You brew coffee in your Ninja Coffee Bar almost every morning. Today started like any other day until you discovered your coffee machine was leaking from the bottom. After quickly cleaning up the mess, you’re eager to prevent this from happening again. How do you fix your Ninja Coffee Bar?
If your Ninja Coffee Bar leaks water from the bottom, ensure the Drip Stop and water reservoir are working. Then check the connectors and tubing. One or both parts might be faulty, so you’ll have to replace them. If your coffeemaker is still under warranty, contact the Ninja Support Center.
This article will be your Ninja Coffee Bar troubleshooting 101. You’ll not only learn more about how to solve a leaky Ninja coffee machine, but also how to troubleshoot other common issues so you’ll get more years out of your Ninja Coffee Bar.
Let’s get started!
Troubleshooting a Ninja Coffee Bar That Leaks from the Bottom
If your Ninja Coffee Bar is leaking from underneath the machine, it’s likely water that’s coming out, not coffee. It’s easy enough to wipe up the water from your counter, but there’s something clearly wrong with your coffeemaker, so you must address what it is.
Before you do anything to your Ninja Coffee Bar, please make sure that all components of the machine have cooled down. You should also unplug your machine.
Now it’s time to start troubleshooting. Here’s what we recommend.
Close the Drip Stop
Ninja Coffee Bars have a component known as a Drip Stop. This feature, as the name suggests, prevents coffee from reaching the brew basket when it’s open. If you wanted to stop and pour some hot coffee before it fully brews, you can with the Drip Stop.
The Drip Stop includes an indicator that can light up at times, such as if you close the Drip Stop and then try to start brewing coffee. The light will be accompanied by beeping sounds, which will emanate five times.
Leaving the Drip Stop closed will cause the Ninja Coffee Bar to pause brewing. You’ll hear your machine notify you with a sound 20 seconds after pausing begins. Within six minutes, the Ninja Coffee Bar stops brewing altogether.
When not brewing, the Drip Stop should be closed. If yours isn’t, close it now.
Check the Water Reservoir
Have you ascertained that your Drip Stop works fine? A much more common issue among Ninja fanatics is a leaky water reservoir. Since the reservoir is only made of plastic, after enough time and use, it can crack.
You also have to watch how much water you fill the reservoir with. If the water is very close to the top, you’ve overdone it. There’s a fill line on the plastic reservoir that indicates the recommended level of water.
Taking out the water reservoir after use can cause some water to come out, and that’s normal. Yet the reservoir should not leak elsewhere, so if yours is leaking and it’s not a fill line issue, then inspect the reservoir.
If it’s cracked or damaged, you can buy a replacement water reservoir here through the Ninja Kitchen website.
Inspect the Tubes and Connectors
What if you’re certain that your problem doesn’t lie with the Drip Stop or the water reservoir? Then it’s time to get up close and personal with your Ninja Coffee Bar, particularly its hot water tubing and the connectors that hold the tubing in place.
The tubes can get leaky with time, causing water to puddle around your coffeemaker. You’ll have to replace the tubing, which will require you to take out the current set of tubes in the machine.
First, you need to flip your Ninja Coffee Bar upside down. With a Philips head #1 screwdriver, remove all eight of the six-millimeter screws from the bottom of the machine.
Once you take off the plastic plating, you’ll see colorful wiring and internal plastic components underneath. You’re looking for the tube protection plate, which is a long piece of black plastic held together by three screws, each of them six millimeters. Again, use the Philips head #1 screwdriver to take out these screws.
Set the tube protection plate screws somewhere different than the screws for the plastic plating for the Ninja itself. This will prevent confusion later.
Next, squeeze the pins on either side of the valve tubes to remove the water tube. Congrats, one end of the tube is free.
Move on to the basket, turning this upside down. The basket is attached via four screws measuring six millimeters apiece. Your #1 Philips head screwdriver will come in handy here as well. Label the screws and sort them separately from all the others.
Pull the upper cover up and off. Then you can yank the hose from its upper nozzle by clamping and pulling.
Fit your replacement hose and then do the reverse of the above steps to put everything back together.
Call Ninja Customer Service
Ninja offers all sorts of warranties on their products, the shortest of which is one year and the longest of which is seven years. If your Ninja Coffee Bar is still covered under its warranty, then there’s no need to tinker with it yourself.
You should contact the Ninja Support Center instead. They can take care of replacing or fixing your leaky coffee machine.
Other Ninja Coffee Bar Problems and How to Fix Them
You got the issue with your leaky Ninja Coffee Bar taken care of, but you’re sad to say that now you’re having other problems with the coffeemaker. No worries! Here are some troubleshooting solutions for the most common problems Ninja.
The Machine Is Beeping When You Try Brewing
Your Ninja Coffee Bar was working just fine, or so you had thought, but when you go to brew, the coffeemaker beeps at you and doesn’t proceed. What’s going on here?
First, check your water reservoir. You might not have filled it all the way or you forgot to fill it at all. In both instances, fill the reservoir to the max fill line and then trying brewing again, resetting your brewing cycle.
Your issue could be that you filled the water reservoir but you’re still seeing a light. This is the Drip Stop LED light and indicates that the Drip Stop is open. As we talked about before, the Ninja Coffee Bar will make a sound 20 seconds after you open the Drip Stop and then cancel your brew after six minutes of inactivity.
Close the Drip Stop and your brewing should resume.
If even that doesn’t work, then you should run a clean cycle for your Ninja Coffee Bar.
The Machine Produces Less Coffee Than Requested
You had thought you were going to get a full cup of coffee from your Ninja Coffee Bar, but you’re disappointed to say that didn’t happen. What’s worse is this wasn’t a one-time issue, but a consistent problem. Is your coffeemaker faulty?
According to Ninja’s website, “each size and brew type produces a different amount of coffee to optimize strength and taste.” If you brew a Café Forte, for instance, you’ll get eight ounces of coffee, while a specialty brew makes only four ounces.
However, if you’re not getting eight ounces from a Café Forte and this happens every time, it’s worth calling or emailing the Ninja Support Center.
The Hot Surface Light Won’t Turn Off
Even when you power off the warming plate, the light indicating that the surface is hot remains on. This light is for your safety, so if it’s not working as intended, that’s bad news.
Ninja says the hot surface light doesn’t turn off immediately after use. It takes time for the surface to cool down, in which case, the light will then power off. If hours pass and the light is still on, then again, contact the Ninja Support Center.
Coffee Grounds Are in Your Cup Every Time You Brew
You’re careful not to dump thick coffee grounds in your Ninja Coffee Bar, but there’s still always sediment in your coffee cup after brewing. That last sip is one you tend to dump down the sink so you don’t have to swallow gritty coffee.
Are you using the permanent filter that came with your Ninja Coffee Bar? Sediment is common with this filter, as the Ninja retains more natural coffee oils to improve the brew’s flavor. Using a #4 paper cone filter will remove the sediment.
The Clean Cycle Won’t Finish
Each time you try to clean your Ninja Coffee Bar, it starts and then stops at some point. The clean light is always on, taunting you.
To fix this issue, turn off your Ninja Coffee Bar and let it cool down. Then unplug it. Check the metal prongs for a date code, which should be four digits long. If your code features numbers 26 through 52 for the first two digits and the last two digits are 16, you can follow this troubleshooting method. For everyone else, we’d again suggest the Ninja Support Center.
First, pour water into the water tank to the max, adding white vinegar. Next, select Full Carafe, then press Clean. The hourlong countdown will begin. Leave your Ninja Coffee Bar for the next 60 minutes.
When you come back, the clock will read FLUSH, which is telling you to begin the Flush Cycle. Do this no later than 15 minutes after running the cleaning cycle. To flush the system, remove the water from the water reservoir and carafe. Then refill the water reservoir to the top with only water. Restore the carafe, which should be empty.
When you press Clean, the Flush cycle will begin. This takes eight minutes. Then the clean light will thankfully turn off!
Final Thoughts
Ninja Coffee Bar issues can get your morning off to a bad start, but it doesn’t have to be this way. You can easily troubleshoot water leakage as well as other troubles with this machine thanks to the information in this article. Always remember that if your Ninja Coffee Bar is under warranty, the Ninja Support Team can usually help. Good luck!