Why is my blender overheating and smoking?

The issue is the bearing set up is failing. Once that happens, the friction is heating up the metal to the point where it is melting the plastic that surrounds it. Best bet is a replacement blade/lid.

"This question has been asked and answered before, so you might want to look that over:

Why is my blender smoking?"

My Ninja is a Nonja. We’ve had ours for about 2.5 years. It just started doing this. The blase assembly is really hard to turn too. We use this every day, clean it thoroughly, and put it away. I can’t see anything impeding the blade from turning . I think it’s a design flaw. - Oddly, my regular old school blender did the same thing today, except the blade assembly moves freely. Two blenders in two days. Ugh.

I have had my ninja for about a year and after I made my daughters smoothie today the cup was full of smoke when I opened it and the smell of burning plastic was horrific! It seems as though the plastic or rubber around the blade is deteriorating and essentially melting and burning. I added just ice and water to see what was going on and there were black specks in the ice water and again the cup filled with smoke. I’m wondering if this is an issue Nina would cover under warranty as it seems I’m not the only one this is happening to!