By: NinjaCFP305

NinjaCFP305 — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 12:08:53 +0000

This is my 2nd ninja coffee maker. Last one lived 11/12 years and this one is the best one ever!!!! I can use coffee grinds or kcups and all the other features are amazing. Make sure if ur using a ceramic cup,rinse it in hot water or all the heat from coffee goes into the cup. U HAVE TO BUY ONE! Its amazing. Daughter in law loves hers too

By: Red56

Red56 — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:11:18 +0000

Literally the best coffee machine!!! Loveee the milk frother. Love that I can make fancy cofffe and iced coffee and regular coffee. Love that you switch from one cup options to a carafe. Love that you can use k cups or ground coffee.

By: RandomThinks

RandomThinks — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 22:55:34 +0000

This is, by far, my favorite purchase! I have previously been using a K-cup machine for a few years. I had decided to upgrade to one of the cafe with frothing units and compared a couple products; going over specs, abilities and reviews. I decided to purchase this Ninja Dualbrew specialty coffee system. The thing that pushed me more toward this one was the separate hot water spout. I love being able to have hot or boiled water without coffee residue. I am able to use this to make tea, hot cocoa and oatmeal as well as many other uses.
This machine is incredible. I am able to make regular hot coffee, whether by the single cup or up to 12 cups. I can make lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos, iced coffee. I love the frother and its ability to remove to clean super easily. When making a cup of coffee, I can use the filter or the k-pods. I have been using the filter method the most because it makes such a rich, flavorful cup of coffee each time.
The functions are very easy to operate and clearly displayed.

By: Dianai

Dianai — Sun, 09 Oct 2022 14:22:59 +0000

I love this! This does everything you want. Changed my mind -coffee should always taste this rich !

By: Danny

Danny — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 01:57:13 +0000

As a tired father to a newborn, I am very happy with the upgrade this machine offered to me over my previous coffee maker.
My first machine was defective, but Ninja’s customer support was quick to diagnose the issue and ultimately, they replaced the machine without me having to spend too much time on the phone.
The drip brew coffee is consistent and predictable, and with basic adjustments to how fine of a grind you use or to the grinds to water ratio, you can really dial in how you like your drip brews to come out.
I even went so far as to make a super fine espresso grind out of one of my favorite beans, ran the specialty brew setting to make a super strong 4 oz pour that I turned into a ‘cappuccino style’ coffee with some frothed milk and that was delightfully good! FYI – I also got good cappuccino-style results using the Café Bustelo Espresso Style K-Cups (also on the specialty brew setting but for the K Cups this time).
My wife (who hates all coffee products) said the cappuccino style coffee I made was something she would drink with me (huge win!)
However, I’ll admit that it took finding and buying the proper fitting metal reusable filter to get good results. It is disappointing that the machine does not come with the metal filter at this price point, but even more disappointing that the Ninja brand filter is perpetually out of stock. No one wants to constantly use something disposable and add to the garbage in the world, plus the metal filter results are just superior in my opinion.
You CAN buy any number 4 reusable cone filter and get it to work, but you’d have to put your fingers into the bottom of the filter and then shove it down until it bends enough to fit all the way into the machine. I’ve done this, and it went fine but that still didn’t stop me from buying the actual metal filter for this machine once I found it. The standard number 4 filters aren’t quite as tall as the proper fitting ones.
Clearly, the Ninja brand reusable filter is a bit of a unique fit but fear not, there is another coffee machine that uses these exact same unique filters AND they are in stock. It’s a GE Cafe 10-Cup Drip Brew Coffee machine (a model that Best Buy also happens to sell) – AND if you look on GE’s parts websites you will find it so I recommend everyone that owns this machine to grab either the Ninja filter or the GE Café filter (they are literally the same thing) as soon as you can. If you do this, I am confident you’ll have great at-home coffee results. My results with this machine quickly became good enough to consolidate a bit and give away my older drip brew coffee machines. Now I have only one nice looking coffee appliance on my countertop, and I feel like my at home coffee station is very well equipped.
FYI – this Ninja machine comes in 2 versions, one with a metal thermal carafe and one with a glass carafe/warmer plate combo. To be as polite as possible…. if you know what you’re doing you will choose the correct version for your needs – so please disregard any other reviewers’ comments about the thermal carafe. It’s A THERMAL CARAFE – its not magic. If you only fill it up half-way, the coffee is not going to stay hot that long, that’s just basic physics. However, if you put the top on it and fill it up at least ¾ or more – I can promise you the coffee will stay hot for at least 3.5 hours (which is as long as I cared to test it myself with a thermometer). I brewed a full carafe and the initial temp was 160-165 (perfect IMO) and then immediately poured myself a large cup and set the carafe down. After 1 hour I poured another 2 cups and set the carafe back down (to simulate some realistic usage for when I’m brewing a pot to leave for guests to come help themselves too). 3 hours in the temp was 145 and 3.5 hours in the temp was 140. Still good for sure!
Let’s not discount the fact that the carafe doesn’t have to be anywhere specific to work (no warmer plate that it has to stay on), so you can brew this large pot and then just put the carafe on the table for everyone and the machine is immediately available to brew other stuff (you can brew directly into cups, travel mugs, teacups, other carafes you have, etc.) It is so versatile it kinda feels like a little coffee shop in your house.
I specifically bought this machine because I was being picky about a few features I really wanted – and even so I was still very surprised to learn that it had other stuff that is really thoughtful and useful. I specifically looked for something with –
(1) cone style filters, which I strongly prefer over basket style filters (cone is much more consistent, efficient and better able to brew a proper single cup)
(2) I specifically wanted a thermal carafe rather than a warmer plate that burns the coffee and ruins the flavor if you leave it on for too long, (but be my guest and buy that version if you really prefer)
(3) larger capacity for when I have guests and
(4) also being able to do K Cups.
The hot or boil water feature was a plus that I wasn’t specifically looking for but has already come in handy many times and so in hindsight this is a feature I’m glad is there. I wasn’t thinking about tea drinkers when I got this machine, but the hot water dispenser must be amazing for tea drinkers! The pop-out side frother is also something I wasn’t specifically looking for but am now glad it’s there (I’ll give away my separate mini frother to keep my clutter to a minimum now that I have this machine). The built in spot for the measuring spoons and multi-position water reservoir are also very thoughtful features that I underestimated at the time of my initial purchase. Also I live at 5,000 feet elevation and used the high altitude calibration settings right out of the box (another great surprise).
There are people pointing out that there isn’t a water filter built into this machine. Again, I personally don’t like having multiple water filters to replace (I use a filtered water pitcher for my fridge and that’s my only filter period – I don’t want to have to replace water filters for built in fridge features and I wouldn’t want to have to replace filters in this machine either.) Just use water from your pitcher to fill the reservoir and problem solved.
The area a lot of users also complain about is the lack of a reusable K Cup for this machine. It’s annoying for sure – but when I really think about it you can simply just make a good strong single serve drip brew in a reusable cone filter which is a lot easier than manually prepping a bunch of K Cups ahead of time. Although I guess prepping the reusable K Cups ahead of time is kind of like meal-prepping so I know it’s useful to do and of course everyone absolutely hates the idea of all the garbage these disposable K Cups make so honestly my solution is just to not use the K Cup feature myself personally, but I do just keep a few around for occasional guests. If you are concerned about the K Cup waste then this machine is not for you.
I will say it was definitely an oversight on Ninja’s part to not incorporate some kind of reusable K Cup filter. I see plenty of other brands have retrofitted their own permanent K Cup in their machines and it’s definitely doable so hopefully it’s a feature add for future Ninja models.
On the plus side – the triple needle on Ninja’s K Cup pod brewer actually works very well and makes some delicious K Cups. I will admit though – I am going to be putting some time and effort into trying to rig up my own reusable K Cup that can work with this machine. I’ve already drilled up the triple needle holes in a few to experiment (currently unsuccessfully).
Lastly, if I were to compare this to other machines that can do both K Cups and drip-brews, I will note that it appears on many other machines the k cup and drip brew sections are both permanently a part of those machines (so you brew them in 2 separate parts of the machine basically). On this one, they are not and so it requires you to add or remove the K Cup pod attachment based on what you are brewing.
For me (rarely using the K Cups) this means constantly having to keep this K-Cup pod attachment device in a drawer nearby to the machine. Personally, this is not an issue but if space is an issue for you it might be something to think about. I didn’t even notice this honestly until my mom pointed out that she thought it was annoying to have to add or remove this thingy for K cups which she doesn’t have to do on her machine at home. What do we get in exchange for having to do this Ninja’s way? On top of the space savings on the unit itself, you can actually brew both short and tall cups/travel mugs in either the k cup or drip brew modes – which I didn’t see that my moms machine could handle. I have some very nice tall/thermal travel mugs and tumblers and so it’s nice to be able to fill those up regardless of how I choose to do the brewing.

Comments on: Ninja – DualBrew 12-Cup Specialty Coffee System with K-cup compatibility, 4 brew styles, and Frother – Black/Silver

By: NinjaCFP305

By: Red56

By: RandomThinks

By: Dianai

By: Danny