Wonderchef Nutri-Blend Thunder Blender Review

Priced at around Rs.5400, and equipped with a 1000 Watt motor, Wonderchef Nutri-Blend Thunder is one of the premium options available in the market. They also sell a budget-friendly option, Wonderchef Nutriblend, which has a 400 watt motor. But, it is apt only for making smoothies with soft ingredients. So, how does Wonderchef Thunder Nutri-Blend fare? Can you make thick shakes with it? What about dry grinding, making peanut butter, chutney etc.? Let us explore through this hands-on review.

Ideal for: those who need a powerful blender for making all types of smoothies and shakes. You can make 2-3 servings of smoothies and shakes at a go in the tall jar. Using the blender, you can also make idili batter, chutney, mayonnaise etc.

Design

Wonderchef Nutri-Blend Thunder is a fairly compact smoothie blender. It comes with a 1000 watt motor. The motor housing doesn’t have switches or knobs to get things going. Instead, the jars have an activation tab. The motor starts running when you rotate the jar in the motor housing. While this works fine for blending, you may find it a bit inconvenient when you want to pulse.

You get two jars along with the blender. The tall jar has 1 litre gross capacity and 800 ml net capacity, while the smaller jar has 800 ml gross capacity and 500 ml net capacity.

You get two lids along with the jar. One is a seal lid and the other is a seal and sip lid which has a spout.

All jars are made of tritan, which is unbreakable. But, it can develop scratches and is prone to discoloration too. So, wash the jars immediately after use. Else the pigments from the fruits may discolor it quickly.

You get a single blade assembly with Wonderchef Nutri-Blend Thunder. It is a 6 prong extraction blade. A few users complain that smell from blending pungent food like garlic can transfer from the blade assembly to milkshakes. To overcome this, run the blender with soapy water immediately after every use.

Overall, you do not have too many things in the package to crowd your precious countertop. Its compact design allows it to fit comfortably even in a small kitchen with limited space.

Blending Performance

For testing the blending performance, we usually make a green smoothie and a dry fruit shake. This helps us understand how well it works with leafy ingredients as well as tough ingredients like nuts.

The green smoothie contained spinach, banana, apple, ice cubes and coconut water. We ran it for 45 seconds and we were able to get a smooth texture without any bits of spinach stalk in it. The results were as good as what you get in Balzano and Nutribullet.

Next, for dry fruit shake, we used cashew, almond, dates, apple, banana and milk. We were satisfied with the consistency of the shake. It was thick and smooth, but not grainy. There was no unprocessed chunks of nuts. So, this too was a win!

Overall, we find the blending performance to be top notch.

Related reading: Best Smoothie Blenders In India

Multiple Functionality

Thanks to the powerful motor, you can use Wonderchef Thunder for other grinding chores as well.

You can easily make idli/dosa batter in the 800 ml tall jar. It takes just about 30-45 seconds to grind the batter. In contrast, the cheaper version, Wonderchef Nutriblend produces a burnt smell when trying to make idli batter. So, without a doubt, the premium option is far better. Similarly, you can make coconut chutney, mayonnaise etc, in the small jar.

Making peanut butter in a blender can be a hassle, and this is not unique to the Wonderchef Thunder. The design requires constant shaking or manually pushing down the ingredients with a spatula. It took us around 5-6 minutes and the addition of a tablespoon of oil to blend the peanuts to the desired consistency. Overall, we find that mixer grinders or full-sized blenders are a better choice for making peanut butter compared to blenders.

You can also use the blender for chopping nuts by pulsing the blender.

Noise Level

The blender makes around 90dB of noise while running. Comparatively, it is less noisy than Nutribullet and Balzano.

Ease of Cleaning

It is easy to clean the jars after making smoothies and shakes. But, when you make idili batter or peanut butter, grainy bits get stuck in the rubber beading of the blade assembly. This can be a hassle to clean. You need to use a skewer or a toothpick to remove the beading. Even then, cleaning the grooves of the blade assembly is a bit of a hassle. For cleaning the fat from making peanut butter, you need to soak the jar in hot soapy water for a while. Then, you can scrub it using a soft sponge.

It is highly recommended that you run the blender jar with soapy water after every use to get rid of any food residue that may be stuck beneath the blades.

Flaws, But Not Deal Breakers

We can’t really call it a flaw. But, a minor inconvenience that many people may find is the lack of buttons for operation, especially when you want to pulse. You may notice this especially if this is your first blender. But, with a few uses, you won’t find it so intimidating.

Aftersales Service

Most user reviews suggest that after sales service of Wonderchef is not prompt or professional. Fortunately, you can get spare jars from Amazon and Wonderchef website. At the time of publishing, blade assembly was however out of stock. But, if you have trouble with the motor housing, getting prompt after sales service may be a hassle. It would be better to opt for onsite go’s extended warranty for better after-sales service.

Conclusion

With excellent blending performance, multifunctionality and low noise level, Wonderchef Nutriblend Thunder is an excellent option to consider. The only drawback is the lack of buttons which may be an inconvenience to some users.