Ninja DualBrew Pro Review

Quick Answer: I would recommend the Ninja Dualbrew Pro if you want a coffee maker that brews with both loose-ground coffee and K cups. The Ninja Dualbrew Pro is the best machine that can brew in both these ways on the market right now. 

This is my Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 review.

I have never owned the Ninja DualBrew Pro.

I have, however, spent a whole day researching this machine (and users’ experiences with it) online to put together this review.

I will be focussing on the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 during this review as I believe that it is the best Ninja DualBrew Pro model. I will also touch on the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP301 at certain points in this review when I think the differences between them are relevant.

Let’s get started.

Should I Buy the Ninja DualBrew Pro?

I’d recommend buying the Ninja DualBrew Pro if you want the best dual coffee maker for loose-ground drip coffee and K cups. The Ninja DualBrew Pro is, by a fair distance, the best machine of this kind.

Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 Pros

It can make a wide range of coffee types.

It has lots of preset serving sizes, so no need for measuring out your water.

It has a really intuitive user interface.

It can make a better K-cup coffee than most Keurig machines.

Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 Cons

The machine is pricey for what you get.

Its drip coffee is watery at serving sizes over 37 oz.

Ninja’s customer support is terrible.

If you are put off by the Ninja DualBrew Pro’s price tag, then a good starter K-cup and loose coffee machine are the Hamilton Beach Flexbrew.

The Flexbrew is much cheaper than the DualBrew Pro, and although it is a less durable machine, it can still make consistently decent coffee. You can find out more about the Flexbrew by seeing my comparison of the Keurig K Duo vs Hamilton Beach Flexbrew.

Ninja DualBrew Pro – At a Glance

The Ninja DualBrew Pro can brew single-serve coffees with a K cup and single servings, half pots, and full pots with loose coffee.

Although the machine only has one brew chamber, this can take two inserts:

• A K cup port with three needles (similar to the Keurig Supreme and Keurig Supreme Plus)
• A larger flat-bottomed brew basket

The machine is controlled by a couple of dials that scroll through backlit buttons to indicate brew style and serving size.

The table below shows the key specification of the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307:

Specification	Ninja DualBrew PRO CFP307
Description	Drip coffee machine that can brew with K cups and loose grounds
Dimensions	11.39″D x 9.12″W x 15.54″H
Available coffee types	Classic, Rich, Over Ice, Specialty
Available serving sizes (K cups)	6 oz, 8 oz, 10 oz, 12 oz
Available serving sizes (loose grounds)	8 oz, 10 oz, 12 oz, 15 oz, 18 oz, 28 oz, 37 oz, 46 oz, 55 oz
Carafe type	Thermal (you can buy the machine with a glass carafe)
Removable water tank	Yes
Water tank capacity	60 oz
Bloom functionality	Yes
Can you control the brew temperature?	No, but different coffee types are brewed at different temperatures.
Can you control brew speed?	No, but different coffee types are brewed at different speeds.
Auto on functionality	Yes
Where to buy?	Buy the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 on Amazon

You can also buy this machine with a glass carafe rather than a thermal one.

The version of the machine with a glass carafe is called the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP301.

Personally, I would recommend the version of the machine with a thermal carafe over a glass carafe as Ninja’s glass carafes are incredibly fragile (more so than other glass carafes). 

I talk more about Ninja’s different carafe styles in my comparison of the Ninja CP301 vs CP307.

I am now going to assess the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 against the following criteria:

• Quality of coffee
• Functionalities
• Ease of use and cleaning
• Design and build quality
• Value for money

Quality of Coffee

The Ninja DualBrew Pro makes good but not great quality drip coffee. Its K-cup coffee is some of the best that any machine can make, however.

Since the Ninja DualBrew Pro makes K cups and drip coffee in different ways, it’s useful to evaluate these separately.

K Cup Coffee

The Ninja DualBrew Pro makes at least as good a K-cup coffee as the most expensive Keurig machines.

The DualBrew Pro has basically the same K-cup brewing mechanism as the Keurig Supreme range – these are the most expensive and highest-quality Keurig machines, by the way.

The Ninja DualBrew Pro and the Keurig Supreme have the following similarities in how they brew:

• They both pierce K cups with multiple needles, ensuring as even an extraction as possible.

• They both brew for two minutes when on their strongest setting (this is “rich” mode on the Ninja DualBrew.

• They both brew K cups at 180 Fahrenheit

All cheaper K-cup machines (both Keurig machines and other K-cup machines) fall short of this brewing standard, meaning that they will make inferior coffee to the Ninja DualBrew Pro.

I talk more about Ninja’s superiority over Keurig in my comparison between Ninja vs Keurig.

Drip Coffee with Loose Grounds

The Ninja DualBrew Pro brews single servings and half carafes of drip coffee well, but its coffee gets more watery as you brew full carafes.

The Ninja DualBrew Pro is not SCAA-certified. This means that it does not brew to the optimal drip coffee brewing standards as set out by the Specialty Coffee Association of America.

It will not, therefore, make as good a drip coffee as the best automatic pour-over coffee makers.

In particular, the Ninja Dualbrew Pro’s drip coffee drops off once you start brewing more than 37 oz in one go.

The machine’s ground coffee brew chamber is too small to hold the amount of ground coffee you need to make a strong pot of more than 37 oz. The machine’s 44 oz and 55 oz coffee are therefore watery.

Smaller serving sizes made with this machine are still good, especially if you brew on its “specialty” mode.

Quality of Coffee Rating: 7/10

Functionalities

The Ninja DualBrew Pro has more functionalities than any other dual loose grounds and K-cup brewer. Not all these functionalities are performed well, however.

The Ninja DualBrew Pro has the following features and functionalities:

• Preset serving sizes
• Four brew types
• A milk frother (that froths milk but doesn’t also steam it)
• Auto turn on based on a time you set in advance
• Hot water dispensing

The DualBrew Pro’s main feature that it has over other dual K-cup and loose-ground coffee machines is its four brew types. I am going to run through what these each are now:

Brew Type	Description
Classic	Brews 13 oz of coffee per serving. Coffee is brewed at 180 Fahrenheit for 2 minutes and 12 seconds.
Rich	Brews 12 oz of coffee per serving. Coffee is brewed at 180 Fahrenheit for 2 minutes and 12 seconds
Over Ice	Brews 6 oz of coffee per serving. Coffee is brewed at 150 Fahrenheit for 1 minute and 30 seconds
Specialty	Brews 4 oz of coffee per serving. Coffee is brewed at 180 Fahrenheit for 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

Although the machine has more coffee types than any other dual brewer, I do not necessarily think they are executed that well.

For example, the best way to strengthen a drip coffee is to lengthen its brewing time, not change its brew ratio. Therefore I’m not actually sure how much difference there is between “classic” and “rich”.

The machine’s “over ice” and “speciality” modes have been singled out for repeated praise by users of the machine on Reddit, with the latter being a good espresso substitute for milk-based espresso drinks like cappuccino and latte (the machine’s milk frother is also handy in making these types of drinks).

No other dual K-cup and loose coffee brewer has anywhere near this functionality, with most just having a “classic” and “rich” setting, and preset serving sizes.

No other machine has settings for iced coffee and a frother.

Functionalities Rating: 9/10

Ease of Use and Cleaning

The Ninja DualBrew Pro is very easy to use. Its dial-operated user interface is one of the highlights of the machine, in my opinion.

The Ninja DualBrew Pro has the following features that make it easier than most coffee machines to use:

• Superb user interface: Its user interface has backlight symbols that tell you in plain English what every turn of its dial corresponds to. This is waaayyy better than machines that use symbols or seemingly arbitrary numbers to signpost their different settings.

• Preset serving sizes: You program the amount of water you want to use in your coffee so you do not need to measure it out manually. You still need to measure out your ground coffee by hand, however.

• Large volume water tank: A 60 oz water tank means that you do not need to fill the machine up with water for every coffee that you make.

• Auto-on functionality: It has a built-in clock and an auto-on setting that can get the machine to make you your coffee automatically at a preset time in the future. You do need to leave the machine on for this to work, however.

The machine’s user interface is by far the biggest benefit it has over other dual K-cup and ground coffee brewers. No Keurig machine comes close to this, or another dual brewer has a user interface anywhere near as good as the DualBrews.

The machine doesn’t really have any annoying features that make it more difficult than it should be to use.

I do however anticipate that the machine’s water tank might be hard to keep clean.

The water tank is tall and slim, meaning that it will be hard to reach its bottom corners with a sponge.

Grime builds up quickly in the bottom corners of water tanks, especially if you keep it full of water between brews. Removing this grime by hand will be hard because its tall, slim design means you cannot easily get your hand into the bottom of it.

While Ninja claims that its parts are dishwasher safe, I don’t like putting anything plastic in the dishwasher (nearly all the machine’s components are made out of plastic). I’d therefore expect to be cleaning the K cup port and water tank by hand (the carafe can go in the dishwasher).

Ease of Use and Cleaning Rating: 8/10

Design and Build Quality

The machine has a really good internal build quality, and even though its exterior is almost all plastic the machine does not feel flimsy compared to most coffee machines. Ninja’s customer support is terrible if things do go wrong, however.

Internal Build Quality

The Ninja DualBrew Pro’s internal build quality is really high with its only shortcoming being its less-than-perfect heating mechanism.

The machine’s measurements and serving sizes are actually correct (you’d be surprised by how rare this is), its brewing is consistent, and I could not find a single claim online that its user interface had ever malfunctioned.

Ninja coffee machines generally do not have amazing quality heating units, however. Their heaters cannot maintain a constant temperature throughout the brewing process. 

This means that the machine will brew below the optimal brewing temperature for coffee for at least some of the brewing process.

It, therefore, makes inferior coffee compared to the very best drip coffee makers.

The heating unit will not deteriorate quickly, unlike a lot of lower-end coffee machines.

External Build Quality

The Ninja DualBrew Pro’s external build quality does not match its internal build quality.

Nearly all its external parts are made out of plastic, giving the machine a really cheap look (save for its futuristic control panel).

The machine’s thermal carafe is also pretty bad. It can only keep your coffee hot for about an hour which is not insulative at all by thermal carafe standards.

This being said, I’d still recommend the version of this machine with a thermal carafe over one with a glass carafe. Ninja’s glass carafes are super thin and fragile, meaning that you’ll likely end up having to replace it at least once during the lifetime of the machine.

Any Known Technical Issues?

The only specific problem with the Ninja DualBrew Pro that came up time and time again in my research was that some models of the machine consistently leaked ground coffee into your drink when brewing with K cups.

This is a problem I often see with K-cup coffee makers from all manufacturers when they pierce the K-cup with more than one needle in the top.

So while this problem is annoying, it is certainly not something that is universal to the Ninja DualBrew Pro.

Another problem that I saw come up time and time again in negative reviews of the Ninja DualBrew Pro is that Ninja’s customer service is terrible.

It sounds like if you have a problem with the machine you are basically on your own to try and find spare parts. Getting a refund on the machine seems like a near impossibility.

Design and Build Quality Rating: 6/10

Value For Money

I think that the Ninja DualBrew Pro is overpriced (along with almost all Ninja coffee machines).

The Ninja DualBrew is about twice the price of the next most expensive dual K cup and ground coffee brewer.

While it is the best machine of this type, it’s not twice as good as the competition.

You are basically paying for a bit of added durability (which, to be fair is a good reason to pay extra money) and a few more brew modes.

While I do think the machine is worth the money for someone who specifically wants a dual K cup and ground coffee brewer, it still seems expensive for what you get.

Value for Money Rating: 5/10

What Users Say

As of March 2023, the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 has been reviewed 117 times on Amazon with an average rating of 4.7/5 stars.

Positive reviews of the machine praise how feature rich it is, and how well it executes each feature:

Amazon review, January 2023: “Fits the bill for a full pot, half pot, pod, several ounce settings, hot water option for tea or oatmeal, and a 4 ounce for espresso. Auto on setting and a frother for special drinks”

Negative reviews of the machine almost always mention Ninja’s terrible customer service:

Amazon review, November 2022: “We have their Air Fryer, it’s great but I’ll never buy another coffee maker from them again and the poor customer service doesn’t do much to make me want to buy anything else they make ever again. Shop around and buy another brand.”

Product Alternatives

A good alternative to the Ninja DualBrew Pro is the Hamilton Beach Flexbrew. I would also recommend avoiding the Keurig Duo.

Hamilton Beach Flexbrew – Good Cheaper Alternative to the Ninja DualBrew Pro

The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew is about a third of the cost of the Ninja DualBrew Pro.

While the FlexBrew makes slightly worse coffee than the DualBrew Pro, and will not likely last you as long, it is still a good option if you are on the fence about buying a dual-ground coffee and K-cup brewer.

The Hamilton Beach Flexbrew is the cheapest machine of this type that I am still happy to recommend.

For more information about this machine please see my comparison of the Keurig Duo vs Hamilton Beach Flexbrew.

Keurig K Duo – One to Avoid

The Keurig K Duo is the most popular dual K-cup and loose-ground brewer on the market currently.

I have owned the machine in the past and I was not happy with the loose-ground drip coffee that it makes.

Its coffee is super watery, probably because the machine does not heat your brewing water hot enough.

The machine is also very prone to leaking from its water tank. Combine this with its fairly expensive price tag and this is just a terrible process.

For more information about this, please see my Keurig Duo review.

Final Verdict

I’d recommend the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307 to people looking for the best possible dual loose ground and K-cup coffee machine.

There is no better machine of this type than the Ninja DualBrew Pro CFP307. Despite this, I still cannot help but feel that the machine is a bit overpriced.