBullet has been in trouble over exploding units. One man filed a lawsuit against the popular high-powered blender after he says his unit exploded while he was making a mango sauce for his family and almost left him blind. Another man from London claims he was blending a peanut butter smoothie when the contents of the container became so hot they bursted off — leaving him with painful burns on his hands.
The NutriBullet manual does warn that over-blending can cause food to heat up contents to an unsafe degree. “Do not put hot liquids in any of the blending vessels before blending. Start with cool or room temperature ingredients. Heated ingredients can create internal pressure in a sealed blending vessel, which may erupt on opening and cause thermal injury,” the manual reads. “Friction from the rotating blade can cause ingredients to heat and generate internal pressure in the sealed vessel. Do not continuously operate for more than one minute. If the vessel is warm to touch, allow to cool before carefully opening pointed away from your body. Never permit any blended mixture to sit inside a sealed vessel without first releasing internal pressure.”
Sharon Franke, Director of the Kitchen Appliances and Technology Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute, recommends that users with concerns stop using their device and contact the manufacturer immediately.
“[At the Good Housekeeping Institute] we have never experienced this problem, but it does sound like the product could be poorly designed and is overheating,” she explains. “Once heat builds up there is no way for it to escape and that could be causing the explosions.”
GoodHousekeeping.com has reached out to NutriBullet for comment, but has not heard back. We will update this post as more information becomes available.
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