Stay Away from Ninja AutoBarista
I don’t want to seem like an average redditor who just nags and complains, but I want to give genuine advice to those browsing for a new supersonic machine.
Stay far clear from the Ninja AutoBarista. It’s tempting at its price, rave reviews, and features (removable hoppers, drip coffee, cold brew, etc.) but it’s inconsistent and strange enough it produces either the best espresso or the worst I’ve ever had in my life.
This machine is incredibly inconsistent with the coffee it makes. GrindIQ is supposed to take all the guess work out of the equation but it seems to be doing the guessing itself because it’ll make me a great espresso right after running, then when I go to make another it’s terrible-sour, horrible flow rate, with no crema.
I want to be able to turn off this feature and manually set a grind size but I am unable to. The offset setting is not enough. GrindIQ is not just a one-time click, the machine is constantly analyzing itself and adjusting and I think that’s where a lot of people’s issues are coming from. I’ve ran GrindIQ several, several times, cleaned the brew group, used a new bag of beans and this machine eats right through them. It’s been pulling 5-7 shots each time it runs and I can’t sustain it.
I’m using freshly roasted (2 week old) beans that I’ve been using for years, which is perfect because this machine relies on puck resistance rather than artificial pressure. I’m using clean, filtered water, tried cleaning the brew group and no success. I think I’m out of ideas here and superautos are supposed to quick and convenient yet this machine is making it more convenient for me to pull my hair.
I just want to warn the people interested in purchasing this machine that you may be better off with something else because it’s not just me having these issues, look at this subreddit and others. I’m going to try getting a replacement and then simply returning if it doesn’t work out again, but it shouldn’t even have to come to that.
I wanted to love this machine and SharkNinja usually has great products but this one should’ve stayed a bit longer on the drawing board.
TL;DR: Inconsistent, makes best and worst espresso. GrindIQ is doing too much guessing between pulls and I’m not able to manually adjust. Will try replacing because I want to love the machine, will return if it doesn’t work out. Will edit/update in few weeks