Review: Ninja 12-Cup Programmable Coffee Maker

For coffee drinkers, the day doesn’t truly begin until after that first cup. So making it easy to get can set the tone for the next 12 hours— and beyond. Ninja’s automatic 12 cup coffee maker is massively popular, so is that because it’s cheap, or because it’s good? I picked up one of these coffee makers from Amazon to test out in my kitchen so I’ll let you know how easy the Ninja 12 Cup Programmable Brewer is to set up and use, how easy it cleans up, and what it looks like on the countertop too. (CE251)

Design
Ninja hasn't gone above and beyond when it comes to the design. That's not a criticism, since I believe they've put all of their engineering efforts into making this a dynamite coffee maker. While much of the construction is plastic, and the footprint is a little larger than some other similar automatic coffee makers, Ninja makes the most of the additional space it takes up with some pretty smart features.

The glass carafe holds up to 12 cups and sits on a warming plate that can keep your brew hot for hours. The carafe has an extremely comfortable large plastic handle and a really cleverly designed spout that in my testing did not spill a single drop.

The water tank for this machine lives on the side, instead of hidden on the back. While this means it takes up a bit more room, Ninja has made the tank removable with an easy to grip handle, that saves so much trouble. Instead of filling the carafe and then having to pull the coffee maker out from under your cabinets and open up a lid to refill it, you can just remove, fill and replace the tank. I'm probably jumping ahead here, but this design alone would make me purchase the Ninja 12 cup programmable brewer.

The machine comes with a reusable metal mesh filter and you can also use Number 4 Cone paper filters if you prefer.

On the side of the machine is an included coffee scoop.

Under the removable water tank is your control centre for some of the other features, so let's get to them.

Coffee strength & temperature

Since we’re taking a look at the control panel, let's get to the brewing strengths options. Ninja offers what's called a classic brew strength and a rich brew strength. Essentially Classic could be regular coffee while Rich is a stronger brew that ninja says is better suited to standing up to milk, cream, or other flavorings.

The water temperature at brewing time is 181F or 82.5C.

Brew speed
If you're not using the advanced programming, you'll definitely want to pay attention to this next metric: how long does it take to brew a full pot? From my testing, it takes approximately 12 to 15 minutes to brew a full carafe, which is both reasonable and expected for a coffee maker of this type. Of course if you're jonesing for that first java, you can use the ‘pause and serve’ feature which blocks coffee from pouring out if you remove the carafe briefly.

I can say this feature also worked really well and I didn't notice any drips or over spill.

The water sprinkler (I’m sure it has an official name) that drips the hot water over the grounds is wide and covers a lot of area, which I actually think helps to saturate the coffee grounds better.

Clean up

Cleanup is a big deal when it comes to your coffee maker. I'm glad to see the glass carafe, brew-through lid, removable filter, holder, permanent filter, water, reservoir, and lid, as well as the scoop are all dishwasher safe.

Overall review

Overall I would actually like to replace my current ageing coffee maker with this model… the removable water reservoir is actually a huge plus for me since it means I don't have to scoot the machine all over the counter to fill the tank. The coffee it made was top notch, and the fact that everything will go in the dishwasher for clean up is pure magic. It was easy to program and adjust all of the settings so even folks with a fear of setting alarm clocks, would still be able to operate this easily. So what are the downsides? I'm really struggling to find any thing bad to say about this coffee maker. Some folks may wish there was adjustable, holding temperature, or brewing temperature, but I didn't feel those were major features I needed.

Particularly for the extremely reasonable price, this machine is offered at, I think it's an outstanding programmable coffee maker, and I can absolutely recommend it to you.

It sells for about $79US/$148CAD and you can get yours as I got mine from Amazon.

[KindCountsDeb]

I just used mine today and not much of a learning curve was needed. First cup tastes great, and it was easy to use. I didn't do all the features yet though. Amazon had a lot of the good company info in its pages and mentioned the "bloom" feature. Where hot water first moistens the grounds so the coffee blooms, and then it brews the pot. It's supposed to be why coffee tastes better and the higher heat is great. ➡➡ Erwin, you gave such a good review and are such a good, pro speaker ! TY, you helped !

[acharletta]

Great review Erwin! I bought the exact same Ninja over a year ago. As you pointed out in the beginning of the video, the design convinced me to purchase this unit. The coffee has been great. No complaints here.

[wardman]

Do you have to hit keep warm every time you program? So you set auto on timer, does it always go to stay warm like the cuisinart?

[larryc]

Really great and comprehensive review. Nicely done!

[donaldmussaw]

I had this coffee maker but it quit this morning. Ive had it for about two years and it has been very good and consistent. I do believe my issue is purely electrical as I have a strong odor of burnt plastic (relay prob blew out inside control box).

[thelongcane]

I thought the lid was hard to lock and unlock. Everything else seemed really nice... maybe the buttons were a little hard to press. It didn't seem you had issues with the lid or buttons. Did you buy this after all? Curious about cleaning the flavor straw, if pipe cleaners are needed over time?

[derekjolly]

I'm guessing that the "small batch" function slows down the water flow so that you'd get more time with the flow over the beans, keeping it stronger than otherwise, in theory. You did leave out exactly how the "keep warm" button changes the leaving on time. But I guess i can always read the manual! Thanks for the honest review.

[keithcloutier]

I HAVE NINJA CAFE 12 CUP PROGRAMMBLE COFFEE MAKER WORKS AEWSOME

[goodlife]

It’s not good for coffee to keep it warm „for hours“