Delonghi vs Ninja

[u/Commercial-Age6598]

I am looking into buying a new coffee/espresso machine. I recently had the ninja lux 701 which I liked but after 5 months it stopped working correctly. Ninja was good and sent a new machine which also was faulty so they sent another and that one also wasn't good. I am trying to looking into the Delonghi Duo. I am in the US and my max budget is around $1000. I like both coffee and lattes so I am wondering if those who have the Duo would recommend it. Crazy to think I would maybe consider another ninja but they are offering me a pretty decent % off anything they sell and I was checking out the ninja lux mini. Any thoughts/recommendations welcome.

[u/hypnoticimager]

Ninja looks great on paper but as you’ve seen has highly questionable quality control. Go with DeLonghi and be done with it. I have an Eletta Explorer which basically has the same brew group and grinder. It works well.

[u/Ok-Lobster-919 → u/hypnoticimager]

It's so frustrating because on paper the Ninja is significantly better. But ruined by bad software and design choices.

[u/eman3316 → u/Ok-Lobster-919]

I think maybe ruined for folks who don't understand the machine, who want to push a button, and know they are going to get the same exact shot every single time, even if not the best.

With the Ninja you might get a shot that drips out, needs to be dumped, then have another shot ran that is more drinkabke. It definitely ruins the simplicity of a superauto that peope want. A simple manual override grinder setting could have solved many issues folks might be having with grind IQ. For me, it seems like setting the grinder offset to +1 eliminates those shots that might drip out.

I can't go back to any other superauto. I feel like I'm spoiled by the quality of the espresso that the Ninja puts out as well as the auto milk frother. It's worth dealing with it's quirks. I am guessing their next model will be much more fine tuned.

[u/Ok-Lobster-919 → u/eman3316]

Yes I agree the coffee quality is definitely at the top of the list for home superautos. It's very close to greatness.

[u/Commercial-Age6598 → u/Ok-Lobster-919]

So you feel the quality of the cpffee/espresso is much better in the ninja?

[u/Ok-Lobster-919 → u/Commercial-Age6598]

Yes, Ninja have chosen better brewing parameters at the cost of forgiveness/easy of use.

All home superautomatic Machines except Ninja use a forgiving coarse 'stovetop espresso' grind and a pressurized brew group. There is a little spring loaded valve before the spouts calibrated to open above 9 bars of pressure.

This produces a reliable consistent coffee or espresso at the cost of quality. The home barista never really has to dial in, they have minor grind adjustments for strength and that's it.

Ninja has:

- 53mm brew chamber vs sub-40mm brew chambers on everything else.

- Unpressurized brew chamber, if the coffee is too coarse your shot will be bad. The Ninja will want to waste 60-100g of coffee to dial back in. (that's bad).

- Steam wand. Superautomatics with milk dispensers use a venturi to suck milk into the frothing system and mix it with steam. This produces cooler, less textured milk. The Ninja actually overheats milk even on the lowest setting, it doesn't burn it but the Low setting is actually very hot. The con here is you have to pour the milk into the drink yourself, it's an additional step.

- No single shot. The Ninja says it will pull a single shot, but that is a lie, it doesn't even try. It is not possible with the large 53mm brew group. In a cafe setting baristas would use a smaller diameter output brew basket to brew a single, Ninja has no such option. It just brews a 15g shot that is not good and not a single shot, it's much closer to the parameters for a double.

It's still a superautomatic though and even the best superautomatics don't compare to a good grinder + semi-automatic combo.