NutriBullet Sued Over Machines Bursting Open While Blending, Injuring Multiple Users
At least twenty people have sued NutriBullet amid claims that the popular blending device heat up its contents and burst open, causing severe burns and injuries to all of those suing.
According to FOX11 Los Angeles, the inside of the NutriBullets were heating up and pressurized as its contents blended. In multiple instances, this led to the tops blowing off within 15-20 seconds. This resulted in the still-spinning blades causing serious lacerations, alongside potential second-degree burns from the steaming liquid.
The above video showed some of the gruesome gashes and marks that resulted, as well as an experiment conducted by Berkeley Engineering and Research that showed the possibility of those events occurring.
While it’s easy to suggest this might be the result of utilizing a hot liquid in the NutriBullet (which you should definitely not do), all ingredients were cool or at room temperature, according to the plaintiffs’ lawsuit.
Attorney Doug Rochen, who is representing those suing NutriBullet, claimed that the product had “no safety features at all” while lacking an on-off switch. As the pressure built up inside, there was no way to control it or keep it from increasing to the point where the machine burst.
NutriBullet protested the allegations, telling FOX11 that “misuse” was the likely cause of the accidents, accounts which NutriBullet attorney Mark Suzumoto claimed to be “physically impossible.”
A full statement from NutriBullet against the lawsuits, which they are contesting in court, reads as follows:
“Customer safety and satisfaction are paramount at NutriBullet. Reports of blenders, which have operated normally for years, suddenly turning cool ingredients into scalding hot mixtures after less than 20 seconds of normal operation or components unthreading during use, are perplexing and contrary to the hundreds of millions of uses by satisfied NutriBullet customers worldwide. We will investigate the claims thoroughly and analyze the blenders in question to determine exactly what happened. Whatever the circumstances surrounding these accidents, we wish prompt and complete recoveries to those involved.”
This is not the first time blenders like NutriBullet and Magic Bullet have come under fire for such claims. In March of this year, similar complaints were reported on by FOX News, who also wrote that NutriBullet’s manual at the time warned about the blender’s contents becoming hot and pressurized. The manual recommended that users not operate a NutriBullet for more than a minute and let the machine cool before opening away from them.
