Quick Answer: The best dual coffee maker is the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307
This is my roundup of the best dual coffee makers. These are coffee makers that can brew:
- Single servings of coffee with K-cups
- Larger servings of coffee with loose grounds.
I own one of these types of machines, namely the Keurig K Duo (see my Keurig Duo review for more information about this machine).
I have also owned several drip coffee and single-serve brewers in the past, so I understand what these machines need to have to make these types of coffees well.
As well as giving you my recommendations, I’m going to talk about two dual coffee makers that I often see being recommended by others, but that I personally think are overpriced. Hopefully, this can save you from wasting your money.
What Do I Mean by a Dual Coffee Maker?
In this roundup, a dual coffee maker has to be able to make:
- Single servings of coffee using K-cups and reusable K-cups
- A minimum of 4 cups of coffee at a time using loose coffee grounds
Machines that have other functionalities in addition to these will still be considered for this article. This is just the bare minimum that they need to be able to do.
The coffee makers in this article will be primarily judged on their ability to execute the two functionalities listed above, however.
Top Picks
Best Overall & Best Tasting Coffee
- Has the best user interface of all dual brewers
- Makes the best single-serve coffee of all dual brewers
- Has a huge number of preset serving sizes for drip coffee
Most Durable
- Comes with a thermal carafe
- Best for large (over 8-cups) servings of coffee
- Has a three-year warranty
Cheapest I am Happy to Recommend
- Two strength settings
- Can fit a travel mug
- Can make single-serve coffee with loose grounds
Best Overall: Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307
Best Overall
The Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 makes the best tasting coffee of all dual coffee makers.
Quality of Coffee
The Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 makes a K-cup coffee on par with the most expensive Keurig machines. Its loose-ground coffee is generally good but gets watery if you try to brew more than 8 cups (40 oz) in one go.
Quality of K-Cup Coffee
The Ninja DualBrew Pro makes as good a K-cup coffee as any K-cup or dual coffee maker.
The Ninja DualBrew Pro’s K cup brewing system is very similar to the Keurig Supreme & Supreme Plus – two of Keurig’s premium models.
Just like the Keurig Supreme, the Ninja DualBrew Pro pierces K cups with multiple needles in the top, allowing for a more even extraction than machines that pierce K cups with just one needle.
The DualBrew Pro also has multiple strength settings that affect how long your K-cup is brewed.
Its maximum brewing length is around two minutes and twenty seconds, which means that it can make a strong K-cup coffee, again comparable to the Keurig K Supreme.
I really like the fact that the DualBrew allows you to make a 6 oz K-cup of coffee. This is the ideal size for a K-cup coffee, considering how much ground coffee is inside a K-cup.
Machines that start at 8 oz invariably make watery coffee as there is just not enough ground coffee in a K cup for that amount of brewing water.
Quality of Loose Ground Coffee
The Ninja DualBrew Pro can make good loose-ground coffee when brewing half-carafe serving sizes or smaller. Its coffee becomes watery at serving sizes over half a carafe.
The Ninja DualBrew Pro makes good coffee with loose grounds when brewing serving sizes under half a carafe due to its high-quality heating mechanism and long brewing times.
Unfortunately, its brew basket can only hold enough coffee to brew up to half a carafe at a good coffee-to-water ratio.
It simply cannot hold enough ground coffee to brew a strong full carafe, so its coffee gets quite watery once you get to this serving size.
I like the fact that you can make single servings of coffee (as little as 4 oz and up to 15 oz) with loose-ground coffee.
This mitigates the problem that you have with K cups producing a watery coffee at serving sizes larger than 8 oz. Instead, you can make these serving sizes with a larger quantity of loose-ground coffee.
Quality of Coffee Rating: 8/10
Ease of Use
The Ninja DualBrew Pro’s excellent user interface makes it easy to use despite its many functionalities.
The Ninja DualBrew Pro has easily the best user interface of all dual coffee makers.
It is easier to use than most dual coffee makers for two reasons:
- It has precise, preset serving sizes (so no need to measure out your water)
- All its settings are displayed on the machine in plain English (so no need to ask yourself: “what does that light mean when it flashes”
The only finicky part of making a coffee with the Ninja DualBrew Pro is measuring out your loose-ground coffee. Every dual coffee maker requires you to do this, however.
I talk much more about the Ninja DualBrew Pro’s excellent user interface in my Ninja DualBrew Pro review.
Ease of Use Rating: 9/10
Design and Build Quality
While the Ninja DualBrew Pro has excellent internal build quality, some of the machine’s external components are quite flimsy. Its glass carafe is particularly fragile.
The Ninja DualBrew Pro has an excellent internal build quality, as shown by three factors:
- Its preset serving sizes are accurate (you’d be amazed by how rare this is).
- It can keep a consistent temperature during brewing (only the best drip coffee makers can do this).
- I couldn’t find many reports of its heating element deteriorating over time (most cheaper-built machines have this problem).
The machine’s excellent internal build quality contributes to its consistently good quality coffee and its reliability over time.
The machine’s external parts are quite plasticky, however. I wouldn’t be surprised to see its milk frother and port doors break under a small amount of pressure.
Its carafes (both thermal and glass) are poorly built as well:
- Its glass carafe is super fragile and can break with even a small nudge.
- Its thermal carafe is not very insulative, keeping your coffee hot for little more than an hour (this is terrible by thermal carafe standards).
A lot of Ninja’s customers complain about their customer service, so although the machine does have a two-year warranty, getting a replacement under warranty may well be a drawn-out process.
Design and Build Quality Rating: 7/10
Value For Money
The Ninja DualBrew Pro is one of the more expensive coffee machines on the market, but as it’s one of the best ones, I think that this price is fair.
I think you generally get the best value for money by avoiding K cup brewing altogether, however, if you want a dual brewer then the DualBrew Pro will give you more bang for your buck than one of Keurig’s overpriced machines.
Value For Money Rating: 7/10
Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 Pros
It makes the best coffee of all dual brewers.
Its preset serving sizes make it easier to use than most dual brewers on the market.
It can make a larger number of coffee types than most dual brewers, including iced coffee and espresso-like “specialty coffee”.
Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 Cons
Its full carafe serving of coffee is a bit watery.
Some of its external parts (including its carafe) are flimsy.
Most Durable: Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 10 Cup with Thermal Carafe
Most Durable
The Cuisinart Coffee Centre can make decent K-Cup and drip coffee. The beauty of the machine really lies in its longevity, making it an excellent value-for-money purchase.
Quality of Coffee
The Cuisinart Coffee Centre is very good at making larger batches of drip coffee because it has a very large ground coffee port. It does not let you make single servings with loose grounds, so smaller servings of coffee are not as good as the other machines recommended here.
Quality of K-Cup Coffee
The Cuisinart Coffee Centre makes slightly better K-Cup coffee than mid-priced Keurig machines (like the Keurig Mini Plus), but slightly worse K-cup coffee than premium Keurig machines and the Ninja DualBrew Pro.
The Cuisinart Coffee Centre pierces K-cups with one needle in the top and brews them for around one minute and forty seconds when you brew with the “bold” button on.
This is a slower brew than the Keurig K Mini Plus, meaning that the Cuisinart will make a stronger, tastier coffee than the Keurig K Mini Plus.
As with all K-Cup brewers, I don’t recommend brewing more than 8 oz of coffee at a time, as K-Cups don’t hold enough ground coffee for this quantity of water (6 oz on “bold” will get you the best results with this machine).
I do not like that the Cuisinart does not let you brew single servings with loose grounds.
This means that the machine will make a watery single-serve coffee if the serving size is larger than 8 oz.
Quality of Loose Ground Coffee
The Cuisinart Coffee Centre can make good drip coffee with loose grounds, especially in larger servings.
It is the only dual brewer that can brew at capacity and still maintain the ideal 1:18 ground coffee-to-water ratio. Therefore larger servings of coffee are not watery, unlike the Ninja and Hamilton Beach Flexbrew.
It’s therefore the best dual brewer for larger servings of drip coffee.
Quality of Coffee Rating: 7/10
Ease of Use
The Cuisinart Coffee Centre’s stripped-back functionalities and control panel makes it easy to use. It is slightly more effort to use than the Ninja DualBrew Pro as you need to measure out your brewing water when brewing with loose grounds.
The Cuisinart’s user interface is really well designed with all its buttons and dials clearly labeled in plain English. One of the most common ways that a coffee maker can be hard to use is if they label their buttons with symbols rather than words, and Cuisinart avoids this.
While K cups have preset serving sizes, you need to dose out your brewing water for your loose ground coffee each time as the machine brews with all the water in its reservoir.
While the loose ground reservoir is clearly marked, it’s on the left side of the machine, meaning that you’ll need to pour in your water with your left hand.
Some reviewers of the machine on Amazon said that this made filling the machine with water unnecessarily difficult, however, I think that this is nitpicking (mainly because I’m left-handed and am used to equipment designed for right-handers).
Ease of Use Rating: 8/10
Design and Build Quality
The Cuisinart Coffee Centre is sturdily built and has a three-year warranty if something goes wrong with the machine.
The Cuisinart’s main strength is its durability. It’s a nice, heavy machine and although it has a lot of plastic components, none of them feels flimsy.
I am specifically recommending the model of the machine with a thermal carafe, as this gets rid of one of the most fragile parts of any coffee maker – namely its glass carafe. Cuisinart makes really good thermal carafes that will keep your coffee hot for over four hours.
The only part of the machine that can malfunction is its K-cup needles.
These have a tendency to blunt over time making it hard to puncture your K-cup. Often you need to open and close your K-cup lid several times to puncture your K-cup.
The machine has a three-year warranty, and Cuisinart’s customer service appears to be better than most at making getting replacement parts a painless process.
Design and Build Quality Rating: 8/10
Value For Money
The Cuisinart costs a similar amount as the Ninja, putting them both in the premium end of the dual coffee maker market.
However, the machine is easily the most durable dual brewer, meaning it should justify its price tag after several years of reliable service.
Value for Money Rating: 7/10
Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 Pros
It is the only dual brewer that can make a full carafe of coffee without it being watery.
It has the longest warranty of all dual brewers.
It has very few flimsy parts.
Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 Cons
It does not let you brew single servings of coffee with loose grounds.
Its K-cup needles blunt faster than other dual brewers.
Cheapest I Can Recommend: Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976
Cheapest I Can Recommend
The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew is one of the most affordable dual coffee makers and its simple design makes it surprisingly reliable given its price tag.
Quality of Coffee
The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew makes decent, but not great coffee, its bold setting does improve things a bit compared to other affordable dual coffee makers. Its loose-ground coffee gets watery when you brew more than 6 cups (30 oz) at a time.
Quality of K-Cups
The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew makes K-cup coffee on par with lower-end Keurig machines (it is still cheaper than these machines though). I like how you can make single-serve coffee with loose grounds.
The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew pierces K-cups with a single needle and brews them for almost three minutes in a bold setting.
This slow brewing creates a strong K-cup of coffee, especially if you brew with 8 oz of water or less.
Since you dose out your water for each K-cup of coffee you make, this is easily done.
I really like the fact that the Hamilton Beach Flexbrew lets you brew single servings of coffee in its K-cup side with loose grounds (it has a separate insert that allows you to do this).
This means that you can make 10 oz and 12 oz K-cup coffees without them being watery.
You cannot do this with Keurig machines (please see my comparison of Keurig Duo vs Hamilton Beach Flexbrew), or with the Cuisinart Coffee Centre.
Quality of Loose Ground Coffee
The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew can make decent loose-ground coffee if you brew 6 cups (30 oz) or less. If you brew more than this then its coffee gets really watery.
This is because the machine can only hold enough ground coffee in its brew basket to make 6 cups of coffee and still keep to a good coffee-to-water ratio.
Brew more than this, and you just cannot fit enough ground coffee into the machine to prevent it from making a really watery drink.
Quality of Coffee Rating: 6/10
Ease of Use
The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew is simple to use, but bear in mind that you need to dose out your water for every drink you make, K-cup coffees included.
The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew’s well-labeled buttons (again in plain English rather than with symbols) make it easy to use. This ease of use extends to its more complex features like auto-on.
The one way that it is harder to use than the other machines recommended here is that you need to measure out your water for both K-cup and lose ground coffee.
So long as you are happy to do this, then it is no more complicated to use than the other, more expensive machines featured here.
Ease of Use Rating: 6/10
Design and Build Quality
Although the Hamilton Beach Flexbrew is a little bit flimsy in places, it is still far more durable than other similarly priced dual coffee makers.
Listen, the Flexbrew is not a sturdy machine. Its carafe and hinges need to be handled with care, and the machine will likely not last you more than five years.
However, compared to other similarly priced (and even many more expensive) dual coffee makers, the Flexbrew is relatively sturdy and free from known technical issues.
So well it is not super sturdy, but it is well-built given its price tag.
Design and Build Quality Rating: 6/10
Value for Money
The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew offers amazing value for money.
It is a lot, lot cheaper than the other two machines listed here, and while it is an inferior machine relative to the other two, it is still reliable and makes decent coffee.
This is more than can be said for almost all similarly priced dual coffee makers, making the Hamilton Beach Flexbrew an excellent purchase if you want to dip your toes into the dual coffee maker waters.
Value for Money Rating: 9/10
Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 Pros
Makes better K-cup coffee than all similarly priced dual coffee makers.
Is the cheapest machine with an auto-on feature.
Absurdly cheap for how reliable it is.
Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 Cons
Cannot make more than 30 oz of coffee in one go without it becoming watery.
Its glass carafe is easily smashed.
Two Machines to Avoid: Keurig Duo and Ninja Hot and Cold
I’d avoid the Keurig K Duo, as well as the Ninja Hot and Cold CP301.
- Problem with the Keurig K Duo: This machine is overpriced and unreliable. It has a really poor build quality, particularly with its pump. This means that the machine will quickly create smaller and smaller servings of coffee, to the point that it becomes unusable. This is unacceptable, especially considering that it is one of the more expensive dual coffee makers on the market.
- Problem with Ninja Hot and Cold CP301: This machine is basically just the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 but with the added ability to make “cold brew” coffee. It makes an undrinkable bad cold brew, so you are paying extra for functionality that doesn’t really work.
What Should I Look For When Buying A Dual Coffee Maker?
These are the five questions that you want to ask yourself when looking for a dual coffee maker:
- How well does it brew with loose grounds?
- How well does it brew with K-cups?
- How expensive is the machine?
- How long will the machine last?
- How big is the machine?
I’m now going to run through these questions and answer them for all the machines that I have recommended in this article
The first two of these questions (how well the machine brews loose grounds and K-cups) are dependent on a handful of smaller questions, which I will also go through.
How Well do the Machines Brew with Loose Grounds?
A coffee maker’s ability to brew drip coffee with loose grounds depends on three variables:
- How long it brews coffee (generally, longer is better)?
- Whether it can keep a consistent brewing temperature (more consistent is better).
- The size of its brew basket (a machine should ideally brew at capacity while maintaining a 1:18 ground coffee to water ratio).
I will run through each of these variables in more detail in a second.
Before I do that here are the three recommended dual coffee makers ranked from best to worst loose-ground coffee:
- Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 (best for brewing with loose-ground coffee)
- Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307
- Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 (worst for brewing with loose-ground coffee)
Brewing Time
The longer a coffee maker brews your coffee, the better that coffee will taste.
The Specialty Coffee Association of America recommends that you should brew drip coffee for 1-4 minutes, with the best-tasting coffee taking around 2-3 minutes to brew per cup.
Dual brewers tend to fall well short of this mark, with only the Ninja DualBrew Pro brewing for more than two minutes per cup. This is the main reason why it makes better coffee than the Cuisinart Coffee Centre and the Hamilton Beach Flexbrew.
The table below shows the length of time that each of these machines takes to brew one cup of coffee. Please note that these times are based on each machine being on its highest “strength” setting, as I would always recommend brewing on this setting:
Machine name | How long to brew one cup of coffee? |
Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 (best for loose ground brewing) | 1 minute and 40 seconds |
Ninja DualBrew CFP307 | 2 minutes and 12 seconds |
Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 (worst loose ground brewing) | 1 minute and 20 seconds |
Brewing Temperature
The more consistently your coffee maker can maintain its brewing temperature at, the better your drip coffee will taste.
Drip coffee needs to be brewed at a temperature between 194 and 205 Fahrenheit for all the desirable soluble compounds in your ground coffee to dissolve into your brewing water.
While almost all coffee makers reach this temperature by the end of the brewing process, very few can maintain this temperature throughout brewing.
Of the machines listed here, only the Ninja DualBrew CFP307 does this, although the Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 comes close.
The table below shows whether the machines recommended in this article can keep a consistent temperature throughout the brewing process.
Machine name | Can it brew at a consistent temperature between 194 and 205 Fahrenheit |
Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 (best for loose ground brewing) | No, but it is not far off this |
Ninja DualBrew CFP307 | Yes |
Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 (worst for loose ground brewing) | Not even close |
Size of its Brew Basket
A dual coffee maker should have a brew basket big enough so it can brew at full capacity and still maintain a 1:18 ground coffee-to-water ratio.
The SCAA recommends that drip coffee should be brewed at a 1:18 ground coffee to water ratio (called “brew ratio”).
This means that the machine’s brew basket volume is a major determining factor in how well a dual coffee maker makes drip coffee.
A machine with too small a brew basket will not be able to brew larger servings of coffee at the ideal brew ratio. Such larger batches of coffee will therefore always be watery.
The only dual coffee maker that can brew at its maximum capacity and still keep an 18:1 brew ratio is the Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1.
I’d therefore recommend this machine if you want to make larger batches of coffee regularly.
The Ninja DualBrew Pro’s brew basket only allows it to make a strong coffee at serving sizes up to 40 oz (8 cups) and the Hamilton Beach Flexbrew can only brew a strong coffee at serving sizes up to 30 oz (6 cups).
The table below shows the maximum serving size each of the recommended machines can brew while still staying at the ideal 1:18 ground coffee-to-water ratio.
Machine name | Maximum serving size it can make and still stay at an ideal coffee-to-water ratio |
Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 (best for loose ground brewing) | 50 oz (it’s capacity) |
Ninja DualBrew CFP307 | 40 oz |
Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 (worst for loose ground brewing) | 30 oz |
How Well do the Machines Brew K-Cups and Single Servings?
A coffee maker’s ability to brew K-cups depends on the following variables:
- How many needles does it pierce the K-cup with (more is better)
- How long does it brew the K-cup for (longer is better)
- Does it let you brew single servings with the loose ground (it’s better if it does)
Before I explain these in more detail, here are the three recommended machines listed from worst to best single-serve brewing:
- Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 (best K-cup brewing)
- Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976
- Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 (worst K-cup brewing)
How Many Needles Does it Pierce the K-Cup With?
Machines that pierce K-cups with more than one needle in the top achieve more even extraction and a better-tasting coffee.
K-cup brewers that pierce a K-cup with a single needle tend to fall victim to channeling. This is where only the central coffee grounds come into direct contact with water because it makes a “channel” through the middle of the K-cup.
This can create a weak coffee as only a small amount of the coffee in the K-cup is extracted.
The more expensive Keurig machines pierce K-cups with between three to five needles.
This means that three to five channels of water make their way through the K-cup, so the ground coffee in the K-cup is more evenly covered with water. This results in more extraction and a stronger final drink.
Coffee makers that pierce your K-cup with more than one needle, therefore, make a better K-cup coffee than ones that do not.
The table below shows the number of needles that each recommended machine uses to pierce your K-cup.
Machine name | How many needles does it pierce your K-cup with at the top |
Ninja DualBrew CFP307 (best K-cup brewer) | Three |
Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 | One |
Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 (worst K-cup brewer) | One |
How Long Does it Take to Brew Your K-Cup?
You ideally want your dual coffee maker to brew your K-cup coffee in between 2-3 minutes. As a very general rule of thumb, longer brewing makes better coffee.
If your machine brews K-cups quicker than this, then the coffee it makes will be very watery as there is not enough time for the flavorful compounds in the coffee to dissolve into your brewing water.
The “strength” settings on a dual coffee maker usually affect how long your machine brews your K-cup. I’d always recommend brewing on the highest strength setting, as K-cups tend to produce watery coffee at the best of times (for reasons that I’ll explain later).
The table below shows the length of time that each of the recommended machines in this article takes to brew a K-cup on their highest strength setting:
Machine name | How long does it take to brew a K cup on its highest strength setting |
Ninja DualBrew CFP307 (best K-cup brewer) | Two minutes and twenty seconds |
Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 | Two minutes and fifty seconds |
Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 (worst K-cup brewer) | One minute and forty seconds |
Can You Brew Single Servings With Loose Grounds?
You ideally want a machine that allows you to brew single servings of coffee with loose grounds because K cups create a watery coffee with serving sizes over eight ounces.
The downside of brewing with K cups is that they only contain enough ground coffee to make an 8 oz coffee (or smaller) that isn’t watery.
There just is not enough ground coffee in a K cup to brew a bigger serving of coffee and still stay at a decent coffee-to-water ratio.
You, therefore, want a machine that allows you to easily brew bigger single servings (10 oz – 14 oz) of coffee with loose grounds.
The table below shows whether the machines recommended in this article allow you to brew single servings of coffee with loose grounds:
Machine name | Does it allow you to brew single servings with loose grounds? |
Ninja DualBrew CFP307 (best K cup brewer) | Yes |
Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 | Yes |
Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 (worst K-cup brewer) | No |
How Durable is the Machine?
In general, dual coffee makers have really poor build quality, with this being particularly true of Keurig machines.
While it’s difficult to reduce overall build quality into smaller variables, there are two factors that I like to look at when ascertaining a dual coffee maker’s durability. They are:
- Does the machine have a glass or thermal carafe: Glass carafes are often made out of really thin glass and are often the first part of a machine to break. A coffee maker’s durability is therefore increased significantly just by having a thermal carafe rather than a glass one.
- What is the machine’s warranty: A machine’s warranty tends to be indicative of the level of confidence that a manufacturer has in its durability. It’s therefore a really good predictor of how long a machine will likely last before they succumb to technical problems.
It’s also well worth looking at negative reviews (one and two-star reviews) of each machine to see if there are any repeated technical issues that you can find. Generally, if you can find the same issue being mentioned more than once then there is a larger chance that your model may have such an issue.
If all negative reviews of a machine (and there will always be some) mention different technical issues, then this is usually a good sign that a machine does not have a known “bug”.
The table below shows whether each of the recommended machines in this article:
- Have a glass or thermal carafe
- Has a warranty (and if so then how long)
- Has any technical issues that came up time and time again in negative reviews
Machine name | Does it have a glass or thermal carafe | How long is its warranty? | Any common technical issues |
Ninja DualBrew CFP307 (best overall) | Glass or thermal | 1 year | No |
Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 (most durable) | Thermal | 3 years | It sometimes explodes your K-cups |
Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 (cheapest I can recommend) | Glass | 1 year | K-cup pump often stops working within months of ownership |
How Expensive is the Machine?
Dual coffee makers tend to range from $50 to $250.
Honestly, my research has led me to believe that there is not actually that much correlation between how expensive these machines are and how good they are.
A big part of this is because Keurig makes a lot of the dual coffee makers on the market and their machines are ridiculously overpriced.
The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 is one of the cheapest of these types of machines on the market and is one of the better ones.
The Ninja DualBrew CFP307 and the Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 are both on the more expensive side of the market (they cost about the same as the Keurig K Duo Plus), but justify their price tags by making good coffee and being really durable respectively.
Most of the machines not on this list, especially Keurig machines, are very overpriced for what you get.
How Big is the Machine?
Dual coffee makers tend to be bigger than most coffee machines as they have to have room for separate ports for K cups and loose grounds.
These types of machines also have more scope for minimizing space, for example, some machines have one port with two inserts.
Just make sure that you have enough countertop space and clearance to comfortably fit your machine. I’d recommend having at least six inches of width, depth, and height around your machine to comfortably fit it on your counter.
The table below shows the dimensions of all the dual coffee makers recommended in this article:
Machine name | Dimensions | How much counter space do I need? |
Ninja DualBrew CFP307 (best overall) | 9.12″W x 11.39″D x 15.54″H | 15.12”W x 17.39”D x 21.54”H |
Cuisinart Coffee Centre SS-20P1 (most durable) | 12.72”W x 10.75”D x 16.5”H | 18.72”W x 16.75”D x 22.5”H |
Hamilton Beach Flexbrew 49976 (cheapest I can recommend) | 12.20”W x 11.4”D x 13.70”H | 16.20”W x 17.4”D x 18.4”H |
Final Verdict
The best dual coffee maker is the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307.
Best Overall
The Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 makes the best tasting coffee of all dual coffee makers.
For more about Ninja’s coffee makers, please see my roundup of the best Ninja coffee makers.